The U.S. is “reserving the right to vet...

The U.S. is “reserving the right to vet other countries’ implementation” of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “before its own obligations come into effect,” said the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s (EFF) Jeremy Malcolm, senior global policy analyst, and Maira Sutton, global policy analyst, in a blog post Thursday (http://bit.ly/VnM9Fs). EFF cited the recently launched TPP: No Certification website (http://bit.ly/1pPSV1E) as its source. The stance by the U.S. has “worrying implications for other countries planning to take advantage of whatever flexibilities remain in the TPP text after the negotiations are finished,” said EFF. “The leaked draft of the TPP requires signatory countries to provide ‘legal incentives for service providers to cooperate with copyright owners,'” it said, saying the term “legal incentives” is “vague.” “Certification means that this ambiguity or flexibility could disappear, leaving countries with only one, extreme interpretation of their obligations under the TPP -- whatever interpretation the US Trade Representative (USTR) unilaterally decides,” which might include strict copyright regulations, it said.