Civil society in Singapore
Civil society actions were limited by local laws which prohibit
public gatherings, but there were several media events and seminars for
negotiators. Unlike in Auckland, stakeholders were allowed into the venue,
which made it easier to speak with negotiators.
On March 4, the first day of negotiations, there was an
advertisement in the Singapore New Straits Times initiated by Southeast Asia Tobacco
Control Alliance and signed
by AFTINET and six other public health and tobacco control organisations. The
message was that the TPPA should not give
the tobacco industry opportunities to increase its business or to sue
governments (like the Philip Morris case in Australia) at the expense of
people’s lives. This was seen and commented on by
negotiators.
On March 5 there was a media conference coordinated by Consumers
International at which there were a range of speakers on access to medicines,
copyright and other issues. This received television coverage from a regional
business program and there were some follow-up interviews. Both Oxfam and
Medicines sans Frontiers made public statements about the dangers to access to
medicines posed by the US proposals on patents and medicines which received
media coverage.
Civil society groups also gave stakeholder presentations and
organised seminars for negotiators on the dangers of investor-state disputes,
led by a prominent Singaporean professor, and a specific briefing on the Eli
Lilley case, in which a US pharmaceutical company is suing the Canadian government
over a decision not to grant a patent on a particular medicine.
Australian activities
Dr Deborah Gleeson from Latrobe University published an article on
the potential impact of the TPPA on public health in the international British
medical journal The Lancet on March 1, which had an impact in the
health sector, and which is linked to the AFTINET website.
AFTINET organised a Seminar on the TPPA and women’s rights at NSW
Parliament on March 5 about the impact of the TPPA on women's rights. There was
a full house, which included representatives of women's organisations. The
speakers were Dr Elizabeth Hill from the Sydney University, Kelly Nicholls from
Medicines sans Frontieres and Dr Patricia Ranald from AFTINET. We had excellent
feedback on our new leaflet and factsheets and have been invited to speak at
several community meetings.
Kelly Nicholls published in an oped in the Australian
March 6 which is reprinted in this bulletin.
Pat Ranald was interviewed by community radio NZ Green Planet
programme, 3KD Razor Sharp and the Green Magazine March 4-12.
US demands still sticking points in TPPA negotiations despite
deadline of October 2013
The TPPA leaders announced last year that they were aiming to
finish the negotiations by October 2013. Negotiators are under pressure to
complete as much text as possible, leaving only serious areas of disagreement
to be determined by leaders at the political level at a side meeting of the
TPPA to be held at the APEC meeting in Bali in October. The Singapore government
reported at the end of the round that there had been best progress on regulatory
coherence, customs, development and telecommunications.
However important chapters remain deadlocked. The US had
previously withdrawn its proposed texts on patents and medicines for further
consideration after they were rejected by all other governments. Mexico and
Canada reportedly joined all other countries in rejecting the previous US text.
The US did not table a new text in Singapore.
There is also continuing disagreement about the copyright
provisions of the intellectual property chapter, because of disagreement with
the US proposals for greatly increased protections for copyright holders and
inadequate safeguards for consumers, especially on the Internet.
The US proposal for legally binding restrictions on state-owned
commercial enterprises, purportedly to prevent them from competing unfairly
with other businesses, remains controversial. Developing countries like
Malaysia and Vietnam are concerned because state-owned enterprises form a large
part of their economies. The Australian government reportedly tabled a set of
non-binding principles but there is no alternative text to the US proposals.
The labour and environment chapters reportedly remain deadlocked,
with no agreement on the inclusion of enforceable international standards in
either chapter.
There are still differences over the investment chapter. Australia
is still refusing to agree to the investor-state dispute process, which would
give foreign corporations the right to sue governments for damages if a law or
policy harms their investment.
It is still unlikely that the US will offer any increases in
access to its own markets for countries like Australia which have existing
bilateral agreements with it.
Japan to join TPPA, possible April
announcement by TPPA leaders
Japan has announced that it wishes to join
the TPPA. This is subject to approval by other TPPA countries. The US must give
90 days notice to its Congress before Japan can actually join the negotiations.
The TPPA Trade Ministers are due to meet
on the sidelines of an APEC meeting in Indonesia on April 20-21,
at which they may announce that Japan’s entry has been approved, subject to US
Congress approval.
The basis of other countries joining the
TPPA is supposed to be that they agree to any text which has so far been agreed
by the other parties. However, Japan's request to join was on the basis that
there it may not have to reduce all trade barriers to some agricultural
products from other countries, including rice. This could slow down the
negotiations, since access to agricultural markets is an important issue for
many governments in the negotiation.
Negotiations in May and July before
October Leaders Meeting: campaign continues
The next rounds of TPPA negotiations will
to be held on May 13 -20 in Lima, Peru, and in Malaysia in July. The range of
government positions described above means that many issues may need to be
negotiated by political leaders at the APEC meeting in October 2013, and
Japan’s entry may delay this process further.
Advice from AFTINET www.aftinet.org.au
