US Senator says NZ and Australian TPP negotiators were too good

UNGN reported:

understand that renegotiation may be difficult, particularly with so many parties involved,” Sen. Orrin Hatch said, adding, “The alternative to renegotiation may very well be no TPP at all.”

Republican U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch said Friday that the Obama administration might have to renegotiate parts of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, the text of which was released Thursday. …

Hatch said he was concerned that negotiators failed to secure 12 years of protection for next-generation biological drugs, which could push companies to leave the industry, make it more difficult for innovators to recover investments made in new products and leave Americans subsidizing cheaper medicines in other nations, according to Reuters.

Biological drugs are given a minimum of five years of data protection under the agreement, along with an extra buffer for administrative processes. The U.S. campaigned for 12 years of protection to ensure incentive for innovation, while Australia and New Zealand pushed for five years to give patients access to cheaper medicine, according to BioPharma Reporter.

Hatch said the U.S. should not have agreed to Australia's “greedy” demands for a smaller monopoly period.

Do you remember Jane Kelsey telling us for years how the the NZ Government was going to sell us out to the US.

Here's the reality. A top US Senator is saying that the Australian and New Zealand negotiators were too strong, and that the deal should be rejected because there is not enough in it for big US pharmaceutical companies.

If I was an Australian or NZ negotiator, I'd be rather pleased that a senior US Senator is saying you were too stubborn and got too good a deal for your own countries, at the expense of the US.

 

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