Corporate power grab of Trans-Pacific Partnership clearer, but opposition building

The usual boilerplate announcements that “significant progress” was achieved in the just concluded round of Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations can’t mask that public opposition is growing and that the United States seems to be having difficulty bullying its negotiating partners.

That does not mean that the TPP is dead — far from it — but the continued insistence of the Obama administration that the text will be complete by the end of 2013 is no more than wishful thinking. That Congress might not play its assigned role of rubber-stamping was strongly signaled last week when 151 Democratic Party members of the House of Representatives and more than two dozen Republicans signed various letters opposing “fast-track” trade authority. Many did so due to sustained grassroots activism.

“Fast-track” is a mechanism whereby Congress waives its right to debate and amend, instead binding itself to a straight up-or-down yes or no vote in a limited time frame. The worst trade deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement, have become U.S. law through this mechanism. The Obama administration is widely expected to introduce such a bill, passage of which would greatly increase the chances of the Trans-Pacific Partnership getting approved by Congress.

Activists have anticipated since early October that a bill for fast-track authority — formally known as trade promotion authority — might be introduced at any moment. That such a bill has been delayed is a sign that mounting opposition to the TPP within the U.S. has introduced an element of caution into the Obama administration’s thinking.

Demonstration against TPP in Salt Lake City (Photo courtesy of Citizens Trade Campaign)

Strong opposition to draconian U.S. proposals by several of the 11 other Pacific Rim countries negotiating the text of the TPP has certainly played a role in slowing down the negotiations. The divergence of the negotiating positions became clear earlier this month when WikiLeaks published the full text of the TPP chapter on intellectual property. Despite being billed as a “free trade” agreement, this chapter, like most of the TPP, has nothing to do with trade. Rather, it — and, in particular, the U.S. negotiating positions — are the dreams of the most powerful multi-national corporations.

The same is true for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, another “free trade” agreement simultaneously being negotiated between the United States and the European Union. The TTIP also just concluded a negotiating round, with similar opaqueness. What the U.S. is attempting to impose on Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Chile and the other TPP countries on behalf of its multi-national corporations is undoubtedly the basis for what it seeks to impose on Europe. Corporate lobbyists have access to the text, but legislators and parliamentarians do not.

Sustained and organized mass opposition is the only thing that will stop these two extraordinary power grabs that will fatally undermine any semblance of democracy. If the TPP were to be implemented, labor safeguards, safety rules, environmental regulations and measures to rein in financial speculation would be struck down because a multi-national corporation’s profits might be affected — corporations would be able to bypass national laws and courts when they are in a dispute with a government, and instead can have their dispute adjudicated by a closed tribunal controlled by their lawyers.

Huge giveaways to pharmaceutical industry

The TPP intellectual property chapter, published by WikiLeaks, is crammed with corporate giveaways in its 96 pages. (This is only one of about two dozen chapters.) Japan is the country, at least in this chapter, most often in alignment with U.S. negotiating position, although frequently the U.S. is opposed by all other countries.

There are several sections that broaden what is patentable subject matter — if implemented, the TPP would make patents:

• “Available for any new uses or methods of using a known product.”
• Require patents to be granted if the patent “involves an inventive step,” even if there is no new use for it.
• Allowable for living organisms, including plants and animals.

What these proposals would mean, if implemented, is that a name-brand pharmaceutical company, for example, would be able to claim a new use for high-priced medicines just before the patent was due to expire, thereby extending the patent and blocking a far less expensive generic equivalent from becoming available.

Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly sued Canada for $500 million because the Supreme Court of Canada upheld the invalidation of an Eli Lilly patent. Canada’s ability to enforce its own laws would be undermined by the TPP, according to a Public Citizen analysis:

“Canada’s decisions are based in its ‘promise doctrine,’ a patent rule which requires patents claiming a future usefulness to demonstrate or soundly predict that usefulness at the time of filing. The United States has proposed a rule for the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations that could undermine Canada’s promise doctrine. Whether purposeful or not, this would support Big Pharma’s plans to transform Canadian practice and even, seemingly, some of the goals of Lilly’s outrageous suit.”

