[CTC] More statements on TPP deal (batch 3)

Mon Oct 5 07:57:00 PDT 2015

Statements from the Teamsters, Steelworkers, UFCW, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program and Open Media...

HOFFA SAYS TENUOUS TPP AGREEMENT DOES NOT LISTEN TO WORKERS’ CONCERNS

Teamsters General President Notes Everyday Americans Gain Nothing From Trade Agreement

(WASHINGTON) – The following is the official statement of Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa in response to trade officials reaching an agreement on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a deal which would lead to thousands of U.S. jobs being shipped overseas and unsafe food and products flooding our store shelves.

“Bum trade deals like NAFTA have killed upwards of 1 million U.S. jobs, many of which moved abroad. And that’s the concern with the looming TPP. These big business handouts continue to hollow out the manufacturing base of communities and destroy middle-class jobs in their wake.

“The Teamsters and many, many others just don't see any value in what TPP brings to this country. First and foremost is the deal won't create any new jobs here. That is significant and can't be pushed aside by proponents. After all, TPP backers like to insist it will result in new work for Americans, although they can never quite explain how. There's a reason why their responses are so vague.

“In short, this is a bad deal that doesn’t deserve the stamp of approval from Congress. As the Teamsters have stressed as part of our new “Let’s Get America Working!” campaign, businesses need to invest at home, not abroad. And elected officials need to remember who they serve. Corporations aren't people too.”

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico. Visit www.teamster.org for more information. Follow us on Twitter @Teamsters and “like” us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/teamsters.

-30-

==== 

USW Pres. Gerard Statement on TPP Coming to Closure
The Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal should not be submitted to Congress

Pittsburgh (Oct. 5) – Leo W. Gerard, International President of the United Steelworkers (USW), issued the following statement as negotiations on the 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP)are coming to closure.

“Since negotiations on the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) started, the cleared advisors of the United Steelworkers (USW) have devoted substantial resources and time to working with the trade negotiators responsible for developing and advancing U.S. interests in the trade talks.  

“Because the USW is the largest industrial union in North America, we see the real-life effects of trade policy every day.  That is why we are paying close attention to the provisions that have the potential to harm the majority of our membership.  

“From what we know, the draft TPP threatens the future of production and employment.   It compromises the so-called 21st century standards that were supposed to form the foundation for this agreement. It will deal a critical blow to workers and their standard of living in the United States. 

“Although the final text has not been made available and will contain some new bells and whistles; from what we have seen and know, at its core the hastily concluded TPP deal will simply continue today’s outdated, disastrous approach to trade. 

“This TPP deal shouldn’t even be submitted to Congress and, if it is, it should be quickly rejected.

“You only have to look at the consistently dismal job numbers in manufacturing to understand what every manufacturing worker already knows. We have been on the losing end of trade deals.  

“Once again, it appears that misguided foreign policy and global corporate interests have trumped sound economics and the opportunity to get things right.  Our negotiators are trying to beat the clock to close a deal so they can rush it through Congress before next year’s elections.  

“TPP is sold as a way for the United States to write the rules of trade before China does.   In many areas, the agreement fails this objective and the language on rules of origin will put a smile on the faces of China’s leaders.   China didn’t get to write the rules in their favor because our American negotiators did it for them.  

“The rule of origin on autos governs how much of a vehicle’s content must be produced by the twelve TPP countries to get the preferential treatment the TPP will provide.   In this quickly concluded deal on rules of origin, Chinese-produced auto parts could account for more than a majority of a car’s parts and still get sweetheart treatment.  While China is not as yet a party to the twelve-nation TPP, the TPP is designed so that other countries can join.

“In many other areas critical to workers, U.S. negotiators refused to take the advice that was provided to them time and time again by the representatives of working people.   But while supporters tout the deal, those promises will fall on deaf ears.   Workers across this country have had to fight to get our trade rules enforced in the face of inadequate enforcement and constant cheating by our trading partners.  

“Even the best rules, which were not included in TPP, if unenforced, are essentially worthless.  How trade rules are implemented, how we monitor imports, obtain market access for our exports and how we enforce our rules are all critical to any deal’s success. 

“So far, there has been no progress or willingness of the Administration to even discuss specific steps that could be taken.

