The TPP Friend or Foe?

Who really runs Australia?

Australia is a representative Democracy. Clearly we the people run Australia. We elect the politicians who run the show on our behalf and we maintain the power to hire and fire the politicians. They have the power, informed by our popular consent to make laws in our interest for the benefit of all Australians. That's our sovereign right as an independent nation.

National Sovereignty

Australia is a sovereign nation wich invests the Australian Parliament with the power to make our own laws and control our own destiny. Frankly if we Australians arn't looking out for Australia, then who is?

JJ Harrison

Trans Pacific Partnership

Currently the Australian Government is in negotiation with US, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam – and there are proposals to extend it further. One disturbing aspect of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is that no-one who has seen the document is able to talk about it. You must sign a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) to view the document. That NDA restricts you from talking about the deal until 4 years AFTER the treaty is concluded! Luckily Wikileaks obtained and published a 30,000 page draft which contained some facinating but ultimatly disturbing information.

Trans National Corporate Sovereignty

One of the most disturbing aspects of the TPP is the clause which establishes an Investor State Dispute Settlement protocol. These are independent United Nations or World Bank sanctioned courts where government regulations, rules, actions and court decisions can be challenged by corporations who feel that their interests are being infringed by local law.

Why now?

Actually it was we Australians who upset the corporate apple cart when the last labor govt instituted plain packaging for tobacco products. The tobacco companies who had invested billions in branding were brought low by a measly mid range power who regulated their market by deleting branding from their product and replaced it with ghastly images of cancerous tumours and dead babies. Smoking rates in Australia plummeted. Something had to be done to be certain this never happened again. The video below is a great summary of what happened.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UsHHOCH4q8

Not Just Tobacco

All kinds of industries are standing on the sidelines watching the Australian tobacco experiment with great interest. It isn't just tobacco at stake. At stake is whether a nation state has the right to regulate it's market by restricting intellectual property rights.

The leaked document extends patents on pharmaceuticals beyond 20 years which is a humanitarian issue because developing countries will have to pay more for their pharmaceuticals. For everyday Australians well being, it is difficult to imagine the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme surviving scrutiny from the TPP's international courts. Patents will also be allowed on plants and animals.

Expert Opinion

Concern about the TPP is widespread. So much so that on Nov 13 2014 a group of 80 Legal professors of good standing in the USA wrote to President Obama with the following request:

"We, the undersigned intellectual property law academics and scholars, write to

ask you to support immediately changing the secretive TPP negotiation process in law and in practice, and follow instead the example set by the Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled, as explained below."

Basically what they asked for is the intellectual property rights portion of the TPP not to be adopted and for the status quo to continue.

What other areas are affected?

1. Wages:
   The Free Trade deals Australia have signed to this point have had an unwanted side effect. Australia has begun to participate in a wages "Race to the bottom". This is a race where even the winner loses. It will become much worse under the TPP.
2. Sovereignty:
   Australian Sovereignty will be emasculated giving Multinationals the right to challenge Australian Law
3. The Environment:
   Australian Environmental Laws can be challenged if seen as a harmful to global trade.
4. Agricultural Quarantine Laws:
   The Australian agricultural sector relys on a strong quarantine law. These will undoubtedly be challenged.
5. Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme:
   A scheme which lowers prices is obviously against the interests of Multinationals. It will go.
6. Media:
   Fair use clauses will be diluted or challenged under the TPP. Remember Net Neutrality and how it was saved by Google, Wikipedia et.al. Kiss Net Neutrality goodbye. They failed in the US Congress, so this is how they will get what they want.
   
   
   What to do?
   
   
   A Free Trade Deal can be a good thing, but it needs to be done on our terms, not the multinationals. This is one where your local Parliamentarian needs to know you value our sovereignty, our PBS and clean air and water. Tell them if they vote for the TPP in this form, it will go badly for us and by extension them. They need to hear that we are not asleep. Only then will they scrutinise what others have wrought.