The Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations continue. While it is unclear what the final document will say, leaked drafts of the document have many groups concerned. Last December we reported on Deb Gleeson’s fight to put health issues on the agenda and the concerns being voiced regarding the TPP impact in Australia.
Internationally voices continue to be raised regarding the global health impact of the TPP. In a guest post on IH-Blog, Mary Anne Mercer, Senior MCH Advisor for Health Alliance International and the IH Section’s liaison with the Trade and Health Forum, discusses three areas of concern:
- Restrictions on the ability of individual countries to pass and enforce laws protecting public health
- Increasing barriers to accessing generic medicines through changes to IP laws
- Negative impacts on equity
The article concludes that there is still time to influence the outcome of negotiations and suggests continued lobbying. Read the full text here.
On a similar note, this joint statement suggests that the changes proposed to IP law will influence global access to medicines in such a way as to “jeopardise many, if not millions of lives”.
In Australia, the Greens have introduced the Trade and Foreign Investment (Protecting the Public Interest) Act 2014, the purpose of which is to ban Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions. Such provisions allow foreign companies to sue the Australian government for enacting legislation that affect profits (think plain packaging of cigarettes or restrictions to mining). The Bill was introduced to the senate last week by Senator Peter Whish-Wilson.
Watch this space.