“TPP may be the final blow to manufacturing in America.  Our producers and workers are under siege from other nations’ massive overproduction, foreign currency devaluation, our own lack of long-term infrastructure investment and the strong dollar.  

“Therefore, trade policy is not the only issue that determines what the economic prospects will be for working people.   But, trade is the critical link to the world economy and global pressures are being felt in virtually every occupation and in every workplace.”  

# # #

The USW represents 850,000 workers in North America employed in many industries that        include metals, rubber, chemicals, paper, oil refining and the service and public sectors.  For more information: http://www.usw.org/ <http://www.usw.org/>.   #  #  #

====

UFCW President Perrone Statement on TPP Negotiators 
Reaching a Final Agreement

Washington, D.C. — Today, Marc Perrone, International President of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), the largest private sector union in the nation, released the following statement regarding news that Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators had reached a final agreement.

“The only good thing about a TPP agreement being reached is that the American people will finally be able to read every line of this deal.

“Given what we already know from leaked drafts, we should prepare for the worst, and expect even worse than that. 

“This deal will most likely fail to address currency manipulation, offer big pharmaceutical corporations unacceptable protections that will limit access to life-saving medicine, and threaten every hard-working American family with job losses and lower wages. How could this be good for America?

“Contrary to the rosy rhetoric and false promises, a long history of trade agreements proves that the TPP will have a devastating impact upon our families, our jobs, and this nation. 

“In the coming months, hard-working men and women who are a part of the UFCW family will be pushing every member of Congress - Republican and Democrat - to see the harmful effects of this deal through the eyes of everyday American families.

“Make no mistake, this fight is not over.” 

###

====

Eleventh Hour TPP Deal on Biotech Drugs Still Harms Access to Medications, May Increase Ire Over TPP in Congress

Statement of Peter Maybarduk, Director, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program

The deal brokered today by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) and the Australian government on biotech drugs, which supposedly paved the way for an overall “deal in principle” for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), fell short of Big Pharma’s most extreme demands but will contribute to preventable suffering and death. The final deal as reported does not seem to adhere to the “May 10th 2007 Agreement” standard on access to affordable medicines and could complicate any eventual final TPP deal’s prospects in the U.S. Congress. In biologics and other areas, TPP rules would expand monopoly protections for the pharmaceutical industry at the expense of people’s access to affordable medicines. (The May 10th Agreement was brokered in 2007 between Democratic congressional leadership and the Bush administration to begin to reduce the negative consequences of U.S.-negotiated trade agreements, for health, the environment and labor.)

In recent days, monopoly periods for biologics, which are medical products derived from living organisms and include many new and forthcoming cancer treatments, became the most controversial issue in the attempt to conclude a TPP. The highly technical and confusing biologics deal appears to not guarantee Big Pharma the minimum eight-year automatic monopolies that industry has taken for granted as an eventual TPP outcome. According to informed sources, countries could limit automatic biologics exclusivity to not more than five years, at which point affordable biosimilars could enter the market. (Biologics exclusivity is separate from and independent of patent protection, though the protections may overlap.) Yet the deal also includes mechanisms that would help the USTR browbeat countries, now and in the future, to get what Big Pharma wants, and pull countries toward longer monopoly periods.

This week, U.S. Rep. Sander Levin made clear that May 10 agreement limits exclusivity to five years, with a “concurrent period” mechanism to ensure faster access that is not present in the TPP biologics deal. Several other TPP rules, including those relating to patent term extensions, linkage and evergreening, go beyond the limits of the May 10th Agreement. In late July, 11 of the 28 Democrats who voted for Fast Track legislation warned in a letter <http://blumenauer.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2485:representatives-blumenauer-davis-and-himes-urge-protection-of-timely-and-affordable-access-to-medicines-in-tpp&catid=63:in-the-news&Itemid=220> that the TPP could fail in Congress if it did not adhere to the May 10 standard with respect to access to medicines.

With respect to other issues in the TPP’s Intellectual Property Chapter, the transition periods before developing countries must meet all of the TPP’s protections for pharmaceutical corporations and possible exceptions to those rules are not sufficient to protect access to medicines. Transition periods will be very short and apply to only a few of the most harmful rules. Exceptions will be limited to very few rules or countries. Within a few years, most, if not all, harmful TPP rules will apply to all countries. 

