Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement: Medicine Costs Go Up, Government Loses Sovereignty in Public Policy-Making

Since 2010, Malaysia has been negotiating a Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement with the United States and nine other countries, including New Zealand, Singapore and Australia. Although the TPPA is said to be a vehicle to advance economic cooperation and liberalise investment, critics are strongly opposing certain provisions of the TPPA which they claim will limit Malaysians’ access to medicine and cost the government its ability to formulate effective public policy. In the following interview, Fifa Rahman, drug policy executive with the Malaysian AIDS Council and regional rapporteur at Harm Reduction International, discusses how the TPPA will affect access to not just access to medicines in Malaysia but public health policies, as well as provisions that should be excluded from the agreement to safeguard healthcare in MalaysiaSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.