After sleeping in Congress for three years, this Tuesday a key day was held in the Senate where the Comprehensive and Progressive Treaty for Trans-Pacific Partnership, better known as TPP11.
And the Upper House decided to approve the international agreement by 27 votes in favor, 10 once morest, 1 abstention and three pareos. Most of the rejections came from pro-government senators.
The previous discussion of the treaty in the Senate was marked due to the lack of consensus between the parties that are part of the government of Gabriel Boric. This was demonstrated in that both in the Democratic Socialism as in Approve Dignity there were votes once morest the initiative. In fact, the treaty had been extremely resisted in this last bloc.
Although at the beginning the President had shown himself with the intention of not hindering the legislative process of the TPP11 -which is not part of the program with which he arrived at La Moneda-, In recent weeks, he has chosen to take an active role and lead the negotiations of the “side letters” with the rest of the countries so that Chapter 9, regarding the settlement of disputes between the States parties and investors, is not applicable.
Precisely in order to have more time to advance in these dialogues with the rest of the countries, on September 28, the initial date on which the trade agreement would be reviewed by the Upper House, Senator Daniel Núñez (PC) -reflecting the position of Approve Dignidad- requested a “second discussion”, a regulatory power that forced the discussion to be extended.
Prior to Tuesday’s vote, the discussion focused on the request of the Senator Karim Bianchi (Ind.), who made a reservation of constitutionality of the project, requesting that the report of the Supreme Court on the treaty be awaited. After a debate of almost an hour, the vote was opened and the senators were able to present their points.
The Chancellor Antonia Urrejola He highlighted the approval of the TPP11 and addressed the protocol of agreement and understanding signed on August 6, 2019.
“This protocol aims to clear up the doubts that arose during the debate and the hearings aimed at analyzing the scope of the trade agreement and has 7 proposed interpretative declarations and 10 government commitments that would be implemented once the TPP11 is approved following being approved by the Senate. We believe that this protocol represents an important tool for the implementation of the trade agreement”, he highlighted.
He added that despite the fact that the agreement was not part of Gabriel Boric’s government program, the Foreign Ministry carried out an analysis of the scope of the TPP11 and “has identified an issue that is of special sensitivity and that is addressed in the program of government. In light of this scenario, we have tried to channel the approval of TPP11 through the exchange of side letters with the other signatory countries that seeks to exclude the effects of section b, of chapter 9 of the treaty related to the dispute relationship mechanism.”
Along the same lines, he explained that the goal of the Foreign Ministry is “give a relative political signal in advancing in modernizing the standards that currently exist in matters of investor-state dispute resolution, also creating a critical mass within the TPP11 forum itself, together with other countries, that allows debate and perfect the mechanisms contemplated in this commercial agreement. And that the side letters must go through Congress to be approved and that the President “has decided, within his exclusive powers, to wait for the progress of the side letters before ratifying the agreement.
Various positions were expressed during the discussion in the room by the senators who were for and once morest the trade agreement.
The DC Senator, Ximena Rincon He indicated that “it cannot be understood that the Government refuses to open the doors to globalization and distrusts this advance in unclear arguments or last minute elements to avoid responsibility. Chile will have worse numbers, even worse than Haiti if it continues like this”.
“The time has come to ratify the treaty and not delay its discussion any longer (…) this treaty benefits Chile and its Chileans, who following a constitutional plebiscite do not urge them to work on their most urgent needs, security and the economy” , he added.
While the also DC, Yasna Provoste -who, unlike Rincón, was once morest it- assured that “trade liberalization is not at stake in this discussion (…) we can hardly say that it will be the TPP that will generate the reactivation when we already have agreements with 74 states” .
“Because we are a small and dignified nation, we are not going to give up the independence that we have won to change what we must change,” he concluded.
For its part, the Senator PC, Claudia Pascual indicated that “to those who accuse my party, our committee of wanting to delay this vote, we said that we were going to occupy all the mechanisms provided by the Senate regulations. We had the possibility of postponing the discussion once, however that did not happen as a result of the fact that the day of voting was even today and we have not delayed that vote, I want to say it because I have been appointed twice”.
“Another thing is very different not to share the substance of this discussion, therefore to have alternative arguments and perspectives to what is proposed to vote. I am going to vote once morest it, this treaty mortgages the possibilities that the country has to autonomously make decisions regarding what productive economic development it wants to have”, he added.
The legislator from Evópoli, Felipe Kast He stressed that the trade agreement “is estimated that we will have almost 1,200 million dollars a year in trade, which will improve access to various markets through tariff preferences for more than 3,000 products, today excluded in existing agreements (… ) There is a special chapter to promote SMEs, in which measures are promoted that reduce bureaucratic procedures and will facilitate contracting processes”.
Meanwhile, the UDI, David Sandoval He believed that “we are at a time where the country requires us to take advantage of all opportunities.” And he continued: “The conditions in which we find ourselves today as a country, forces us to face a challenge that puts us in the perspective of what lies ahead, each affectation that our country has in terms of economic development affects our communities. ”.
The PS senator, Alfonso de Urresti He justified his vote once morest by assuring that “I set my position from an ethical and commitment level with something that I have committed myself to those who have voted for me, who are the small farmers of the Los Ríos Region.” And he added that “there is talk that this treaty is not going to be ratified, so I think we have to be consistent, if approval by a majority is being considered, which apparently is going to happen, is it going to be ratified or not? (…) The worst thing is the uncertainty”.
