New North American Trade Deal Keeps Useful (But Limited) Liability Protections, Dumps Bad Biologics Data Protection
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20191217/11422043590/new-north-american-trade-deal-keeps-useful-limited-liability-protections-dumps-bad-biologics-data-protection.shtml
When the NAFTA replacement "USMCA" agreement was first announced last year, we noted that it included a mix of good and bad ideas. The key good idea was that the USMCA contained a bit of language establishing a requirement for strong intermediary liability protections, similar to (but not exactly the same as) Section 230's protections in the US. Among the really bad ideas was expanding the data protection term for biologics -- which, we've noted, is really dangerous for basic science and innovation for new drugs -- but was supported by big pharmaceuticals to increase their monopoly power and ability to extract monopoly rents.
So it seems like good news that the latest version of the agreement keeps the intermediary liability protections and drops the biologics piece, which has the big pharma companies screaming angrily.