Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
December 10, 2013 | Policy
Australia is participating in negotiations for a Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) with 11 other countries: Brunei Darussalam, Chile, New Zealand Singapore, Canada, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the USA and Vietnam.
As is now common in trade agreements, the TPP is expected to include a chapter on intellectual property (IP).
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) engaged in consultations with stakeholders regarding Australia’s involvement in the negotiations, and on priorities and objectives for negotiation. There are FAQs on the DFAT website on the intellectual property issues associated with the TPP here.
Since Australia has been involved in the negotiations, DFAT has provided stakeholder briefings from time to time. As has occurred with other trade agreements, negotiations are conducted on a confidential basis. This limits the extent of the information that DFAT provides at briefings. Drafts of the negotiating text have, however, been leaked from time to time. On 13 November 2013, Wikileaks published the negotiating text for the Intellectual Property chapter, as it was at 30 August 2013.
For some commentary on the leaked negotiating text see:
- TPP countries and US divided over IP chapter: leak (ZDNet, 9 December 2013)
- TPP leak: what will the TPP do to trans-pacific copyright? (IPKat, 15 November 2013)
- TPP, IP, and Reality (Copyright Alliance, 13 November 2013)
- The truth about the leaked IP chapter of the Trans Pacific Partnership (IPI Roundtable, 17 November 2013)
- Who’s Afraid of the TPP? (Illusion of More, 13 November 2013)
10 December 2013