Senators told Biden admin to end ‘secret negotiations’ with foreign trade partners

A bipartisan group of lawmakers is calling on the Biden administration’s trade representative, Katherine Tai, to end what they described as “secret negotiations” with foreign trading partners.

In a letter Wednesday led by Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, and signed by 18 of his Senate colleagues, the group accused Tai and the Biden administration of bypassing Congress and failing to consider adequate input from business. leaders in their effort to “hurry up” changes to the country’s two main ones free trade agreements with Mexico, Canada and Colombia.

The changes would serve to alter the interpretation of investor protection provisions for American companies that are embedded in the government’s trade agreements with those countries.

“Unfortunately, USTR is seeking significant changes to be approved by Congress trade agreements on a shortened timeline, out of public view and without significant consultation with Congress,” the senator’s letter states. “Strong consultation with Congress and stakeholders is critical to ensure that affected companies and their workers understand what is being proposed and how it may affect business in the country and abroad.”

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The ongoing negotiations are related to interpretations of the investor protection provisions of the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) and the Trade Promotion Agreement between the United States and Colombia.

Currently, US companies operating abroad can hire third-party courts to mediate disputes over business practices with other countries. Current investor protections that allow third-party mediation in these trade deals have resulted in large damages claims against governments, according to Reuters.

A group of almost 40 Democrats in House of Representatives last month, they said in another letter, led by Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, that they were happy to hear reports of potential updates to investor protection sections, arguing that the process of using third-party intermediaries serves to give companies too much power to interfere with legitimate government actions.

The letter called the move “a wise move,” arguing that investor protection mechanisms allow “foreign corporations” to weaponize international courts to circumvent a nation’s domestic policies and favor business interests at the expense of workers, consumers, small businesses and the environment.

“We strongly urge you to act urgently to eliminate or drastically reduce the ability of multinational corporations to use the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) courts as a tool to attack legitimate government actions and extract unlimited sums from the taxpayers of countries through laws, procedures, or court rulings of sovereign nations that corporations claim conflict with their special ISDS rights and privileges,” the letter said.

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In an op-ed for The Washington Times, Republican Senators Bill Hagerty from Tennessee, Katie Britt from Alabama and Tommy Tuberville from Alabama presented the example of the American construction company Vulcan Materials, which for decades built infrastructure to procure limestone in Yucatán. But he recently faced a campaign by politicians in Mexico to seize his assets. The campaign resulted after the country’s government declared in September that the land Vulcan uses to source its limestone is part of a protected natural reserve that belonged to Mexico.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Tai’s office for comment, but did not hear back in time for publication.