Trans-Pacific Partnership

As TPPA negotiations begin in Peru, a US mining company is suing the Peruvian government because it dared to fine the company for pollution and lead poisoning

See

• http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-09/rennert-800-million-toxic-lead-...

International trade agreements bring new transnational food companies into countries, along with new food advertising and promotion. This has often led to an increase in unhealthy foods entering the domestic market. The TPPA could go even further and increase the influence of the food industry on domestic regulatory regimes and policies. See the link to the Conversation blog

http://theconversation.com/trans-pacific-partnership-puts-member-countri...

A new video from Friends of the Earth, U.S highlights the threats to the environment and human rights posed by the secret negotiation of the TPP deal and in particular its draft investment chapter.

Watch the film.

Kelly Nicholls from Medecins Sans Frontieres writes in The Australian that US proposals in the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations for restrictive intellectual property rights on medicines would make the TPPA the most damaging trade agreement ever for access to essential medicines in developing countries. http://www.msfaccess.org/content/trans-pacific-partnership-threat-afford...

An article by Dr Deborah Gleeson of Latrobe University, published recently in the British Medical Journal, The Lancet, says the ability of governments world-wide to make sound public health policies and laws is increasingly threatened by trade and investment treaties.

Watch Dr Deborah Gleeson from Latrobe University talk about the threats to public health in the Trans Pacific Partnership Negotiations, including higher medicine prices and less regulation of health hazards like tobacco in this video of a recent 'webinar'.

“Over 20 international representatives of health, union, consumer and environment organisations have been locked out of the Trans-Pacific talks venue in Auckland,” Dr Patricia Ranald, Convenor of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network said today.

"Many have travelled long distances at great expense, with no advance warning that they would be locked out for nine of the ten days of the negotiations.”

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) negotiations between the US, Australia, New Zealand, and 8 other countries around the Pacific Rim, will be held in Auckland December 2 –12.

Community groups and unions are opposing the TPPA's corporate driven agenda, which seeks greater rights for international corporations at the expense of people; extending patents on medicines to charge higher prices for longer and with less regulation; stronger copyright laws on the Internet restricting Internet freedom; and rights for foreign investors to sue governments for damages if a law or policy harms their investment.

AVAAZ, the global online campaign, aims to get 1 million signatures for its petition on the TPP at the Auckland negotiations.

Read on and sign the petition today!
 

On Sunday 9th September AFTINET Convenor, Dr Patricia Ranald, gave a presentation on the Philip Morris case and the dangers of Investor State Dispute Settlements to negotiators at the Stakeholders Forum of the Trans-Pacific Partnership 14th Round in Leesburg, Virginia.

Read the full paper here

Also check out the coverage of the presentation in The Sydney Morning Herald, Big Tobacco warning at free-trade talks