In The News

Productivity Commission Report on Bilateral and Regional Free Trade Agreements:

Get writing - submissions close on 10th September:

As reported in the August bulletin, the Productivity Commission (PC) has released its draft report on “Bilateral and Regional Trade Agreements”. The deadline for comments is 10th September 2010, after which the PC will produce a final report.

Members are encouraged to make submissions and reinforce the call for a fair trade agenda to replace the neo-liberal free trade approach.Follow the read more link for further information and guidance.

Invitation to a Night with Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas).

Gordon Gekko is out of jail, allowing Michael Douglas to return to Wall Street, and he is back with a simple message:

“I once said greed is good... but now it seems it’s legal.”

AFTINET invites you to a film night fundraiser featuring Wall Street 2 – Money Never Sleeps.

As the global economy teeters on the brink of the GFC disaster, a young Wall Street trader hooks up with disgraced former Wall Street corporate raider Gordon Gekko.

Follow the read more link for further details or this link to download the invitation and order form.

TPPA Campaign: don’t trade away vital social policies

More than thirty Australian unions and community groups have asked the Trade Minister to safeguard the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Australian local content in media, regulation of GE food, regulation of foreign investment and industry policies that support local employment in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations. Follow the read more link for more information.

New Community Education Leaflet: On Wednesday 16th June 2010, in the Jubilee Room of NSW Parliament House, AFTINET held a successful public meeting to launch our new publication, a community education leaflet about the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) called:

“Resurrecting the US Free Trade Agreement: what US business wants from the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement and what we can do about it”.

Folow the read more link for further informaiton and copies of the leaflet.

Get Involved and Stay in Touch – check back regularly and follow the read more link below to find out more about the campaign and what actions you can take such as sending an email to Trade MInister, Stephen Smith.

NEW WEBSITE: New Zealand TPPA Monitoring Site:

Our New Zealand friends have launched a new website to monitor and report on the TPPA it is called The Trans-Pacific Partnership Digest and the website address is: http://tppdigest.org/

PACER-Plus - Call to Suspend Talks

Pacific civil society has called for the PACER-Plus talks to be suspended pending promised national consultations being undertaken; funding and adequate staffing for the office of the Chief Trade Advisor; an easing of the impacts and an evaluation of the of the global financial crisis; alternative trade options are examined; there is a guarantee to exclude comprehensive services and investment chapters; there is a delinking of the labour mobility program; adequate funding and training is provided for capacity building of local trade officials and key stakeholders; a human rights and gender analysis is undertaken and there is active involvement from civil society as promised by the leaders. Follow this link for a copyof the Pacific Statement.

AFTINET, along with many civil society organisations in Australia and New Zealand have supported this call from the Pacific to suspend the talks. Follow this link for a copy of the statement.

Follow this link to our PACER-Plus Campaign page.

Robin Hood Tax Campaign:

Reckless deregulation of financial services, encouraged by some free trade agreements, contributed to the GFC. Governments must have full rights to regulate financial institutions in the public interest, not limited by free trade agreements. A Robin Hood tax would slow speculation and raise much needed revenue.

You can now send an email to Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan from the Robin Hood Tax website

Follow this link to our webpage on the campaign or this link to the Robin Hood Tax website:

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Featured Campaigns

 

World Trade Organisation

The World Trade Organisation was formed in 1995 to replace previous trade agreements with more legally binding agreements which now cover goods, agriculture, services and intellectual property rights. The WTO has attracted protest because its agreements promote the rights of transnational investors over human rights. The WTO reaches into many areas of regulation which should be decided democratically by governments, including levels of foreign investment, the provision and regulation of essential services like health, education and water, and even the price of medicines and responses to climate change.  

AFTINET campaigns for a fair multilateral trading system which would not undermine human rights and democracy. Read more...

Trans - Pacific Partnership Agreement

The Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a proposed new regional free trade agreement between the US, Australia, New Zealand, Chile, Singapore, Brunei Darussalam, Peru and Vietnam, building on the bilateral Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) the US has with five of these countries, including Australia.

Official negotiations begin in Melbourne on 15th March 2010.

This means that all of the issues we kept out or limited in the US–Australia FTA will be up for negotiation again. We know from submissions made by US business groups that they want to use the negotiations to obtain more changes in the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, media content rules and labelling of genetically engineered food. And there will be strong pressure for Australia to accept an investor-state complaints process, because four of the other free trade agreements include this process.

We are campaigning to prevent these health, cultural and environmental policies from being traded away.

Get Involved and Stay in Touch – check back regularly and follow the link below to find out more about the campaign and what actions you can take.

Read more...

 

China Australia FTA

Australia is now three years into negotiating its troubled Free Trade Agreement with China which, in its current form, gives no recognition to human rights, labour rights or environmental protections, despite the violations of these rights in China.

The FTA would also threaten jobs in Australian manufacturing and textiles industries, many of which are located in regional areas of high unemployment

AFTINET is campaigning to stop the China/Australia FTA. Read more...