Originally posted by DeepThought
This page does a reasonable job of explaining the issues and explains why it should be opposed: http://keionline.org/node/1825
Thanks - it is a good review. The entire process does, however, blind opponents and it is intended to - it makes open debate incredibly difficult and can patronise opponents by claiming they are paranoid or do not understand. We must defer to our corporate masters and their paid-for political sponsors.
The U.S. proposals are sometimes more restrictive than U.S. laws, and when consistent, are designed to lock-in the most anti-consumer features. On top of everything else, the U.S. proposals would create new global legal norms that would allow foreign governments and private investors to bring legal actions and win huge damages, if TPP member countries does not embrace anti-consumer practices..... There are no opportunities for consumers to bring such disputes.
Perhaps that quote captures the essence of all this. Bear in mind that US public protection is often vastly less than the protections demanded in European countries and unlike the US, we still have some elected politicians that are not corporate agents. The whole agreement is designed to place an intolerable and oppressive barrier in the way of public interest protection against private sector greed.
The trade agreement includes proposals for more than a dozen measures that would limit competition and raise prices in markets for drugs. These include (but are not limited to) provisions that would lower global standards for obtaining patents, make it easier to file patents in developing countries, extend the term of patents beyond 20 years, and create exclusive rights to rely upon test data as evidence that drugs are safe and effective.
The extent to which these proposed free trade agreements are the product of powerful corporate lobbies is stunning. It is beyond crazy.
Why is the United States putting so much effort into narrowing if not eliminating the flexibility in the WTO agreement to provide exceptions for patents on “diagnostic, therapeutic, and surgical methods for the treatment of humans or animals”? It did not hurt that ... an army of lobbyists [- many listed in the text -] -- all companies involved in the medical device business. All are considered “cleared advisors” to USTR and have access to the TPP text.
On copyright, notice this:
There is little reason for any language on copyright in the TPP. All of the TPP member countries are already members of the WTO, which has its own extensive obligations as regards copyright, ...The article gives far more detail on existing international agreements and concludes with the remark While the US negotiators are indeed promoting US legal norms, they are promoting norms that most experts and consumers see as a mistake, that should be corrected. There is no justification
In a discussion about the level of damages corporations may like to screw out of elected governments, the article spells out that these free trade deals incorporate plans for vastly inflated levels of damages, beyond any reasonable notion of just compensation. These damages will, in turn, provide the mechanism by which corporations wish to overturn democratically determined social, environments, health and other public policies to permit untrammelled corporate greed.
This is a plot against democracy.