Senators ask the Biden administration to stop “secret negotiations” with foreign trading partners

A bipartisan group of lawmakers called on the Biden administration’s trade representative, Katherine Tai, to stop what they described as “secret negotiations” with foreign trade partners.

In a letter on Wednesday led by Sen. Mike Crapo, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and signed by 18 of his Senate colleagues, the group accused Tai and the Biden administration of defrauding Congress and failing to consider sufficient input from business leaders. As they seek to “urgently” make changes to two of the country’s largest companies Free trade agreements With Mexico, Canada and Colombia.

These changes would modify the interpretation of investor protection provisions for US companies included in government trade agreements with these countries.

“Unfortunately, the US Trade Representative is seeking to make fundamental changes to what Congress has agreed to Trade agreements The senators’ letter emphasized an abbreviated timeline, out of the public’s view, and without meaningful consultation with Congress. “It may affect operations at home and abroad.”

Trump’s Foreign Revenue Service will collect from importers, not “foreign sources.”

The ongoing negotiations are related to interpretations of the investor protection provisions of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the US-Colombia Trade Promotion Agreement.

Currently, US companies operating internationally can use foreign courts to mediate disputes over trade practices with other countries. Existing investor protections that allow third-party mediation in these trade agreements have led to significant damage claims against governments, according to Reuters.

A group of about 40 Democrats in House of Representatives Last month in a different letter, led by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, they were happy to hear reports about potential updates to investor protection divisions, arguing that the process of using a third-party intermediary serves to give companies too much power to interfere in legitimate government actions.

The letter called the measure a “prudent step,” saying that investor protection mechanisms allow “foreign companies” to use international courts to circumvent a nation’s domestic policies and prioritize business interests at the expense of workers, consumers, small businesses, and businesses in those countries. environment.

“We strongly encourage you to act urgently to eliminate or significantly reduce the ability of multinational corporations to use Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals as a tool to attack legitimate government actions and extract unlimited sums from countries’ taxpayers over laws, procedures or rulings. Courts of sovereign states that companies claim are in conflict with their Investor Dispute Settlement (ISDS) rights and privileges.”

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in Editorial In the Washington Times, GOP Sens. Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, Katie Britt of Alabama, and Tommy Tuberville of Alabama brought up the example of the American construction company, Vulcan Materials, which has for decades built… Infrastructure For the source of limestone in Yucatán. But it has recently faced a campaign by politicians in Mexico to seize its property. The campaign came after the country’s government announced last September that the land Vulcan uses to obtain limestone was part of a nature reserve owned by Mexico.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Tai’s office for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.