i'm dave fry both i'm the executive at the king county labor council i'm here in support for and we have the labor council the fairtrade coalitions position on a fast track t p t t p p i'm encouraged that we're in front of this council the council that to a person approved the historic minimum wage increase that passed last year thank you for that i'd also like my time i also like to thank our grassroots activist assistance from co o'bryant and so want for making things like this happen thank you for that i also want to point out that in the minimum wage campaign council member bag was one of the ones that got training which thank you for that council member harold one of the unsung key people in the minimum wage campaign lot of people took a lot of credit for the minimum wage campaign a lot of people didn't get credit you didn't get enough credit for what you did and that committee so i would want to thank you for that look council member godden union sister you've always been there with us your doors always open want to thank you for your support on past issues let's go back to the industrial down zone that some of you may remember where you took historic vote brave vote to protect middle class jobs industrial sector thank you council members clark council member rasmussen constant harassment on transit a lot of people don't know that when the attacks were coming in on public workers when there were those who wanted to make public transit workers the problem you stood with us to fight that back thank you council member burgess i always appreciate but even the when we may not agree in the beginning you're open to logic and you're open to see what is really going on in this case i'm confident that we had the right people telling you what was really going on and i'm confident that we come to a vote here that will again have a historic vote from this council on a progressive issue that is going to affect the country thank you thank you hello everyone i'm seldom prentiss with three fifty thank you so much f fifty's greatly concerned about the investor state resolution process known as i s t s because it allows attacks by multinational corporations on laws designed to reduce carbon emissions and critical coal laws that c be passed here in seattle dealing with the health and safety of workers and citizens i want to make a few points about i s t s that i think there's been some misunderstanding about and so i would like to make some clarifications first of all some defend i s t s by saying the u s has never lost such a case while the us has not lost it has been sued and in some cases won on only very narrow procedural grounds furthermore because under current trade agreements our trade agreement partners are for the most part poor countries and the likelihood of a wealthy corporation suing us in those cases has been low but if th p p p were to pass this would all change the number of i the cases would increase them dramatically due to the large number of countries involved and due to the addition of wealthy countries like japan and australia another important point about i s t s is that this system by itself creates a chilling effect on democratic process there are many examples of canadian jurisdictions dropping laws they had planned to enact america can corporations threatened legal action under nafta so this is really the whole idea process is i'm damn a craddick and against our sovereignty we should hi i'm elliot oceana and i'm here today as part of washington cannes field organizing team we represent over forty four thousand members statewide over the past few weeks we've been talking to constituents here in seattle and in five congressional districts across the state and we've collected over six hundred postcards to representatives against fast tracking the t p p the responses we found have ranged from confusion from not having heard of this issue to serious concern but what i think is really striking is that personally i have not spoken to a single individual who said that they support this trade deal major concerns mostly stem from the fact that under this trade deal corporations would be able to sue states for loss of potential profit this would have a profound impact on many issues dear to us such as protecting our environment protecting consumers knowing what's in our food as well as paying workers a livable wage just to name a few this would also make it even more difficult to raise revenue to support health care education and other important social safety nets the last major concern is the impact that this deal would have on jobs here in the u s and here in seattle nobody wants to see more of our jobs exported and that is exactly what this trade deal would do most importantly the question everyone is asking if this is a good deal for workers for our communities why are lawmakers in such a rush to pass it why can't we know what it says or have public input fast tracked undercuts the democratic process i urge you all to set an example to congress call today and to pass a resolution to oppose the fast track authority on the trans pacific partnership thank you hide the raging grannies are here and they're going to sing great song and then i'll give some testimony know my name is cynthia lynn that i'm a i'm a member of the raging grannies and i'm an attorney i'm opposed to the president using his fastrack power to speed a treaty along that he knows if it were thoroughly understood by those who defected by it would be completely denounced by the general public track prevents congress from debating the treaty or greeting to only parts of it it becomes an up or down  vote the fact that is such a devastating giveaway to global capitalism written in secret over five the gear period and affecting seventy percent of the world's g d p and that the president wants to sneak it through our mostly corrupted congress only shows just how damaging this treaty is the treaty would provide for unaccountable supranational courts where multinational corporations could sue states if they thought that a particular laws such as health or labor would undermine their xpect did future profits expected it's not even current how in the world can we allow such a thing this treaty makes a mockery of the rule of law if corporations can sue countries in secret tribunals run by the very corporations that are suing and without the input of those affected that it's game over for our country's sovereignty furthermore the treaty would extend the duration of patents thereby giving big pharma a windfall and ultimately would increase our cars for those medicines and of course with such a giveaway businesses would move quickly their manufacturing plants to such places thereby killing millions of american jobs and making slaves of their new employees i am adamantly opposed to the t p be and i am also opposed to fast track in general as well as fast track of this energy programs are being challenged under trade rules here's an example the ontario clean energy