WikiLeaks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Environment Chapter: "Toothless Public Relations Exercise"

WikiLeaks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Environment Chapter: "Toothless Public Relations Exercise"



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The main points of her analysis of the chapter proper are that
despite aspirational language, the draft chapter has few definitions of
key terms and has no mechanism for providing penalties. The one stab at
defining terms is “environmental laws” and that is narrow, including
only environmental protection and human health and safety. It excludes
prudent resource management practices and also appears to impinge on the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which all parties
to the pact save the US have signed. Among other things, it protects the
rights of indigenous people over traditional knowledge, specifically:

…genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of
fauna and flora…and … the right to maintain, control, protect and
develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage,
traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.

Seeds? Monsanto is going to cede control over seeds to savages
indigenous people? Similarly, Big Pharma has been scouring exotic
locations to try to find new molecules and treatments to exploit. It
would be a shame if pesky natives stood between them and their profits.
You can see why the Administration keeping these notions out of the
text.