DeLauro Calls on USTR to Release TPP Text Affecting Consumer Safety

Reiterates Call for Entire Agreement to Be Publicly Available

WASHINGTON, DC— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) today called on officials representing the United States in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations to release the text of the TPP chapter dealing with food and consumer safety. This comes on the heels of DeLauro’s previous calls for the text of the entire deal to be publicly available. Despite the fact that negotiators announced an agreement on October 5, the contents are still a closely held secret.

DeLauro’s letter to U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman can be read in its entirety here.

“Members of Congress have still not received the text of the completed TPP agreement and its Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) chapter,” she wrote. “The only information that Members of Congress have received has come through news reports and leaks to the media. On October 15, 2015 Inside US Trade quoted you as saying, ‘the [TPP] chapter on [SPS] measures is subject to dispute settlement and also contains a “rapid-response mechanism…’

“We have a responsibility to ensure that our nation’s food supply is safe—including imported seafood. I urge you to adhere to our promise to protect American consumers. Furthermore, I ask you to make the text of the chapter on sanitary and phytosanitary measures publically available so we can confirm that you are not entering the U.S. into any trade agreement that will conflict with our domestic catfish and broader food safety inspection laws.”

Last spring, the Appropriations Committee approved a DeLauro amendment that prohibited the Administration from entering into any agreement that invalidates U.S. catfish inspection laws. That amendment is now part of the Fiscal Year 2016 Agriculture Appropriations bill, which was approved by the Committee and is now awaiting action by the entire House of Representatives.

Several countries involved in TPP negotiations, particularly Vietnam and Malaysia, have notoriously lax food safety standards. For example, one study found that antibiotics banned by the Food and Drug Administration were present in 100 percent of Vietnamese catfish farms.


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