[CTC] Hatch: White House may need to renegotiate TPP

[Arthur Stamoulis]

Hatch: White House may need to renegotiate TPP

By Doug Palmer, Politco

11/06/2015 09:36 AM EDT

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said today he believes the
proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership is too weak in the area of intellectual
property rights protection, particularly for biologics, and the White House
may have to re-open talks.

"I'm afraid the current draft of the TPP agreement may fall short," Hatch
said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's intellectual property
division, one day after the Obama administration released the text of the
pact and formally notified Congress of his plan to sign the landmark
agreement with Japan and 10 other countries.

"I think this agreement may be difficult to pass, as is," the Utah
Republican said. "At the end of the day, USTR may have to go back to the
negotiating table and try again."

The TPP deal appears to provide only five years of data protection for
biologics, a new class of drugs made from living cells, with the
possibility of three additional years, Hatch said. However, the recent
trade promotion authority bill called for TPP to be based on U.S. law,
which provides 12 years of data protection, he said.

Hatch also expressed concern about the administration's decision to exclude
tobacco from the agreement's investment protections, saying that has cost
critical votes from tobacco state senators.

Arthur Stamoulis
Citizens Trade Campaign
(202) 494-8826
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20151106/ce9241d0/attachment.htm>