Secret documents published Wednesday expose the Obama administration’s closed-door efforts to slash internet freedoms and erode access to medicines in the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership through a series of proposals that analysts say are the most damaging and dangerous in the history of U.S. “free trade” deals.
“The Obama administration’s proposals are the worst – the most damaging for health – we have seen in a U.S. trade agreement to date,” said Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s global access to medicines program. “The Obama administration has backtracked from even the modest health considerations adopted under the Bush administration.”
A secret 94-page draft chapter on intellectual property negotiations, published by Wikileaks, provides a snap-shot of the secret 19th round of negotiations that took place in the country of Brunei in late August. While the TPP negotiations started in 2008 and the agreement is poised to be the largest U.S. trade deal ever, this is the first time the public has had access to any draft of this chapter.
Legal experts say the document reveals a U.S. effort to champion the demands of the pharmaceutical industry by pushing to reduce the ability of countries to invoke public health to override patents, even in cases where this would make life-saving medicines more affordable and accessible.
“The Obama administration’s shameful bullying on behalf of the giant drug companies would lead to preventable suffering and death in Asia-Pacific countries,” said Maybarduk. “And soon the administration is expected to propose additional TPP terms that would lock Americans into high prices for cancer drugs for years to come.”
Click Here: new zealand chiefs rugby jersey
Experts also say the chapter shows an Obama administration taking aim at internet freedoms.
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT