Nancy Pelosi on TPP: ‘You Cannot Separate Commerce from the Environment’

A customs package that would allow the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement to go to a straight up-and-down vote in Congress failed to pass the House on Friday.  Before the vote, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) lectured her colleagues on the importance of climate change and how it relates to the trade agreement.

“You cannot separate commerce and environment,” Pelosi said on the House floor before the vote.

Environmental groups had already opposed the TPP, because under the agreement, corporations will likely be able to sue governments that interfere with their business — even if the interference comes from enforcement of carbon reduction goals and passing environmental legislation.  But earlier this week, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) doubled down on the environmental component of the TPP, introducing an amendment to the customs package that would “ensure that trade agreements do not require changes to U.S. law or obligate the United States with respect to global warming or climate change.”

The move was widely seen as an attempt to appease right-wing members of the House.  But environmental activists, including Karthik Ganapathy, a spokesman for 350.org, warned that the move could alienate Democrats worried about climate change.  It appears he was correct.

Pelosi specifically addressed the Ryan amendment in her speech on the House floor, noting that passage of the bill would mean the U.S. Trade Representative was barred from negotiating on climate change.

“I hold myself second-to-none in this body in protecting the environment and recognizing the challenges of the climate crisis,” Pelosi said.

Read more at Nancy Pelosi on TPP: ‘You Cannot Separate Commerce from the Environment’