program of two thousand and nine had to worthy goals they wanted to get the province off by twenty fourteen and they wanted to bring back some of the three hundred thousand jobs that the province had lost since nafta renewable energy providers were given long term contracts encouraged to sell power back to the grid provided that they use a minimum of forty to sixty percent local materials and local workforce the program created thirty one thousand jobs and happily the province only had one functioning coal fired power plant by twenty fourteen but japan challenge the local sourcing provisions in w t o trade court and they won ontario was forced to remove the provisions and workers again lost their jobs i s d s rules mean large foreign corporations can challenge innovative ideas that bolster local economies even firms from non t p d nations say china can use investor state if they own a company in a tepee country like  under the t p c atl and washington very much expanded risk for investors to challenges that impact our ability to protect our local economy our most vulnerable citizens like the homeless and our children's future i believe that our washington state congressional delegation is afraid to vote against t p for fear of being branded its anti trade in the next election even though only five of twenty nine chapters concerned trade letters from my delegation maintain the pretense that it is a trade bill and then go on to say how they can afford to jeopardize their trade maintaining pretense reminds me of the story of the emperor's new clothes where the emperor is conned into wearing imaginary fabric that was invisible to anyone who was unfit for their position or hopelessly stupid but it child unknowingly broke the pretense by shouting that the emperor had no clothes and then he was laughed off the stage similarly it is laughable to maintain the pretense that t p is a trade bill that happily ever after solution to this tale is to delete the twenty four non trade chapters which can't be done if t p is fast tracked then both the people concerned with sovereignty and democracy and people concerned with trade will be happy you can give our congressional delegation political cover to vote against fast well good afternoon everyone my name is eric with the washing council on international trade and obviously i'm here to urge you to oppose this resolution today and i know i'm not the most popular person in the room you know i guess the thing is i'm having trouble understanding why you would take this photo day and it's not because forty percent of all the jobs in washington are tied to international trade i know you know that i know you know that the business community feels like this is not the right vote to take but it's really that you're taking a position to oppose a piece of legislation you haven't exactly right actually the irony is that if you just wait two or three weeks the the trade promotion authority legislation will be introduced you'll have a chance to read it and see it and believe that you'll be surprised how many of the issues that you care very much about increasing our labor standards increasing our environmental standards protecting our right to legislate in the public interest or actually in that trade promotion trade promotion authority legislation and i actually think that you would probably like it if you had a again you know i am certainly not saying not to take this vote on i'm saying why would you possibly not wait for just a few weeks to actually read the legislation before you take a position on i do want to say though that i find this topic of this is not a trade bill when you talk about the transpacific partnership to really be fundamentally different then our true understanding of what trade is in the twenty first century economy we talk about intellectual property protection for example we know intellectual property protection is so important organization based in seattle and i'm here today to urge you to vote against the resolution opposing t v and t v this is an employees across the united states and washington state and here in the city of seattle need the t t t t p p d competitive in the asia pacific trade agreements increase trade in twenty fourteen forty seven percent of u s goods exports went to our twenty f d a partner countries even though those countries only account for ten percent of global g d p further u s merchandise exports to these countries totaled seven hundred sixty five billion dollars up four percent from twenty thirteen according to the asian development bank there are currently one hundred forty four trade agreements signed among countries in asia and another thirty four proposed are being negotiated the u s is party to only three of these signed agreements in the region were behind and we need to be in these higher than jobs that are related to exports so this resolution is a step towards the missing our state's competitiveness in limiting our ability to create high paying trade jobs through trade with other nations thank you very much thank you robin stern and i'm president of puget sound advocates for retirement action and first i want to thank you for considering this resolution before i make my comments i just want to say that those are also supports the proposal that's coming that the folks from real change and other almost advocates are here to support when i was here for the hearing before the committee just listening to the testimony i listened very carefully to a young man who spoke from the washington council on international trade and i heard him say that this agreement and fast track will be good for labor and the environment and when he sat down i was right behind him and so i just very gently reached up and asked him in a whisper do you really honestly think that we don't know what is good for ourselves and he turned back to me anyway it should and that was for me what was symbolic about fast track because fast track is really trying to shape the debate so that the american people can fully understand what's in that agreement and what it means from the perspective of seniors we are very concerned about what will happen to the prices that prescription drugs as a result of this trade agreement in fact this is not a trade agreement this is an agreement that puts the multinational corporations in charge of very significant parts of our economy and before we do that we ought to have an open debate over a period of time so we know what is going on and so we can hold our congress accountable for what they're voting for you are making the right step today  support this resolution and we would appreciate your support thank you thank you good afternoon to the council i'm joseph ritzmann i work for s s a marine which is a seattle based port operator here in the city and i'm here essentially to represent the trade community today which as you know broadly consists of agricultural exporters in the eastern part of our state truckers in our community that live