Democratic Party Sets ‘High Standard’ for Trade Making TPP Unachievable

Washington, D.C. -- The Democratic Party has repeatedly rejected requests that it support the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — and has done so again in the party platform adopted today.

CWA and allies – Public Citizen, Citizens Trade Campaign, Sierra Club, Food and Water Watch and many others – stand together in our opposition to the TPP and welcome the Democratic Party’s platform language that reinforces the failure of the TPP to meet the “high standard” approved today.

The party strengthened language initially proposed by the platform drafting committee, eliminating the reference to some Democrats supporting the TPP and clarifying a vision for international trade that puts working families ahead of corporate profits — the polar opposite of what the TPP represents.

We are especially glad to see the platform so firmly reject the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) system which has been used time and again by transnational corporations in attempts to undermine important environmental, labor and public health laws and regulations around the globe in the pursuit of greater corporate profits.

Secretary Clinton was right to cite ISDS special rights for corporations as a reason to oppose the TPP, and the Democratic Party’s statement against it is a positive one. The inclusion of the language opposing the ISDS system in the platform text going to the convention floor spotlights just how clearly the TPP fails the ‘high standard’ set forth in the platform language.

We would have preferred to see even stronger language explicitly rejecting the TPP. However, the approved platform is a clear indication of just how much of a non-starter the TPP is within the Democratic Party and the country as a whole.

The White House furiously lobbied platform committee members but failed in its intensive efforts to maintain some language in the platform suggesting that some Democrats support the TPP.

The TPP’s prospects of ever being enacted, already very slim, today got even slimmer. All of us will continue fighting together to ensure that the TPP has no future.