Obama praises Trans-Pacific Partnership accord as full text is released [Updated]

“The TPP means that America will write the rules of the road in the 21st century.”

David Kravets – Nov 5, 2015 1:50 pm | 208

The President Barack Obama administration and other countries released the entire 2,000-page Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement on Thursday—a proposed 12-nation pact dealing with everything from intellectual property to human rights. It took five years of secret negotiations to finalize but only a moment for Obama to praise the pact publicly.

“The TPP means that America will write the rules of the road in the 21st century,” Obama said. “If we don’t pass this agreement—if America doesn’t write those rules—then countries like China will.” The deal isn’t likely to reach Congress’ plate until as early as March.

The nations in the accord include the US, Japan, Australia, Peru, Malaysia, Vietnam, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Canada, Mexico, and Brunei. They represent about 40 percent of the global economy. China has proposed a 16-nation free-trade bloc that includes India in response to the pending deal.

The president also said the deal “levels the playing field for our farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers by eliminating more than 18,000 taxes that various countries put on our products. It includes the strongest commitments on labor and the environment of any trade agreement in history, and those commitments are enforceable, unlike in past agreements. It promotes a free and open Internet. It strengthens our strategic relationships with our partners and allies in a region that will be vital to the 21st century. It’s an agreement that puts American workers first and will help middle-class families get ahead.”

One of the most controversial chapters in the deal concerns intellectual property. In an e-mail to Ars, James Love, the director of Knowledge Ecology International, said:

In the IP Chapter, the TPP locks in a number of anti-consumer measures, and imposes higher standards for IP on poor countries, after their transition periods. One impact of the IP chapter is to gut provisions in US law to encourage more transparency of patents on biologic drugs, and to make infringement of any patent or copyright more risky and costly.

In the investment chapter, the TPP gives private companies the right to bring cases and get fines when a country does not meet its obligations, for the IP chapter, and for pretty much all the other chapters too.

In the transparency annex, the TPP requires countries to give drug companies more rights to monitor and challenge government decisions on reimbursements on drugs, basically to hassle and sue governments when they push back on high drug prices.

Meanwhile, the deal also exports US copyright law regarding how long a copyright lasts. The plan, which now needs approval from all the pact’s member nations, makes copyrights last for the life of the creator plus 70 years after death. That’s basically the same as in the US.

On the flip side, the deal does not require Internet service providers to terminate accounts for Internet copyright scofflaws. In the US, many of the top ISPs have a six-strikes consumer infringement program.

Under the pact, Japan has pledged “to ease trade barriers on imported french fries and butter, which have been in short supply in the Asian market, while Malaysia will eliminate tariffs on all imported alcohol for the first time.” What’s more, the pact prohibits subsidizing harmful fisheries and discourages the importing of goods made by forced labor.

Some members of Congress had sought the accord to spell out punishments, such as economic sanctions for nations that manipulate their currencies. Those demands were not included.

UPDATE: 3:35 ET: Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Chris Dodd lauds the partnership, saying: “Enacting a high-standard TPP with strong copyright protections is an economic priority for the American motion picture and television industry, which registered nearly $16 billion in exports in 2013 and supports nearly two million jobs throughout all fifty states. The TPP reaffirms what we have long understood—that strengthening copyright is integral to America’s creative community and to facilitating legitimate international commerce.”