Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)

Today, 13 November 2013, WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief Negotiators summit in Salt Lake City, Utah, on 19-24 November 2013. The chapter published by WikiLeaks is perhaps the most controversial chapter of the TPP due to its wide-ranging effects on medicines, publishers, internet services, civil liberties and biological patents. Significantly, the released text includes the negotiation positions and disagreements between all 12 prospective member st

Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP)

The number 2 article on Rededit world news.... TPP is the agreement which covers everything the shadow govt wanted to accomplish with NAFTA, but couldn't under the light of public exposure. Now Wikileaks brings the IP section of the agreement to light. These agreements should not even be allowed to be made in secret. As wikileaks says, it covers civil liberties, internet, medicines, and publishing.. sweeping more of the G*d given rights into the pockets of the corporate kleptocracy...

WikiLeaks claims that the text shows America attempting to enforce its highly restrictive vision of intellectual property on the world – and on itself. "The US administration is aggressively pushing the TPP through the US legislative process on the sly," says Julian Assange..

I am not either a lawyer or an expert in this area... so I have NOT summarized the information on this document... so look through these links for that..

news.cnet.com...

www.theguardian.com...

www.theverge.com...

reply to post by R_Clark


I'm sure you've seen this, but for those who haven't........




Yves Smith and Dean Baker on Secrets in Trade

Someone has summarized a portion of the 95 page document. Keep in mind this is a person's interpretation but from what I know of the TPP it fits. I personally won't dl the wikileaks document because honestly, I get more and more fearful of doing such things. This is not a wikileaks link. This is a screencap, so I can't copy paste portions of it to quote. I've grabbed a screencap myself incase this link disappears.

Link

This summary has to deal with copyright laws, pharmaceutical drugs and all manner of patents. If this trade agreement passes and terrifyingly this is only a gateway to even larger more encompassing trade agreement... life as we know it is over.

OP I would suggest asking a mod to edit your title as it does not reflect the seriousness of what wikileaks has released and I fear many will not even look at this thread.

reply to post by Kali74


Thanks for the comment... I will request... Normally, you must use the original article.. and I picked it up as such from Wikileaks... such a conservative opener does downplay its import.

Could somebody spell out in plain english what this will mean for the average joe.

sayzaar
Could somebody spell out in plain english what this will mean for the average joe.

sure

investor state = international corporation masquerading as a stateless entity that can sue countries

dispute panel = three unelected corporate lawyers pretending to be judges (no conflict of interest)

lost earnings = if a country passes domestic laws to protect their citizens, a corp (investor state) can sue if this causes lost profits

IP = intellectual property (granted monopoly) for the purpose of monetizing innovation, or for preventing other innovation that may challenge a legacy industry

to make it as simple as possible,
our legal system took hundreds of years to develop a system where disputes could be resolved,
this new system is designed to circumvent our existing judicial system and dispute system so that corporations can
SUE countries on perceived loss decided by corporate lawyers (who can work for the very corporation they are making decisions for) and no country can defend their citizens from corporate profit seeking.

as one example,
pharma would like to make drugs so expensive their profit grows exponentially,
this means poor people die from curable sickness because if the price doesn't rise the country can be sued for lost profits

another example,
the usa tried to pass SOPA (stop online piracy act) and PIPA (protect IP act)
they failed because of massive public outcry,
this would do an "end run" around the democratic process,

so that these failed bills could be in-forced at the TRADE LEVEL rather than through the democratic processes of local and nation government's

this is a corporate power grab to remove a countries ability to be a sovereign state in the benefit of its citizens,
and allows for cooperation's to control prices and rules FOR THE PROFIT OF THE CORPORATION ONLY.

ANY COUNTRY THAT SIGNS THIS DEAL WOULD BE BEHOLDEN TO THE PROFITS OF CORPS OVER THEIR OWN PEOPLE.

this sets up a system where cooperation's rule the world and if any country tries to place the health and well being over profit, they will be sued to death.

xploder

Here is the complete chapter for your reading pleasure. INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY [RIGHTS] CHAPTER

And here is an interview with Assange on the issue.



