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The United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations reached an agreement Monday on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest regional trade accord in history.
The agreement has been negotiated for eight years in secret and will encompass 40 percent of the global economy.
Vermont senator and Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders issued a statement calling TPP “disastrous” and vowed to fight it in Congress.
One sticking point on the TPP had been the so-called death sentence clause, extending drug company monopolies on medicines.
The United States and drug companies had pressed for longer monopolies on new biotech drugs, while multiple countries opposed the push, saying it could deny life-saving medicines to patients who cannot afford high prices.
The compromise reportedly includes monopolies of between five and eight years.
Last week in Atlanta, Zahara Heckscher, a cancer patient, disrupted TPP negotiations and was arrested as she demanded access to the secret text to see whether it includes a “death sentence clause.”
Heckscher joins us to talk about her arrest and why she says “it would actually condemn women to death.”
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