Yesterday the Interagency Special 301 Committee chaired by the US Trade Representative held its annual public hearing. An earlier blog described the government testimony – this one describes the comments from industry groups and civil society. Joan McGivern testified for…
[Reposted from the AFINET website] The Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET), the Public Health Association and three other health organisations have made a submission to the review of pharmaceutical patents because the issue of patents and medicine is a…
Inside U.S. Trade reports that USTR has begun an “internal review of the controversial pharmaceutical patent proposal that U.S. trade officials tabled” earlier in the TPP negotiations. However, USTR has also signaled new text will not be ready by the…
[Originally posted on accessnow.org] Last month, the Peruvian Government made public its intention to hold Internet Service Providers (ISPs) responsible for copyright infringement by their users. Peru committed to doing so — imposing intermediary liability — in a Free Trade…
Statement by Jane Kelsey, University of Auckland: The New Zealand government has imposed unprecedented restrictions on registered stakeholders as it hosts the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations in Auckland this week. “We turned up this morning and found we are locked out…
Tobacco giant, Philip-Morris, brought actions this year under investor-State arbitration mechanisms in investment treaties to challenge laws limiting (in Uruguay) or prohibiting (in Australia) the display of its trademarks in tobacco packaging. This has caused the Australian government to take…
German news publishers are trying to require licensing fees to be paid to them for indexing their content by search companies through a proposal that may move forward in the German Parliament later this week. This ‘ancillary copyright‘ (text here)…
The success of the Model Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) process in advancing transparency in the investment policy-making at the international level provides a practical and achievable framework for other areas on trade. Though far from perfect, the Model BIT has…
On Sunday, the United States and Thailand announced during President Obama’s visit to Thailand that the two countries will “convene the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) Joint Council, which serves as a foundation for economic cooperation in this partnership……
We, the undersigned civil society groups, urge Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to suspend any announcement to enter into negotiations towards the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) until there has been a comprehensive, clear and thorough study of both positive and negative consequences,…
The Bangkok Post reports that Thailand has agreed to enter the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations, a development that will be formally announced on Sunday during a U.S. Presidential visit by Obama on Sunday. Thailand has existing FTAs with Australia…
On October 16, the Program on Information Justice and Intellectual Property held the event “IP, Trade and Development,” with speakers from academia, the government, the biotech industry, and DC-based nonprofits. My notes are below. The webcast, presentations, and participant bios…