Anticipatory Industry Policies Expected Australia to Accommodate Trans-Pacific Partnership - Case Study Example

Anticipatory Industry Policies Expected Australia to Accommodate TPP (Name) (Institution Affiliation) (Date) Anticipatory Industry Policies Expected Australia to Accommodate TPP The Trans-Pacific Partnership, commonly referred to as the TPP is an anticipated free trade agreement that is under negotiation among twelve countries. These countries include Australia, Japan, United States, New Zealand, Vietnam, Canada, Chile, Mexico, Brunei, Singapore, and Peru (Fergusson, 2010). As the negotiators posit, the TPP is a high-standard and comprehensive free trade agreement that is envisioned at liberating trade in almost all goods as well as services. The liberation will also involve rules-based commitments beyond those characterized by the Word Trade Organization (Cheong, 2013). If concluded as proposed, the TPP will remove tariff as well as nontariff barriers related to investment and trade among the member countries. Besides, if concluded as planned, it could as well serve as a template for future trade pact among the Asia-Pasic Economic Corporation (APEC) members and other potential countries. In essence, Australia has a direct interest in the negotiations as its economy will benefit greatly from the proposals made. In effect, this paper aims at delineating the possible anticipatory industry policies that could be developed to facilitate the implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. To start with as signatory, Australia will be required to enact laws that would subscribe to the DRM, also known as the digitals locks (Fergusson, 2010). As Herreros (2011) argues Australia will need to look at its copyright legislations thus enacting laws that ban the circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs), also known as the digital locks. Accordingly, Australia will be expected to rewrite its carefully-crafted 2007 technological protection measures. However, the new copyright law will not touch on the region-coding on players, video games, Movies on DVDs and as well as embedded software stored in devises that restrict access to goods as well as services (James, 2010). Like in the U.S, the Australian businesses could use the new copyright enactment as a basis for blocking the refilling of printer cartridges services as well as lock mobile phones to specific network providers. Further, with respect to the Intellectual property Chapter , the Australia will expected to come up will more stringent laws that may deprive of journalist’s freedom to reveal or even access information that is allegedly confidential through a computer system. Thus, whistleblowers will be legally accountable for disclosing any suspected misdoings by an individual or a company as the TPP agreement prohibits misuse of trade secrets. Looking at the IP chapters, Australian will have to develop very strict policies aimed at putting restriction on Fair Use (Dfat.gov.au. 2015). Accordingly, the TPP proposed a Three-Step-Test with regard to the intellectual property laws. Thus, Australia will have to enact a clause in its intellectual property laws aimed at standardizing possible limitations as well as exceptions to exclusive rights under the Australian copyright laws. The Three-step-Test is related to fair use, exceptions and limitations as well as fair dealing systems associated with copyrights (Capling, & Ravenhill, 2012). The systems are aimed at putting limitations associated with the exclusive rights copyright owners must have in order to reproduce their work for a specific period of time. The Intellectual Property chapter of the TPP proposed that the signatory members to come up with laws that incorporate the Three-step-Test (Cheong & Tongzon, 2013). This means that under the Australian legislation, all copyrighted content that has been determined to be fair or is within a counted set of limitations as well as exceptions will not be constituted as infringement. Users will be in a position to make a full or partial copy of all copyrighted works even when the author or producer of the material has not given permission to use the copyrighted material. Another sector that will have to accommodate new policies is the health industry, from the TPP agreements, it is evident that Australia will be have to come up with policies that allows an extension of patent terms. The TPP agreement sought to extent the patent term in order to compensate for the time for the time wasted in the issuing of the patents as well as obtaining marketing approval. As such, the new policy will see drug firms getting patent terms extended to more than five years with respect to new pharmaceuticals. Further, the Australian government will be expected to enact policies that will protect the methods used in the making of pharmaceutical products (Gleeson & Friel, 2013). Besides, Australia will be forced to come up policies that allow the Ministry of Health to grant for patents to the already existing products that may come up with minor variations. In other words, the government will be forced by law to provide patents for minor variations even when there has been no recorded evidence of additional benefit (Williams (2013). As Williams (2013) posits this provision could be misused by companies thus leading of “ever-greening” of patents, whereby patent holders use this regulation to their monopolies by acquiring additional patents. This in turn would limit competition from affordable generic versions for longer periods. An analysis from the TPP agreement also indicates that Australia will have to