An article by Dr Deborah Gleeson of Latrobe University, published recently in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, says the ability of governments world-wide to make sound public health policies and laws is increasingly threatened by trade and investment treaties.
Watch Dr Deborah Gleeson from Latrobe University talk about the threats to public health in the Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations, including higher medicine prices and less regulation of health hazards like tobacco in this video of a recent 'webinar'.
ANU Professor Matthew Rimmer’s article in The Conversation explains how the US administration’s twin trade initiatives, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPPA) and the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) could undermine labour rights, environmental protection, access to medicines and internet freedom.
Read article here.
Amy Corderoy’s article ‘Trading health for even fatter profits” in the Sydney Morning Herald analyses how trade agreements like Pacific Island PACER-plus and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPPA) can lead to increases in consumption of unhealthy food in developing countries, and prevent governments from introducing public health measures to inform consumers of the dangers.
A blog by AFTINET Convenor, Dr Patricia Ranald, on investor disputes and rural public health was published on the Crikey website on January 25, 2013, countering the views expressed by some cattle farmers’ organisations that want speedy access for their exports and are lobbying for the Australian government to agree to investor rights to sue governments (ISDS) in the Korean FTA. Dr Ranald explains why this would be a mistake.
Read on for the full article.
Check out our new leaflet! This leaflet looks at the connection between fair trade products and fair trade in global trade agreements and summarises AFTINET's campaigns on the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), Pacer-Plus and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Download a copy now, or contact us to order in bulk and distribute among friends and colleagues.
Dr Patricia Ranald from AFTINET was at the TPP negotiations held in Auckland from December 2-12, where New Zealand civil society organised a massive critical public debate, despite being denied access to the negotiating venue . The New Zealand Government was put on the back foot on issues like access to medicines and the right of investors to sue governments.
“The US proposal in the Trans Pacific Trade Agreement for foreign investor rights to sue governments in international tribunals is a challenge to national sovereignty and should be rejected,” Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, will say in a presentation to negotiators Friday, December 7.
“Over 20 international representatives of health, union, consumer and environment organisations have been locked out of the Trans-Pacific talks venue in Auckland,” Dr Patricia Ranald, Convenor of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network said today.
"Many have travelled long distances at great expense, with no advance warning that they would be locked out for nine of the ten days of the negotiations.”