Bill Text: IL SR1224 | 2015-2016 | 99th General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Calls upon elected officials in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership and any similar trade deals if they fail to restructure the misguided and failed policies of the past.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2016-07-31 - Pursuant to Senate Rule 3-9(b) / Referred to Assignments [SR1224 Detail]

Download: Illinois-2015-SR1224-Introduced.html

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SENATE RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, U.S. trade deals for the past 25 years have been
corporate-driven, incorporating rules that skew benefits to
economic elites while requiring working families to bear the
brunt of such policies; and
WHEREAS, The growing trade deficits, driven by the North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), China's accession to the
World Trade Organization, and the U.S.-Korea Free Trade
Agreement, have displaced 700,000 jobs, 3.2 million jobs, and
75,000 jobs respectively; and
WHEREAS, U.S. employment in manufacturing dropped by 5
million from 2000 to 2015; and
WHEREAS, Jobs lost due to trade devastate families and
entire communities and can permanently reduce lifetime
earnings for hundreds of thousands of workers; and
WHEREAS, The long decline of the American manufacturing
base, exacerbated by bad trade policies that reward
outsourcing, has undermined our economic security and poses a
direct threat to our national security; and
WHEREAS, The offshoring of manufacturing and service jobs

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deprives local and state governments of sorely needed revenues,
jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions of public servants, as
well as construction workers whose jobs depend upon
infrastructure building, repair, and maintenance; and
WHEREAS, Under NAFTA-style trade rules, the U.S.'s annual
trade deficit has increased dramatically from $70 billion in
1993, the year before NAFTA went into effect, to more than $508
billion in 2014; and
WHEREAS, The disproportionate voice of powerful global
corporations in the formation of U.S. "free trade" agreements
has advanced an agenda that undermines the public interest and
threatens democracy; and
WHEREAS, NAFTA, and all but 2 of the U.S. trade deals that
followed it, includes special legal rights for foreign
investors, known as "investor-to-state dispute settlement" or
ISDS, that allow foreign firms to bypass state and federal
courts to challenge state and local laws, regulations, and
administrative and judicial decisions in international
tribunals; and
WHEREAS, Foreign investors have already used NAFTA's ISDS
provisions to challenge decisions regarding local building
permits, environmental regulations, and state bans on toxic

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chemicals and decisions of state courts; and
WHEREAS, Climate change and environmental degradation
threaten communities across the globe and ISDS provisions in
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may expose nations
enacting policies to fight climate change to ISDS cases that
undermine these efforts; and
WHEREAS, Promoting economic growth with equity in Illinois
requires an approach that reforms the entire trade negotiation
process to ensure that the voices of workers, farmers, small
businesses, families, and communities are heard and their
interests addressed; and
WHEREAS, The TPP has been negotiated in secret, effectively
shutting state and local governments out of the process,
limiting our ability to influence its rules to ensure the
people of Illinois can participate in the benefits of trade;
and
WHEREAS, Given the enactment of fast track trade
negotiating authority, states, localities, and their citizens
will have no opportunity to correct shortcomings in the TPP
because its text will not be made public until it is final and
can no longer be improved; and

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WHEREAS, Repeating old mistakes in negotiating new trade
agreements such as the TPP represents a missed opportunity to
strengthen our economy, reduce income inequality, and promote
sustainable growth; therefore, be it
RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-NINTH GENERAL
ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we call upon our
elected officials in the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of
Representatives to oppose the TPP and any similar trade deals
if they fail to restructure the misguided and failed policies
of the past; and be it further
RESOLVED, That we call upon our elected officials in the
U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives to support new
trade deals such as the TPP only if they do the following:
(1) protect and promote traditional state and local
prerogatives and authority under our federal system,
including by ensuring that states and localities will not
be required to comply with certain commitments, including
any restrictions on preferences for local, state, or U.S.
goods or services, without prior informed consent of the
legislature or local lawmaking body;
(2) ensure balanced trade and address the excessive,
job-killing U.S. trade deficit;
(3) include enforceable rules against currency
manipulation, which countries such as China and Japan have

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used to tilt the playing field in their favor;
(4) exclude investor-to-state dispute settlement
(ISDS) and other provisions that favor foreign companies
over domestic ones and undermine public choices;
(5) ensure that countries cannot undercut U.S.-based
producers with weaker labor and environmental laws and
enforcement;
(6) ensure that the U.S. will engage in robust
enforcement of trade rules, including labor and
environmental rules;
(7) include strong rules of origin to promote economic
growth and job creation in the U.S.;
(8) promote high standards of protection for
workplaces, products, and natural resources rather than
promoting a race to the bottom; and
(9) put the interests of people and the planet over the
interests of private profit; and be it further
RESOLVED, That suitable copies of this resolution be
delivered to the President pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, the
Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and each member
of the Illinois congressional delegation.