[bestbits] FW: [A2k] Breaking: WikiLeaks docs show Obama rollbacks on health, Internet freedom -- Complete IP Chapter Leaked

[michael gurstein]

-----Original Message-----
From: A2k [mailto:a2k-bounces at lists.keionline.org] On Behalf Of Peter
Maybarduk
Sent: Wednesday, November 13, 2013 5:07 AM
To: a2k at lists.keionline.org
Subject: [A2k] Breaking: WikiLeaks docs show Obama rollbacks on health,
Internet freedom -- Complete IP Chapter Leaked

Leaked Documents Reveal Obama Administration Push for Internet Freedom
Limits, Terms That Raise Drug Prices in Closed-Door Trade Talks

U.S. Demands in Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Text, Published Today by
WikiLeaks, Contradict Obama Policy and Public Opinion at Home and Abroad

Nov. 13, 2013

Contact: Peter Maybarduk (202) 588-7755
pmaybarduk at citizen.org<mailto:pmaybarduk at citizen.org>

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Secret documents<http://www.wikileaks.org/tpp> published
today by WikiLeaks and analyzed by Public Citizen reveal that the Obama
administration is demanding terms that would limit Internet freedom and
access to lifesaving medicines throughout the Asia-Pacific region and bind
Americans to the same bad rules, belying the administration's stated
commitments to reduce health care costs and advance free expression online,
Public Citizen said today.

WikiLeaks published<http://www.wikileaks.org/tpp> the complete draft of the
Intellectual Property chapter for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a
proposed international commercial pact between the United States and 11
Asian and Latin American countries. Although talks started in 2008, this is
the first access the public and press have had to this text. The text
identifies which countries support which terms. The administration has
refused to make draft TPP text public, despite announcing intentions to sign
the deal by year's end. Signatory nations' laws would be required to conform
to TPP terms.

The leak shows the United States seeking to impose the most extreme demands
of Big Pharma and Hollywood, Public Citizen said, despite the express and
frequently universal opposition of U.S. trade partners. Concerns raised by
TPP negotiating partners and many civic groups worldwide regarding TPP
undermining access to affordable medicines, the Internet and even textbooks
have resulted in a deadlock over the TPP Intellectual Property Chapter,
leading to an impasse in the TPP talks, Public Citizen said.

"The Obama administration's proposals are the worst - the most damaging for
health - we have seen in a U.S. trade agreement to date. The Obama
administration has backtracked from even the modest health considerations
adopted under the Bush administration," said Peter Maybarduk, director of
Public Citizen's global access to medicines program. "The Obama
administration's shameful bullying on behalf of the giant drug companies
would lead to preventable suffering and death in Asia-Pacific countries. And
soon the administration is expected to propose additional TPP terms that
would lock Americans into high prices for cancer drugs for years to come."

Previously, some elements of U.S. proposals for the Intellectual Property
Chapter of the TPP had been leaked in 2011 and 2012. This leak is the first
of a complete chapter revealing all countries' positions. There are more
than 100 unresolved issues in the TPP Intellectual Property chapter. Even
the wording of many footnotes is in dispute; one footnote negotiators agree
on suggests they keep working out their differences over the wording of the
other footnotes. The other 28 draft TPP chapters remain shrouded in secrecy.

Last week, the AARP and major consumer groups wrote to the Obama
administration<http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/11/38-million-ret
irees-say-no-to-a-trade-deal-that-would-make-medicine-more-expensive.html>
to express their "deep concern" that U.S. proposals for the TPP would "limit
the ability of states and the federal government to moderate escalating
prescription drug, biologic drug and medical device costs in public
programs," and contradict cost-cutting plans for biotech medicines in the
White House budget.

Other U.S.-demanded measures for the TPP would empower the tobacco giants to
sue governments<http://www.citizen.org/investorcases> before foreign
tribunals to demand taxpayer compensation for their health regulations and
have been widely
criticized<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/opinion/why-is-obama-caving-on-
tobacco.html>. "This supposed trade negotiation has devolved into a
secretive rulemaking against public health, on behalf of Big Pharma and Big
Tobacco," said Maybarduk.

"It is clear from the text obtained by WikiLeaks that the U.S. government is
isolated and has lost this debate," Maybarduk said. "Our partners don't want
to trade away their people's health. Americans don't want these measures
either. Nevertheless, the Obama administration - on behalf of Big Pharma and
big movie studios - now is trying to accomplish through pressure what it
could not through persuasion."

"The WikiLeaks text also features Hollywood and recording industry-inspired
proposals - think about the SOPA
debacle<http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-01-17/politics/35439450_1_we
b-sites-english-wikipedia-reddit> - to limit Internet freedom and access to
educational materials, to force Internet providers to act as copyright
enforcers and to cut off people's Internet access," said Burcu Kilic, an
intellectual property lawyer with Public Citizen. "These proposals are
deeply unpopular worldwide and have led to a negotiation stalemate."

"Given how much text remains disputed, the negotiation will be very
difficult to conclude," said Maybarduk. "Much more forward-looking proposals
have been advanced by the other parties, but unless the U.S drops its
out-there-alone demands, there may be no deal at all."

"We understand that the only consideration the Obama administration plans to
propose for access to affordable generic medicines is a very weak form of
differential treatment for developing countries," said Maybarduk.

The text obtained by WikiLeaks is available at
wikileaks.org/tpp<http://www.wikileaks.org/tpp>. Analysis of the leaked text
is available at www.citizen.org/access<http://www.citizen.org/access>.

More information about the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations is
available at
www.citizen.org/tpp<https://hq-qz.salsalabs.com/salsa/include/fck2.5.1/edito
r/www.citizen.org/tpp>.

###

2013 Public Citizen * 1600 20th Street, NW / Washington, D.C. 20009 *

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