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Sign the PETITION to the Senate against damaging clauses in RCEP

The RCEP is a massive trade deal being negotiated in secret between Australia, New Zealand, China, India, South Korea, Japan and the ten-member countries of ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations). The proposed RCEP would cover half the world's population.

In the lead up to the 2019 Federal Election, we need to tell all political parties in the Senate not to agree to damaging clauses in the negotiations.

Sign the PETITION to the Senate against damaging clauses in the proposed RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) and in favour of enforceable workers' rights and environmental standards.

See more information, including a printable flyer, here. You can print a hard copy of the Petition here, and donate to the campiagn here.

Government failure to cancel old Indonesian Investment deal leaves Australia open to being sued over tobacco regulation and other public interest laws

May 22, 2019: Legal academics have confirmed  that the recent Indonesia trade deal has no provisions to cancel the old 1993 Indonesia-Australia bilateral investment agreement, which will remain in force alongside the new agreement.

Developing countries defend WTO rules and dispute settlement system in the face of US actions and call for more priority for development

May 16, 2019: Ministers from 17 key developing WTO countries met in Delhi on May 14. In a statement on WTO reform, issued after the meeting, they defended the WTO multilateral trading system based on consensus of 164 WTO members, while identifying multiple challenges facing it.

US-China tariff wars not the answer to an unjust global trading system

May 15, 2019: Grace Blakeley argues in the New Statesman that the latest Trump policy of 25% tariffs on more Chinese imports and China’s retaliation could result in global recession, and will not fix the unjust neo-liberal model of trade agreements that has not delivered promised benefits. She argues in recent longer report for more equitable national economic policies and a fairer global trading system.

Adani’s threat to sue should not deter decisions to protect the environment says legal expert

May 9, 2019: UNSW legal researcher Dr Jonathan Bonnitcha has confirmed AFTINET’s concerns that the Adani mining company could use the Investor-State Dispute (ISDS) process in the India-Australia Bilateral Investment Treaty to claim compensation of billions of dollars from the Australian government if its mining licence is cancelled for environmental reasons.

Report shows mining companies use ISDS to undermine indigenous rights and environment in Latin America

8 May, 2019: A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies, MiningWatch Canada, and the Center for International Environmental Law examines all 38 known Investor-State Disputes that have been brought by mining companies against governments in Latin America. The companies are using special rights in trade and investment agreements to sue governments in international tribunals for billions of dollars in compensation for court decisions, laws and public policies that they claim reduce the value of their investments. Many of these laws and policies protect indigenous land rights, health or the environment.

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