| inbluevt | Date: Tuesday, 2013/07/16, 9:14 PM | Message # 1 | DMCA |
|
|
Private
Group: Blocked
Messages: 1024
|
WASHINGTON, Jul 16 2013 (IPS) - As a new round of talks behind a major proposed free trade area, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), get underway this week, the United States is pushing several developing countries to accept provisions that critics say would make it more difficult for their citizens to access
medicine.
“The concern about access to medicine, and that the TPP deal will lead to high health-care costs, is huge,” Arthur Stamoulis, executive director of Citizens Trade Campaign, a fair trade advocacy group based here, told IPS.
On Monday, as negotiations for the TPP enter their 18th round, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), a humanitarian organisation, reflected this concern, urged negotiating countries “to remove terms that could block people from accessing affordable medicines, choke off production if generic medicines, and constrain the ability of governments to pass laws in the interest of public health.”
Negotiations for the TPP, which officially started in 2010, are currently being held in Malaysia, and the countries participating include the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Peru, Brunei,
Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Canada and Mexico.Japan is expected to join at the end of this round, while others have expressed interest in signing on, as well.
More
Message edited by inbluevt - Tuesday, 2013/07/16, 9:16 PM |
|
|
| |
Main 
