Joseph Stiglitz- Don't Trade Away Our Health

[n2doc]

A secretive group met behind closed doors in New York this week. What they decided may lead to higher drug prices for you and hundreds of millions around the world.

Representatives from the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries convened to decide the future of their trade relations in the so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership (T.P.P.). Powerful companies appear to have been given influence over the proceedings, even as full access is withheld from many government officials from the partnership countries.

Among the topics negotiators have considered are some of the most contentious T.P.P. provisions — those relating to intellectual property rights. And we’re not talking just about music downloads and pirated DVDs. These rules could help big pharmaceutical companies maintain or increase their monopoly profits on brand-name drugs.

The secrecy of the T.P.P. negotiations makes them maddeningly opaque and hard to discuss. But we can get a pretty good idea of what’s happening, based on documents obtained by WikiLeaks from past meetings (they began in 2010), what we know of American influence in other trade agreements, and what others and myself have gleaned from talking to negotiators.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/31/opinion/dont-trade-away-our-health.html

[bigtree]

1. this is a very informative article

...I hope folks read it. The Nobel Laureate, Stiglitz, takes pharmaceuticals and provides an excellent example of how this treaty, and others very similar in the past, undermines our laws and allows corporations to dodge our legislative remedies, like the 1984 law encouraging generic drugs and lowering prices through competition in the drug market.

Stiglitz:

"Trade agreements, and in particular individual provisions within them, are typically far more difficult to alter or repeal than domestic laws."

[Octafish]

2. What does Stiglitz know?

Besides integrity?

Summers looked at Stiglitz like Stiglitz was some kind of naive fool who'd read too many civics books.

http://www.gregpalast.com/larry-summers-goldman-sacked/

[WillyT]

3. K & R !!!

[QC]

4. Why does Stiglitz hate the president?

Is he some kind of conspiracy theorist or something?

[n2doc]

5. He must get his information from the Huffington Post n/t

[JEB]

6. Kick.

[pa28]

7. Uh-oh. Looks like Stiglitz has been reading the Huffington Post again.

He needs to do less reading and more trusting.