Trans-Pacific Partnership: Civil society groups slams corporate influence

Photo: AFTINET

The 11th Round of Negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement negotiations between Australia, the US, New Zealand, Malaysia and four other countries starts in Melbourne on March 1. Civil society groups from those countries are in that city to contest corporate influence and debate the issues.

This conference will conclude on March 9. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPPA) is a proposed new regional free trade agreement built on the existing Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam. The negotiations now include the United States, Australia, Peru, Vietnam and Malaysia, with several others including Japan expressing interest in joining.

"US global corporations are driving US negotiators’ proposals," Dr Patricia Ranald, Convenor of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network said this week. "Pharmaceutical companies want more rights to charge higher prices for medicines and tobacco companies want the right to sue governments for damages if they regulate tobacco advertising. Australian government policy should mean that it refuses these demands, supports labour rights and environmental protections and releases the text of the agreement for public debate before it is signed."

Chee Yoke Ling, Director of Programmes of the Third World Network, explained: "In Malaysia, the TPPA will have a big impact, since we do not have already an free trade agreement with the United States. Leaked US proposals on intellectual property show that country continuing to seek strong protections for its pharmaceutical corporations, which will raise medicines prices for millions of ordinary people. And the US’s push for investor rights for its companies threatens needed regulations for all the countries involved."

Professor Jane Kelsey, University of Auckland, added: "We are seeing a real backlash in New Zealand against the national government's revival of the old privatization and deregulation agenda, and mounting foreign control of the country's natural resources and key assets. That is starting to infect the TPPA, which is why Trade Minister Tim Groser wants to push the deal through before people understand how it will lock us into that model forever."

Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch, a prominent US consumer organization, said: "Despite repeated polls showing that a majority of Americans oppose more of the same corporate power grabs disguised as ‘trade’ agreements, negotiators are pushing for a TPP that would only benefit the 1 percent. Whatever one thinks about ‘free trade’ that is not the real agenda of US negotiators. There are 600-plus official corporate Trade Advisors who want to use the TPP to get new investor rights to control other countries' natural resources, attack health and environmental policy and boost their profits with rules that force drug price increases and financial deregulation."

More information

Leaked US proposals and US health and consumer groups’ commentaries:

http://bit.ly/mWlthF

Sources

Scoop World: http://bit.ly/z4bXRo

Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network: http://bit.ly/zCh2BF