Call for TPPA proposals to be discussed in public

A New Zealand health expert has said that the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) would effectively prevent governments from enacting health policies for fear of being sued, according to an Independent Newspapers story.

New Zealand health advocates and their counterparts in some of the other countries involved in the TPPA negotiations have, through The Lancet medical journal, raised concerns about the agreement.

The TPPA is being negotiated between 12 Pacific Rim countries and would affect an estimated 700 million people.

Twenty seven signatories from Australia, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, the US and Vietnam have called for the public release of details of the trade deal and public discussion about its consequences on access to healthcare.

Dr. Erik Monasterio, co-lead author and senior clinical lecturer at the University of Otago, Christchurch, said information made available on Wiki Leaks about the trade deal had shown that the TPPA would allow corporations to extend the patent period for branded medications and that this would delay the entry of generic – and cheaper – alternatives on to the market.

The TPPA would effectively prevent governments from enacting health policies for fear of being sued, Monasterio said.

“The Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism allows corporations to sue governments – if they put into place polices that will interfere with the value of their profit,” he added.