WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 — U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) told the Obama Administration on Thursday that a 12-nation trade deal should not be considered by Congress until it is renegotiated. In a letter to the president, Sanders and his colleagues outlined the Trans Pacific Partnership’s fundamental flaws and the need to fix them before Congress votes on the agreement, which is the biggest trade agreement ever negotiated.

“It is simply not accurate to call an agreement progressive if it does not require trading partners to ban trade in goods made with forced labor or includes a special court for corporations to challenge legitimate, democratically developed public policies,” the senators wrote. “Passing TPP before these and other provisions are fixed will hasten the erosion of U.S. manufacturing and middle class jobs, and accelerate the corporate race to the bottom.”  

The letter was led by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and signed by Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), and Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).