October 30, 2017: The Australian Fair Trade network of community organisations welcomes the pledge by Shadow Trade Minister Jason Clare in his speech to ACCI today for the public release and independent economic analysis of trade agreements before they are signed, but there should also be health and environmental impact studies, AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald said today.
October 26, 2017: US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said publicly last week that the US wants to opt out of ISDS in NAFTA, because of the risk and costs of US governments being sued by foreign corporations, and despite corporate lobby groups pushing to retain ISDS.
October 26, 2017: MSF (Doctors without Borders) has called for India and other countries to block RCEP proposals from Japan and South Korea that would allow pharmaceutical companies to have stronger monopolies, prevent competition and keep medicine prices high. They added that it was time to end the push for ever-higher levels of monopoly control of medicines through free trade agreements .
October 25, 2017: IBON International has released a powerful new video, ‘Trade for the People,’ which looks at how the neoliberal trade regime has delivered for transnational corporations at the expense of the global South.
October 24, 2017: An economic modelling study by the US Peterson Institute has admitted that the TPP without the US would have even less of the tiny economic benefits predicted for Australia with US participation.
October 23, 2017: New Zealand Prime Minister-elect, Labour’s Jacinda Ardern, has said that walking away from the TPP-11 talks is ‘not necessary’, although she will push to secure a ban on foreign property speculators. This would mean a change to New Zealand’s investment schedule in the TPP-11 text.
Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade negotiators have met this week in Incheon, South Korea, to continue talks.
October 19, 2017: The fourth round of talks for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations wrapped up in Washington this week. Business representatives have balked at the US administration’s proposals to make ISDS voluntary, but unions and community groups want the US to exclude ISDS from the agreement.
October 18, 2017: Sam Cossar-Gilbert from Friends of the Earth International has written an article in The Diplomat on ‘5 Hidden Costs of the RCEP to People and the Planet’, using information from The hidden costs of RCEP and corporate trade deals in Asia published last year.
October 17, 2017: The Finance Secretary of the Philippines, Carlos Dominguez, has stated that the Philippines will not join the TPP without the US. The US withdrew from the TPP agreement on January 24, 2017. Manila Bulletin reports that Mr Dominguez recently told a leaders' forum in Washington DC, “Without the US I don’t think it’s going to be too hot… Without the US, it doesn’t make sense.”