Press Release — Updated Secret
Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) — IP Chapter (second publication)
Thursday 16 October 2014, WikiLeaks released a second
updated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property
Rights Chapter. The TPP is the world’s largest economic trade agreement that
will, if it comes into force, encompass more than 40 per cent of the world’s
GDP. The IP Chapter covers topics from pharmaceuticals, patent registrations
and copyright issues to digital rights. Experts say it will affect freedom
of information, civil liberties and access to medicines globally. The
WikiLeaks release comes ahead of a Chief Negotiators’ meeting in Canberra
on 19 October 2014, which is followed by what is meant to be a decisive Ministerial
meeting in Sydney on 25–27 October.
Despite the wide-ranging effects on the global population,
the TPP is currently being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries. Few
people, even within the negotiating countries’ governments, have access
to the full text of the draft agreement and the public, who it will affect
most, none at all. Large corporations, however, are able to see portions
of the text, generating a powerful lobby to effect changes on behalf of
these groups and bringing developing country members reduced force, while
the public at large gets no say. Julian Assange, WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief,
said:
The selective secrecy surrounding the TPP negotiations,
which has let in a few cashed-up megacorps but excluded everyone else,
reveals a telling fear of public scrutiny. By publishing this text we allow
the public to engage in issues that will have such a fundamental impact on
their lives.
The 77-page, 30,000-word document is a working document
from the negotiations in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, dated 16 May 2014, and
includes negotiator’s notes and all country positions from that period in
bracketed text. Although there have been a couple of additional rounds of
talks since this text, little has changed in them and it is clear that the
negotiations are stalling and that the issues raised in this document will
be very much on the table in Australia this month.
The last time the public got access to the TPP IP Chapter
draft text was in November 2013 when WikiLeaks published the 30 August 2013 bracketed
text. Since that point, some controversial and damaging areas have had little
change; issues surrounding digital rights have moved little. However,
there are significant industry-favouring additions within the areas of pharmaceuticals
and patents. These additions are likely to affect access to important medicines
such as cancer drugs and will also weaken the requirements needed to patent
genes in plants, which will impact small farmers and boost the dominance of
large agricultural corporations like Monsanto.
Nevertheless, some areas that were highlighted after WikiLeaks’
last IP Chapter release have seen alterations that reflect the controversy;
surgical method patents have been removed from the text. Doctors’ groups
said this was vitally important for allowing doctors to engage in medical
procedures without fear of a lawsuit for providing the best care for
their patients. Opposition is increasing to remove the provision proposed
by the US and Japan that would require granting of patents for new drugs that
are slightly altered from a previous patented one (evergreening), a technique
by the pharmaceutical industry to prolong market monopoly.
The new WikiLeaks release of the May 2014 TPP IP text also
has previously unseen addendums, including a new proposal for different
treatment for developing countries, with varying transition periods for
the text to take force. Whilst this can be viewed as an attempt to ease the
onus of this harsh treaty on these countries, our diplomatic sources say it
is a stalling tactic. The negative proposals within the agreement would
still have to come into force in those countries, while the governments that
brought them in would have changed.
Despite the United States wanting to push to a resolution
within the TPP last year, this bracketed text shows there is still huge opposition
and disagreement throughout the text. At this critical moment the negotiations
have now stalled, and developing countries are giving greater resistance.
Despite the huge lobbying efforts, and many favourable proposals for big
pharmaceutical companies, they are not getting entirely what they wish
for either. Julian Assange said:
The lack of movement within the
TPP IP Chapter shows that this only stands to harm people, and no one is satisfied.
This clearly demonstrates that such an all-encompassing and divisive trade
agreement is too damaging to be brought into force. The TPP should
stop now.
Current TPP negotiation member states are the United
States, Japan, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru,
Vietnam, New Zealand and Brunei.
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