House Members Criticize Export Figures Used by USTR to Sell TPP
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative continues to use Census Bureau export data that includes “re-exports” to mask the growing deficit with South Korea, said four House Democrats in a May 9 joint statement. USTR has the option to use U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) data that removes “re-exports,” but chooses not to, said Reps. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., George Miller, D-Calif., Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. and Paul Tonko, D-N.Y. Moreover, USTR is touting the allegedly flawed export figures to sell the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), they said.
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“This is just another example of how Congress and the American public are not getting the truth, as the TPP is being negotiated behind closed doors,” the representatives said. “Nearly 200 members of Congress have already voiced their opposition to fast tracking TPP through Congress. Relying on false data to make the case for continuing our failed trade policy is only another example of why we should not move forward with this deeply flawed pact.” More than 150 Democratic House members pledged in a November 2013 letter to President Barack Obama to oppose Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) because it usurps congressional authority (see 13111415). Twenty-two House Republican members also vowed to oppose TPA in a letter sent to the president the day before (see 13111230).
The advocacy group Public Citizen, a critic of U.S. trade policy, said in a May 9 press release the ITC data on U.S. exports to South Korea may spur opposition to the TPP. “The USITC data, corrected to remove re-exports not produced in the United States, [shows] falling U.S. exports to Korea and a ballooning U.S. trade deficit under the Korea FTA, which served as the U.S. template for the TPP,” said Public Citizen. “In 23 out of 24 months since the Korea FTA took effect, the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has exceeded the average monthly level seen in the two years before the deal.”
Email ITTNews@warren-news.com for a copy of the Public Citizen statement.