TPP Exposed: WikiLeaks Publishes Secret Trade

JULIAN ASSANGE: We released today the secret international—the secret intellectual property chapter, what they call intellectual property, but it’s actually all about how to extend the monopoly rights of companies like Monsanto, which has genetic patents over wheat and corn; extending the ability of Disney to criminally prosecute people for downloading films, prosecute Internet service providers; Japan introducing something they call a patent prosecution highway—Japan has. And so, we released all this, their secret negotiating positions for all 12 countries.

AMY GOODMAN: The WikiLeaks release of the text comes a week before a TPP chief negotiators summit in Salt Lake City, Utah. President Obama and U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman reportedly wish to finalize the TPP by the end of the year and are pushing Congress to expedite legislation that grants the president what’s known as "fast-track authority." However, this week some 151 House Democrats and 23 Republicans wrote letters to the administration saying they’re unwilling to give the president free rein to, quote, "diplomatically legislate."

XPLodER
ANY COUNTRY THAT SIGNS THIS DEAL WOULD BE BEHOLDEN TO THE PROFITS OF CORPS OVER THEIR OWN PEOPLE.

this sets up a system where cooperation's rule the world and if any country tries to place the health and well being over profit, they will be sued to death.

The only good thing I can see in this entire affair is that from what we can tell (given stuff I saw on the news a few days back) it seems alot of the governments of the countries the TPP is being pushed on are having alot of issues with it. From what I heard its something like 2/3rds of the TPP is being rejected (not the correct word I think) by the countries wanting/being asked to sign up to it.

Thing is, how long can they hold out to signing it, or will they buckle and give in given it seems America is hell bent on getting this completed in the next few months... I dont quite have the trust in any government to think this WONT go through even with the objections from government levels (Interesting that our own government here in NZ has serious questions about it, I mean if John Key and National has problems with large parts of it then there is something seriously nasty about the TPP that should give us all some serious pause).

We sit upon the knifes edge.

Edit:- the only good thing actually passing this would do is if enough of what the TPP was about got out into the public before hand and looked into by the media so that a large enough majority understood how bad it was and how even governments are backing away then if it DID come to fruition, even the average mildly informed citizen might finally wonder, "how did that possibly get going given all the opposition?"... might finally wake up the world to the fact small powerful groups of interest can bully and push the rest of us around for their own gain, maybe even enough of us that we finally start baying for blood.

reply to post by elouina


Bah! I was going to do a separate thread in USPM with this video. Everyone needs to watch that video.
Star for you.

reply to post by BigfootNZ


if this TPP is passed in its current form,
good bye open and free internet.

once in-acted it would be near imposable to dismantle,

the national party are far right while pretending to be centre right,

if it passes it will take 5-10 years before we see the destruction it will level on our economy.

the worst part is we have only seen the IP chapter,
what is in the rest of the document?

xploder

reply to post by Kali74


you need to make that thread,
just make it distinctly about the interview,
your right
every one needs to see this vid NOW

xploder

reply to post by R_Clark


6 years. That is how long I have been part of this website (three user accounts in total). When I decided to become a member of this site I had no idea we would HAVE GOTTEN NO WHERE!

Why the bleeding christ are we still only now starting to understand consciousness and not even understand, I mean like vaguely admit it is there. Being a really really important thing I feel like an outsider, learning about consciousness is like giving your self cancer to outside people. They shun you off as a "new ager" or "pot smoking hippie"

I'm sorry I have had a lot to drink tonight but my point is that no matter how awesome the truth is and uplifting and all those sunshine and farts things, people are too stupid to see it or care.

