National Nurses United

Dispute Settlement process, which sets up separate corporate trade tribunals to make decisions under the authority of these treaties. So sovereign nations' laws would be at the mercy of these outside, undemocratic bodies. "Under our system of government, our laws are subject to the scrutiny of U.S. courts but should not be subjected to being overturned by separate, international corporate tribunals which have no accountability to the people of the United States or the people in any of the other signatory countries," said Jean Ross, RN and a copresident of National Nurses United, at the D.C. press conference. In addition to the TPP, a couple of other international trade agreements are in the works, such as the Trade in Services Agree- ment (which covers the global services economy) and the Trans- Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. "As a registered nurse who cares for patients in my city and as a food consumer, it is deeply concerning that our food safety laws could be seriously undermined by these international trade agreements," said Beverly van Buren, a St. Louis, Mo. NNU member who also spoke at the press conference. "The TPP and the other pending trade agreements will allow corporations to challenge these laws as 'illegal trade barriers,' thus subjecting the American people to unsafe food." Van Buren pointed out that treaties like TPP water down food safety standards among signatory countries to the lowest, worst common denominator (which, embarrassingly, is sometimes the United States). The U.S. Food and Drug Administration currently checks just 2 percent of imports for contaminants (including drug residues, microbes, and heavy metals), while Europe checks 20 to 50 percent, Japan checks 18 percent, and Canada checks 15 percent. Europe tests for 34 drugs in its seafood imports, while the U.S. FDA only looks for 13. Food labels that provide information on the origin of the food and how it was produced could also be under attack, as they already have been under World Trade Organization rules. In the area of pharmaceuticals, the TPP would give big drug compa- nies enormous power, ranging from protecting their patents for longer periods of time (thereby preventing the availability of cheaper generic drug substitutes), to blocking bulk drug purchasing (which countries such as Canada and the U.S. Veterans Affairs healthcare system use). "RNs know from the frontlines of fighting HIV/IDS around the world that when brand-name drugs were the only option, AIDS was a death sentence in the world's poorest countries," said Deborah Burger, RN and also a copresident of National Nurses United, at the press conference. "It was only when the introduction of generic drugs was allowed that dra- matic price drop occurred, from $15,000 per person per year to just $150, making treatment possible for millions." In fact, treaties like the TPP could jeopardize entire countries' health systems and speed up privatization of formerly public health- care services. As preposterous as it sounds, private healthcare corpo- rations could argue that government-funded national public health systems, such as the Canadian Medicare system, pose unfair compe- tition or impose unfair limits to their business. In 2008, a group of 14 N A T I O N A L N U R S E W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G M A R C H 2 0 1 5

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