U.S. Said To Be Renegade In Trade Talks

Two leaked and highly redacted memos obtained by the Huffington Post suggest U.S negotiators are taking positions favored by powerful U.S. corporate interests but opposed by environmentalists, unions, public health officials and most of the other countries involved in the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations. According to the memos, the U.S. wants to broaden the power of corporations to challenge national law and regulation in the name of free trade, to establish cross-border intellectual property rules that would strengthen pharmaceutical patent holders against generics and prevent national health services from negotiating lower prices with drug companies, and disallow various kind of controls on banks – all positions which appear to be largely at odds with the other negotiators. The countries in the talks include Australia, Brunei, Chile, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam.