The TPP would strip our constitutional rights, while offering no gains for the majority of Americans. Its a win for corporations The Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty is the complete opposite of free trade theguardian/commentisfree/2013/nov/19/trans-pacific-partnership-corporate-usurp-congress - How ironic that this massive transfer of power to special-interests such as giant pharmaceutical or financial corporations has been sold to the press as a means of holding special interest groups – who might oppose tariff reductions that harm them but are good for everyone else – in check. But the TPP and its promoters are full to the brim with ironies. It is quite amazing that a treaty like the TPP can still be promoted as a free trade agreement when its most economically important provisions are the exact opposite of free trade – the expansion of protectionism. Exhibit A was released by WikiLeaks last week: the latest draft of the intellectual property chapter of the agreement, one of 24 (out of 29) chapters that do not have to do with trade. This chapter has provisions that will make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to get patents, including in developing countries; have these patents for more years; and extend the ability of these companies to limit access to the scientific data that is necessary for other researchers to develop new medicines. And the United States is even pushing for provisions that would allow surgical procedures to be patented – provisions that may be currently against US law. All of these measures will help raise the price of medicines and health care, which will strain public health systems and price some people out of the market for important medicines. It is interesting to see how much worse the TPP is than the WTOs Trips (Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights). This, too, was a massive rip-off of consumers and patients throughout the world, but after years of struggle by health advocates and public interest groups, some of its worst features were attenuated, and further consolidation of pharmaceutical companies interests were blocked.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Nov 2013 05:33:07 +0000
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