Senate Amendment for TPA & TPP Requiring approval of Congress before additional countries may join

            Sen. Bernie Sanders put a big danger warning on the TPP bomb-in-the-box at the end of his "THE TRANS-PACIFIC TRADE (TPP) AGREEMENT MUST BE DEFEATED" memo. Sanders says

"Once TPP is agreed to, it has no sunset date and could only be altered by a consensus of all of the countries that agreed to it. Other countries, like China, could be allowed to join in the future. For example, Canada and Mexico joined TPP negotiations in 2012 and Japan joined last year."

Sen's. Sherrod Brown [OH] and Gary Peters have unpacked that scary box in their Senate floor speeches shown below. They are trying to defuse it with their Brown-Peters proposed S.AMDT.1251 to change H.R.1314, Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act, which is the legislative vehicle the Senate is using for the "FastTrack" law called Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) triple-plus super secret "deal" will not survive without making TPA a law first.

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             Senate - May 18, 2015: Brown-Peters S.AMDT.1251 Amends: H.R.1314 , S.AMDT.1221 Sponsor: Sen. Sherrod Brown [OH] (submitted 5/18/2015) Cosponsors: Sen's. Gary Peters,  Chuck Schumer, Debbie Stabenow, Bob Menendez, Bob Casey, Jegg Merkley (text: CR S2967                                  [Page: S2967]  GPO's PDF)  AMENDMENT NO. 1251 TO AMENDMENT NO. 1221          Mr. BROWN proposes an amendment numbered 1251 to amendment No. 1221.            The amendment is as follows:

 (Purpose: To require the approval of Congress before additional countries may join the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement)
    At the end of section 107, add the following:
    (c) Limitations on Additional Countries Joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement.--
    (1) IN GENERAL.--The trade authorities procedures shall apply to an implementing bill submitted with respect to an agreement described in subsection (a)(2) with the Trans-Pacific Partnership countries only if that implementing bill covers only the countries that are parties to the negotiations for that agreement as of the date of the enactment of this Act.
    (2) APPLICABILITY OF TRADE AUTHORITIES PROCEDURES TO ADDITIONAL COUNTRIES.--If a country or countries not a party to the negotiations for the agreement described in subsection (a)(2) as of the date of the enactment of this Act enter into negotiations to join the agreement after that date, the trade authorities procedures shall apply to an implementing bill submitted with respect to an agreement with such country or countries to join the agreement described in subsection (a)(2) only if--
    (A) the President notifies Congress of the intention of the President to enter into negotiations with such country or countries in accordance with section 105(a)(1)(A);
    (B) during the 90-day period provided for under section 105(a)(1)(A) before the President initiates such negotiations--
    (i) the Committee on Ways and Means of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Finance of the Senate each certify that such country or countries are capable of meeting the standards of the Trans-Pacific Partnership; and
    (ii) the House of Representatives and the Senate each approve a resolution approving such country or countries entering into negotiations to join the agreement described in subsection (a)(2);
    (C) the agreement with such country or countries to join the agreement described in subsection (a)(2) is entered into before--
    (i) July 1, 2018; or
    (ii) July 1, 2021, if trade authorities procedures are extended under section 103(c); and
    (D) that implementing bill covers only such country or countries.

  Mr. BROWN. ...very briefly, in 30 seconds, I will explain the amendment.

   There are 12 countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. If at some point the President of the United States would like to add another country or two, this amendment simply says that Congress must approve; there must be a vote of the U.S. House of Representatives and a vote of the Senate in order to admit a new country.

   There is some concern that the People's Republic of China, which is now the second largest economy in the world, would come in through the backdoor without congressional approval.
                                [Page: S2968]  GPO's PDF
   We want to make sure that neither the President who is in the White House today nor the next President nor the President after that can admit China or any other country with any other large economy or small economy in the TPP without congressional approval.

   We will discuss and debate this amendment more tomorrow, (May 19, 2015).