[CTC_TRADE] Currency manipulation: how should the US respond?

[Andrew Gussert]

US Trade Rep serves drug companies, publishers and pushes
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/us-trade-rep-serves-drug_b_483627.
html>  anti-consumer agenda


 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love> James Love

James Love <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love> 

Director, Knowledge Ecology International

Posted: March 3, 2010 at
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-love/us-trade-rep-serves-drug_b_483627.h
tml 

Today the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the
<http://finance.senate.gov/sitepages/hearing030310.html>  2010 Trade Agenda.
The single witness is Ambassador Ron Kirk, the United States Trade
Representative. (The agency Kirk runs is known by the same name -- USTR for
short.) This is a busy week. A few blocks away, at the International Trade
Commission (ITC), USTR is holding a day long hearing on something called the
Special <http://www.keionline.org/ustr/special301>  301 list -- which is a
program to pressure trading partners on intellectual property rights. On
Monday, in Geneva, the USTR blocked a request by developing countries to
hold a workshop at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on access to patented
medicine. The USTR is also doing damage control to defend a controversial
new trade agreement on the enforcement of intellectual property rights that
is being negotiated in secret, and trying to block a new treaty at the World
Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) for persons who are blind or have
other disabilities. 

>From the point of view of many consumer, public health, digital rights and
development groups, USTR is major disappointment, as it pushes an anti
consumer agenda on dozens of issues. Industry lobbyists, on the other hand,
are pretty happy. One PhRMA lobbyist told Knowledge Ecology International
(KEI) that they were amazed at how "malleable" USTR is under Kirk. General
Electric lobbyists on climate change practically write the USTR work program
on patents and climate change. When publishers were rebuffed by the White
House office of disabilities and the US Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) on a
proposed treaty for copyright exceptions for persons who are blind or have
disabilities -- they turned to USTR to reign in the Obama administration's
bleeding hearts. When the White House issued a new memorandum on
transparency, the USTR laughed, and declared negotiations on an
international agreement on damages for patent and copyright infringement to
be a state secret -- except for hundreds of corporate lawyers and advisors
who are briefed under non-disclosure agreements. 

When the Republicans ran the USTR, there was some Congressional opposition
to policies that were anti-consumer, or that would harm the poor. With the
Democrats in charge of the Congress and the White House, there is now almost
no resistance to what is becoming an increasingly shrill voice for industry
lobbies.

Before being head of USTR, Ron Kirk was involved in Texas politics, having
once served as Mayor of Dallas, and more recently as a partner at Vinson &
Elkins -- the big corporate law firm. His chief of staff is Julianna Smoot
<http://www.ustr.gov/about-us/biographies-key-officials/julianna-smoot-chief
-staff> , a legendary fundraiser for the Democrats. 

Prior to joining the USTR, Ms. Smoot served as Senior Advisor to President
Obama and served as Co-Chair of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. In
January 2007, Ms. Smoot joined President Obama's Presidential Campaign as
the National Finance Director. Prior to working for President Obama, Ms.
Smoot served as National Finance Director for the Democratic Senatorial
Campaign Committee, chaired by Senator Charles Schumer.

(Update on Smoot here
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR201003020
0941.html> )

We try to work with USTR on intellectual property right issues. Kirk has no
background on this topic, and delegates policy to the Stan McCoy, a
hardliner who had the same job in the Bush Administration. McCoy has
assigned Kira Alvarez
<http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/06/25/kira-alvarez>  to head up the
negotiations on the secret ACTA agreement on the enforcement of intellectual
property rights. Before this, Kira had been a lobbyist for Time-Warner and
Lilly. USTR is known around DC for the revolving door. Two past heads of the
International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations
(IFPMA) were former USTR employees, as are hundreds of lobbyists for various
trade organizations and big corporations. 

 

Follow James Love on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jamie_love
<http://www.twitter.com/jamie_love> 

 

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