The bicameral Joint Economic Committee (JEC) of the U.S. Congress stepped up Republican criticism of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) by including language in a formal report on the U.S. economy that blasts the deal as falling short of congressional demands in the areas of pharmaceutical intellectual property (IP) protection, financial services data flows and goods market access.
[Daily News| March 3, 2016 | Inside US Trade]
The JEC, which is led by senior members of the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means committees, in its March 1 report emphasized that Congress will only approve a TPP agreement that meets the standards prescribed in the 2015 fast-track bill, adding that the deal as negotiated appears to miss that mark.
“Unfortunately, at this stage it seems the President has fallen short in the negotiations with regard to a number of significant elements,” the report said. “For example, the President has failed to achieve adequate intellectual property protections for innovative American pharmaceuticals. Such protections are foundational for U.S. trade and must be robust to give American businesses the confidence to sell their products abroad.”
“The current deal also fails to protect proprietary data stored by financial services companies. It also inexplicably denies market access for certain U.S. goods. Hopefully, the Administration will choose to address these concerns prior to any congressional action on the TPP agreement,” the report said.
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