Elizabeth Warren Sets Sights On The TPP

Well, now that the spending bill is passed, there are more anti-consumer policies for Elizabeth Warren to take aim at. The Senator's next fight appears to be over the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. She says it will have negative impacts on the American market:

In her letter, Warren raises concerns that the deal could include provisions that would allow foreign companies to challenge U.S. policies before a judicial panel outside the domestic legal system, increasing exposure of American taxpayers to potential damages.

She also objects to potential provisions that she said would grant foreign companies access to U.S. markets without being subject to restrictions on “predatory or toxic financial products” and that would restrict the U.S. government’s ability to impose capital controls, such as transaction taxes, on international firms.

A spokesman for Froman’s office defended the pact. “TPP will in no way limit the ability of governments to put in place strong consumer protections or to regulate financial markets, including derivatives,” Matthew McAlvanah said. “In fact, it will include specific provisions protecting regulation as well as ensuring that other countries provide the same type of basic judicial fairness that we already provide under U.S. law to American and foreign businesses operating in the United States.”

Who's right? Without seeing the agreement, there's no real way to know. Here's the problem that Mr. Froman and the White House have though- we've seen this before. Every trade agreement is going to "bring our regulations" to the other countries involved, and yet they don't. Certainly trade partners like Mexico, China, and India don't have equal environmental, carbon-pollution, minimum-wage, and workplace safety laws to us. While I can't say for sure that Warren is right, history tells us to be very nervous when the U.S. Trade Representative tells us that our laws will be respected abroad.