Media Release                                                                                            

Sunday May 24, 2015

“Both Japan and Chile have said they will not finalise the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal until Fast Track legislation has passed both houses of the U.S. Congress,” Dr Patricia Ranald Coordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) said today.“This means the TPP Trade Ministers meeting due on May 26 will not be able to seal the deal, and has been cancelled, yet another missed deadline.”

“Meanwhile Australian parliamentarians will tomorrow launch across party group critical of the TPP at 12:30 PM in Committee Room 1R1 at Parliament House in Canberra. This is a response to growing community concern about the TPP in Australia,” said Dr Ranald.

May 19, 2015:Nobel prize-winning economist Jeffrey Sachs Argues that the TPP is a dangerous gift to corporate lobbies and  Michael Wessel, a US cleared advisor who has seen the TPP text condemns the secrecy and says critics are right to be concerned, while a Japanese Minister says there will be no deal at the TPP Ministers' meeting next week without fast track.

Media Release 13 May, 2015

“The conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal is now in doubt following the defeat in the US Senate of a proposal to advance the FastTrack Bill.The Fast Track Bill would prevent the U.S. Congress from amending the TPP, and instead allow only a yes or no vote,” Dr Patricia Ranald Coordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET) said today.

April 29 2015: Professor Ron Labonte on  trade and  health equity, Professor Joel Lexchin on the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada, and Dr Deborah Gleeson on  the health impacts of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)  in Australia and other TPP countries. See the video here.

Sunday, May 3, 2015: Dr Patricia Ranald's article in the Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times and Melbourne Age supports release of trade agreement texts before they are signed and a  Parliamentary vote on the whole text of trade agreements.

This letter signed by Oxfam and other development and faith-based organizations was sent on April 30 to Members of US Congress

Oxfam’s press release on the letter is here  

April 29, 2015: Laura Barron-Lopez reports in the Huffington Post that there is still majority opposition to Fast Track in the U.S. Congress. The combined Democrat and Republican supporters  do not have the votes yet to pass the legislation that would give President Barack Obama fast-track authority on trade deals.

April 27, 2015, WASHINGTON, D.C. — An unprecedentedly united movement of labor, environmental, family farm, consumer, faith, Internet freedom and other organizations escalated their campaign to defeat Fast Track trade authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) today with a joint 2,009-group letter urging Congress to oppose it.  

The Nation reports on April 25 that, as President Obama stepped up pressure on his fellow Democrats to approve Congressional fast-track trade authority that would ease passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, two leading Democrat Senators Warren and Brown responded by letter demanding that he release the negotiating text of TPP before Congress votes on fast-track authority.

Geneva, April 23: UN Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order, Alfred de Zayas, expressed alarm at the general lack of awareness concerning the adverse effects that secretive trade agreements like the TPP have on human rights in many countries, particularly in the developing world.

The Age 17 April 2015

Deborah Gleeson and Pat Neuwelt write that recent pharmaceutical company lobbying repeats many of the same flawed arguments: that increasing intellectual property protection through the TPP will support innovation, investment in research and development, and access to medicines. If this rhetoric is swallowed by our politicians, the rights of transnational drug companies could end up trumping the rights of the public to affordable medicines.