Food Safety Modernization Act
June 7, 2014GMO Science
June 26, 2014Food Chain Radio Michael Olson
Urban Farming Agriculturalist
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
Will the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s free trade be fair trade?
Guest: Devon G. Pena, PhD, Professor of Anthropology, Ethnic and Environmental Studies, University of Washington, and Founder and President of the Acequia Institute
Negotiated in secret by nations of the Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement will, they say, bring free trade to all. But when Wiki dumped the docs, all were left to wonder.
The Trans-Pacific Trade Agreement is a proposed expansion of a 2005 trade agreement between Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. The proposed expansion adds 8 more nations from around the Pacific representing over 40 percent of the world’s GDP.
The stated objectives of the TPP agreement include managing trade, promoting growth, and integrating economies into regional partnerships. All of this sounded great, until Wiki dumped the docs on TPP’s secret Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. This chapter is perhaps the most controversial of the TPP agreement due to its proposed governance of internet services, biological patents, civil liberties, medicines and publishing.
Given the secrecy with which the Agreement is being negotiated, and the control apparently being divided up over economically significant sectors of the international economy, some are beginning to wonder…