Resolution Urging Congress to Pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership Exposed

The Resolution Urging Congress to Pass the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement was adopted by ALEC's International Relations Task Force on August 5, 2010, and approved by the ALEC Board of Directors in September 19, 2010.

The Resolution was amended and approved by the Board of Directors again in September, 2013. This is the amended resolution, with removed language from the original resolution in strikethrough, and the new language added in bold.

CMD's Bill Summary

From its 1998 resolution in support of Fast Track Trade Negotiating Authority— which was used to push a permanent normal trading relationship with China through Congress in 2000 with little discussion or debate-- to more recent resolutions in support of the proposed Colombia, Panama and Korea Free Trade Agreements, ALEC has consistently urged its members to support a radical "free trade" agenda. This free trade agenda has cost America millions of jobs as factories closed and moved overseas in search of cheaper labor. Since 2001, an estimated 2.4 million American jobs have been lost to China alone. Now a diverse array of service sector jobs, from accounting and tax preparation to health care and credit card servicing, are being off-shored under these agreements. Such free trade agreements also allow public health, consumer, environmental and worker safety rules to be challenged as "barriers to trade" in trade tribunals that operate outside the constraints of U.S. law.

ALEC Bill Text

Summary

Drawing on ALEC’s guiding free market principles, this resolution calls on Congress to support negotiations for a high standard, comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP is a multilateral trade framework currently being negotiated by nations on both sides of the Pacific. These nations are at varying levels of development and the agreement has the flexibility to expand to accept new members. The TPP has the potential to become the benchmark against which future trade frameworks will be measured for years to come.

Model Policy

WHEREAS, the America Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) policy on Free Trade acknowledges “the imposition of artificial barriers to free and open trade…are deterrents to American economic interests”; and

WHEREAS, the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is a highly sophisticated 21st Century standard agreement that will create a free trade partnership between the United States, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Australia, Vietnam, Mexico, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, and Peru; and

WHEREAS, the TPP is structured to allow for and, indeed, encourage expansion to other like-minded partner nations; and

WHEREAS, the TPP is an all-encompassing a comprehensive trade agreement that includes liberalization on all tariff lines with standards higher than the World Trade Organization (WTO) for and addresses issues such as competition with state owned enterprises, intellectual property rights, government procurement, e-commerce, and dispute settlement; and

WHEREAS, the Trans-Pacific region accounts for nearly 60 percent of world GDP trade and almost half and 40% of all global trade GDP; and

WHEREAS, U.S. exports to Asia-Pacific increased by 63 percent in the last five years; and

WHEREAS, the TPP will boost exports from the United States by up to $25 billion annually, helping to shore up the American domestic economy on the heels of a recession; and

WHEREAS, a 2008 University of Michigan study estimates that an Asia-Pacific trade agreement would increase real U.S. income by 1.2 percent; and

WHEREAS, successful conclusion of the TPP negotiations will provide economically significant new market access opportunities for America’s workers, farmers, ranchers, service providers and small businesses; and

WHEREAS, the TPP will integrate the American economy across the Pacific Rim, fully engaging the United States both economically and politically across four continents; and

WHEREAS, the TPP will reduce the risk of exclusionary Asian trade blocs such as Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Asia-Pacific Telecommunity (APT), and the East Asia Summit (EAS); and

WHEREAS, the TPP will give the United States more engagement and leadership in Asian economies, countering the growing power of the People’s Republic of China; and

WHEREAS, the Obama Administration supports the expedited approval of the TPP as one-part [SIC] of its strategy to increase competitiveness and employment in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the TPP will be an impetus for further bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, to the benefit of the United States, in the Asia-Pacific region;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that ALEC calls on Congress to support negotiations for a comprehensive, high-standard [SIC] and ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that will provide a platform for regional trade and economic integration; and

WHEREAS, the TPP will provide an historic opportunity to improve the bilateral economic relationship with Japan, our 4th largest trading partner, by eliminating longstanding tariff and non-tariff barriers to U.S. exports of goods and services.

WHEREAS, the TPP will reduce the risk of the exclusionary Asian trade bloc, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership; and

WHEREAS, the TPP will give the United States more engagement and leadership in Asian economies; and

WHEREAS, the Obama Administration supports the expedited conclusions and approval of the TPP as one-part of its strategy to increase competitiveness and employment in the United States; and

WHEREAS, the TPP will be an impetus for further bilateral and multilateral trade agreements, to the benefit of the United States, in the Asia-Pacific region;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the legislature of [INSERT STATE] call on Congress to support negotiations for a comprehensive, high-standard and ambitious Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement that will provide a platform for regional trade and economic integration; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this Resolution be forwarded to the President of the United States, to the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the U.S. Senate Finance and the U.S. House Ways & Means Committees, to the U.S. Trade Representative, and to the Secretary of Commerce.