This afternoon USTR published a summary of the negotiating objectives for NAFTA. A press release is here. The summary report is here.
The intellectual property objectives include this welcome statement, which reflects positions taken in the past by USTR, but it not something we took for granted in the Trump Administration, and we are happy to see it.
Respect the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, adopted by the World Trade Organization at the Fourth Ministerial Conference at Doha, Qatar on November 14, 2001, and to ensure that trade agreements foster innovation and promote access to medicines.
Note this also on this objectives, which appears to rule out giving foreign investors special rights to sue the United States.
Secure for U.S. investors in the NAFTA countries important rights consistent with U.S. legal principles and practice, while ensuring that NAFTA country investors in the United States are not accorded greater substantive rights than domestic investors.
I’ve been tweeting some of my initial reactions to the text.