New leaks of the negotiating text of the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement reveal that the Obama administration is pushing forth radical proposals that critics say will threaten to harm consumers and innovators while rewarding big drug companies and “extremist copyright” policies.
Negotiators for the 12-nation trade pact failed last week to reach a final agreement at their meeting in Maui, a development Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, cheered as “good news for people and the planet.”
The new leaks are of the Intellectual Property Chapter, which includes provisions on copyright and patents, and were released this week by Knowledge Ecology International (KEI). The group says that the “text reflects the state of negotiations directly prior to” that Maui meeting.
James Love, director of the Washington, DC-based social justice organization, stated Tuesday that
