Three senators from the auto producing states of Ohio and Michigan have urged U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman to insist that the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement contain “rules of origin” for autos that are at least as strong as in the 20-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement.
“The NAFTA rules of origin should be the starting point for the TPP agreement,” Sens. Sherrod Brown, Rob Portman and Debbie Stabenow said in a letter on Wednesday. “Undermining the NAFTA rules of origin would displace the U.S. auto supply chain and result in the loss of jobs throughout the country.”
“The negotiators have gotten very close to the end,” said Caroline Atkinson, deputy national security adviser for international economics, during a discussion at The Brookings Institution. “We are committed to completing the negotiations. We expect that will happen in the next several weeks.”
The White House has an incentive to close the TPP deal as quickly as possible to spare Democrats from making a difficult vote in the midst of next year’s presidential and congressional election campaigns.