Schakowsky and colleagues tell Trump: Don't give Pharma a handout in NAFTA negotiations
Today, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky led her colleagues Reps Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ro Khanna (D-CA), and Peter DeFazio (D-OR) on a letter asking President Trump to ‘reject calls by the pharmaceutical industry to increase their monopoly powers through U.S. trade policy’. After sending the letter, Rep. Schakowsky released the following statement:
“Today we’re delivering a clear message to President Trump: don’t give pharmaceutical corporations and their monopolies a handout in NAFTA negotiations. With families across the country struggling to buy the medicines they need, our trade representatives must demand pro-consumer trade deals that lower the skyrocketing cost of prescription drugs. As we stated in our letter today, the scales in trade deals between pharmaceutical corporation profits and public health priorities are already heavily tipped in favor of industry. That’s why reports stating that American NAFTA negotiators are advocating for even more pharmaceutical industry priorities are so harrowing. Those pharmaceutical industry priorities include a push to maintain NAFTA’s investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms – corporate kangaroo courts designed to favor the interests of corporations and leave working men and women as well as local governments defenseless. I sincerely hope that President Trump will keep his promise to lower prescription drugs and promote fair trade deals.”