Letter: More Than 100 House Democrats Demand Elimination of Big Pharma Provisions in NAFTA 2.0 that Would Lock In High Drug Prices
More Than 100 Democratic House Members From New Dems to Progressive Caucus Demand Elimination of New NAFTA 2.0 Pharma Monopoly Terms That Lock in High Medicine Prices
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More than 100 House Democrats wrote to the Trump administration demanding the elimination of pharmaceutical corporation protections in Trump’s revised NAFTA that would lock in high medicine prices. In a letter sent to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, a diverse group of New Democrats, Blue Dogs and Progressive Caucus members outline the vital changes necessary if the agreement is to be passed by the Democratically controlled House. The representatives on the letter include full committee chairs, leadership, freshmen from Trump-voting districts and border states, and even members who voted for Fast Track in 2015.
Lori Wallach, Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, remarked: “Trump is allegedly apoplectic that drug prices continue to rise under his presidency. If Trump really wants to lower medicine prices, then he should not have allowed Big Pharma to rig his NAFTA deal with new monopoly rights so they can charge consumers more. If Trump wants to deliver on his campaign promises of cheaper medicines or fixing NAFTA, he will have to work with congressional Democrats to revise the NAFTA deal he signed last year. After almost one million American jobs have been lost to NAFTA, with more outsourced to Mexico every week, the deal Trump signed would not stop NAFTA’s ongoing job outsourcing. And, it would lock in high U.S. medicine prices.”
The letter text and list of signers is available here. A breakdown of the signers’ committee and caucus membership is available here.