The Australian Government will not be able to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership as quickly as it hoped, with the United States Congress voting to slow down the negotiations.

US president Barack Obama had been trying to fast-track the secretive and far-reaching trade deal before he leaves office, but a big push by workers’ unions means it will be debated more stringently.

Union lobbyists convinced members of the president's own Democratic party, as well as Republicans, to better protect workers who lose their jobs as a result of US trade deals.

While the fast-track measures are still on the table, the worker assistance package must be dealt with first.

Australia is one of 12 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), along with major economies accounting for about 40 per cent of global GDP.

But even though the deal will affect a massive range of industries and companies, it has been negotiated almost entirely in secret, save for a few leaked details published by groups like WikiLeaks. 

In the most recent leaks, insiders revealed that deals with pharmaceutical companies will give them more control over prices, which means that even in Australia under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, sick people will end up paying more for their medication.

Countries with pharmaceutical schemes like Australia’s currently decide which medicines and devices will be subsidised for public benefit. But the provisions of the TPP could force the Government to adhere to pricing rules set by the drug companies.

Wikileaks says the Annex on Transparency and Procedural Fairness for Pharmaceutical Products and Medical Devices is designed to cripple New Zealand’s strong public healthcare program, and stop other countries from adopting similar schemes.

From the tiny scraps of details revealed so far, it appears the Annex will also stop the US Congress from pursuing reforms of its own Medicare program.

The latest version of the draft annex is an amendment to the previous deal, and appears to have watered-down the old version considerably.

But Dr Deborah Gleeson, an expert in public health at La Trobe University, says it is still “clearly intended to cater to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry”.

Dr Gleeson told News Corp reporters that it also does not promote free trade, but rather “tightly specifies the operations of countries’ schemes” for subsidising pills and medical services.

She said it does this specifically to provide “greater disclosure, more avenues for pharmaceutical industry influence and greater opportunities for industry contestation of pharmaceutical decision making”.

“It is highly inappropriate for the United States to apply highly prescriptive settings to pharmaceutical access programs in other countries,” she said.

“The Annex serves no public interest purpose and provides negative precedent for future regional trade agreements.

“The negotiating countries should not agree to its inclusion in the TPP.”