Emergency finance must not add to debt burdens
Process to reduce debts to sustainable level in future also needed
Media Release April 8, 2020: A group of Australian civil society organisations (CSOs) released a statement today calling for the Australian Government to support the cancellation of external debt payments in 2020 for Low Income Countries to help them fight the coronavirus.
April 7, 2020: The ABC TV 4-Corners program on April 6, 2020, Amazon: What They Know About Us focused on the impact of Amazon Marketplace and the use of data to create a powerful global monopoly.
4-Corners was re-broadcasting a BBC Panorama program screened in the UK on February 17, 2020.
April 2, 2020: Australia’s policy to the Pacific Island nations has been erratic over the last decade. The focus from 2009 was to impose the PACER-Plus free trade agreement onto the region. Negotiations dragged through to 2017, but three years later it has still not been ratified by most Pacific Island Countries and is not in force. The COVID-19 pandemic underlines the need for a profound re-think of the relationship.
March 31, 2020: Last Friday’s G20 Special COVID-19 communique repeated the do 'whatever it takes' mantra from other institutions, but was empty of specific commitments needed to address the pandemic.
March 30, 2020: Australia and Singapore concluded the text of a Digital Economy Agreement (DEA) on March 23. There is a summary on the DFAT website but the full text will not be released until after it has been legally checked and signed, which could take at least 1-2 months.
The agreement will replace the e-commerce chapter in the Singapore-Australia FTA.
Friday March 27, 2020: The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) has just reported on its first Global COVID-19 survey of 109 trade unions in 86 countries, including 28 out of 36 OECD countries and fifteen G20 countries.
March 24, 2020: The debate is already raging about the deeper lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.
March 23, 2020: The AFTINET submission to the government inquiry on trade relationships with the Pacific Islands recommends that the Australian government cease trying to promote Pacer Plus in its current form, which excludes countries with over 80% of Pacific Island economic output and is not an effective regional agreement. Instead the government should conduct a fundamental review of the terms of Pacer Plus based on listening to the real concerns of Pacific island countries about the impacts of climate change as well as imbalances in the trade relationship.
March 17, 2020: Read our new factsheet Trading away our Services? How trade rules impact public and essential services.
March 16, 2020: ASEAN Secretary-General Dato Lim Jock Hoi has reaffirmed that RCEP members intend to sign the agreement in late 2020.