WASHINGTON — Democratic House members argued Thursday that passage of Trans-Pacific Partnership would open the door to currency manipulation from countries participating in the TPP, resulting in the loss of millions of American jobs.
“Countries that undervalue their currency do so to make their goods cheaper, giving them an unfair trade advantage and accelerating the exporting of our jobs overseas,” Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., said during a press call Thursday.
“Our TPP partners are some of the worst historic offenders, most notably Japan,” DeLauro said.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership, composed of 12 countries bordering on the Pacific Rim, is a trade agreement – still under negotiation — that includes two of the three biggest economies in the world – Japan and the U.S. — but not China.
“The currency stuff is old and wrong,” Derek Scissors of the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute said Thursday. “Any job losses due to currency manipulation are overwhelmingly due to China, which is not in the TPP.”
Scissors said there is no evidence today that Japan is manipulating its currency, or that actions by Japan over the last 20 years have cost Americans’ jobs.
“They are just grabbing. There is no substance here at all.”
DeLauro and the three other Democrats taking part in the press phone call voted against the granting of “fast-track authority” to President Barack Obama. Against some Democratic opposition, Congress granted Obama the authority to negotiate the trade deal subject to a straight up-or-down vote on Capitol Hill – no changes allowed.
Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., called currency manipulation, “the mother of all trade barriers” and said that it has cost the U.S. as many as five million jobs.
“Currency manipulation needs to be stopped. I am sick and tired of the barriers that Japan has put up,” Dingell said. “They play games with the markets. When you have treaties like this, you have winners and losers — and autos are losers. ”
Fast-track authority gave Obama, and future presidents, the ability to negotiate TPP without fearing that Congress would alter a final deal by adding amendments.
“There was a time when other countries would reach agreements and then the agreement would go to Congress for ratification and Congress would ask for more,” Harvard professor Jeffrey Frankel said Thursday.
“It reached the point that other countries would not negotiate if Congress could take away concessions that the executive offered as part of the deal,” he said in a telephone interview.
The next round of the TPP negotiations will take place in Maui, starting Friday. DeLauro said that the administration has indicated that it wants to wrap up negotiations in the next round.
Scissors said that if no agreement is reached by late August, the chances of TPP passing in 2016 are unlikely.
“They need to wrap up by August at the latest or they are risking the political chances of TPP in 2016, which I know the Obama administration doesn’t want to do because it is part of President Obama’s legacy.”
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