on taking loads in and out of the port  jobs and a recent study that i think the city health commission showed that the average wage of these jobs is about seventy thousand dollars which is significantly above the median in our state which i think is about fifty two thousand dollars so i would echo  the sentiments from the gentleman from apec which is a solid think tank that trade essentially is something that we should not be afraid of but essentially is something that promotes prosperity in growth for all i would also echo the sentiments from which it can council national trade let's wait a couple weeks let's really see what's in there before we take this vote i would just finally point out the timing of this i think sends the wrong message t trade community as we look out of our harbor you know terminal five is idle and we need to find a new target for it to handle cargo we know the ports of seattle and tacoma are thinking very deeply about how to collaborate in  tensely competitive global landscape that is as we lose cargo to vancouver canada to southern california as the panama canal undergoes a significant expansion ships might not have to call here i think it sends the wrong message to the train community excuse me the trade community and i would urge you to have further consideration before your house three one five seven three thank you thanks to our last speaker will be ira good afternoon my name is irene plan in french government affairs director for microsoft microsoft support the passage of trade promotion authority and completion of a strong trans pacific partnership agreement because of the opportunity to expand trade relations with key asia pacific nations for the tech sector the t p p should strengthen protections for intellectual property providing more deterrence to piracy to stronger adherence to international rules in areas such as patents and copyright t p p should provide new market opportunities for digitally enabled services and for the first time cross border data flows will be addressed directly a subject which is critical for many industries including but well beyond the tech sector some of express concerns about the potential inclusion of bias diaz's an arbitration procedure it is absolutely true that the us has been a party to multiple cases using i as ts and has never lost one that's far in the t p p negotiations there has been extensive engagement with the congress had a standing offer for every member of congress to review negotiating tax working groups are in place for environmental and labor stakeholders to give input into the negotiations trade promotion authority is necessary so that congress define it requirements for the final trade agreement importantly other nations will not put forward their best offer in the absence of trade promotion authority finally the bill providing trade promotion authority has not yet been introduced so this is premature and fast so we respectfully request that you vote against any resolution on this subject and withhold judgment on these matters until there is a bill and on which to comment thank you thank you well i want to begin by thanking councillor swa continual pressure and education the mobilization organization the council would not have this legislation before us today and in fact i believe that the nation is looking at seattle's though today only one other city has taken a  position on this that i know of the other major cities los angeles another port city we are port city this will send a very powerful message to washington d c underlying this discussion i'm not going to go into the statistics because agreement some of you remember the council as you took a position at that time also opposed to that approach because it was doing the same thing that this would do which is circumvent the ability of citizens to control their own environment through a democratic process through a democratic court process rather than having courts under a side bar more corporate dominated situation to protect our environmental laws and for protect our workers we will continue to see this sort of struggle going on  the future and the only thing that is going to really do rail it is the mobilization of citizens in a democracy i believe that our democracy is the barque work that can and stand up to the trend that we are seeing in this nation where we see and across the world more and more power being devolved to corporate identities you have to consider that the basis of democracy is transparency the basis of trade is the opposite of transparency it's three main basically keeping your secrets and trading to the advantage of the shareholders or the owners of the corporation a democracy is to have an open process so that everyone has equal access to information has equal access to influencing how their lives are going to be ruled i believe that today if we pass this legislation we all need to let everyone we know throughout the country that seattle can do it they can do it we need to send a mess issue for me is if there's one thing i've learned in life is that reasonable minds perhaps can differ and when i hear that we will have improved labor standards and i hear that we will have increased and of our environmental protection to disserves me that i'm getting most of my information hearsay from what's been negotiated that the process is very questionable and so it's hard for me to believe that i will get these kinds of protections that while i strongly applaud the environmental movement for voicing their concerns the voice of labor to me x resonates extremely loud because when it when we look at globalization i think for this city and for this country is going to it's going to be critically important to fall on the right side of globalization and that will be on the side of our workers that if you that if you look at it from art from from the history of our country when in one thousand nine hundred we only had seven percent of our labor organized when you look at the history of our country and you see the demise of organized labor you also see the demise of our middle class and so while i understand that in the dispute settlement procedure as an example that the united states has not lost it worries me that our courts here can be circumvented and in an international group of panelists can basically make the decisions that affect our workers and so the decision became very clear to me as much as i want to keep jobs and innovation and want to keep our employers having employees i just think that as the debate continues in this country and we look and talk about globalization we have to default on the side of our workers and that's why i proudly support this resolution and i'm sorry council member council president burgess my timing was a little off i was just getting my thoughts you kno now to our vote on resolution three one five seven three version three which we substituted earlier all in favor of the resolution vote i oppose vote no the resolution is unanimously