Leaked Trans-Pacific Partnership documents show the US is pushing for unprecedented penalties for those (like journalists) who expose trade secrets. Will Australia go along with the proposal? ANU College of Law associate professor Matthew Rimmer looks at what’s at stake.

Trans-Pacific Partnership

Last week, WikiLeaks published the draft text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership’s Intellectual Property Chapter. Its Editor-In-Chief, Julian Assange, declared:

“If instituted, the TPP’s IP regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons.”

One controversial area deserving of greater attention is the push by the United States Trade Representative for stronger protection of trade secrets across the Pacific Rim.

In its Special 301 Report for 2013, the USTR placed increased emphasis on the need to protect trade secrets, noting:

“Companies in a wide variety of industry sectors — including information and communication technologies, services, biopharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and environmental technologies — rely on the ability to protect their trade secrets and other proprietary information … The theft of trade secrets and other forms of economic espionage, which results in significant costs to US companies and threatens the economic security of the United States, appears to be escalating. If a company’s trade secrets are stolen, its past investments in research and development, and its future profits, may be lost … Trade secret theft threatens national security and the US economy, diminishes US prospects around the globe, and puts American jobs at risk.”

With much pressing by the US Chamber of Commerce, the USTR has been alarmed about economic espionage — particularly in respect to hacking by China. Such concerns are apparent in a recent dispute, when the US Department of Justice brought an action against Chinese company Sinovel and three associated individuals for the theft of trade secrets of United States wind technology company AMSC. FBI executive assistant director Richard McFeely said: “The FBI will not stand by and watch the haemorrhage of US intellectual property to foreign countries who seek to gain an unfair advantage for their military and their industries.”

As part of its push for greater powers to enforce intellectual property, the US hopes that further reforms to trade secret protection under the TPP will provide better protection and security for its flagship technology companies.