21 May 2017: Australia has now officially launched free trade negotiations with Hong Kong [1].

Australia has a bilateral investment treaty with Hong Kong (1993), which includes ISDS. This is the treaty that Philip Morris tried to use to sue the Australian Government over the cigarette plain packaging laws. A more comprehensive FTA with Hong Kong is likely to replace this older investment agreement.

Submissions [2] are now open. AFTINET’s submission [3] advocates for the existing deal with ISDS to be cancelled and for ISDS to not be included in the new agreement.

For a summary of the other key issues click here.  [4]

Post updated 31 May 2017