Media Release November 5, 2015

“Preliminary analysis of the thousands of pages of the main chapters of the TPP text show  devils in the detail on medicine monopolies, investor rights to sue governments and copyright monopolies.” Dr Patricia Ranald, Coordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network said today. Read full release here.

The TPP: what's the devil in the detail? see the video of speakers here.

October 26, 2011: Read Prof Robin Broad's  study of the  Australian-Canadian OceanaGold mining company use of the ISDS World Bank tribunal to sue the El Salvador Government for $301 million when it refused a mining license because of potential pollution of its main water source.<

MEDIA RELEASE October 21, 2015: The deal reached by the ALP and the Coalition on the China FTA falls short of previously proposed changes to the Migration Act and other problems In the agreement remain,"  Dr Patricia Ranald, Coordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network said today. Read the full release here.

October 13, 2015:Economics editor Peter Martin writes in The Age that  economic modelling by the US pro-TPP Peterson Institute in June 2015 shows it won't create jobs. It'll boost the Australian economy (slightly) by shifting workers away from some jobs towards others, but it will replace rather than add jobs..But Australia will be locked into the US way of doing things on medicines, copyright and other areas  and denied the freedom to move to anything else. A US-style investor-state dispute settlement scheme will allow foreign companies to sue our governments in extraterritorial tribunals. Is this a fair price to pay? On balance he says not. 

October 7-10  Critical analysis of the TPP:  Michael West  Fairfax media (SMH and the Age),  Kyla Tienhaara on TPP and ISDS in The Age and The Conversation,  Heath Aston  in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age, Ross Gittins in the Sydney Morning Herald, Professor John Quiggin , Inside Story. 

Public health expert Dr Deborah Gleeson says that many provisions  in the  TPP leaked text  will dramatically reduce access to affordable medicines, particularly in developing countries. While the Australian Government has said that the current law on 5-year data protection regime for costly biologics in Australia will not change, the text says that governments must deliver 'through other measures' an outcome comparable to eight years, meaning  an extra three years. .

Media Release October 10, 2015

“The final version of the intellectual property chapter the TPP was leaked today on WikiLeaks with several technical analyses,” said Dr Patricia Ranald, Coordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network.“Further analysis will take more time, but the text reveals that the US proposal for an extension of monopolies on costly life-saving biologic medicines from 5 to 8 years is still in the text,” said Dr Ranald.

Media Release October 6, 2015

“The announcement of a secret ‘in principle’ TPP deal without publication of the text may hide shameful trade-offs on issues like medicines and corporate rights to sue governments. These should be decided though open democratic parliamentary processes, not secretly traded away for token access to sugar or dairy markets, The lack of access to details in the text means governments can put a positive spin on the deal, but the devil is in the detail, and we won’t have the detail for at least another month,” said Dr Patricia Ranald, Coordinator of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network.

MEDIA RELEASE October 4, 2015