A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on the Biden administration’s trade representative, Katherine Tai, to cease what they have described as “secret negotiations” with foreign trade partners.
In a letter Wednesday led by Sen. Mike Crapo, R–Idaho, the Senate Finance Committee chair, and signed by 18 of his Senate colleagues, the group accused Tai and the Biden administration of circumventing Congress and failing to consider adequate input from business leaders in their push to “rush” changes to two of the country’s major free trade agreements with Mexico, Canada and Columbia.
The changes would serve to amend the interpretation of investor protection provisions for U.S. businesses embedded in the government’s trade deals with these countries.
“Unfortunately, USTR is pursuing substantive changes to congressionally approved trade agreements on an abbreviated timeline, out of the view of the public, and without meaningful congressional consultation,” the senators’ letter asserted. “Robust consultations with Congress and stakeholders are critical to ensuring that affected companies and their workers understand what is being proposed and how it may impact operations at home and abroad.”
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The negotiations taking place are tied to interpretations of investor protection provisions in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the United States-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.
Currently, U.S. businesses operating internationally can enlist third-party tribunals to mediate disputes over business practices with other countries. The current investor protections that permit third-party mediation in these trade agreements have resulted in large damage claims against governments, according to Reuters.
A group of nearly 40 Democrats in the House of Representatives last month said in a different letter, spearheaded by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, that they were happy to hear reports about the potential updates to the investor protection sections, arguing the process of using a third-party mediator serves to give businesses too much power to interfere with legitimate government actions.
The letter called the action a “wise move,” arguing the investor protection mechanisms allow “foreign corporations” to weaponize international tribunals to circumvent a nation’s domestic policies and prioritize business interests at the expense of those countries’ workers, consumers, small businesses and the environment.
“We strongly encourage you to act urgently to eliminate or drastically reduce the ability of multinational corporations to use Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals as a tool to attack legitimate government actions and extract unlimited sums from countries’ taxpayers over the laws, actions, or court rulings of sovereign nations that the corporations claim conflict with their special ISDS rights and privileges,” the letter stated.
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In an op-ed for The Washington Times, GOP senators Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Katie Britt of Alabama and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama raised an example of a U.S. construction company, Vulcan Materials, that for decades built infrastructure to source limestone in the Yucatán. But it has recently faced a campaign by politicians in Mexico to seize its property. The campaign resulted after the country’s government declared in September the land Vulcan was using to source its limestone was part of a protected nature reserve that belonged to Mexico.
Fox News Digital reached out to Tai’s office for comment but did not hear back in time for publication.
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