by Susanne Posel
October 25, 2014

from OccupyCorporatism Website

Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb spoke down against those denouncing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) during a meeting attended by representatives.

Robb verbally assaulted "consumer groups and the Greens for spreading misinformation about" the TPP on talk radio:

"Those who are opposed to this scheme for all sorts of reasons are peddling a lot of misinformation, saying pharmacy costs will go up. This is not the intention or the outcome that will occur with this particular 21st century agreement."

Choice, a consumer advocacy group, maintains the TPP,

"includes provisions to stretch patents on some life-saving drugs for an extra 12 years. Prices usually drop 16 per cent once the patent expires."

Erin Turner, campaign manager for Choice, said:

"If the TPP extends patents we’ll be paying higher prices for some medicines over a longer period of time."

Robb told the listening audience that when the TPP is signed,

"we [will] have a wonderful opportunity to engage with 12 major economies, a third of world trade, in a more seamless way."

Earlier this year, leaked documents showing the second draft of the TPP highlighted how nations differ on issues of intellectual property; specifically that the US is attempting to usurp control over intellectual property rights.

These differences extend to matters of law, rulemaking and the environment.

On one hand the US is pushing for climate change reforms, while opposing other environmental protections.

US negotiators are vying for the interests of:

• American based corporations

• Big tobacco

• Big Pharma

• Silicon Valley

• Hollywood

• Oil corporations

• Beef producers and Corporate dairy farmers

• Rice producers

• Textile manufacturers

• Wall Street bankers

One point of the TPP is to ensure sovereignty among corporations which is why they have been integral in the creation of the drafts while schmoozing those they deem having power to sway the final document as in their best interests.

The TPP is shaping up to be a viable model for the future of subversive governance where corporate-backing and back-door deals are the only leverage to back decisions on Capitol Hill.

In other words, the TPP will cement corporatism as the new standard by which governments operate.

The opposition to the TPP is organized and ready to speak out against the secret negotiations that will change the course of trade across the globe.

Those partnering against the TPP include:

• Reddit

• Public Citizen

• Credo

• Demand Progress

• Open Media International

• Progressive Democrats of America

• International Forum on Globalization

• GMO Free USA

• Moveon.org

• Organic Consumers Association

David Thomas, vice president of trade policy at the Business Roundtable (BR), explained that the TPP is simply just,

"another trade pact [like] the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), [and] will open markets with nearly 1 billion consumers for U.S. companies and workers."