Press Releases

Today, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, along with 121 other members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to US Trade Representative Michael Froman, urging him to continue to push for a robust, fully enforceable environment chapter in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal. 

“TPP must include new and robust commitments for member countries to protect and conserve forests, oceans, and wildlife and obligate member countries to comply with both domestic environmental laws, not derogating from those laws, and meet their commitments under multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs),” the letter reads. “These commitments must be strong, binding and enforceable, and subject to the same dispute settlement procedures as the commercial chapters, including recourse to trade sanctions.” 

This letter urges the Ambassador not to allow pressure from other countries to weaken strong environmental protections that should be included in TPP. It stresses that by having a strong, fully enforceable environment chapter in TPP, the US has an opportunity to secure protections capable of generating environmental and economic benefits for decades to come.

The full text of the letter can be read HERE.