Now it’s Fair Trade: rebranding the TPPA

Nothing new under the sun;
colonise your opponents language

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Re-branding is nothing new to the world of business, particularly when the brand carries the burden of history (think North America Free Trade Agreement). It comes then as no surprise that the advocates of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, the much hyped free trade agreement for the 21st century, have decided on a name change.

According to Illinois Republican Congressman Don Manzullo, leader of the congressional delegation to last month’s NZ-US Partnership Forum,  in Christchurch to “help negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership” it’s actually a 'fair' trade agreement.

Congressman Manzullo’s media release expresses “serious concerns with proposals by some negotiating partners to eliminate the patentability of software and weaken trademark protection for certain products, as well as the absence of robust investor-state dispute settlement”.

The vid below untangles all that jargon, and is well worth viewing, but the short of it simply put, Australia’s tobacco ‘plain packaging’ and the soft ware patent legislation are a problem.