Not many Americans may recall NAFTA, the North American Free-Trade Agreement, which drove several million Mexican farmers off of their land whilst simultaneously causing the loss of over 700,000 American jobs as production moved to Mexico. Now history is about to repeat itself as another corporate “free trade” deal is on the verge of passing, the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Critics have already nailed the TPP; one of the most apparent critiques would be the advantages given to “Big Pharma” companies, which would be an injury to the American people as well as the citizens of all developing Pacific nations by way of heightening drug costs, restricting production of biosimilar, non-brand name drugs, in addition to taking away jobs from all people, local or foreign, for the sake of billions of dollars of profits for pharmaceutic companies. Such a law would have these nations see a sharp increase in drug costs; this will be deadly for low-income populations.

The TPP Agreement’s provisions will greatly change the legal makeup of various developing nations including Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and Vietnam, among others. Specifically, one of the provisions will grant monopoly protection of biological drugs, a corporation-protecting patent law that currently doesn’t existent in those nations.

“The TPP will still go down in history as the worst trade agreement for access to medicines in developing countries,” Doctors Without Border, an international humanitarian-aid and non-governmental organization, said. The group was recently bombed by drones in the Obama administration while in a hospital in Afghanistan.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, though subject to much protest and controversy, are projected to affect forty percent of the world’s economy,” explained senior Chris Thomas, award-winning Model U.N. member, “Despite the immense influence of the on a multitude of international industries and institutions, the TPP will cement the power of multinational corporations, especially in the biotech industry.”

The TPP plans to further restrict intellectual property laws, similar to the failed SOPA (Stop Only Privacy Act) and PIPA (Protect IP Act), online bills claiming to protect internet copyright laws, in reality those bills would have infringed on free speech on the internet. In this situation the pharmaceutic companies and the government benefits whilst infringing on biosimilar, small-scale, medical drug production.

The pharmaceutic corporations will price-gauge medicine and profit off of both those in developing nations as well as Obamacare customers. Lower-income Obamacare customers will be coerced into an apparatus within the for-profit healthcare system under the guise of “free trade” and equal health coverage.

When the recent news of price-gauging of medicine and corruption within the pharmaceutic corporations are shocking the nation, the TPP Agreement should be receiving its due critique for the hell it will bring. Daraprim, a 62 year-old Toxoplasmosis and Malaria drug, had its price raised haphazardly overnight, increasing at 5,455%. Sovaldi, a new and crucial Hepatitis-C drug, had its price set to $1,000 purely arbitrarily, despite costing $1 to make.

“Unfortunately, the everyday citizen will pay the price for the political lobbying and monopolistic protections hidden in the shadows of the negotiations,” Thomas continued.

The TPP agreement exemplifies the ties between the Obama administration, the big pharmaceutical market, and the governments across the pacific and back. As the saying goes, “Abuse of power comes as no surprise.”