Trans-Pacific Partnership
Rally against the TPP Friday, March 13, 12:30 PM, 123 Pitt Street Sydney
The TPP secret negotiations between Australia US, Japan and nine other countries are still dragging on. The US is driving the agenda on behalf of its pharmaceutical, media, tobacco and other industries. The danger is that our government will agree to shameful deals for higher medicine prices and allow foreign companies to sue governments over health, environment and workers’ rights.
But our campaign is growing and is having an impact. See the GetUP video and the front page article in the Sydney Morning Herald,The Age and the Canberra Times.
Say no to shameful deals and call for the release of the TPP text before it is signed!
Join us on Friday March 13 at 12.30 pm outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade office, Angel Place Bldg, 123 Pitt St, Sydney
The Lancet medical journal says TPP threatens health and calls for release of text
February 14, 2015 Leading Australian and NZ medical experts have joined others from TPP countries in the International Medical Journal The Lancet to warn that the TPP threatens health and to call for public release and wide discussion of the text of the secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).
Shameful TPP tradeoffs loom at March secret meeting
The TPP negotiations between Australia US, Japan, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam have dragged on into 2015. The US is driving the agenda and many deadlines have been missed because other governments have not agreed to US demands on behalf of their major export industries, which would be favourable for them but which would reduce people’s rights.
Medical Journal and AMA warn of TPP dangers to health and call for release of text
Februrary 9, 2015 Key health bodies have called for greater transparency in negotiation of the TPP to ensure Australians' access to medicines and public health initiatives are not adversely affected by the finer details of such a deal.
Australian Medical Association vice president Dr Stephen Parnis said assurances made by the federal government last year that it would not enter into an agreement that would have negative effects on Australia's health system were not enough."There must be a greater degree of transparency; we can't simply accept assurances from the government that health won't be compromised. The specifics really matter here",
US could rewrite Australian Law after TPP signed
Media Release February 9, 2015
New evidence has emerged that the US blackmailed Australia into agreeing to additional changes to Australian copyright law after the Australia-US free trade agreement implementation legislation was passed in 2004. The US refused to finally ratify the agreement without additional changes which gave even more rights to copyright holders at the expense of consumers. The same process is likely to occur if the TPP is signed this year,” Dr Patricia Ranald, AFTINET Coordinator, said today.
TPP proposals would cost $215 million more for medicines per year
A study by health experts published in late December 2014 examines the potential costs for Australia of a proposal in the leaked intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Trade deal which would delay the availability of cheaper generic medicines and would cost taxpayers over $205 million in one year,
Stiglitz says no to TPP health tradeoffs in New York Times
January 30, 2015:Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz warns in the New York Times that US proposals at ongoing TPP talks would strengthen monopoly rights for pharmaceutical companies to delay cheaper generic medicines, and would undermine government regulation of drug prices.
GetUp video on TPP secrecy and corporate power
GetUp social media group has released a short video on the TPP called ‘The dirtiest deal you never heard of’. It slams the secrecy of the negotiations and corporate powers to sue governments.The website has a link to AFTINET for further information.
47 community groups tell Trade Minister TPP not in national interest
January 27, 2015
A letter from 47 Australian community groups tells Trade Minister that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is not not in the national interest