On the sidelines of the APEC meeting in Da Nang, Vietnam, eleven of the twelve original members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement agreed to negotiate a new deal without the United States, and noted that “core elements” of the pact had already been reached. Below is the members’ statement:
“Ministers are pleased to announce that they have agreed on the core elements of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ministers agree that the CPTPP maintains the high standards, overall balance and integrity of the TPP while ensuring the commercial and other interests of all participants and preserving our inherent right to regulate, including the flexibility of the parties to set legislative and regulatory priorities.”
Already, the new CPTPP is looking better than the original, with Interest.co.nz reporting that “there will be no change to the goods market access outcomes contained in the original TPP”, but that the CPTPP preserves the “right to regulate in the public interest”, whereas patent extensions have been suspended, which would have raised the cost of medicines.
As regular readers will know, MB’s biggest concerns around the original TPP were that it would have extended patent and copyright protections, as well as instituted an Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provision, which would have opened the door to multinational companies suing the Australian Government for implementing rules against their interests (e.g. on environmental, health and safety grounds).
The final text of the CPTPP might have been concluded over the weekend if not for Canada’s Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who asserted Canada was not ready to put pen to paper on a final agreement because of lingering concerns around culture and the automotive sector. From CBC News:
“I wasn’t going to be rushed into a deal that was not yet in the best interest of Canadians. That is what I’ve been saying at least for a week, and I’ve been saying it around TPP12 for years now and that position continues to hold,” he said of the original trade pact that was negotiated under the former Conservative government.
Indeed, since his arrival in Vietnam, Trudeau has said he wouldn’t cave to “pressure” from others, telegraphing that Canada did not have its pen in hand heading into Danang, the site of the APEC conference…
Trudeau said there is still much “important work to be done”…
Frankly, I agree with Prime Minister Trudeau’s approach. Why the rush to conclude the CPTPP? Why not take a few months to draft a better agreement that removes all of the restrictive and damaging clauses included in the original TPP at the behest of the United States?
