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24 January 2017

Trump removes US from TPP deal

Donald Trump, the 45th president of the US, abandoned his country’s involvement in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal yesterday.

WIPR  reported back in November last year that Trump would withdraw from the deal on his first day in the White House.

The TPP deal covered 12 nations—Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the US and Vietnam.

In a presidential memorandum published yesterday, January 23, Trump said: “It is the policy of my administration to represent the American people and their financial well-being in all negotiations, particularly the American worker, and to create fair and economically beneficial trade deals that serve their interests.”

In order to ensure these outcomes, Trump’s administration will begin pursuing “bilateral trade negotiations to promote American industry, protect American workers, and raise American wages”.

The future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is also uncertain.

According to news outlets, including CNBC, Trump is scheduling meetings with the leaders of Canada and Mexico to renegotiate NAFTA.

“We will be starting negotiations having to do with NAFTA,” Trump reportedly said at a swearing-in ceremony for his top White House advisers. “We are going to start renegotiating on NAFTA, on immigration and on security at the border.”

The TPP deal contained several intellectual property provisions, including rules on the length of protection afforded to data exclusivity rights for biological drugs and a safe harbour provision for internet service providers.

Responding to a survey by WIPR published before Trump’s decision, 76% of readers believed his intention to scrap the deal would be bad for IP owners in the signatory countries.

John Pegram, senior principal at Fish & Richardson, said that withdrawal from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) may follow Trump’s decision to abandon the TPP.

He added that increased US-UK trade seems less likely, which would be “a blow” to UK Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plans.

“US law requires trade agreements to include IP provisions, and both the TTP and TTIP included such provisions. If these negotiations are not going to proceed, there may be an increased focus on IP law harmonisation in other forums, such as the World Intellectual Property Organization,” said Pegram.

Josh Rich, partner at McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff, added: “The US's withdrawal will not only mean that the US won’t have any role in the specifics and implementation of the protection of IP rights, but also that it will not be part of the community ensuring the enforcement.”

He explained that US owners of all forms of IP rights will have less protection against overseas infringement of their rights.

Trump’s plan to renegotiate NAFTA raises further questions regarding IP protection in Canada and Mexico for US owners, according to Rich.

He added: “Withdrawing from the TPP didn’t have as great effect on IP rights in those countries since NAFTA was already in place to fall back on. But if NAFTA is renegotiated, it isn’t clear how US-owned IP rights in Canada and Mexico will be impacted.”

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14 November 2017   A group of 11 countries has agreed to push ahead with the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement despite the US’s withdrawal, but has suspended some IP provisions.
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8 March 2018   A group of 11 countries is expected to sign a Trans-Pacific trade deal today, just over a year after US President Donald Trump abandoned his country’s involvement.