Media Release, November 30 2016: The failed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) should not be used as a model for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)*, 316 civil society organisations from across the Asia Pacific have warned as the sixteenth round of negotiations begin this week in Indonesia.
Nov 25, 2016: The sixteenth RCEP negotiating round will be held near Jakarta, Indonesia from the 2-10th December. Media reports indicate that India and some other countries are resisting the TPP-like proposals on stronger medicine monopolies and investor rights to sue governments.
Donald Trump didn’t kill the TPP. His opposition was only the final blow which came at the end of more than six years of criticism in the US, Australia and other countries by public health, environment, church, union and other community groups, writes AFTINET Convener Pat Ranald for Fairfax media.
22 November 2016: There were a lot of different media reports flying around about the future of the TPP during the APEC meeting in Lima over the weekend. Here’s our explainer.
6 November 2016: Peter Martin writes in Fairfax Media, that the RCEP is "another massive deal you've never heard of” which has ISDS on the agenda, despite the strong opposition ISDS has created to the TPP, and predicts the TPP’s demise . He cites a statement from hundreds of US law professors opposing ISDS because it would allow foreign investors to bypass "the basic procedures of the US justice system” .
October 24, 2016: Last week was the international RCEP week of action, a coordinated week of advocacy across our region led by civil society organisations including AFTINET.
October 19, 2016: The RCEP is an even bigger trade deal than the TPP with the same dangerous proposals. So what exactly is the RCEP and what could it mean for access to lifesaving medicines in the Asia Pacific?
AFTINET and MSF held an interactive online forum to discuss mega trade deals, corporate power and access to medicines. Watch the forum here and join the discussion on our Facebook page.
MEDIA RELEASE, 18 October 2016: Ninety-four public health and other community groups from 12 countries have condemned proposals for the inclusion of stronger medicine monopolies in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) as secret negotiations continue this week in China.
The open letter to RCEP governments is available here.
The future of the TPP is looking increasingly rocky, but global corporations and the Turnbull Government are already setting their sights on another mega-trade deal, one which is even bigger and even more secretive than the TPP: the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
12 October 2016: Intellectual property provisions in the China-led RCEP regional trade deal could block access to life-saving drugs for millions in Africa and Asia, warns Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) regional representative Dr Maria Guevara.
"The enforcement provisions attempt to prevent the flow of generic medicines from producer to patient, thereby providing a blank cheque for abuse," she writes.