September 30, 2016
In an article reporting on Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell’s statement that he will not bring up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in a lame duck session of Congress, the Post asserted:
“Some Republican lawmakers typically inclined to support trade deals have objected to some provisions in the TPP that could hurt tobacco and pharmaceutical companies.”
Actually, there are no provisions in the deal as now written that “hurt” tobacco and pharmaceutical companies. The provisions in question don’t help the industries as much as they would like.
In the case of the tobacco industry, it is not guaranteed the same access to investor state dispute settlement tribunals as other industries. The pharmaceutical industry only got a guarantee of the equivalent of eight years of marketing exclusivity as protection against biosimilar drugs. While the industry wanted this protection for 12 years, it currently has no guarantee of protection, so the issue is one of how much it will gain.
It is understandable that powerful interests would look to get as much as possible out of a trade and regulatory pact like the TPP, but it is highly misleading to report their failure to get everything they want as being hurt by the deal.
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