Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
Race to the bottom for workers’ rights
If the RCEP: Global Corporations could sue governments
Like the TPP, the RCEP could contain rights for foreign corporations to bypass national courts and sue governments in unfair international tribunals. This system is called investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). ISDS has been opposed by civil society groups and some RCEP governments and in September 2019 the Malaysian trade Minister announced it had been excluded from the negotiations. But the text was still secret, and this cannot be confirmed until the the text is released after signing in 2020.
Access to medicines under threat
Leaked documents revealed that harmful intellectual property provisions were being proposed in the RCEP. These could raise the price of medicines by extending monopoly rights for pharmaceutical companies and delaying access to cheaper versions of these medicines.
RCEP: Shrouded in secrecy
The RCEP is even bigger than the TPP with its 16 countries representing half the world’s population. It's also more secretive than the TPP, which was infamous for its lack of transparency. What we do know from leaked documents is that there is a push to use the TPP as a model - which means the RCEP could also be a bad deal for democracy, health, the environment and working people.
Indonesian official says no TPP in the RCEP
23 March 2017: The chief RCEP negotiator has urged members to avoid introducing TPP clauses into the deal.
“My immediate response is simply don’t TPP-enize this RCEP,” Iman Pambagyo, RCEP trade negotiating committee chief told Bloomberg.
Leaked RCEP documents confirm restrictions on government regulation of financial crises
March 23, 2017: Leaked documents from the December 2016 RCEP negotiations have been published on the KEI website. They show how the RCEP investment and services chapters restrict government regulation of investment flows and financial services.
An extract from the investment chapter sets out rules for governments dealing with balance of payments crises or other financial crisis.
Is the RCEP the TPP by another name?
The TPP-12 corporate agenda faced opposition in most TPP countries, especially the US, where there was bipartisan opposition leading to the US withdrawal in 2017. But the Japanese and Australian governments led the push to resurrect the TPP 11 and are pushing to repeat the same model in other trade agreements. First in line is the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
Don’t revive dead TPP, say 200 organisations in 15 countries
MEDIA RELEASE, March 9 2017: Two hundred organisations from 15 countries have urged trade ministers meeting in Chile next week not to use the failed TPP as a model for future agreements.
RCEP a “grave threat to access to medicines,” says MSF
March 4, 2017: As RCEP negotiations continue in Japan, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has sent a letter to all negotiating countries to express their serious concern over provisions that threaten to restrict access to medicines for millions of people by delaying access to cheaper medicines and by allowing pharmaceutical companies to sue governments in international tribunals.