Posted on 10/17/2017 5:14:40 AM PDT by Kaslin
It now appears that Donald Trump's intention regarding the North American Free Trade Agreement is to mend it, not end it. That's good news, because the trade deal has been a stunning economic success for Canada, Mexico and the United States. Freer trade has meant steady increases in the volume of trade, greater competitiveness and lower prices.
But as Trump's negotiators craft a NAFTA 2.0 deal, some things need to be fixed to assure America's continued commanding heights in technology and innovation. Intellectual property rights -- patents, copyrights and so on -- need to be better safeguarded.
There have been abuses. In an unprecedented move, Canadian regulators recently ordered an American pharmaceutical company to lower the price of the company's breakthrough treatment for a rare blood disorder.
Canada is inventing new rules to avoid paying American pharmaceutical and technology companies for their innovations and inventions. This is also happening in Europe, where bureaucrats are trying to expropriate funds from American technology leaders, including Google, through bogus charges of monopoly activities.
The Trump administration should vigorously repel these economic attacks against American companies. This is a very big deal for the American economy. Intellectual property is increasingly the lifeblood of our economy. IP-intensive industries support 28 million American jobs -- or about 1 in 5 workers. About $6 trillion of our GDP now is in IP-related industries, including almost all of Silicon Valley.
Many of NAFTA's IP provisions do not prevent infringement of patent rights and, in some cases, outright theft (as in the case of China). This costs American consumers and businesses an estimated $200 billion annually.
Consider our drug companies. American pharmaceuticals recorded $47 billion in exports in 2015. Yet despite this and the fact that the vast majority of drug breakthroughs come from America, the U.S. currently has a $700 million trade deficit with Canada and only a tiny trade surplus with Mexico in biopharmaceuticals.
Our trade partners do not want their citizens to pay for the costs of the research and development required to invent these breakthrough medicines in the first place. It typically requires $500 million to $1 billion to develop a new drug or vaccine, and American consumers shouldn't bear the entire burden of those costs.It drives up drug and health insurance costs in America, and it jeopardizes world health by delaying the development of future cures for cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, Parkinson's and other terrible diseases.
Even worse, Mexico is producing "knockoff" drugs that are copycats of American pharmaceuticals. This is stealing, too, and negotiators should get tough on these practices south of our border.
The same abuses are happening with American trademarks and copyrighted materials. NAFTA doesn't sufficiently protect movies, music and games from theft and distribution online.
NAFTA should impose civil and criminal penalties for illicit access to cable and satellite signals and other preventable infringements in which American firms are not compensated for use of the product.
The future of free and fair trade depends on rigorous enforcement of America's multitrillion-dollar IP industries. This is about jobs -- millions of them -- and the rule of law. It is also about encouraging the very innovation that promotes prosperity and better health in America -- which we then export across the globe to the betterment of mankind. It will also help boost public and business support for trade as a driver of growth in the years to come.
In sane world, there would be no “NAFTA 2”.
>>This is also happening in Europe, where bureaucrats are trying to expropriate funds from American technology leaders, including Google, through bogus charges of monopoly activities.... Intellectual property is increasingly the lifeblood of our economy.
Google-youtube doesn’t behave as a monopoly?
Youtube doesn’t host the piracy of intellectual property?
Selective outrage
>>NAFTA should impose civil and criminal penalties for illicit access to cable and satellite signals and other preventable infringements in which American firms are not compensated for use of the product.
Anyone stealing cable deserves the steady diet of left-wing globalist propaganda they receive
We need some wisdom here. Do companies stay in Puerto Rico?
Not sure why you’d say that. NAFTA was the greatest trade deal this country has ever signed even if you only consider the impact it had on U.S. access to oil and gas from Canada and Mexico.
Build every inch of the wall until it is complete.. Then make a deal.. or better yet no more illegals.
Whatever you do don't change your name. It fits you perfect
IP is one of the driving forces behind globalization.
American companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple born and incorporated in the U.S bothers certain european allies.
Remove the IP rights of any and all search engine advertising, social media or online news services.
Challenge my points and knock off the insults.
I can think of no better group to strip of money and power than these people.
Deals are made to make trade free and fair. Now, I personally HATE THE WORD “FAIR”. Libs have destroyed that word to mean what they want to mean. But allowing Canada to act with impunity to essentially increase the cost of new drugs to US citizens is not “fair”.
The writer is quite naïve in his belief that our “partners” are ever going to stop doing this stuff.
This thing does sort of read like a Chamber of Commerce wet dream.
What do cable TV and satelite TV have to do with Nafta? Of course anyone that steals Cable TV service and Satelite signals should be punishes and are punished. Why do you think cable company trucks are driving around in the neighbor hoods? Of course the commie search engine google (spelled on purpose in lower case) and YouTube have a monopoly, but I still don’t see what thay have to do with Nafta? There are search engines you can choose that do not track you. DuckDuckGo is one of them. I suggest you try it.
“That’s good news, because the trade deal has been a stunning economic success for Canada, Mexico and the United States.”
They fail to mention the biggest winner.
China
Excellent point.
I don't think they are on our side anymore, and I now doubt that they ever were.
My recollection is that Canada called a meeting with all the pharmaceutical manufactures and told them that if they didn't sell their product in Canada at what the Canadian government thought was a reasonable price, Canada was going to revoke all of their patents and allow Canadian companies to manufacture their products.
Basically extortion, but with sufficient real threat behind it that the companies really had no choice. They either complied, or they would be destroyed by Canadian companies making their products without having to pay for their research and development costs.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.