Sierra Club Launches Anti-TPA Ad Campaign Aimed at Colorado Democrat
The Sierra Club pushed Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., to oppose Trade Promotion Authority in an advertisement campaign that will run through April 26, the organization said in a press release (here). Polis has a history of small business ownership and entrepreneurship, and several months ago he teamed up with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., to urge congressional leadership to strengthen digital economy provisions in TPA (see 14050632).
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
The Sierra Club praised Polis’ record on the environment and climate change, but warned that TPA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership could severely damage environmental protections. The release points to the controversial investor-state dispute settlement as a threat to environmental regulations. “Multinational corporations -- including some of the world’s biggest polluters -- could use provisions in the TPP to sue governments, in private trade courts, over laws and policies that they claimed would reduce their profits,” said the release. “That means our clean air, clean water, and climate protections could be subject to attack just because corporations say they cut into their bottom lines.” Dozens of law professors and other scholars recently said ISDS will jeopardize national sovereignty (see 1503120011).
Polis’ office didn’t respond for comment. The Sierra Club campaign comes days after the AFL-CIO, the country’s biggest union, said it will cut political funding “until further notice in order to conserve resources for the historic legislative battle" over TPA and TPP (see 1503110027). Sens. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., haven’t yet publicly reached a deal on TPA on the Finance Committee, despite months of expectations for the introduction of a bill (see 1503040015).