Kick Brunei Out of TPP Talks

Democratic and Republican members of Congress are calling on American trade negotiators to kick Brunei out of Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks until its sultan revokes a new Taliban-like penal code that violates human rights.

“Tell Brunei to address its human rights violations as a condition before the U.S. engages in further talks,” a group of 119 House members wrote in a letter to U.S. Sec. of State John Kerry and U.S. Trade Rep. Michael Froman. This campaign was led by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), and Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL); Rosa DeLauro (D-CT); Louise Slaughter (D-NY); and Henry Waxman (D-CA), focused on the threat to lesbians, gay men, women and religious minorities in Brunei due to the country’s new Sharia-like law.

Separately, several prominent national lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality organizations sent a letter to President Obama with the same demand, as did a coalition of women’s organizations. Pride at Work, the Human Rights Campaign, the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force, and the National Center for Transgender Equality called on the administration to insist that Brunei revokes its new penal code or face being dropped from the TPP altogether.

When the third and final phase of the new law is implemented in Brunei, gay men and lesbians, and people convicted of adultery, would be stoned to death for their supposed “crimes.” Other punishments will include whippings and amputation, Amnesty International said.

“We’re not protectionists. We want to be fair traders. But we’re not fools.” —House Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi