[CTC] TPP Still Has a Long Way To Go

[Arthur Stamoulis]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbrinkley/2015/07/07/tpp-still-has-a-long-way-to-go/ <http://www.forbes.com/sites/johnbrinkley/2015/07/07/tpp-still-has-a-long-way-to-go/>
 
 
TPP Still Has a Long Way To Go

Forbes
By John Brinkley
July 7, 2015
 
Congress’s having given President Obama fast-track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership doesn’t assure that the agreement will enjoy smooth sailing the rest of the way. There are still any number of rocks in the water that could sink it.

Negotiations

Negotiations over the TPP among and between the 12 parties to it are not as close to completion as Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman would like you to believe. There are enough unresolved issues in the text to keep the negotiators at the table for a long time.

To be fair, the 11 other TPP parties know they need to finish it and get it to the U.S. Congress for a vote by the end of the year. If it drags into the 2016 election year, all bets are off. That fact, along with Congress having given Obama fast-track authority, may soften their negotiating positions on some issues.

Whatever Pharma Wants, Pharma Gets

The governments of several TPP countries are incensed at the U.S. government’s insistence on protecting American drug patents against encroachment by generics. They say the Obama administration is putting the profits of the American pharmaceutical industry ahead of the protection of public health – a claim that’s hard to refute.

Politico reported last week that a leaked copy of the TPP’s intellectual property chapter included a provision restricting foreign governments’ rights to approve generic drugs that copy American brands. According to Politico, the provision would allow American pharmaceutical companies to claim patent infringement at the drop of a hat.

U.S. patent law allows for copies of all manner of patented consumer products – watches, musical instruments, computer software and many others – under certain circumstances, with one exception: prescription drugs. Now, the Obama administration is trying to force that regime on the 11 other TPP countries, said Ralph Neas, president of the Generic Pharmaceutical Association.

This would make it hard for poorer TPP countries to get affordable medicines to citizens who need them. They would constantly be under threat by the Big Pharma behemoth.

It gets worse. The Affordable Care Act allows the development of so-called biosimilars, which mimic the effects of biologic drugs, but are much less expensive. The FDA approved the first biosimilar for use in the United States in March. Biosimilars are not subject to patent linkage in the United States, but they will be subject to patent linkage in the TPP if Big Pharma get its way, Neas said.

The pharmaceutical industry says rigid enforcement of its patents is necessary to recoup the high cost of developing new drugs and getting them through the government-approval process. But they spend more on 60-second TV commercials and lavishing doctors with money and largesse than on R&D.

Congressional and Presidential Politics

No president has had as much difficulty getting a fast-track bill passed by Congress than Obama had with the one he just signed.

Trade has traditionally been a bipartisan issue, but that’s changing. A lot of congressional Democrats who support free trade foresee no political benefit to voting for another free trade agreement. What they foresee instead are election-year attack ads and primary challenges.

If the TPP negotiations drag on so long that the agreement doesn’t get to Capitol Hill until 2016, even more Democrats will abandon Obama. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., led a Democratic rear-guard action to reject the fast-track bill the first time it came up for a vote. So, she is not a taken-for-granted yes vote on the TPP.

Hillary Clinton supported Pelosi and the other Democratic rebels. With Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., running against her for the Democratic presidential nomination, Clinton has to shore up her defenses on her left flank. She seems to be putting off having to state an unequivocal position on the TPP for as long as she can. But it’s hard to imagine that she will endorse it, even though she spoke in favor of it when she was secretary of state and voted for other free trade agreements when she was a senator.

That’s politics, folks. You do what you have to do to win. There won’t be many pro-trade Democrats voting in the 2016 primaries.


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