[CTC] More statements on TPP (batch 6)

Tue Oct 6 06:01:47 PDT 2015

Statements from Pride at Work, National Nurses United, Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, UAW, Health GAP, Reps. DeLauro, Tim Ryan, Lee and Grayson…

Three Reasons Why the TPP Should Trouble the LGBT Community: Brunei, Malaysia, and Increased Costs for HIV/AIDS Medicine

Washington – The following is a statement from Pride at Work Executive Director Jerame Davis reacting to the news that the 12 nations involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have reached an agreement:

“The LGBT community and our allies should be deeply troubled by the details of the TPP agreement.

“The inclusion of Brunei and Malaysia in the TPP greatly undermines the Administration's commitment to LGBT equality worldwide. Despite nearly two years of effort on our part, the Administration has not offered a rational explanation how the inclusion of Brunei and Malaysia, with their terrible human rights records with regard to women and LGBT people, will be held accountable for the abuse and mistreatment of these two groups. Just recently, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said <http://www.washingtonblade.com/2015/08/21/malaysian-prime-minister-government-will-not-defend-lgbt-rights/> that “his country’s government will not defend LGBT rights and other issues that are not within the ‘context of Islam.’”  

“Meanwhile, the TPP will increase the cost of HIV/AIDS and other medications by extending patents on certain biologically derived drugs. This will reduce access to these life-saving medications. In some poorer countries, like Vietnam, studies have shown that nearly 70% of those receiving HIV/AIDS medications could lose access if the TPP goes into effect. We cannot let the race to the bottom for global profit halt our progress in containing and fighting back against the HIV/AIDS pandemic. 

“Our trade deals should put people before profits, but TPP does just the opposite.”

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Pride At Work is a nonprofit organization and an officially recognized constituency group of the AFL-CIO (American Federation of Labor & Congress of Industrial Organizations.) We organize mutual support between the organized Labor Movement and the LGBT Community for social and economic justice. In addition to national Pride at Work, more than 20 Chapters organize at the state and local level around the country.
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RNs Call for Congress to Reject Latest Trade Pact

Nurses: Any Concessions on Higher Drug Prices, Provisions to Allow Corporations to Overturn Public Protections Unacceptable

National Nurses United today urged Congress members to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership final agreement warning there remains inadequate guarantees to assure patients and consumers will not be harmed by pharmaceutical price gouging. 

NNU, the nation’s largest organization of nurses, says it also opposes any trade agreement that permits transnational corporations to use extra-legal proceedings to overturn public laws and regulations, the Investor State Dispute Settlement corporate tribunals seen in prior trade deals.

The nurses said they are in full agreement with Sen. Bernie Sanders who said today, that “Wall Street and other big corporations have won again. It is time for the rest of us to stop letting multinational corporations rig the system to pad their profits at our expense.”

While full details of the final pact remain murky, “there is simply no basis for any concessions that give the pharmaceutical corporations a green light to continue pricing patients in the U.S. or other countries out of affordable medications,” said NNU Co-President Jean Ross, RN.

Recent outrage over the decision of one pharmaceutical CEO, Martin Shrkeli to jack up prices by 5,000 percent on Duraprim, an anti-infection drug critical for people with weakened immune systems, “symbolizes why we need to close down on the handouts to big pharma, not give them greater monopoly control over high prices,” Ross noted. 

With profits for the five largest pharmaceutical corporations topping $56 billion last year alone, and increased reporting on how much of the “innovation” drug companies claim they need is actually financed with taxpayer subsidies, “no one should be assisting the price gouging that puts patients’ lives at risk,” Ross said.  

Ross cited concerns voiced by economist Joseph Stiglitz and Adam Hirsh who warned last week about the U.S. insistence on TPP language that permits the drug companies to maintain “their monopolies on patented medicines, keep cheaper generics off the market, and block ‘biosimilar’ competitors from introducing new medicines.”  

The nurses “will also protest any agreement that allows any corporation to sue a government for ‘lost’ profits due to laws or regulations that establish public protections,” Ross added. News reports today said that the final TPP agreement had excluded tobacco companies from ISDS, which have committed some of the most notorious abuses under the corporate tribunals. “Why just tobacco when you have had many other corporate giants exploiting the same disgraceful extra-legal proceedings, Ross said. “No corporation should ever have the right to override laws that protect public safety.” 

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Catholics Respond to the Conclusion of the TPP Negotiations

posted by Christopher Hale | 467.40sc
October 05, 2015 

As Catholics who stand with Pope Francis's call to create an economy of inclusion, we are extremely disappointed that our nation's negotiators rushed the unjust TPP agreement to conclusion. This agreement, which has far ranging implications for our global community beyond trade, should have never been “fast tracked” through Congress. Negotiation and consideration of such an agreement requires broad input of the American people. But to date there has been little.

