Last week, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had some “breaking news” for us. The PM introduced the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal as “the gigantic foundation stone of our future prosperity.” The TPP deal had all the necessary sound bytes to dominate the media.
First of all, it could be reduced to a catchy acronym (TPP), which as we know, determines whether or not it makes it to the realms of the water-cooler discussion.
Second, it involved some heavy sounding numerals to back it up: 12 nations forming 40 percent of global GDP came together to sign the TPP.
To top it all, the Trans-Pacific Partnership involved the dramatic story of our Trade Minister, the Honourable Andrew Robb, staring down his American counterpart to deny big-pharma companies extended protections on patents. As we know, big-pharma companies are evil; denying them anything can only be a good thing.
But what exactly are latte-sippers like me to glean from the trade treaty? How would the crumbs from the global 40 percent make their way into our wallets?
So, latte in hand, I decided to wade through some industry and trade data.
Read more on The Big Smoke.
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