Media Release, November 10, 2017: The announcement of the completion of the Peru-Australia Free Trade Agreement at the APEC meeting in Vietnam without access to the text again demonstrates the flaws in the secretive trade agreement process, in which governments announce agreements without making the text public and without independent assessment of the costs and benefits,” AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald said today.

November 9, 2017: A new paper by leading health experts published in the Australian Health Review and summarised in Fairfax news and The Conversation has found that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement could add up to $367 million to the cost of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme if increases in data protection monopolies for biologic medicines proposed in the original TPP text are implemented.

November 7, 2017: Bernard Keane writes in Crikey that Malcom Turnbull should follow the lead of New Zealand and even the US NAFTA negotiators and ditch ISDS. in the TPP 11. 

November 6, 2017 “The Australian Government should oppose foreign investor rights to sue governments in the talks attempting to resurrect the TPP without the US later this week,” AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald said today.

The talks will take place in da Nang, Vietnam on November 8-9, ahead of the APEC meeting to be held on November 10.

November 2, 2017: Media reports from the secret TPP–11 meeting held in Japan this week show that there is still no agreement between the 11 governments about the possible content of the TPP agreement without the US. They were aiming to reach agreement before a TPP -11 Ministers’ meeting on November 8-9, ahead of the APEC meeting in Vietnam on November 10.

November 2, 2017: A new research paper, co-authored by public health experts Deborah Gleeson, Joel Lexchin, Ruth Lopert and Burcu Kilic, explains the impact that the intellectual property chapter of the original Trans-Pacific Partnership could have on access to medicines in each of the TPP countries. As the TPP-11 meet this week to attempt to revive the TPP without the US, the research findings show how damaging the original medicine proposals would be.

October 31, 2017: Yesterday the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) in New Zealand urged the newly elected NZ Labour Coalition Government not to support extending medicine monopolies under the TPP Agreement.

October 30, 2017: The Australian Fair Trade network of community organisations welcomes the pledge by Shadow Trade Minister Jason Clare in his speech to ACCI today for the public release and independent economic analysis of trade agreements before they are signed, but there should also be health and environmental impact studies, AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald said today.

October 26, 2017: US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said publicly last week that the US wants to opt out of ISDS in NAFTA, because of the risk and costs of US governments being sued by foreign corporations, and despite corporate lobby groups pushing to retain ISDS.

October 26, 2017: MSF (Doctors without Borders) has called for India and other countries to block RCEP proposals from Japan and South Korea that would allow pharmaceutical companies to have stronger monopolies, prevent competition and keep medicine prices high. They added that it was time to end the push for ever-higher levels of monopoly control of medicines through free trade agreements .