Trans-Pacific Partnership Chapter Released By WikiLeaks

Trans-Pacific Partnership Chapter Released By WikiLeaks

Posted: 11/13/2013 9:55 am
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A trade agreement Canada intends to sign will have “far-reaching implications for individual rights and civil liberties,” WikiLeaks says.

The group known around the world for publishing state secrets has released a draft chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade deal being negotiated under what it calls an “unprecedented level of secrecy.” Critics say the agreement favours corporate interests over consumers.

The leaked intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement proposes sweeping reforms including to pharmaceuticals, publishers, patents, copyrights, trademarks, civil liberties and liability of internet service providers.

“If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons,” WikiLeaks’ Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange, said in a press release.

“If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”

Canada joined TPP negotiations along with Mexico last October. It also includes other Pacific Rim countries Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam but not China. The member countries together represent a market of 792 million people and a GDP of $27.5 trillion, or 40 per cent of the world economy.

(Story continues below slideshow)

11 Things About TPP Harper Doesn't Want You To Know

Internet freedom organizations, including Canada’s Openmedia.ca, have criticized the TPP’s intellectual property provisions, saying proposals in the agreement would restrict innovation and force internet service providers to police copyright.

WikiLeaks says provisions in the deal would create “supranational” courts that could override member nations’ judicial systems. The courts “have no human rights safeguards,” WikiLeaks stated.

The document contains provisions as well as proposed amendments and opposition from the various countries involved. Canada, for the most part, appears to stand in the majority view on many topics and against many U.S. demands, which were often supported by Australia or Japan.

Canada appears to take a more liberal stance on many issues than its southern neighbour. It supported the objectives of the agreement, which the U.S. and Japan opposed, that include maintaining “a balance between the rights of intellectual property holders and the legitimate interests of users and the community in subject matter protected by intellectual property.”
"From a Canadian perspective, there is good news and bad news,” Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa, wrote on his blog Wednesday morning.

“The good news is that Canada is pushing back against many U.S. demands by promoting provisions that are consistent with current Canadian law … The bad news is that the U.S. — often joined by Australia — is demanding that Canada roll back its recent copyright reform legislation with a long list of draconian proposals.”

Canada also proposed that the chapter’s provisions be compatible with other multilateral treaties including the World Trade Organization and World Health Organization, “especially with regards to measures aimed at protecting public health and protecting equal access to knowledge and food.” Mexico and the U.S. objected.

Meanwhile, the U.S and Australia added an amendment that would force each country to also sign onto 10 different international treaties by the time they enter the TPP. Canada and nine other nations opposed.

WikiLeaks says many of the surveillance and enforcement provisions in the agreement include stringent mechanisms proposed in the controversial U.S. Stop Online Piracy Act and Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

Enforcement measures for policing rights proposed in the document include supranational tribunals, to which national courts would be expected to defer.

The leak of what is perhaps the most controversial chapter of the highly secretive TPP comes ahead of the next round of negotiations in Salt Lake City, Utah from Nov. 19 to 24.
SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act, was a proposed U.S. law that would have allowed the government to create a “blacklist” of copyright-infringing websites it could then block. Critics complained the government would be allowed to censor the internet without judicial oversight.

ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is a stalled international pact that would greatly increase the power of international bodies to enforce copyright laws. Critics feared the pact would force governments to pass laws that would ban internet users from the web if they were found to be infringing copyright.

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White House scrambles to save trade agenda

By Washington Times (DC) February 1, 2014 6:42 am

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The White House scrambled Thursday to salvage two major trade deals after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the chamber's top Democrat, broke publicly with the administration over granting President Obama the ability to negotiate new free-trade deals.Without so-called "fast-track" negotiating authority, trade analysts give Mr. Obama no practical hopes of clinching major market-opening deals with a group of Pacific Rim economies or with the European Union by the end of his term.
Mr. Obama's aides offered assurances to skeptical elements in the president's Democratic base that the trade pacts would protect the rights of U.S. workers and safeguard the environment. They said the president will continue to lobby lawmakers about the merits of the pending trade agreements.
"We will not cede this important opportunity for American workers and businesses to our competitors," said White House press secretary Jay Carney.
But it was unclear whether the administration could recover from the damage inflicted by Mr. Reid, Nevada Democrat, who announced Wednesday that he opposes giving the president "fast-track" authority -- sharply limiting the rights of lawmakers to an up-or-down vote on trade deals, without amendments -- to negotiate new trade deals. Labor unions have considerable clout in Nevada.
"I'm against fast track," Mr. Reid said. "I think everyone would be well-advised just not to push this right now."
The president had urged lawmakers just a day earlier in his State of the Union address to grant him the authority, saying the trade agreements would boost U.S. exports and strengthen the economy, creating more jobs in the process. Mr. Obama has set a goal of doubling U.S. exports by 2015.
Fast-track authority expired in 2007 under President George W. Bush, and the main opposition to reviving it has come from members of the president's own party in Congress. House Republican leaders, speaking at a GOP retreat Thursday in Cambridge, Md., called on Mr. Obama to exert leadership in his own party to revive the nation's trade agenda.
"Is the president going to stand up and lead on this issue?" asked Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican. "We cannot pass this bill without his help. If this is one of his own priorities, you would think that he would have the Senate majority leader working with him to pass trade promotion authority in order to expand opportunities for our fellow citizens."
House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, said the president keeps reminding lawmakers that he has "a phone and a pen" to take executive action if necessary.
"I think the first phone call actually has to be to Harry Reid to talk about trade," Mr. McCarthy said.
Leading business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable, appealed to Mr. Obama to get involved personally in the push for new trade-negotiating authority.
"He needs to work the phone and spend time on Capitol Hill every week until it's done. It's that important," John Murphy, vice president of international affairs for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, wrote in a blog post.
The White House tried to downplay the rift in the president's party. Mr. Carney said Mr. Reid "has always been clear on his position on this particular issue."
But Mr. Reid had kept those concerns largely to himself prior to this week. And the president's desire to obtain fast-track authority was already on thin ice, despite an aggressive lobbying effort by the White House with lawmakers in recent weeks.
In November, 151 House Democrats sent a letter to Mr. Obama opposing fast-track authority. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut Democrat, said they are concerned about what they said was the loss of more than 5 million U.S. manufacturing jobs after the North American Free Trade Agreement was signed with Mexico and Canada almost two decades ago.
The Democrats were joined by unlikely allies -- 23 House Republicans, including several lawmakers affiliated with the tea party who oppose the expansion of presidential power under fast track.
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