Deal Reached on Fast-Track Authority for TPP

[Ebowed]

Yeah, the export of the United States' hitherto almost uniquely terrible intellectual property regime all over the Pacific Rim really is the most intolerable and indefensible part of this, and it's (obviously) one for which this country has nobody but itself to blame.

Exactly. In any case, it will do no further harm inside the US: all the harm has already been done.

We really don't want this garbage over here.

The TPP has been well known within politically aware circles for several months now as a severe threat to Australian consumers.  As much as we might respect America's love for intellectual property, nobody appreciates getting letters from film distributors demanding thousands of dollars up front to avoid a costly court case.  Nobody is thrilled about 'adapting' to higher US prices for medication, or 'adapting' to the needs of US corporations that wish to ignore environmental and/or labor protections.

Indeed, Australia discovered this recently as Philip Morris Ltd moved in an international court to challenge their plain cigarette packaging legislation, abandoning local mechanisms to defeat the restrictions as there existed no good will for the tobacco industry.  We're quite concerned that this could become a regular occurrence.

[Ebowed]

From what I've seen, a lot of the objections to TPP read like they are from the mid-20th century (e.g. paranoid fears about the United Nations or economic globalization). Kinda hard for me to take those seriously in 2015.

There are plenty of voices, as Averroes points out, coming from a non-fringe perspective.  Personally I never credibly entertain the paranoid cries of nationalists, who have their own reasons for opposing trade agreements.  The problem with TPP is that it goes far beyond any free trade agreement by extending US patent laws to participant countries, and in the process creating an international court where corporations would be able to sue governments for any regulations they might find stifling.  The biggest problem with this extension of patents will come in medicine, where other countries will have to wait longer before manufacturing cheaper generic versions of pharmaceuticals.  The best reason any American could have to support it is that many of the most onerous problems it creates already exist in the US.  But these concerns are certainly not radical or fringe.