International humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned Monday that the highly secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership will further erode access to life saving medicines in all countries involved in the deal, hitting poor and vulnerable people the hardest.
The organization joins a crescendo of voices warning of the potentially deadly effects of the mammoth pact as another round of closed-door negotiations commences in Ottawa, Canada.
“Every TPP government is struggling to contain rising health costs, so it’s beyond reason why provisions designed to delay the introduction of low-cost generic medicines would be allowed to make it into the final TPP agreement,” said Stephen Cornish, executive director of MSF Canada, in a statement.
The “free trade” deal is currently under negotiation between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam—which combined comprise approximately 40 percent of the world’s GDP.
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