Secret TPP Text Leaked, "Corporate Power Grab" Criticized

November 13, 2013

Secret TPP Text Leaked as Left and Right Criticize "Corporate Power Grab"

WikiLeaks today released "the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP."

The New York Times reports that while "the Obama administration is rushing" the TPP "before the end of the year" that "two new House letters with about 170 signatories in total -- the latest and strongest iteration of long-simmering opposition to fast-track authority and to the trade deal more broadly -- have been disclosed just a week before international negotiators are to meet in Salt Lake City for another round of talks. ... 'This could be the end of TPP,' said Lori Wallach of Public Citizen, a watchdog group that has opposed the deal."

LORI WALLACH, via Thomas Dewar
Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, Wallach said today: "Even before today's WikiLeaks posting of the TPP copyright and patent text and its threats to affordable medicine and Internet freedom, House Democratsand Republicans have announced opposition to fast track authority for TPP." The group just posted "What's New in the WikiLeaks Text" and other breaking content.

A group of 151 House Democrats just released a letter opposing fast track authority for TPP, noting that: "For sometime, members of Congress have urged your administration to engage in broader and deeper consultations with members of the full range of committees of Congress whose jurisdiction touches on the numerous issues being negotiated. [See PDF]. Similarly, yesterday, a group of House Republicans sent a letter to President Obama noting that the TPP is not simply about tariffs, but also "labor policy, food and agricultural standards, environmental concerns, patent and copyright use, and regulations impacting many service sector industries, among many others."

Public Citizen also recently sent a letter to NSA head Gen. Keith Alexander and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman following reports in the New York Times article "No Morsel Too Minuscule for All-Consuming NSA," that the NSA doled out information to "customers" like the U.S. Trade Representative, as a result of its spying programs. [PDF]

ROBERT NAIMAN
@naiman
Naiman is policy director of Just Foreign Policy. He said today: "We had issued a crowdsourced reward for WikiLeaks to publish the TPP text that now stands at more than $70,000 -- see: freetpp.org. By publishing the secret TPP text, WikiLeaks is sparking a public debate about the contents of this agreement that wasn't possible when the agreement was secret from public opinion. This was our goal in issuing the reward. These events demonstrate that it's not only in the realm of purported 'national security' that governments are keeping policies secret from the public to undermine democratic accountability."

FIFA RAHMAN
@fifarahman
Rahman said today: “We at the Malaysian AIDS Council are disappointed and appalled that the United States continues to push for TRIPS+ [Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights] provisions in the face of so much opposition, including that of Malaysia’s. President Obama has in the past spoken about zero AIDS deaths. How can this be achieved when his administration is endorsing delays in entry of generics and price increases of medicines? We still worry whether provisions on biologic medicines will be inserted at the last minute and decided upon by heads of states.” See her recent piece "An All-American Puppet Show: TPPA and Medicines."

MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D.
@MFlowers8
Flowers served as congressional fellow for Physicians for a National Health Program and is now co-directorof It’s Our Economy and co-hosts "Clearing the FOG" radio show. She wrote the piece "Trans-Pacific Partnership Undermines Health System," which states: "While the TPP is being called a trade agreement, the U.S. already has trade agreements [with most of the] countries involved in the talks. Instead, the TPP is a major power grab by large corporations.

"The text of the TPP includes 29 chapters, only five of which are about trade. The remaining chapters are focused on changes that multinational corporations have not been able to pass in Congress, such as restrictions on Internet privacy, increased patent protections, greater access to litigation and further financial deregulation."

She said today: "The TPP has been shrouded in secrecy from the beginning because the Obama administration knows that the more people know about it, the more they will oppose the agreement. The release of the full Intellectual Property chapter today by WikiLeaks confirms what had been suspected -- that the Obama administration has been an advocate for transnational corporate interests in the negotiations even though they run counter to the needs and desires of the public.

"This is not surprising since we already knew that 600 corporate advisers were working with the U.S. Trade Representative to draft the TPP. This means that for nearly four years some of the top corporate lawyers have been inserting phrases, paragraphs and whole sections so the agreement suits the needs of corporate power, while undermining the interests of people and planet." Flowers called for a "new approach -- transparency, participation of civil society throughout the process, full congressional review and participation, and a framework that starts with fair trade that puts people and the planet before profits." She is involved with the group flushthetpp.org.

ENDS

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