Controversies over pharmaceuticals and intellectual property, including frequently unanimous resistance from negotiating countries, have held up the TPP for years. Many courageous negotiators and others from developing countries stood up to industry and USTR pressure, consistently, to protect their people’s health. A number of harmful rules were eliminated from TPP proposals as a result of this work.

Yet the Obama administration showed itself willing to risk its entire trade agenda to satisfy the avarice of the pharmaceutical lobby. In that respect, people everywhere trying to understand why medicine prices are so high find a disheartening answer in the TPP negotiations: The pharmaceutical industry has purchased tremendous influence with political leaders.

###

====

For Immediate Release 
Trans-Pacific Partnership countries announce agreement reached, posing serious threat to global Internet users
Largest and most secretive agreement in the world’s history covers 40% of global trade and contains provisions to censor the Internet and rob the public domain

October 4, 2015 – The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement reached today comes as the result of over five years of negotiations and poses an extreme threat to free expression online. 

Although the full text of the deal won’t be available for a month, recent leaks <http://keionline.org/node/2308> of the TPP’s Intellectual Property chapter show Canada faces an overhaul of copyright legislation <http://www.michaelgeist.ca/2015/08/the-tpp-copyright-chapter-leaks-canada-may-face-website-blocking-new-criminal-provisions-term-extension/>, including: 20 year copyright term extensions, new provisions that would allow ISPs to block websites due to alleged infringement, and new criminal penalties for the circumvention of digital locks and rights management information.

“Canadians who care about the open Web should be very concerned about this ultra-secret pact, which could be disastrous for Canada’s digital economy,” said OpenMedia’s Digital Rights Specialist Meghan Sali. “What we’re talking about here is global Internet censorship. It will criminalize our online activities, censor the Web, and cost Canadians money. This deal would never pass with the whole world watching – that’s why they’ve negotiated it in total secrecy.” 

Under Canada’s caretaker convention, the government can sign the TPP now, but it has to be put to a vote in Parliament before the agreement can be ratified and brought into force. There has been much controversy <http://www.660news.com/2015/09/30/trans-pacific-partnership-remains-a-hot-election-issue/> over the limits of the Conservative government’s power to continue to negotiate a deal mere weeks before a federal election – with NDP leader Tom Mulcair stating his party will not be bound <http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-tpp-trade-ndp-1.3255051> to any agreement the Conservatives sign before the October 19 federal election.

A poll conducted just days ago <http://innovativeresearch.ca/sites/default/files/pdf%2C%20doc%2C%20docx%2C%20jpg%2C%20png%2C%20xls%2C%20xlsx/151002_IRG29%20Wave%205%20Deck%203-Spotlight%20Niqab%20and%20Free%20Trade.pdf> by Innovation Research shows that 70% of Canadians are either not very familiar, not at all familiar, or have not heard about it the TPP until now.

Details remain unclear as to when the public will be able to perform a full analysis of the text and what it means for Internet users. Also unclear is the timeline for the completion of the agreement, including ratification. However, under Trade Promotion Authority, U.S. President Barack Obama has committed to releasing the text for public scrutiny <http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/22/business/obama-fast-track-pacific-trade-deal.html> 60 days before a final vote in Congress. Despite pressure to complete the deal <http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2015/10/03/business/economy-business/tpp-deal-close-amid-progress-drug-patents-dairy-amari/> by the end of the year, analysts suggest that at this late stage the TPP will be impossible to ratify until 2016. <http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tpp-talks-20150806-story.html>
About OpenMedia

OpenMedia is an award-winning <http://openmedia.ca/awards> community-based organization that safeguards the possibilities of the open Internet. We work toward informed and participatory digital policy by engaging hundreds of thousands of people in protecting our online rights.

Through campaigns such as KillC51.ca <https://killc51.ca/>, StopTheMeter.ca <http://stopthemeter.ca/> and StopSpying.ca <http://stopspying.ca/>, OpenMedia has engaged over half-a-million Canadians, and has influenced public policy and federal law.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.citizenstrade.org/pipermail/ctcfield-citizenstrade.org/attachments/20151005/a0c3ce37/attachment.htm>