{"id":64984,"date":"2015-10-12T12:00:01","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T11:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=64984"},"modified":"2015-10-12T08:08:58","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T07:08:58","slug":"wikileaks-release-of-tpp-deal-text-stokes-freedom-of-expression-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2015\/10\/wikileaks-release-of-tpp-deal-text-stokes-freedom-of-expression-fears\/","title":{"rendered":"WikiLeaks Release of TPP Deal Text Stokes ‘Freedom of Expression’ Fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

Intellectual property rights chapter appears to give Trans-Pacific Partnership countries greater power to stop information from going public.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"President<\/a>

President Obama meets with agriculture and business leaders to discuss the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership for American business and workers. Photograph: Martin H Simon\/EPA<\/p><\/div>\n

9 Oct 2015 – <\/em>WikiLeaks has released what it claims is the full intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership<\/a> (TPP), the controversial agreement between 12 countries that was signed off on Monday.<\/p>\n

TPP was negotiated in secret and details have yet to be published. But critics including Democrat presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton<\/a> and Bernie Sanders,<\/a> unions and privacy activists have lined up to attack what they have seen of it. WikiLeaks\u2019 latest disclosures are unlikely to reassure them.<\/p>\n

One chapter appears to give the signatory countries (referred to as \u201cparties\u201d) greater power to stop embarrassing information going public. The treaty would give signatories the ability to curtail legal proceedings if the theft of information is \u201cdetrimental to a party\u2019s economic interests, international relations, or national defense or national security\u201d \u2013 in other words, presumably, if a trial would cause the information to spread.<\/p>\n

A drafter\u2019s note says that every participating country\u2019s individual laws about whistleblowing would still apply.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe text of the TPP\u2019s intellectual property chapter confirms advocates warnings that this deal poses a grave threat to global freedom of expression and basic access to things like medicine and information,\u201d said Evan Greer, campaign director of internet activist group Fight for the Future. \u201cBut the sad part is that no one should be surprised by this. It should have been obvious to anyone observing the process, where appointed government bureaucrats and monopolistic companies were given more access to the text than elected officials and journalists, that this would be the result.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the provisions in the chapter (which may or may not be the most recent version) are rules that say that each country in the agreement has the authority to compel anyone accused of violating intellectual property law to provide \u201crelevant information […] that the infringer or alleged infringer possesses or controls\u201d as provided for in that country\u2019s own laws.<\/p>\n

The rules also state that every country has the authority to immediately give the name and address of anyone importing detained goods to whoever owns the intellectual property.<\/p>\n

That information can be very broad, too: \u201cSuch information may include information regarding any person involved in any aspect of the infringement or alleged infringement,\u201d the document continues, \u201cand regarding the means of production or the channels of distribution of the infringing or allegedly infringing goods or services, including the identification of third persons alleged to be involved in the production and distribution of such goods or services and of their channels of distribution.\u201d<\/p>\n

TPP is now facing a rough ride through Congress where President Obama\u2019s opponents on the right argue the agreement does not do enough for business while opponents on the left argue it does too much.<\/p>\n

Obama has pledged to make the TPP public but only after the legislation has passed.<\/p>\n

Michael Wessel was one of the advisers who was asked by the US government to review what he said were woefully inadequate portions of the document. Wessel said the thrust of the TPP does nothing for Americans. \u201cThis is about increasing the ability of global corporations to source wherever they can at the lowest cost,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is not about enhancing or promoting production in the United States,\u201d Wessel said. \u201cWe aren\u2019t enforcing today\u2019s trade agreements adequately. Look at China and Korea. Now we\u2019re not only expanding trade to a far larger set of countries under a new set of rules that have yet to be tested but we\u2019re preparing to expand that to many more countries. It would be easier to accept if we were enforcing today\u2019s rules.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wessel said that ultimately, the countries currently benefiting from increased outsourcing of jobs by American firms aren\u2019t likely to see wages rise above a certain level. \u201cIf you look in other countries, Mexico and India and others \u2013 there\u2019s been a rise in the middle class but there\u2019s been stagnation for those we\u2019re hoping to get into the middle class,\u201d Wessel said. \u201cCompanies are scouring the globe for countries they can get to produce most cheaply.\u201d<\/p>\n

That, he said, results in constant downward pressure on American wages. \u201cCompanies are not invested here the way we\u2019d like them to; they\u2019re doing stock buybacks and higher dividends,\u201d Wessel continued. \u201cThey may yield support for the stock-holding class but it\u2019s not creating jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 theguardian.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

9 Oct 2015 – WikiLeaks has released what it claims is the full intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the controversial agreement between 12 countries that was signed off on Monday. This chapter appears to give TPP countries greater power to stop information from going public.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[169],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64984\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}