MEDIA RELEASE, 4 May 2017: A TPP without the US would lock in all the deal’s most damaging and politically controversial clauses on stronger medicine and copyright monopolies and investor rights to sue governments while delivering almost no additional market access, AFTINET Convener Patricia Ranald said today. Read more.
3 May 2017: Amendments to the 2003 Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement were tabled in Parliament on March 20 and are being reviewed by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. The problem with the amendments is that they largely reflect the text of the TPP,Including increases in temporary workers, removal of labour market testing for temporary workers and expansion of state government procurement commitments.
3 May 2017: The next round of RCEP negotiations are being held in Manila, the Philippines, on May 2-12. There is still a push from some countries, including Australia, to use TPP language in the RCEP.
3 May 2017: The PACER-plus agreement between Australia, New Zealand and 12 Pacific Island countries was finalised in Brisbane in April 2017, but without Papua New Guinea and Fiji, the Pacific’s two largest island economies. Both governments have said the agreement threatens their infant industries and would not benefit their economies.
30 April 2017: The Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG) has published a People’s Guide to PACER-Plus, aiming to explain the agreement and its impacts on the Pacific in accessible language.
PANG Coordinator, Ms Maureen Penjueli said it was crucial that every Pacific Islander has the opportunity to know how it will affect them, not just today but into the future.
26 April 2017: Trump ditched the TPP but that doesn’t mean he wants fair trade. In fact, his trade agency is attacking other countries’ public health initiatives - such as efforts to promote breastfeeding - calling them “barriers to trade” which should be eliminated. Read more from Public Citizen
26 April 2017: The Australian Government is currently considering a free trade agreement with Hong Kong. At this stage, the Government has put out a press release signalling their intention and is currently inviting public submissions. Read on for our human rights and environmental sustainability concerns.
24 April 2017: Member of Parliament for the New Zealand Green Party and former director of Oxfam NZ, Barry Cotes, has called for a rethink of the PACER-plus trade agreement finalised, but not signed, in Brisbane last week.
22 April 2017: Civil society organisations in Geneva, where TiSA negotiations are held, have thrown the deal into the spotlight by gaining approval to have Stop TiSA flags displayed on a prominent bridge, which most commuters must pass over to get from one side of Geneva to another.
20 April 2017: During a recent visit to India, PM Turnbull confirmed that negotiations with India for a bilateral free trade deal remain stalled and could be years away. Talks came to a standstill in late 2016 with the priority on the regional RCEP deal.