New Trans-Pacific Partnership Caucus In US Congress 30/10/2013 by Intellectual Property Watch 9 Comments Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window)A new caucus of supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement under negotiation was launched yesterday in the US Congress. The Friends of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) caucus is headed by four co-chairman: Republican Reps. David Reichert of Washington and Charles Boustany of Louisiana, and Democratic Reps. Ron Kind of Wisconsin and Gregory Meeks of New York. The four members issued a press announcement with statements on why they are supporting the agreement, which they say is important for US jobs, exports and economic growth. “The Caucus will provide a forum to discuss the broader U.S. strategic goals and benefits of the TPP Agreement,” Meeks said. According to Open Secrets, among the four co-chairs, Reichert’s top donor last year was Microsoft, and Kind has numerous healthcare and pharmaceutical donors. The hyper-secret TPP negotiations have taken an upturn in intensity in recent weeks, though the goal of completion in 2013 seems to be ambitious, according to available information, in part due to the complexity of intellectual property negotiations. The talks continue to come under fire for a lack of transparency and for suspected provisions that public health advocates say could harm medicines access for the public. See a recent report here. Motion Picture Association of America Chairman Chris Dodd issued a statement today in support of the caucus, whose aim, he said, “is to ensure a meaningful TPP agreement.” “[W]e place the highest priority on working with our trading partners and the US government to achieve a comprehensive, high-standard and commercially-meaningful agreement,” Dodd said. “Yesterday’s announcement is an important step toward achieving a TPP agreement that will increase market access while providing the tools necessary to protect intellectual property in the digital age.” Countries negotiating the TPP include: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States and Vietnam. Share this:Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)Click to print (Opens in new window) Related "New Trans-Pacific Partnership Caucus In US Congress" by Intellectual Property Watch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
N. Kennedy says 30/10/2013 at 6:03 pm 4 of the “5 eyes” intelligence-sharing union (U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand) are involved in these secretive and non transparent negotiations, with the priviledged information gleaned from their international dragnet surveillance of the world. A recent article from the Sidney Morning Herald asserts that many countries in E.and S.E. Asia were being spied on from the U.S. embassies in their large cities. “Australia is fully aware of the extent of United States’ electronic espionage against our neighbours and trading partners and has access to much of the data being collected. http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/us-spying-on-our-neighbours-through-embassies-20131029-2wcvl.html#ixzz2jE0kJTKm” Maybe the U.S. are in a hurry to sign this monstrous deal before any more of the Snowden revelations inform and advise their intended victims away from harm. Flush the TPP. http://www.flushthetpp.org/ Reply
dino says 30/10/2013 at 10:32 pm The position of this caucus is suspicious. It suggests that they’ve had access to the details of the top secret TPP negotiations. Why don’t they come clean and explain the details of why they think TPP is such a great deal? We mere citizens, small business owners and taxpayers don’t have a clue — and not because we haven’t tried to find out. Reply
dino says 30/10/2013 at 11:33 pm So, making a comment about the secrecy of TPP negotiations get censored by this website. Nice example of the openness this group supposedly espouses. My question is this: if the Caucus thinks the TPP is such a great deal, then let us Americans (business owners, taxpayers) know what’s in the agreement. Reply
William New says 31/10/2013 at 12:18 am Dino – just a quick response to say we did not censor your comment, we just have a small staff and hadn’t had a chance to see it yet. Please feel free to comment about the secrecy of the TPP negotiations. We do. – William New, editor Reply
Rob says 02/11/2013 at 1:46 am Chris Dodd is easily the biggest sellout I know, and an embarrassment for the human race. I will never understand how my state continued to re-elect him, even amongst scandal after scandal; the most recent being telling Congress to accept his bribes and do what he tells them to. Unfortunately, I think this bill will pass. Quite frankly, I don’t see how it’s possible for our country to be going downhill so fast…I mean it’s literally becoming a 90 degree hill–yeah, a drop. I’m afraid for the many things this bill will introduce, and I’m betting that little to nothing was reformed in terms of privacy, or the pure silliness in it that we’ve known since the leaked draft. I’m only 20, and I’ve been saying for awhile I do not want to live in this country anymore–it’s not what it used to be, but the problem is there don’t seem to be many places in the world free from censorship, along with being a first-world country. Reply
[…] not, that our political class — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch, a bipartisan caucus, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Editorial Board of The New York Times, to name a few of the usual […] Reply
[…] or not, that our political class — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch, a bipartisan caucus, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Editorial Board of The New York Times, to name a few of the usual […] Reply
[…] or not, that our political class — Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Max Baucus and Orrin Hatch, a bipartisan caucus, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Editorial Board of The New York Times, to name a few of the […] Reply