change its policies regarding the direct-to-consumer medicine advertising. The Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement holds that all the member countries should be permitted to advertise all goods and services directly to their potential customers on the internet. However, the current advertising-related policies prohibit drug companies from advertising directly to the consumer as it might have an effect on rational prescription such making individual to overuse medicines (Mackenzie et al., 2007). Advertising is usually powerful thus; any slight mistake in advertising medicine can lead in appropriate use of medicine, which in turn leads to worse health conditions. As far the control of tobacco usage in Australia is concerned, many changes associated with the tobacco advertising will have be considered. The Australian government may be forced to loosen of adjust its laws regarding tobacco advertising as the TPP agreement allows for investor protection (Faunce, 2012). Moreover, Faunce (2012) posits that the TPP gives an investor immunity related to trademarks as delineated in in the intellectual property chapter. Currently, the Australian tobacco control policies do not allow for the use of logos, color or even using other marketing material on the tobacco containers. However, with TPP agreement, a foreign company may argue that its liberty to enjoy free trade has been compromised. With an investment opportunity in Australia, a foreigner will expect to be protected by the TPP intellectual property chapter thus free to use the company’s trademark on products such tobacco. Consequently, Australia will be expected to change the tobacco laws and regulations in order to prevent lawsuits from foreign investor who may complain of being treated unfairly (Liberman, 2013). The alcohol business sector will also be affected by the TPP agreements in terms of policies as the government will have to come up with new policies that favor the TPP agreements. For instance, provisions such the chapter related to technical barriers to trade as well as the wines and spirits annex affects Australia’s capability to apply profoundly alcohol control measures(Elms & Lim, 2012). The technical barriers chapter in the TPP agreement also limits the Australian government’s ability to restrict the availability of alcohol. Accordingly, Australia will be force to change the policies associated with the regulation of trading hours as well as liquor outlet density. Further, the government will also have to come up with new laws associated with licensing. This indicates that Australia will have to give licenses to foreign investors, with the intention of starting a breweries company as well as allow for unlimited liquor outlet intensity. Initially, the Australian government had come up with stringent laws that sought to control the drinking hours, liquor licensing as well as alcohol outlets across Australia. However, with the introduction of the TPP agreement, the Country will need to struck out these policies and procedure to ease free trade. In conclusion, the Trans-Pacific Partnership has come with many opportunities as well as many challenges regarding the altering of the member’s industry laws and policies. As indicated in this paper, Australia will have to come up with various policies related to intellectual chapter and the copyright laws. Further, Australia will be expected to come up with tobacco and alcohol related policies that would allow the easy flow of trade among the member countries of The Trans-Pacific Partnership. References Capling, A., & Ravenhill, J. (2012). The TPP: multilateralizing regionalism or the securitization of trade policy. The Trans-Pacific Partnership: A Quest for a Twenty-First Century Trade Agreement, 279-98. Cheong, I. (2013). Negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement: Evaluation and implications for East Asian regionalism. Cheong, I., & Tongzon, J. (2013). Comparing the Economic Impact of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership*. Asian Economic Papers, 12(2), 144-164. Dfat.gov.au,. (2015). Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement - Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Retrieved 16 October 2015, from http://dfat.gov.au/trade/agreements/tpp/pages/trans-pacific-partnership-agreement tpp.aspx Elms, D., & Lim, C. L. (2012). The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) Negotiations: Overview and Prospects. Faunce, T. A. (2012). Challenges to Australia’s national health policy from trade and investment agreements. Medical Journal of Australia, 196(5), 354-356. Fergusson, I. F. (2010). Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. DIANE Publishing. Gleeson, D., & Friel, S. (2013). Emerging threats to public health from regional trade agreements. The Lancet, 381(9876), 1507-1509. Herreros, S. (2011). The Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement: a Latin American perspective. ECLAC. James, S. (2010). Is the Trans-Pacific Partnership worth the fuss?. Free Trade Bulleton, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Washtington DC. Liberman, J. (2013). Plainly constitutional: the upholding of plain tobacco packaging by the high court of Australia. Am. JL & Med., 39, 361. Mackenzie, F. J., Jordens, C. F. C., Ankeny, R. A., McPhee, J., & Kerridge, I. H. (2007). Direct‐to‐consumer advertising under the radar: the need for realistic drugs policy in Australia. Internal medicine journal, 37(4), 224-228. Williams, B. R. (2013). Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Countries: Comparative Trade and Economic Analysis. Read More