April 10, 2018: Sydney University academics Stephen Clibborn and Chris Wright argue in the SMH today that from the 1940s to the 1990s, Australia’s permanent immigration program and strongly enforced labour standards protected the workplace rights of permanent migrants.
April 6, 2018: Leading international investment law expert George Kahale has slammed the Investor-State Dispute Settlement tribunal system in a recent lecture at the Brooklyn Law School titled “The wild, wild west of international arbitration law”.
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Senate Inquiry submissions close on May 31. You can send your message by email to fadt.sen@aph.gov.au
The TPP-11 text can be found here. AFTINET's full submission to JSCOT is available here,
Media release April 4, 2018: AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald today called on the government not to cut short parliamentary inquiries which are intended to scrutinise the revised TPP-11 (renamed the Progressive Comprehensive TPP) before Parliament votes on the implementing legislation.
April 3, 2018: The European Court of Justice ruled in March that Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) between two EU member states, which allows corporations to sue governments for damages over changes in domestic law, has an adverse effect on the autonomy of EU law, and is therefore incompatible with EU law.
March 29. 2018: Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, today welcomed the Senate decision yesterday for an inquiry by the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade to assess whether the rebadged Comprehensive Progressive TPP-11 is in the public interest, before Parliament considers the implementing legislation.
“Achieving a Senate inquiry is a victory in our campaign for more transparency and accountability in the trade agreement process,” said Dr Ranald.
March 26, 2018: Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network. called today for a Senate Inquiry to assess whether the rebadged Comprehensive Progressive TPP is in the public interest, before Parliament considers the implementing legislation.
March 26, 2018: US trade policy has become more dangerously unilateral and contradictory.
US President Trump threatened on March 23 to impose tariffs on US$60 billion of Chinese exports to the US after a “consultation” period. This is also linked to US strategic and military competition with China. China has threatened to retaliate with its own tariffs on US goods, resulting in a trade war and economic instability. Global stock markets plunged in response to the news.
March 22, 2018: In her speech to the National Press Club yesterday, ACTU secretary Sally McManus argued that unfair trade agreements like the CPTPP were contributing to casualisation and underpayment of wages, and that major changes were needed to the industrial relations system.
She said "these trade agreements are not free, they are a complex set of rules negotiated by governments, pushed by big corporations."
March 19, 2018: Jim Stanford from the Australia Institute writes in The Guardian that Trump’s unilateral and xenophobic approach to trade policy is dangerous and could lead to trade conflict. He argues we need an alternative to both Trump’s unilateralism and to corporate-dominated trade deals like the TPP.