As a member of Congress and a physician, I am very proud of the enormous generosity of the American people. Through their engagement, and their tax dollars, Americans help millions of disadvantaged people around the world by providing access to medical care and essential drugs.

Unfortunately, we are also currently negotiating sweeping international trade agreements that may curtail our ability to continue helping the poorest of the poor.

Working as a doctor in sub-Saharan Africa during the 1980s, I witnessed the AIDS epidemic devastate entire communities. I saw adults die far too young and watched women pass HIV to their newborns without a cure or a compressive response. Amazingly, assuring an AIDS-free generation is not only within reach today; it is, in fact, an official policy goal of the U.S. government. And while the global progress of HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention is impressive, it is just one of many global disease control efforts that the United States has spearheaded and pursued.

With America’s record of global health leadership in mind, I am troubled by what may happen to access to medicines for the poor around the world as a result of our new trade agreements.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is being negotiated right now. It includes 10 countries of the Pacific Rim, including developing countries such as Peru, Malaysia and Vietnam. If the TPP agreement is done right, it will encourage and support American exports and create needed jobs in the United States. The critical intellectual property provisions of the pact should protect inventors and developers of breakthrough innovations, but they cannot be so restrictive that they cost millions of lives in less developed countries.