Trans-Pacific Partnership Could Limit Affordable Drugs, Says World Health Chief

[nationalize the fed]

The head of the World Health Organization has voiced concerns over the impact the controversial 12-nation Trans Pacific Partnership will have on vital drug prices. As she argues, the deal could limit the availability of cheaper generic medicines in favor of patent holders.


Margaret Chan, Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO). (OEA - OAS / CC BY-SA 3.0)

“Can you bear the cost of $1,000 for a pill to treat Hepatitis C?,” Margaret Chan asked the audience of health experts, academics and diplomats. “Unless we get these prices down many millions of people will be left behind.”
http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/trans-pacific_partnership_could_limit_affordable_drugs_says_world_health_ch


https://twitter.com/WHO/status/664826029467414528


Pacific trade deal could limit affordable drugs - world health chief
Source: Reuters - Thu, 12 Nov 2015 12:17 GMT

By Tom Miles

GENEVA, Nov 12 (Reuters) - A massive trade pact between 12 Pacific rim countries could limit the availability of affordable medicines, the head of the World Health Organization said on Thursday, joining a heated debate on the impact of the deal.

Margaret Chan told a conference there were "some very serious concerns" about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a central plank of U.S. President Barack Obama's trade policy which still needs to be ratified by member governments.

"If these agreements open trade yet close the door to affordable medicines we have to ask the question: is this really progress at all," Chan asked a conference in Geneva.

The deal's backers, including the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia, say it will cut trade barriers and set common standards across 40 percent of the world's economy...
MORE: http://www.trust.org/item/20151112121937-c04sa/?source=leadCarousel

World Health Org Twitter: https://twitter.com/WHO

Here's the deal: the Trans-Pacific Partnership
November 6, 2015 at 10:15 AM ET by President Barack Obama

Summary: Here's what President Obama said about the importance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership to American jobs and workers...
https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/11/06/heres-deal-trans-pacific-partnership

May 8, 2015- President Obama delivers remarks at Nike on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, "the most progressive trade deal in history."

[FiveGoodMen]

1. Thanks, Obama.

You worked hard for this.

(I assume that the emoticon is unnecessary)

[bvar22]

2. President Obama KNOWS what he is doing.

I KNOW he knows about the damage done by NAFTA because he discussed it in Campaign 2008.
I'm still waiting for my NEW High Paying NAFTA job.

The prototype (Obama's Korean Free Trade Deal) didn't work out like he promised.
THAT deal cost many thousands of American jobs and INCREASED the trade deficit.

U.S. government trade data covering the full first three years of the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement (FTA) reveals that the U.S. goods trade deficit with Korea has nearly doubled. The U.S. International Trade Commission data show Korea FTA outcomes that are the opposite of the Obama administration's "more exports, more jobs" promise for that pact, which it is now repeating for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as it tries to persuade Congress to delegate Fast Track authority:

*The trade deficit increase equates to the loss of more than 90,000 American jobs in the first three years of the Korea FTA, counting both exports and imports, according to the trade-jobs ratio that the Obama administration used to project job gains from the deal.

*U.S. goods exports to Korea have dropped 7 percent, or $3 billion,

*U.S. imports of goods from Korea have surged 18 percent, or $10.6 billion

http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=3595

Does anyone at DU still believe these new "Free Trade" Deals will be good for the American Working Class?



You will know then by their WORKS,
not by their Promises.