Médecins Sans Frontières: Don't Trade Away Health With The TPP

[cali]

As Asia-Pacific leaders prepare to meet in Bali for the APEC Summit, where the 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement will be high on the agenda, an international humanitarian organization has urged the governments not to indulge in political trade-offs during negotiations, which could restrict people’s access to affordable medicines.

“Millions of lives have been saved because of the availability of affordable generic medicines, but we could see this significant progress unravel as leaders trade away health in the TPP negotiations,” said Dr. Manica Balasegaram, executive director of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

“We can’t let the lives of millions of people get entangled in the political hard bargaining as the US government pushes for the negotiations on this trade deal to wrap up,” Balasegaram said in a statement on Thursday.

The US proposals in the TPP negotiations involve the most egregious intellectual property provisions ever seen in a proposed trade deal with both developed and developing countries, according to the statement.

They cover multiple avenues for multinational pharmaceutical companies to lengthen their monopolies by extending patents on medicines through a common pharmaceutical industry practice known as “evergreening”. This keeps the prices of medicines high for longer by blocking competition from generics.

<snip>

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/10/04/govts-told-nix-tpp-deals-grant-access-medicines.html

[Tanelorn]

1. This again is being considered in Australia

Under the previous government they said they would not sign without safeguards. Unfortunately the bosses party is now in charge and may not be deterred by such inconveniences .

[cali]

2. Yeah, it seems like your new PM is completely on board with

the corporatist agenda.

It's interesting to me that so much of the opposition to the TPP is coming from Australia and NZ- and I'd be remiss if I didn't add Malaysia and Chile to that list.

[jsr]

3. Big Business using "trade" as a cover for passing laws under the aegis of international treaties.

A clear example of corporatism run amok.

[cali]

4. and that's it in a nutshell. well said!