Greens Senator Peter Whish-Wilson talks to the ABC about the TPP
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement negotiations are about trading away the National Interest.
Senator Whish-Wilson said, “Bureaucrats and Ministers are meeting in Canberra and Sydney over the next week, in secret, to trade away the National Interest.
“The only way we have any understanding of what our Government has traded away comes from leaked texts of the TPP agreement that have been published by Wikileaks.
“It is apparent that Australia is facing more expensive new medicines, the criminalisation of copyright infringements, and giving multi-national corporations the right to sue state and federal governments for simply making laws in the public interest that might impinge on their profits.
“It’s time for the Government to be upfront with the Australian people about what is at stake with these TPP negotiations.
“They refuse to rule out that new medicines under development, such as cancer drugs and vaccines, would become more expensive in the future as a result of the TPP. The United States is looking to use the TPP to give special protections to “Big Pharma” to give long-term market and data exclusivity over new developments, meaning that these drugs remain more expensive for longer.
“They also refused to rule out the possibility that current medicines would take longer to become generics. The United States is seeking to use the TPP to extend the patent provisions over medicines, which would increase the costs to consumers and the tax payer,” Senator Whish-Wilson concluded.