Tensions in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

Public Forum 

Panza Maurer Law Library
3rd Floor Atrium

Tuesday, November 17, 2015
6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

Download Program CLE Resources  Speaker Bios 

2.5 Advanced CLE Credits in Antitrust and Trade Regulation, Business Litigation, and International Law

Coffee and light desserts will be served

Co-Sponsored by the Association of Business Law Students (ABLS)

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a proposed trade and investment agreement reached on October 5, 2015 between a dozen Pacific Rim countries from the Americas (the United States, Canada, Mexico, Peru, and Chile) and Asia (Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, and Brunei). If approved, the TPP would be the largest trade deal in history, lowering tariffs and other trade barriers across a wide range of industries, extending patent protections for medicinal drugs, and establishing investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) arbitration panels for foreign investors to challenge national, state, and local laws protecting the public health and safety and the environment. The TPP has raised numerous issues, from labor and human rights standards to employment and economic growth. TPP negotiations have been widely criticized for their secrecy, excluding Congress and the public from any input while providing privileged access to hundreds of corporate lobbyists. The few members of Congress to see negotiating drafts have been barred from speaking about any details.

In June, Congress approved “fast-track” Trade Promotion Authority to allow the Obama administration to bring the TPP to Congress for an up-or-down vote with no possibility of amendments. The fast-track vote was razor thin, passing the House of Representatives by only ten votes with the support of most Republicans and few Democrats. The TPP has already become a controversial issue in the 2016 Presidential election, with several candidates in both parties expressing opposition and with the TPP likely to come up for a vote in Congress during primary season. The TPP, once labeled the “gold standard” for trade agreements, is indeed the model for other multilateral trade and investment agreements, including the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the U.S. and European Union, which held its most recent ministerial meeting in downtown Miami just weeks ago.

Welcoming Remarks

Jon M. Garon
Dean and Professor of Law, NSU College of Law

Panel I: Trade, Economic Growth, Labor and Human Rights

Ramdas Chandra
Associate Professor of International Business, NSU H. Wayne Huizenga College of Business & Entrepreneurship

Fred Frost
CWA Campaign Lead, Communication Workers of America

Cyra Akila Choudhury
Professor of Law, Florida International University College of Law

Timothy A. Canova
Professor of Law and Public Finance, NSU College of Law

James D. Wilets
Professor of Law, NSU College of Law

Panel II: Investor Rights and Regulation

Douglas L. Donoho
Professor of Law, NSU College of Law

Florence Shu-Acquaye
Professor of Law, NSU College of Law

Joel A. Mintz
Professor of Law, NSU College of Law

Matthew J. Seamon
Chair and Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice, NSU College of Pharmacy

Michael Flynn
Professor of Law, NSU College of Law