Therefore, we call on the Administration to release the text immediately, and we urge our lawmakers to study this legislation with due diligence. We will evaluate the details of this agreement carefully. And if this corporate deal doesn't measure up to the demands of justice, we will work to defeat it.

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Statement by UAW President Dennis Williams

TPP must be good for America, create jobs

TPP is a sweeping agreement that touches nearly every aspect of your daily life. It impacts the food you eat, the air you breathe, the medicines you take, and the cars you drive. It will impact demand for the world-class farming equipment tens of thousands of UAW members build.  If factories close revenue shortfalls and budget cuts will ensue and UAW members whose jobs serve the public would suffer. The more than 100,000 UAW members who work for auto suppliers might be faced with a flood of subsidized imports. In fact, auto suppliers produce hundreds of billions of goods and support more than three and a half million U.S. jobs directly and indirectly.

Fair rules are needed for all countries to truly compete. Countries from around the world sell cars in America without unfair trade barriers. Yet, while domestic auto companies sell less than half of all vehicles in the U.S, the same cannot be said for many countries in the TPP. Some Asian-Pacific countries have closed auto markets importing less than 7% while undervaluing their currency, making their exports cheaper. Time and time again companies who game the system shift more and more work to low wage countries. Non-TPP countries like China, Philippines or Thailand must not unjustly receive benefits under this agreement.

We as a country have an opportunity to craft an agreement  that is good for American families and creates economic stability. The administration should return to the table to ensure we have an agreement that strengthens American families and creates economic stability. 

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PRESS STATEMENT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

October 5, 2015

Obama's USTR Wins Big for Big Pharma in the Trans Pacific Partnership Deal

Big Pharma will secretly love the TPP outcomes of longer, broader, and stronger intellectual property monopolies, but will cry crocodile tears that Obama's USTR did not bring all the bacon home - yet.  Late stages of TTP negotiations concluded this morning in Atlanta focused significantly on monopoly protections on biologics' regulatory data where industry wanted 12 years of ironclad protections but only achieved five years of hard protection and another three years of soft protection.  And industry lost its efforts to outlaw patent opposition procedures and to make it easier to gain patents on minor tweaks of known medicines.  But, the USTR delivered big time for the obscenely profitable multinational pharmaceutical industry, which achieved patent term extensions to compensate for regulatory and patenting delays, mandatory patents of new uses of known medicines, data-related monopolies on both small molecule medicines and biologics, opportunities to prevent registration of generics and bio-similars if patent rights are asserted, and enhanced enforcement powers, including investor-state-dispute-settlement before prior arbiters whenever Pharma's expectations of profits from their IP "investments" are frustrated.

Stories of major pharmaceutical companies abusing their monopoly positions to over-price medicines are sadly nothing new, but the real impact of Pharma's extortionate pricing will be felt on the ground, in hospitals, clinics, and communities around the Pacific rim where patients, insurers, and governments will be priced out of the market or forced to forego other needed services simply to stay alive. Once again, we have a trade deal that puts profits over human lives.

The global effort to end the HIV/AIDS pandemic is dependent on continuing access to affordable medicines, 90% of which globally are generic, but the terms of the TPP threaten to delay access to newer generic HIV medicines for many years.  

It is paradoxical – or criminal – that at the same time that the US is verbally committing to expand the number of people living with HIV, tuberculosis and malaria to treatment and prevention, they are undermining affordability via secret trade agreements where only industry representatives have had full and regular access to negotiation text. A close reading of the final agreement will show how closely it tracks the industry's wish list submitted several years ago.

Although brow-beaten negotiators finally caved in to US pressure, there is still opportunity to fight the passage of the TPP and its dangerous IP provisions in Congress and in the court of public opinion.  People in the US don't want to pay high prices for a longer period of time for needed medicines nor do they think that people in other countries should do so either.  But unless people demand that Congress stand up to longer and more burdensome pharmaceutical monopolies, Big Pharma will have succeeded in ratcheting up IP protections a couple new notches and will seek even stronger and longer monopolies in future agreements.

Press contact: 
Prof. Brook Baker, Senior Policy Analyst, Health GAP

brook at healthgap.org <mailto:brook at healthgap.org>   |  +1 (617) 373-3217 <tel:%2B1%20%28617%29%20373-3217>
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DeLauro Statement on TPP Agreement 

NEW HAVEN, CT—Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) released the following statement today on the announcement that an agreement has been reached on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). She will hold a press call with other Members of Congress today, October 5 at 11:15 a.m. to discuss their opposition to the deal. Reporters can join the call at: 800-875-3456 <tel:800-875-3456> (US), 800-648-0973 <tel:800-648-0973> (Canada), 302-607-2001 <tel:302-607-2001> (other international), with passcode OTTE18828.

“I am deeply concerned at the news from Atlanta that the United States and 11 other countries have reached an agreement on the TPP. Our experience with these so-called free trade agreements over the past two decades has taught us that this will cost U.S. jobs and reduce wages.

