Harmful TPP-like intellectual property provisions are 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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
March 4, 2017: The Japanese family farmer movement recently protested outside RCEP negotiations in Kobe, Japan, with the message 'Seeds are ours!’
Photo: Japanese family farmer movement (Nouminren)’s recent action in Kobe during RCEP negotiations
March 2, 2017: As RCEP negotiations continue in Japan this week, copyright experts have voiced their concerns about the way the agreement’s intellectual property chapter could undermine the public interest.
Media Release: February 27, 2017: Negotiations between Australia, New Zealand China, India, Japan, South Korea and 10 ASEAN countries continue this week for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) in Kobe, Japan. The negotiations are held in secret, and the Japanese government has been reluctant to allow community groups to meet with negotiators, only arranging a short meeting with little notice. Negotiations will continue through 2017.
Leaked documents have revealed that TPP-like proposals on stronger medicine monopolies and investor rights to sue governments are on the table. Community groups from most RCEP countries have urged governments to reject these proposals and release negotiating texts. See AFTINET media release here.
Tell the Australian trade Minister to say no to the TPP in the RCEP here.