Stop the TPP

Syracuse City Hall, public domain
Syracuse City Hall,
public domain

On January 25, the Syracuse Common Council passed a resolution sponsored by Councilor-at-Large Jean Kessner that expressed opposition to the Tran Pacific Partnership (TPP) and specifically asked our federal representatives to oppose this impending trade agreement. The resolution has been signed by Mayor Stephanie Miner and forwarded to state and federal representatives.

The Sierra Club is working around the country and the state asking local groups to get municipalities to express their concern about the impacts of this agreement. Syracuse joins Rochester and Albany as well as New York City in passing similar resolutions. Members of Sierra Club are urged to contact their representatives and express their concern about this threat to our environmental and labor regulations.

The resolutiuon is included below.

Resolution No. 3 2016

RESOLUTION OF THE COMMON COUNCIL TO THE GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, THE NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY, THE NEW YORK STATE SENATE, AND THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS STATING ITS OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSED TRANS PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP (TPP) 

    WHEREAS, U.S. trade deals for the past twenty-five (25) years have been corporate-driven, incorporating rules that skew benefits to economic elites while requiring working families to bear the brunt of such policies; and
    WHEREAS, the growing trade deficits, driven by the North American Free Trade Agreement, China’s accession to the World Trade Organization, and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement, have displaced 700,000 jobs and 3.2 million jobs, and 75,000 jobs respectively; and
    WHEREAS, U.S. employment in manufacturing dropped by five (5) million from the year 2000 to the year 2015; and
    WHEREAS, jobs lost due to trade devastate families and entire communities and can permanently reduce lifetime earnings for hundreds of thousands of workers; and
    WHEREAS, the long decline of the American manufacturing base, exacerbated by bad trade policies that reward outsourcing, has undermined our economic security and poses a direct threat to our national security; and
    WHEREAS, the offshoring of manufacturing and service jobs deprives local and state governments of sorely needed revenues, jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of public servants as well as construction workers whose jobs depend upon infrastructure building, repair and maintenance; and
    WHEREAS, under NAFTA-style trade rules, the U.S. annual trade deficit has increased dramatically from 70 billion in 1993, the year before NAFTA went into effect, to more than $508 billion in 2014; and
    WHEREAS, the disproportionate voice of powerful global corporations in the formation of U.S. “free trade” agreements has advanced an agenda that undermines the public interest and threatens democracy; and
    WHEREAS, NAFTA and all but two of the U.S. trade deals that  followed it include special legal rights for foreign investors, known as “investor-to-state dispute settlement” or ISDS, that allow foreign firms to bypass state and federal courts to challenge state and local laws, regulations, and administrative and judicial decisions in international tribunals; and
    WHEREAS, climate change and environmental degradation threaten communities across the globe, and ISDS provisions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may expose nations enacting policies to fight climate change to ISDS cases that undermine these efforts; and
    WHEREAS, foreign investors already have used NAFTA’s ISDS provisions to challenge decisions regarding local building permits, environmental regulations, state bans on toxic chemicals and decisions of state courts; and
    WHEREAS, the TPP includes provisions locking in monopoly protections for expensive specialty drugs called biologics and constraining Medicare’s ability to limit spending on drugs, potentially increasing drug costs for the government and all Americans; and
    WHEREAS, a 2014 American Community Survey of 585 places with more than 65,000 people found that the poverty rate in Syracuse for 2014 was 34.4 percent, making it the 16th poorest city among those studied and once again identifying the City of Syracuse as one of the highest poverty rates in the nation; and
    WHEREAS, promoting economic growth with equity in the City of Syracuse, New York requires an approach that reforms the entire trade negotiation process to ensure that voices of workers, farmers, small businesses, families and communities are heard and their interests addressed; and
    WHEREAS, the TPP has been negotiated in secret, effectively shutting state and local governments out of the process, limiting our ability to influence its rules to ensure the people of the City of Syracuse, New York can participate in the benefits of trade; and
    WHEREAS, given the enactment of fast track trade negotiating authority, states, localities and their citizens will have no opportunity to correct shortcomings in the TPP since its text will not be made public until it is final and no longer can be improved; and
    WHEREAS, repeating old mistakes in negotiating new trade agreements such as the TPP represents a missed opportunity to strengthen our economy, reduce income inequality and promote sustainable growth; NOW, THEREFORE,
    BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of Syracuse, New York calls upon our elected officials in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to oppose the TPP and any similar trade deals if they fail to restructure the misguided and failed policies of the past; and
    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Syracuse, New York calls upon our elected officials in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to support new trade deals such as the TPP only if they will do the following:
Protect and promote traditional state and local prerogatives and authority under our federal system, including by ensuring that states and localities will not be required to comply with certain commitments, including any restrictions on preferences for local, state or U.S. goods or services, without the prior informed consent of the local governments;

  • Ensure balanced trade and address the excessive, job killing U.S. trade deficit;
  • Include enforceable rules against currency manipulation, which countries have previously used to their advantage;
  • Exclude investor-to-state dispute settlement (ISDS) and other provisions that favor foreign companies over domestic ones and undermine public choices;
  • Ensure that countries cannot undercut U.S. based producers with weaker labor and environmental laws and enforcement;
  • Ensure that the U.S. will engage in robust enforcement of trade rules, including labor and environmental rules;
  • Include strong rule of origin to promote economic growth and job creation in the U.S.;
  • Promote high standards of protection for workplaces, products, and natural resources rather than promoting a race to the bottom;
  • Ensure that the interests of the people and the environment are taken into consideration and given priority over the interests of private profit.

    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Common Council urges New York State lawmakers to actively oppose the TPP; and
    BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City Clerk is hereby directed to transmit copies of this Resolution to our local state delegation and our representatives in the United States Congress.