19 April 2017: While it’s clear that the Turnbull Government’s abolition of the 457 visa for temporary workers doesn't address the main problems with the visa, the decision does highlight why these arrangements should never be in trade agreements.
4 April 2017: AFTINET has written an open letter to Trade Minister Steven Ciobo urging Australia not to proceed with signing the PACER-plus trade deal between Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Island countries.
The deal could be signed as early as April and without the two biggest Pacific Island economies, PNG and Fiji.
1 April 2017: The Australian and Chinese governments recently announced a review of the temporary worker clause attached to the China-Australia free trade agreement.
29 March 2017: If TPP-like provisions on medicine monopolies are adopted in the RCEP, new medicines will remain expensive for longer periods of time. India’s Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme could be hit badly. Read more
23 March 2017: The chief RCEP negotiator has urged members to avoid introducing TPP clauses into the deal.
“My immediate response is simply don’t TPP-enize this RCEP,” Iman Pambagyo, RCEP trade negotiating committee chief told Bloomberg.
March 23, 2017: Leaked documents from the December 2016 RCEP negotiations have been published on the KEI website. They show how the RCEP investment and services chapters restrict government regulation of investment flows and financial services.
An extract from the investment chapter sets out rules for governments dealing with balance of payments crises or other financial crisis.
23 March 2017: According to recent media reports, Australia and New Zealand’s PACER-plus deal with Pacific Island nations could be signed as early as April - without the two biggest island economies Fiji and PNG.
17 March 2017: A new project called 'Let's Make An Economy for Everyone’ aims to start a discussion about how we can create a more just and environmentally sustainable society. AFTINET worked with the NSW Nurses and Midwives to develop the fair trade video and discussion starter.
17 March 2017: Representatives from all TPP countries except the US missed an opportunity to strive for fairer trade deals when they praised the dead TPP in a statement following a meeting in Viña del Mar, Chile.
The meeting was held on the sidelines of a broader meeting on Integration Initiatives in the Asia-Pacific region including non-TPP countries China, Korea and the US.
Missed opportunity
In praising the TPP, leaders ignored calls for fairer trade deals from civil society organisations from around the world.
MEDIA RELEASE, 16 March 2017: Representatives from all TPP countries except the US missed an opportunity to strive for fairer trade deals when they praised the dead TPP in a statement following a meeting today in Viña del Mar, Chile.