Image: EFF (CC-BY)
Inside US Trade reports that U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told reporters Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators are “down to a dozen issues” in the intellectual property chapter. However, these are among the most difficult issues remaining. The remaining unsolved issues include intellectual property and access to medicines (which is really a set of different issues), where countries are still split on what the obligations should be for low and middle income countries. Additionally, Congressional Democrats recently met with Froman, where they produced a memo warning that the TPP doesn’t reflect the May 10th agreement on data protection, linkage, and patent term extensions in developing countries.
Last week, 23 Republicans on Capitol Hill wrote the Administration arguing that Trade Promotion Authority is essential for the TPP, and warning that “we will not support TPP if the agreement, even an agreement in principle, is completed before TPA is enacted.” This led Foreign Policy magazine to publish a piece declaring that the agreement “isn’t going to happen anytime soon.”
Also last week, the Australian Medical Association called on its country’s negotiators to reject “any provisions in trade agreements that could reduce Australia’s right to develop health policy and programs according to need,” with a special emphasis on rules regarding drug price negotiations.
Finally, former WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi recently warned that the TPP and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could harm the international trading system. He told the New Zealand Herald that “TTIP and TTP together could drive the world back into the old days before the WTO was conceived, a world trading system predominated by major trading nations, which was something I thought we tried to adjust with the more democratic participation of membership of the WTO.”
