TPP not beneficial

I must disagree with CEO Michael Senske that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will benefit us.

For the first 100 years of United States history, the country followed the Constitution regarding trade. Congress regulated trade, and the executive branch executed their directives.

From 1890 onward, the executive branch began encroaching on trade functions, insisting on non-tariff items, and eventually gained trade promotion authority (fast track) in 1974. Ever since the initiation of fast track, the United States has suffered job losses, trade deficits and diminished sovereignty.

Not everyone lost. A few people connected to international corporations made fortunes, while the de-industrialization of America happened in the background. Of 30 chapters, only six deal with trade. True, trade has become more global, but that doesn’t mean we need a document 2,000 pages longer than Obamacare.

The worst is that TPP is a living agreement that can be changed any time after passage. We did not have fast track from 1994 to 2002, and yet we enacted 300 trade agreements while trade expanded by 30 percent.

The secrecy and diminished role of Congress that accompanies TPP only helps bad deals like NAFTA and TPP to slip by us. Contact your representative to vote no.

Rob Chase, Spokane County Treasurer

Spokane