the EU are pursuing a similar trade deal with the US
TTIP negotiations ground to a halt a couple of years ago. New negotiations are under way - the European Commission’s draft mandates for the new talks so far only cover tariff cuts and regulatory cooperation, but corporate lobbyists are pushing for a much broader TTIP-like trade deal, as envisioned by the US Government.
This is what the US PhRMA lobby group are saying:
Government Price Setting – In many EU Member States, governments are the primary payer of health care and medicines and in effect dictate prices. This commanding position often results in EU Member States failing to appropriately recognize the value of innovation in their pricing and reimbursement policies, instead engaging in actions that distort markets and artificially depress prices below what a competitive market would provide, and in some cases outright delay or deny patient access to new innovative treatments. Governments in the EU Member States are increasingly employing a range of regulatory measures, including international reference pricing, therapeutic reference pricing, mandatory price cuts and clawback taxes, and flawed health technology assessments. These measures are often layered to exert maximum pressure on prices.
With these concerns in mind, PhRMA welcomes the Administration’s continued focus on the problem of advanced economies undervaluing U.S. innovative medicines.
It remains critical for the U.S. Government to engage on these issues with its trading partners, and to require immediate and meaningful steps to resolve existing barriers and to ensure patients have faster access to new treatments and cures.
In other words, we want Europe to pay full whack free market rates, just like we charge our customers in the US so we can make a lot of money.