Trans-Pacific Partnership details finally released to the public

On Thursday, the U.S. and 11 other Pacific Rim nations party to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord released the text of the agreement, starting the clock for the U.S. Congress to ratify the pact — crucial to its success — or reject it. The TPP agreement took five years to hammer out, and the secrecy of the negotiations made a lot of labor, business, and environmental groups nervous. The final agreement, running hundreds of detail-heavy pages, is 30 chapters long with several side agreements.

In the U.S., the vote on TPP is expected to be close and contentious, coming next spring, in the middle of a presidential race. "We have a whole-of-government, whole-of-White-House effort underway" to promote the agreement, said Michael B. Froman, U.S. Trade Representative. If ratified, TPP will be the largest regional trade pact yet, lowering or ending most trade barriers between 12 nations that make up 40 percent of the world's economy.

President Obama sees the agreement as an important way to counter China's growing influence in the Asia-Pacific region and Latin America, and the White House is especially touting two side agreements in which Vietnam agrees to allow independent unions with the right to strike. Democrats and labor groups are worried that TPP will result in more U.S. jobs going overseas. Republicans and drug companies are concerned that the patent protection for biologic drugs — expensive advanced treatments, grown from living organisms, with promising cancer-fighting benefits — aren't long enough at five to eight years, while human rights groups say the patent exclusivity is too long. You can read the entire agreement here.

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