Sen. Warren suggests fix that could save TPP

Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., said he will fight the trade deal in the Senate, but Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., hinted the deal could fly in 2017 if controversial language giving corporations the right to challenge a nation’s regulations is removed.    Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., said Tuesday he is confident Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton will oppose passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in the lame duck session of Congress if it comes up for debate, but a like-minded colleague suggested a future path for approving the free trade agreement in the future.
   Speaking on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press Daily” program, Sanders said he will do everything he can to defeat the TPP if it comes up for a vote later this year because it would continue the North American Free Trade Agreement’s damage to the middle class by making it easier to outsource jobs to low-wage countries. Sanders and Republican nominee Donald Trump made the TPP cornerstones of their presidential campaigns, forcing Clinton to declare her opposition to the trade pact a year ago. She now says the final text didn’t include labor and other safeguards she expected when she promoted TPP as secretary of state.
   Clinton senses that “our trade policies have been a disaster” and “she now understands that we cannot continue those types of policies,” Sanders said.
   Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., a fellow progressive and vocal TPP opponent, said on the same show Wednesday that one of the biggest concerns in the deal is the chapter on investor state dispute resolution, which gives multinational corporations the right to challenge governments on regulations that could limit their ability to conduct certain cross-border business.
   She said “high-powered, multi-million corporations were whispering in the ears of our trade negotiators” to include the dispute language so they can get rid of regulations in TPP partner nations they don’t like.
   “Take out the ISDS [investor state dispute settlement] provision and then let’s talk about trade,” Warren said. “Ultimately, the TPP is far less about trade as you and I once thought about it – tariffs. This is much more about regulations and who is going to write regulations around the world. . . . And that’s why I’m completely opposed to the TPP deal.”
   Warren said Trump’s opposition to TPP is not based on any coherent explanation of why the deals are bad from a regulatory or economic standpoint and that he has no ideas on what to do differently.
   “Trump is good at fulminating, he’s good at waving his hands and raising his voice. What exactly is your idea Donald Trump for trying to do better trade for the United States.There’s just no there, there, with him,” she said.