Obama Administration Says TPP Trade Deal Will Expand Access To Medicine in Poor Countries

Lost amid all the hue and cry over the mustache-twirling villains who are conspiring to devastate American workers by negotiating a secret trade partnership with Pacific Rim nations are the legitimate concerns of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like Doctors Without Borders, who say that the trade deal will cost lives. The deal, they say, will make it more difficult for poor nations to produce or obtain affordable medicines by extending the restrictions on making generic versions of the drugs available, and undermine the ability of governments to set price controls.

The stakes involved in issues like this could not be higher, given that the Trade Promotion Authority that President Obama seeks would make it possible for the final deal to pass Congress without a single Democratic vote. Well, it would still need one democratic vote, that of President Obama, who says he needs TPA to negotiate the most favorable deal possible.

When asked about the generic drug issue, his White House…READ MORE

By: Tommy Christopher

Tommy Christopher is The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite. Christopher is a frequent guest on a variety of television, radio, and online programs, and was the villain in the documentaries The Audacity of Democracy and Hating Breitbart. He's also That Guy Who Live-Tweeted His Own Heart Attack, and the only person to have ever received public apologies from both Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.