The government’s Trade Advisory Committees are unfairly skewed toward big business, giving short shrift to labor and environmental concerns, according to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash).
“Allowing corporate interests to continue to dominate the trade advisory committee system clearly harms workers, consumers, and small businesses, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to US Trade Representative Katherine Tai, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
This lack of balance needs to be corrected, given that the Administration is in the midst of major trade negotiations like the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity and the US-Taiwan 21st Century Trade Initiative, the lawmakers said.
“However, corporate lobbyists continue to fill out roughly 80 percent of the positions on Industry Trade Advisory Committees (ITACs), granting them access to secret trade negotiating text that remains hidden from the public,” the lawmakers wrote.
“For decades, the membership of trade advisory committee system has leaned heavily in favor of multinational companies and their industry associations, contributing to trade deals that have incentivized offshoring, moved thousands of American jobs overseas, and decimated families and communities,” they continued.
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