A sweeping Asia-Pacific trade deal suffered a serious blow in early August when talks stalled. While 400 protesters took part in the largest-ever ‘conch-shell-blow’ outside the Hawaii hotel where Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations were taking place, progress was the opposite of record-breaking.
The US and other potential future TPP signatory nations Canada, Australia, New Zealand/Aotearoa and Japan came away empty-handed after failing to resolve some major areas of disagreement. Aggressive US negotiating positions on pharmaceutical and other medical corporations were said to be partly to blame. ‘The US is using its bully power to force the failed and abusive US market model of privatized healthcare on countries that have strong public health systems,’ campaigners Popular Resistance told the Guardian.
