On Feb 4, 2016, after 7 years of negotiations, representatives from the USA, Japan, and ten other countries signed one of the largest trade and investment agreements in years, the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership (TPP). The negotiations were closed to the public, who only glimpsed drafts of the agreement when they were occasionally leaked. The participants were heavily lobbied by major industries. An...

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) involves twelve Pacific Rim economies of varying sizes and structures. Although often portrayed as a free trade agreement, the TPPA can, at best, be expected to deliver paltry overall growth gains from trade liberalization. The much higher figures touted by TPPA advocates are largely due to dubious ‘non-trade measures’, most of which have been reje...

Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) continues to plague health-oriented government regulation. This is particularly reflected in recent challenges to tobacco control measures through bilateral investment agreements. There are numerous reform proposals circulating within the public health community. However, I suggest that perhaps it is time for the community to explore a stronger position ...

1 Authors thank Mr. Abhijit Das and three anonymous reviewers for their useful comments on an earlier draft of the paper. All errors, however, remain those of the authors. 2 Disclaimer: All opinions expressed in this paper belong to the authors and not the organisations to which they are affiliated with.

(TPP) policy and the severe threats to public health that it implies for 12 Pacific Rim populations from the Americas and Asia (Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, United States, and Vietnam). With careful and analytic precision the authors convincingly unearth many aspects of this piece of legislation that undermine the public health achieve...

Brook Baker describes the potential harms to global health from the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and its failure to balance the interests of patients and the public with those of industry.