Vilsack: Canada holding up TPP text Presented by Semiconductor Industry Association

With help from Adam Behsudi and Doug Palmer

VILSACK: CANADA HOLDING UP TPP TEXT: Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Thursday that it will take more time than originally anticipated to get the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal out to the public, thanks in large part to the Canadian election. The administration has promised to have the final agreement available for public review long before President Barack Obama signs the deal.


“I suspect it would have been very soon or perhaps already on the web ... but we have a new government in Canada and that new government obviously has to get up to speed on what was negotiated by the previous government,” Vilsack said in remarks to the National Chicken Council. “That may take a little time, which may delay the posting of this agreement on the web for a period of time.”

Legal officials from the 12 TPP countries were expected to wrap up today a two-week meeting in Tokyo where the text was being legally “scrubbed” and prepared for publication.

IT’S FRIDAY, OCT. 30! Welcome to Morning Trade, where regardless of how you feel about the U.S. trade representative and transparency, we think we can all agree that Roxy the bloodhound, tasked by TPP critics with “sniffing out” the agreement’s text, is pretty darn cute: http://bit.ly/1RgOfyi . I wonder if USTR bringing in some animals might help with the vote gathering. Any other cute animal pictures to brighten your host’s Friday? Send them, or work-related tips I guess, to me at [email protected] or @vtg2 .

DELAURO: STOP SWARMING THE HILL: Critics have grown restless over the fact that a text has not been released despite a TPP deal being struck nearly a month ago. At a press conference Thursday, Rep. Rosa DeLauro demanded the White House stop swarming Capitol Hill and barnstorming the country to sell the pact until it releases the full text. “Stop selling something that nobody but them knows about,” she said.

USTR and other cabinet agencies have released fact sheets outlining details of the pact, but not the text itself. Rep. Lloyd Doggett said he was suspicious that the actual agreement could be different than what is described in the fact sheets. Lawmakers want to know if “the text matches the propaganda, and in many cases, we believe it will not,” he said.

THE WAYS AND MEANS TO BECOMING CHAIRMAN: Now that Rep. Paul Ryan has officially secured the speaker’s gavel and vacated the chairmanship of the House Ways and Means Committee, another game is afoot. Rep. Sam Johnson of Texas will serve as interim chairman of the powerful panel, but the race will now begin in earnest to fill the slot.

Ohio Rep. Pat Tiberi sent a letter Thursday to the entire committee sharing his “vision” for what the committee would do. He says he wants the committee to play a “leading role” in “fixing our federal transportation infrastructure system.” He wants to take the “next steps to advance free trade,” and lead the “fight for comprehensive tax reform,” POLITICO’s Jake Sherman reports.

He argued he has the “experience, skills and record of achievement to lead us on this journey.” Tiberi, a close ally of the departing John Boehner, is facing Texas Rep. Kevin Brady for the gavel. Brady is more senior than Tiberi, but Texans chair six other House committees. Rep. Devin Nunes has decided not to pursue a bid, he said Thursday.

U.S., INDIA KEEP ON KEEPING ON: On the heels of a high-level meeting last month, U.S. and Indian trade officials on Thursday achieved little in the way of concrete outcomes in their annual Trade Policy Forum, but covered the full gamut of trade irritants in their talks.

For example, they agreed to share best practices for establishing science- and risk-based regulations for animal health and food inspections based on international standards, according to a joint statement. This commitment touches on previous battles between the two sides, including the U.S.’s successful challenge at the World Trade Organization of India’s ban on U.S. poultry over avian flu concerns.

On intellectual property, Indian Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman “reiterated the goal of ensuring the poorest populations in India and the United States have access to quality healthcare, and committed to identifying ways in which trade and innovation policies can enhance access to quality health and affordable medicines.” India’s policies interfering with pharmaceutical patents have been one of the biggest thorns in the side of U.S. businesses invested in the south Asian country. Click here to read the joint statement: http://bit.ly/1kWLY0Z .