“I, and my congressional colleagues on both sides of the aisle, have called on the Administration to end the secrecy that has shrouded this massive deal from the beginning and show this backroom deal to the Members of Congress they are asking to vote on it. These negotiations have taken place under unprecedented secrecy. But everything we know about the agreement suggests it will be yet another disaster for hard working American families.

“This deal will lead to job loss and depressed wages. There are no enforceable provisions prohibiting one of the worst economic abuses of our time, currency manipulation, which is directly tied to job loss in the United States. The TPP will force American workers into competition with cheap third world labor in places like Vietnam, where independent unions are banned and the minimum wage is 56 cents an hour.

“From what I have been allowed to read of the agreement, and from my correspondence with the Administration, I remain concerned that this agreement will limit our ability to protect consumers from dangerous seafood from countries like Vietnam and Malaysia. And it is a giveaway to Big Pharma, which wants to lock cheaper generics out of the market for eight years. This will result in more expensive medicines, as well as slower progress toward medical breakthroughs.

“The Administration will claim this agreement is a foreign policy triumph, but nothing could be further from the truth. The TPP has no enforceable labor, environmental, or human rights provisions. By making this deal, we are rewarding human trafficking in Malaysia, violence against LGBT people in Brunei, environmental degradation in Peru, and the further shipping of American jobs overseas to the very countries that do not play by the rules. 

“When Americans finally see this agreement, they will know what I have been fighting against for so long. They will see exactly what this means for their jobs, their wages and the health of their families. I will continue to do everything possible to ensure that it does not become a reality.”

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Congressman Tim Ryan Slams TPP Agreement 

Warren, Ohio – Congressman Tim Ryan made the following statement today in response to United States Trade Representative Trans-Pacific Partnership “Deal in Principal” announced today in Atlanta:

I am deeply disappointed in today’s announced deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership.  All we have to do is look at the shuttered factories across Ohio to know what past trade deals have done to our communities.

This broad and overarching 12-country deal makes up 40% of the world’s GDP and gives corporations wide-ranging powers to challenge federal law.  Free trade without fair trade threatens manufacturing, innovation and inevitably leads to hundreds of thousands of American jobs being shipped overseas. Time and time again, we have seen how secretive trade agreements destroyed economic wellbeing in our state and across the nation.

Almost on a daily basis, I am confronted with stories from my constituents whose lives has been negatively impacted by past trade agreements. All these hardworking Americans ask for is a level playing field so they can get the compensation they deserve – but TPP does not live up to these basic standards.

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“I fear that this deal will put American workers in a race to the bottom” says Congresswoman Barbara Lee Concerning TPP Deal

Oakland, CA – Today, Congresswoman Barbara Lee released the following statement on news that negotiators in Atlanta had reached a deal on the Trans-Pacific Partnership:

“America’s trade policies should be designed to create good-paying jobs and improve the standard of living for American families.

Sadly, the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal reached in Atlanta is unlikely to achieve either.

This deal was written through secretive, closed-door meetings in which lobbyists and major multinational corporations had undue influence.

As a Member of Congress, I fear that this deal will put American workers in a race to the bottom by forcing them to compete against grossly unpaid foreign workers in nations with lax or non-existent labor standards and few, if any, environmental protections.

Additionally, I have grave concerns about the offshoring of American jobs because of this deal, especially from communities of color that have suffered disproportionally from job losses caused by other bad trade deals. 

Trade should benefit American families and create opportunity, not further enrich corporations or reduce global environmental and labor standards.

As this deal enters the Congressional review process, I urge my colleagues to carefully review the details and reject any trade deal that hurts American families.”

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Congresswoman Lee is a member of the Appropriations and Budget Committees, the Steering and Policy Committee, is a Senior Democratic Whip, former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus and co-chair of the Progressive Caucus. She serves as chair of the Whip’s Task Force on Poverty and Opportunity.

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Rep. Alan Grayson’s Statement on His Opposition to the TPP Agreement

Representative Alan Grayson (D-FL09), today made the following statement opposing the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement announced in Atlanta this morning:

Today’s announcement of an agreement for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) between the US and 11 other nations is another grievous injury to America’s workers. Deals like TPP have cost us trillions of dollars and millions of jobs. TPP will only add to our record $11 Trillion trade deficit. It will further line the pockets of corporations who ship our jobs, and their profits, overseas.

This deal was crafted by Wall Street to benefit corporate America. It will not only harm jobs and wages, but it threatens food safety, affordable medicine, and other issues working Americans care about. We should be negotiating agreements that protect our workers instead of hurting them. Adding insult to this injury, Congress will not be able to amend this deal when it comes to us next year – we will only be allowed to vote “yea” or “nay.” I will pore over this agreement and work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to promote trade agreements that put American workers first.

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