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Richard Cunningham, Steptoe & Johnson; Barbara Weisel, USTR for South Asia & Pacific |
Patrick Marory, Director of International Trade Law Center, ILI |
Everett Eissenstat & Jayme White, Senate Finance; Angela Ellard & Jason Kearns, House Ways & Means | ||
On December 8, 2015, the ILI held a one-day conference on the Trans-Pacific Partnership. About one hundred people attended the conference, and the speakers included the Chief Majority and Minority Counsel to the Senate Finance and House Ways and Means Committee, the senior TPP negotiator at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, the Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for Congressional Affairs, two leading trade economists, representatives of key industries such as textiles and apparel, agriculture, information technology, and biologics, a representative of the AFL-CIO, and two leading trade lawyers who were closely involved in the negotiations. The names of the speakers are listed below.
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FOR LIST OF SPEAKERS AND SELECTED CONFERENCE PAPERS PLEASE CLICK HERE |
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The general view was that from the U.S. point of view the TPP was a good agreement that will open up significant markets for U.S. industries. It was not as strong as it might have been, but this was at least in part due to the United States not being willing to make more concessions. In the words of one speaker (Claude Barfield, of AEI), the agreement deserved a silver but not a gold medal.
Highlights from the Conference included:
The key question at this point is of course whether the U.S. Congress will approve the agreement. Most of the speakers were reasonably optimistic, though recognizing that some issues -- such as the term of protection for biologics - may have to be renegotiated, as happened with the Korea, Peru and Colombian FTAs, and that the implementing legislation is likely to contain some "sweeteners" designed to persuade particular senators and congressmen to vote in favor of the agreement. It was pointed out that if TPP does not go through, there is no chance of approval for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (U.S. and EU). |