CIPPIC Comments on Resumption of TPP Negotiations

| October 30, 2017

CIPPIC today filed with global Affairs Canada its comments on the resumption of negotiations over the Trans Pacific Partnership. The withdrawal of the United States from the TPP offers an opportunity to improve the agreement and address some of the more problematic provisions of the previously-concluded trade agreement. CIPPIC's Comments focus on:

  • process & transparency;
  • problems with the Investor State Dispute Mechanism (ISDS);
  • digital trade and privacy issues; and
  • balance in the intellectual property provisions.

11/07/2017 UPDATE: In response to reports that some TPP-11 states were considering freezing several provisions of the TPPA, including problematic provisions on data localization, cross-border privacy and ISDS, CIPPIC submitted a followup letter to the Honorouable François-Philippe Champagne, the Minister of International Trade, calling on Canada to support a freeze of these provisions in APEC meetings taking place this week. As the letter points out, all of these provisions were concessions to the United States and have not been shown to benefit Canada in any way. As the United States is no longer a party to the TPP, the provisions should not be included in any finalized version of that agreement.

Image Credit: Jason Garber, CC-BY-NC-SA 2.0, May 2, 2006, Flickr