Trade Organizations, Unions Want Biden Admin. to Meet Their IPEF Demands
The Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity needs strong commitments on labor rights, the environment and on digital trade, among other items, a coalition of organizations and unions told the Biden administration.
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In a March 1 letter to the White House, the organizations, including Public Citizen and Rethink Trade, demanded that IPEF include "strong labor rights commitments based on standards set in the International Labor Organization’s core conventions," and "facility-specific enforcement requirements" similar to those in the USMCA. They also said the IPEF needs to require countries that did not meet those labor standards to change their laws to meet the criteria, as some member countries have records of labor rights violations, according to the letter.
The letter also focused on climate change, stating that the IPEF "must require that countries adopt, implement and maintain binding climate standards, and must likewise extend swift-and-certain enforcement mechanisms to those provisions." This would be needed as previous trade agreements did not mention climate change, the letter said.
The groups also suggested opposition to the U.S. Trade Representative's efforts to open market access to American agricultural products through changes to other countries' sanitary and phytosanitary regulations. They said trade negotiations "should set floors, rather than ceilings, when it comes to food safety and fair price measures for producers and consumers."
The letter also said the IPEF must not agree to rules that "threaten consumer privacy, data security, worker rights, civil rights, algorithm justice and competition policy here and throughout the Indo-Pacific." The IPEF shouldn't create guarantees for Big Tech firms to evade pre-review and other audits, the organizations said, adding that audits and pre-reviews are "a feature of many criminal justice, civil rights, worker rights and other bills and the administration’s [Artificial Intelligence] Bill of Rights."
The letter concludes by saying that the organizations "look forward to being partners with your administration throughout the IPEF negotiating process so that any final deal corrects the errors of past trade pacts and becomes a useful model for future agreements that deliver real benefits to people and the planet."