“U.S. bankers and insurers are trying to use trade deals, which can trump existing legislation, to weaken parts of the Dodd-Frank Act…,” according to Carter Dougherty of Bloomberg (5/23/13).

Since the 1990s, Dougherty writes, trade agreements have sought to limit national regulation, and not just “tariffs applied at borders,” in the name of lifting “potential barriers to commerce.” And domestic industries have taken advantage, with the financial sector, for example, adopting a similar approach in its battle against the Volcker rule – the provision of the Dodd-Frank Act intended to bar banks from using federally insured funds to make short-term bets for their own gain.

Derivatives reform is a current focus of these backdoor efforts, according to Dougherty. Industry lobbyists are urging negotiators on EU and Asia-Pacific trade pacts to “draft rules limiting what regulators can do in the name of protecting financial stability,” he writes. In the name of global uniformity, Wall Street wants such agreements to “curb extra-territorial rules that can reach beyond U.S. borders, like ones currently being considered on financial derivatives.”

“The trade talks could easily become a Trojan Horse,” AFR policy director Marcus Stanley told Dougherty.

The Bloomberg article quotes a statement from Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) warning against Wall Street’s efforts to “do quietly through trade agreements what they can’t get done in public view with the lights on and people watching.”