If ats being the best website for legit info on anything cannot move a human race into a time of PEACE AND LOVE for all humans then all hope is lost. Have you given up? Because I am close to it. "Fu*k other people I am more important" said 94% of the human population.

What will it take for everyone EVERYONE to quit there jobs and march in the streets night and day THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF NORTH AMERICA NEEDS TO DO THIS I am sick of people bitching while the age of enlightenment is right in front of us but we are blinded by our iCrap.

Ahh sorry for ranting I kinda was on roll, I hope somebody understands what I mean....

sayzaar
Could somebody spell out in plain english what this will mean for the average joe.

Explained eloquently above but in a more shortened manner. This crap is yet another example of how anything that's still left free in this world (the internet, free thought and ideas) will be crushed by those who already have the power and are not content with just some of it, they want it all.

sayzaar
Could somebody spell out in plain english what this will mean for the average joe.

Multinational corporations get to have a exclusive worldwide monopoly on everything and set the price.

With the Internet, they reserve the right to prevent the copying and distribution of any document, movie, video, trailer or scene, even temporary copies made locally during streaming. It would be strictly encrypted data streamed from the video server directly to the screen. Anyone who tampered with this would risk a jail sentence.

It would be like DeCSS all over again. en.wikipedia.org...

Screen-grabbing, mirror sites, Youtube, Liveleaks, and every other website would be affected.

With medical treatment, the medical equipment manufacturers want to be able to patent surgical procedures, not just the equipment. Medical practice is moving away from operations that cut the patient open using a hand-held scalpel towards keyhole surgery where a few small incisions are made and then narrow instruments like cameras, biopsy needles, and scissors are inserted inside the patient. The surgeon then uses an external screen attached to the camera in combination with a variety of controllers like game console keypads or hand grip controllers that move about in three dimensions. Using these techniques requires custom training courses in "approved surgical procedures" to avoid lawsuit liability. That's going to push up medical costs.

Intellectual property rights are only a part of the agreement.

Following in the footsteps of other modern "Trade" treaties they also allow for Big Business or Corporate Persons if you will to sue governments for lost 'potential profits' and make them change laws if they are detrimental to potential profits.

www.democracynow.org...
Video and text

Obama-Backed Trans-Pacific Partnership Expands Corporate Lawsuits Against Nations for Lost Profits

Last year, a leaked chapter from the draft agreement outlined how the TPP would allow foreign corporations operating in the United States to appeal key regulations to an international tribunal. The body would have the power to override U.S. law and issue penalties for failure to comply with its rulings. Earlier leaks from the draft agreement exposed how it included rules that could increase the cost of medication and make participating countries adopt restrictive copyright measures.

www.commondreams.org...

This Transatlantic Trade Deal is a Full-Frontal Assault on Democracy

The purpose of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership is to remove the regulatory differences between the US and European nations. I mentioned it a couple of weeks ago. But I left out the most important issue: the remarkable ability it would grant big business to sue the living daylights out of governments which try to defend their citizens. It would allow a secretive panel of corporate lawyers to overrule the will of parliament and destroy our legal protections. Yet the defenders of our sovereignty say nothing.

Corporate Lawyers??? Yeah, they will be fair.

Relating that to Intellectual Property from the same article:

The Australian government, after massive debates in and out of parliament, decided that cigarettes should be sold in plain packets, marked only with shocking health warnings. The decision was validated by the Australian supreme court. But, using a trade agreement Australia struck with Hong Kong, the tobacco company Philip Morris has asked an offshore tribunal to award it a vast sum in compensation for the loss of what it calls its intellectual property.

The Corporate People justify their high profits by saying "They take all the risk" - F-ing BS.

Here's a paper on the effect of TPP on US wages (yep the top 1-5% make a lot more):

www.cepr.net...

And to end this piece on the wonders of capitalism and how it makes life better for us all

www.truth-out.org...

Capitalism and the Destruction of Life on Earth: Six Theses on Saving the Humans