Strangeness, even annoyance, generated in some parliamentary benches the definition of the President Gabriel Boric to postpone the ratification of Chile to the TPP11 (Trans-Pacific Partnership or Transpacific Partnership) pending the negotiation of the so-called side lettersif Congress definitively approves it.
According to the protocol, once the Parliament gives its consent, it is up to the President to sign the agreement and proceed to its “deposit”that is, deliver the document that formalizes the accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty for Trans-Pacific Partnership (official name of TPP11 or CPTPP) before the relevant international bodies. For these purposes, the TPP11 establishes that New Zealand acts as “depositary” of the adhesions.
However, as published Thirdgiven the objections that exist in the ruling party and before the imminent vote in the Senate, the representatives of the Executive transmitted this Monday in the extended meeting of the political committee in La Moneda -in which ministers and representatives of ruling parties participate- that the strategy of the Mandatory will be to delay this procedure while waiting for the side letters to be answered (side letters), with which the government intends to generate dispute settlement mechanisms at the bilateral level.
The design was confirmed by the minister of the Segegob, Camila Vallejo: “There has been a strategy considered by the Foreign Ministry, which represents the government as a whole, to reach these bilateral letters,” he assured, adding that “we are interested, before making the deposit, which is a procedure prior to publication of the ratification of the agreement (…), to be able to resolve those conversations and bilateral letters to carry out the procedure that is optional and exclusive to the President.”
the head of the interior, Carolina Tohafor his part, argued that “We are going to give ourselves some time to put the treaty into force.”
The postponement of accession to the treaty would be added to the maneuvers that the CP, FREVS and the Broad Front intend to carry out, which -before the imminent vote initially scheduled by the Senate for this Wednesday- They will ask for a “second discussion”, a regulatory power that would force a vote on TPP11 next week. After that, the same committees might ask for an additional “postponement”, which would postpone the vote for another day. Therefore, if TPP11 is rescheduled for Tuesday, October 6, with this last postponement, it might be definitively voted on Wednesday the 7th or Tuesday the 13th, in the worst case.
Additionally, the PC, the FREVS and the Broad Front will present indications to generate “reserves”, which if approved would affect the processing of the TPP11 back to the Chamber of Deputies and Deputies.
In any case, regardless of what the Senate decides, La Moneda’s announcement that it would postpone the entry into force of the treaty also sought to appease the spirits of the Broad Front and the PC. However, that possibility also ended up generating noise in other political groups, which already have regarding 30 votes to approve this international agreement.
“It seemed like a mistake to me (the postponement of TPP11), because the government would be doing an affront to parliamentary sovereignty. If it is approved by the Senate, it is up to the President only to do the necessary paperwork to adhere to the treaty definitively”, said the deputy head of the PS deputies caucus, Thomas of Rementeriawho is a member of the Chamber’s Foreign Relations Committee.
“I don’t want to imagine that the President wants to disrespect Congress. I hope that the President gives it the processing that all the bills approved by Congress deserve, this is a treaty that takes more than enough time. We are experiencing an economic crisis, that if we had approved it before, the benefits would have helped to have less unemployment, “said the head of deputies of Evópoli, Francisco Undurraga.
“If the government seeks a mechanism to delay TPP11, once voted by the Senate, it would be an iInterventionism at the will of parliamentarians“, commented the UDI deputy, Christian Labbemember of the RR.EE Commission.
His peer from the Liberal Party, Alejandro Bernales, indicated that “if it is approved in Congress, it must be signed as soon as possible. It would be nonsense to delay the entry into force of the treaty.”
In the opinion of the head of senators of the UDI, Ivan Moreirawhat La Moneda is plotting “are concessions to the Communist Party and the Broad Front, but once TPP11 is approved, there is no going back. With or without side letters (side letters to generate dispute resolution mechanisms) the treaty will be an opportunity to generate employment, growth, development at a time when our economy is in crisis”.
“We have a President who kneels to the radical left that wants to replace him in the conduct of foreign policy. Let’s be serious, President Boric”, Moreira concluded.
Senator and President of RN, Francisco Chahuan, who, like Moreira, is a member of the Foreign Relations Commission. of the Senate, pointed out that “the government has to respect the word pledged. He promised that he would help dispatch TPP11, but we have seen an erratic government, which does not understand that it is necessary to give certainty in a scenario where the investment went to the floor”.
The leader of the PS caucus, Jose Miguel Insulza, said that the “deposit” of the treaty that “is a mere administrative procedure.” Asked if he agrees that his delay might be an affront to Congress, he replied: “I don’t think so, but it depends on how long it takes.”
Along these lines, Insulza, also a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, added that “I understand that the Undersecretary for Economic Relations (Jose Miguel Ahumada) would go to a meeting on October 8 of the TPP11 and there he might finish his negotiations”.