Companies like Eli Lilly would be in a stronger position to overturn any law they don’t like. The TPP’s intellectual property chapter would also attack rules such as the Indian Patent Act that protect access to affordable medicines worldwide, and would require extensions of patents on the demand of a corporation if it deems the period of time required to approve its patent “unreasonable.” Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières reports:

“The leak confirms our worst fears—the US is continuing its attempts to impose an unprecedented package of new trade rules that would keep affordable generic medicines out of the hands of millions of people.”

The return of SOPA

The defeat of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) — thinly veiled attempts at Internet censorship stopped by popular pressure — would be reversed under the TPP. A proposal by the U.S. and Australia would require Internet service providers to police their users, with ISPs required to cut off Internet access, block content and actively monitor usage to avoid liability if a copyright holder claims one of its copyrights is being infringed.

Monica Horten, a visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics writing on her Iptegrity.com web site, summarizes the TPP’s dangers to the free flow of information:

“[T]t is a toxic potion that would force the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to police their networks, and turns current law on its head. … Where it concerns the Internet and digital content, much of the TPP intellectual property chapter looks like a cut-and-paste from ACTA. Certainly, it brings in similar secondary liability and criminal measures that were in ACTA. However, there are specific new proposals that give more reasons for concern. … Within the Internet section, is a  USA/Australian proposal that contains the core desires of Hollywood and the Motion Picture Association.”

Canada, back by several countries, is seeking less onerous restrictions, University of Ottawa law professor Michael Geist writes:

“From a Canadian perspective, the U.S. demands would require an overhaul of Canadian copyright law and potential changes to privacy law. For many other TPP countries, the issue is creating a clear divide, with the U.S. conditioning ISP safe harbours on subscriber termination and content blocking, while the Canadian model favours greater flexibility in establishing systems that create incentives to address alleged infringements online.”

Will Canadian negotiators hold firm or capitulate? Given the harsh policies of Prime Minister Stephen Harper — the George W. Bush of the North — much activism will be required to avoid SOPA getting in through the back door.

You won’t be able to know what is in your food

At the behest of corporations like Monsanto, which seeks to control the world’s food supply, labeling of genetically modified organisms would be illegal. Specific Trans-Pacific Partnership language on GMOs and GMO labeling has not yet surfaced, but because the goal of Monsanto and other U.S. manufacturers of GMO foods is to remove European restrictions against GMOs, this is likely to be an area where U.S. negotiators are pushing hard.

The European Union’s chief trade negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero, said “We are not in the business of lowering standards” in response to concerns that food safety rules will be lowered if the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership comes to fruition, and European Union justice and rights commissioner Viviane Reding threatened this week that the E.U. would “freeze crucial data-sharing arrangements with the U.S.” if the U.S. refuses to acquiesce to European privacy standards.

But despite huffing and puffing from various European leaders, the latest round of TTIP talks proceeded smoothly. A European Commission press release happily declared, “A good atmosphere and the active involvement of regulators from both sides meant significant progress was made.” But, as usual, no details were forthcoming. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative similarly reported “a very successful and productive set of meetings” about the TTIP and “significant progress” in the just concluded Salt Lake City round of TPP negotiations.

This latest round of TPP talks was even more secret than usual, with negotiators not bothering this time with the pretense of meeting with civil-society groups; thus much caution is advised. A potential turn for the worse is possible with the recent election of the right-wing Tony Abbott government in Australia, which may reverse some of the previous positions Canberra had taken against certain U.S. proposals. For example, previous Australian governments opposed investor-state disputes being adjudicated by secret tribunals controlled by corporate lawyers. It is unknown if the Abbott government will reverse that position.

The Australian television program Lateline reports that Prime Minister Abbott is in favor of “fast-tracking” the TPP and other trade agreements. A worrisome sign, as the U.S. is pushing hard for anti-democratic provisions such as investor-state disputes to be adjudicated in the secret tribunals. These mechanisms are in force in the North America Free Trade Agreement and many bi-lateral trade agreements. NAFTA, for example, uses a tribunal that is an arm of the World Bank in which only two of the more than 200 cases it has heard have been open to the public.

Agreements like TPP and TTIP have little to do with trade and much to do with imposing a corporate dictatorship. There is no time to waste.