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Joint letter signed by 43 civil society organizations

Dear Ministers: As organisations representing health professionals and health advocates from countries that are signatories to the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), we write to convey our deep concerns about reports that some of the remaining TPP parties are considering resurrecting the TPP following the U.S. withdrawal, and to reiterate concerns raised with you previously regarding its negative impacts on people’s right to health, access to affordable medicines, and the ability of governments to regulate health-damaging activities of corporations.

Concerns about the impacts of the agreement have been voiced at the highest international levels by United Nations Rapporteurs and other UN experts, the Director General of the World Health Organization Dr Margaret Chan, and representative international bodies such as the World Medical Association and the World Federation of Public Health Associations.

Many of the rules and obligations in the TPP were imposed by the U.S. and are only in the interest of multinational pharmaceutical corporations. These include a suite of intellectual property provisions that would reduce access to medicines, including the unprecedented U.S. imposed requirement that governments guarantee at least five years’ exclusivity for biologic products. Now that the U.S. is no longer party to the agreement there is no rationale for keeping the TPP alive and retaining these harmful elements of the agreement.

We urge you to remove these harmful provisions, and to recognise that the concerns of the health community cannot be addressed by minor changes to the signed-on 4 February 2016 text. To address those concerns would require many parts of the text to be rewritten from first principles. Unless these damaging provisions can be removed and comprehensive public health safeguards can be included, we strongly believe the TPP should be rejected.

We call on the parties to the Agreement instead to enter into an open and forward-looking dialogue with the health policy community to find a new balance that recognises the legitimate trade interests of countries, while fully protecting the ability of sovereign governments to adopt policies and regulations for health.

Signed  by

International and regional

  • World Federation of Public Health Associations
  • Médecins Sans Frontières/ Doctors without Borders (MSF)
  • International Treatment Preparedness Coalition Latin American and Caribbean ITPC-LATCA
  • Asia Pacific Network of people living with HIV and AIDS (APN+)

Australia

  • Public Health Association of Australia
  • Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation
  • Centre for Health Equity Training, Research and Evaluation (CHETRE)
  • UNSW Centre for Primary Health Care and Equity, University of New South Wales
  • Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education
  • NSW Nurses and Midwives Association
  • Older Women’s Network NSW Inc
  • Presentation Sisters Queensland
  • ActionAid Australia
  • Australian Catholic Social Justice Council
  • Australian Services Union
  • Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA

Canada

  • Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network.
  • The Global Health Equity Group

Chile

  • Movimiento Salud Digna  (Movement for Decent/Dignified Health)
  • Politicas Farmaceuticas of Chile

Japan

  • Japan Federation of Democratic Medical Institutions（MIN-IREN)”
  • Japanese Medical and Dental Practitioners for the Improvement of Medical Care (Hodanren)
  • Japan Federation of Medical Workers’ Unions

Malaysia

  • Malaysian AIDS Council
  • Positive Malaysian Treatment Access & Advocacy Group (MTAAG+)
  • Monitoring Sustainability of Globalisation (MSN)
  • Pertubuhan Islah Movement

New Zealand

  • Public Health Association of New Zealand
  • Association of Salaried Medical Specialists
  • Doctors for Healthy Trade
  • National Addiction Centre, University of Otago, Christchurch
  • New Zealand Nurses Organisation
  • OraTaiao: The New Zealand Climate and Health Council

Peru

  • Acción Internacional  Para la Salud – Perú (International Action for Health – Peru)
  • Asociación Latinoamericana de Medicina Social – Perú (Latin American Social Medicine Association – Peru)
  • Colectivo Dignidad en Salud (Dignity in Health Collective)
  • Grupo Impulsor de la Vigilancia de Antirretrovirales (GIVAR) (Antiretroviral Surveillance Group (GIVAR))
  • Justicia en Salud (Justice in Health)
  • Programa de soporte a la Autoayuda de Personas Seropositivas (PROSA) (Self-Help Support Program for Seropositive People (PROSA))
  • Red de Pacientes y Usuarios – Perú (Patients and Users Network – Peru)
  • Si da Vida (If you give life)
  • Salud Preventiva Andina (Andean Preventive Health)

Vietnam

  • Vietnam Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (VNP+)