Details
of the long-secret Trans-Pacific Partnership are public at last: it
will undermine the safety of our food supply, make medicine more
expensive, and give power to the biotech monopoly.
Action Alert!
A few weeks ago, the
full text of
the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal was finally released
after many years of closed-door negotiations between officials from the
US and eleven other countries, all of whom border the Pacific Ocean. Its
provisions were apparently kept secret from all but the biotech and
pharmaceutical industries.
Leaked documents during the trade
negotiations provided reason to be concerned about the final agreement.
And now, a review of the deal’s twenty-nine chapters and five thousand
pages proves these early concerns were completely justified. The final
package now awaits a vote in Congress, which is likely to take place in
Spring 2016.
Here are some of the most pressing concerns for natural health advocates:
It Undermines the Safety of the Food Supply
The TPP contains a number of provisions that threaten current food safety laws.
Generally
speaking, passage of the TPP would mean that any US food safety law
concerning things like pesticides, food additives, or labeling that is
more stringent than “international standards” may be considered an
“illegal barrier” to trade, and subject to enforcement. We have learned
to beware of such “international standards.” They are largely determined
by global special interests.
The TPP expands corporate power in other ways. The deal includes an
investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS)
system in which multinational corporations can challenge a host
company’s regulations in an international court. ISDS has been a fixture
in other trade treaties, including NAFTA (the North Atlantic Free Trade
Agreement), and has been used to challenge countries’ economic
policies, anti-smoking efforts, and environmental preservation laws. It
is another giveaway to Big Food and other powerful multinational
interests—a recurring theme throughout the TPP document.
The trade agreement also
undercuts US efforts to inspect food imports.
The agreement limits food import inspections at the border “to what is
reasonable and necessary,” and if an issue arises, a country must also
provide an “opportunity for a review of the decision.” This provision,
referred to as the Rapid Response Mechanism, may give exporting
countries the right to challenge basic food safety provisions in the US.
It Gives New Patent Protections to Big Pharma
The
TPP contains an entire chapter on intellectual property rights, with
many provisions relating to pharmaceutical patents. No doubt heavily
influenced by the pharmaceutical industry, the trade deal
will force signatory countries to accept many of the same patent laws that have kept drug prices so astronomically high in the US.
The
deal would extend and broaden certain patent and data protections for
the pharmaceutical industry, which Big Pharma can then use to keep
prices high and delay competition from generics. It is a wonderful gift
to the pharmaceutical industry—but a grave loss to patients in
developing countries looking for access to affordable drugs.
The
TPP also allows a practice known as “evergreening,” which lets drug
companies extend a patent on an old drug when it can be used to treat a
new condition—another boon for Big Pharma’s monopoly power.
Even
when Big Pharma loses in the TPP, it wins. One of the more controversial
topics in TPP negotiations concerned patent and data protections for
biologic drugs—medicines derived not from inert chemical compounds but
from living organisms. Big Pharma wanted twelve years of exclusivity—
they already have this in the US—and US trade officials pushed hard in
the negotiations to make this the standard. Instead, the deal grants
them at least five years of exclusivity and as much as eight.
It’s Also a Gift to Biotech Seed Companies
Finally, the TPP deal
expands biotech’s monopoly
over the seed industry. The deal requires all twelve countries to join a
number of global intellectual property treaties. One of these treaties
is the 1991 International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties
of Plants (UPOV91), which emphasizes the rights of seed companies over
farmers. Among other things, UPOV91:
- Requires intellectual property (IP) protection for all plant species;
- Provides IP protection for 20 to 25 years; and
- Stops
farmers from exchanging seeds—a common and important practice in many
developing nations and indeed throughout human history.
In
countries that have not already turned agriculture over to the biotech
industry, this could mean a substantial rewrite of regulations meant to
protect farmers.
Other treaties that signatory countries are
compelled to join make it easier to apply for patents—making it very
likely that more plants and seeds will be patented.
If these gifts to industry were not enough, President Obama moved earlier this summer to have the deal
“fast-tracked”—that
is, Congress will be given a fixed period to review the agreement,
after which time legislators must make a yes/no vote without the
possibility of amending the deal. Essentially, it’s “take it or leave
it.”
We say: leave it. And if the US does reject it, do not worry
about losing the reduction of tariffs that is already included. There
will just be a second (and, we hope, a better) version to replace it.
Action Alert!
Write to your members of Congress and urge them to oppose the TPP deal,
which undermines consumers and farmers and extends monopoly rights to
major industries.
Please send your message immediately.
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