Trade Transparency

August 8, 2022: Labor has a policy for a more transparent public and parliamentary process for future trade agreements. See our critique of the current process here and Labor policy here.

However the government  is proceeding with the  very limited Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) review process for the Indian and UK agreements which were signed by the previous government before the election. AFTINET raised the process issues in our submission on the UK FTA and will raise them in our submission on the India FTA.

July 20, 2022 :New polling commissioned by UK groups Trade Justice Movement and Global Justice Now has found that 78 per cent of Britons want MPs to debate the pros and cons of new trade deals before they come into force. The House of Commons trade committee has requested the Trade Minister for a full debate before ratification, and criticised its inability to scrutinise the deal properly. This followed an independent report from the Trade and Agriculture Commission  confirming that the trade deal will affect employment in the farm and food sectors and could lower environmental, food safety, and animal welfare standards.

7 July 2022: Trade justice activists in Sydney came together this week at a Politics in the Pub event to discuss the prospects of progressing a trade justice agenda under the new Labor government.

1 June, 2022: The newly appointed Minister for Trade, Senator Don Farrell, and the Assistant Minister, Senator Tim Ayers, have a mandate for the reform of Australia’s secretive trade negotiation process to ensure transparency and accountability.

18 May, 2022: AFTINET Convenor, Dr Patricia Ranald, has written a critical analysis in the Australian Outlook of the party policies on trade during the 2022 federal election.

May 17, 2022: In our election forum on trade justice, we introduced our scorecard on the track record of political parties on trade justice. Speakers examined how trade deals can help or hinder the next government in recovering from the COVID19 pandemic and decarbonising the economy.

April 26, 2022: As voters, we deserve to know where Australia’s parties and politicians stand on issues of trade justice – because how our parliamentary representatives vote on trade can have major impacts on human rights, workers’ rights, and environmental sustainability.

August 26, 2021: The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) has finally released its Report 193 on the trade agreement process in Australia, 12 months after public hearings were completed. There has been no official explanation of this long delay.