From Doctors Without Borders: TPP: Still a Terrible Deal for Poor People's Health
When the intellectual property (IP) chapter of the U.S.-led Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement was leaked late last year, it confirmed everything public health watchers had warned about for years. The far-reaching 12-country trade agreement would deny access to affordable medicines for patients across all TPP countries by strengthening and lengthening drug patent and regulatory monopolies and delaying generic competition. Several negotiating countries balked at the blatantly anti-public health provisions, so the U.S. proposed giving the poorest countries more time to comply with a few provisions.
According to the new U.S. proposal, TPP countries would be divided into two groups using the World Bank's income classification system. Countries that currently fall below the high-income line (e.g. Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam) would be temporarily exempt from three of the most harmful provisions, each of which would serve to block or delay the availability of more affordable versions of medicines."
Other provisions similarly harmful to public health would still be immediately required of all countries. The limited exemption would remain in effect for a specific period of time, which would either be determined by when the country graduates to "high income" status according to the World Bank income classification, or be arbitrarily set through a TPP "transition" period.
U.S. negotiators have described this proposal as an important concession in the interest of public health. But further analysis by Oxfam and Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), reveals that the U.S. plan would not only leave the worst aspects of the TPP intact, it would be devastating to hundreds of millions of poor people living in all TPP countries. It would also further exacerbate income and health inequalities in these countries.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-manica-balasegaram/tpp-still-a-terrible-deal_b_5584810.html
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