A national “think tank” was tasked with coming up with a new intellectual property rights policy for India, and an alleged final draft was leaked earlier this month. An Indian official said the think tank’s report was only an “input” for the final policy, according to the Indian newspaper Mint.

“We sent it to various departments for comments. Policy is not made by the think-tanks, it is made by the government,” said Amitabh Kant, secretary of the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, which is putting together the policy. He said the final policy will be in place within the next month, according to the article. Click here to read the leak: http://bit.ly/1PTqWNq , and here to read the article: http://bit.ly/1KINNDB . Pros can also read our previous coverage of the IP proposal here: http://politico.pro/1KIOpci .

GREEN GROUPS LAY OUT TPP WISH LIST: A coalition of environmental and consumer groups, including Food and Water Watch, Greenpeace USA and the Sierra Club, laid out their vision in a letter Thursday for what TPP should look like and urged members of Congress to vote against the deal if it doesn't meet those standards. The pact will likely meet some, but not all, of their demands on the environment. For example, the letter calls for seven multilateral environmental agreements — incorporated into other bilateral trade deals under the May 10, 2007, agreement between the George W. Bush administration and House Democrats — to be fully enforceable in TPP.

According to a New Zealand fact sheet, the Asia-Pacific pact contains "specific obligations" for only three of those seven agreements: the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships and the United Nations' Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Click here to read the letter: http://bit.ly/1GNhKqT .

WYDEN HAPPY ABOUT NEW TPP STAFF ACCESS: Back to the transparency discussion, Senate Finance Committee ranking member Ron Wyden on Thursday praised USTR for new guidelines allowing the personal staff for Finance and House Ways and Means members to access the text.

“I’m glad to see that the new transparency standards I fought for are now in effect, affording members of Congress substantially increased oversight by increasing the information our staff can access,” Wyden said in a statement. “I look forward to continuing to work with the USTR on implementation of this year’s trade legislation, which included unprecedented new requirements on transparency.”

But Doggett, holding onto Roxy the bloodhound, said USTR was merely “throwing us a bone.” “It's just really superficial,” he said at a press conference on the need for USTR to release the text. “I think people will see it’s transparent, in the sense you can see right through it.” Doggett said there was no need for a new provision in TPA to increase the transparency of trade negotiations because the administration could already have been transparent if it had wanted to be. “It does nothing for those who are not on the committees,” he added. DeLauro called the move “meaningless without any text to review.”

A U.S. official was not charmed by Roxy: “The anti-trade crowd has always lacked in substance and seriousness,” the official said. “For years it’s been a dog and pony show. Now they’re finally admitting it.”

BACKSTAGE AT THE CARNIVAL: POLITICO Magazine's Campaign Issue Now Live! The Campaign Issue appears on newsstands almost exactly a year before voters head to the polls. The issue features an investigation into the Clinton email server scandal, a profile of Kasich’s campaign manager providing an in-depth look at staffers and the business of a major league campaign, missives from the campaign trail with Huckabee and a profile of how Cuba affected the life and politics of Rubio. http://politi.co/1PXQ2K0

INTERNATIONAL OVERNIGHT

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi believes the Doha round negotiations should continue after the WTO ministerial in Nairobi, The Economic Times reports: http://bit.ly/1XD9iyN .

The trade ministers from Japan, China and South Korea met in Seoul on Friday to discuss their trilateral negotiations, Kyodo News reports: http://s.nikkei.com/1RD1XeE .

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said it’s a priority for his country to negotiate a free trade agreement with the European Union, The Financial Times reports: http://on.ft.com/1MYeiXd .

THAT'S ALL FOR MORNING TRADE! See you again soon! In the meantime, drop the team a line: [email protected] and @ABehsudi; [email protected] and @vtg2; [email protected] and @tradereporter; [email protected] and @mjkorade; and [email protected] and @JsonHuffman. You can also follow @POLITICOPro.

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