The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) is a massive free trade agreement involving Australia and ten other Pacific Rim countries, which reduces our democratic rights while increasing the rights of global corporations. The TPP is bad for:
After six years of community campaigning, the withdrawal of the US in January 2017 meant the original TPP-12 could not proceed, but the 11 remaining governments suspended some clauses and rebadged it as the Comprenensive Progressive TPP or TPP-11, which was signed in March 2018 and approved for ratification by the Australian Parliament in October 2018, If six of the eleven countries ratify it before the end of 2018, it will come into force for those countries in 2019.
For in-depth analysis and resources, including AFTINET’s submissions to parliamentary inquiries, click here.
Updated October 2018
November 2, 2017: Media reports from the secret TPP–11 meeting held in Japan this week show that there is still no agreement between the 11 governments about the possible content of the TPP agreement without the US. They were aiming to reach agreement before a TPP -11 Ministers’ meeting on November 8-9, ahead of the APEC meeting in Vietnam on November 10.
November 2, 2017: A new research paper, co-authored by public health experts Deborah Gleeson, Joel Lexchin, Ruth Lopert and Burcu Kilic, explains the impact that the intellectual property chapter of the original Trans-Pacific Partnership could have on access to medicines in each of the TPP countries. As the TPP-11 meet this week to attempt to revive the TPP without the US, the research findings show how damaging the original medicine proposals would be.
October 31, 2017: Yesterday the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) in New Zealand urged the newly elected NZ Labour Coalition Government not to support extending medicine monopolies under the TPP Agreement.
October 24, 2017: An economic modelling study by the US Peterson Institute has admitted that the TPP without the US would have even less of the tiny economic benefits predicted for Australia with US participation.
October 23, 2017: New Zealand Prime Minister-elect, Labour’s Jacinda Ardern, has said that walking away from the TPP-11 talks is ‘not necessary’, although she will push to secure a ban on foreign property speculators. This would mean a change to New Zealand’s investment schedule in the TPP-11 text.
October 19, 2017: The fourth round of talks for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) renegotiations wrapped up in Washington this week. Business representatives have balked at the US administration’s proposals to make ISDS voluntary, but unions and community groups want the US to exclude ISDS from the agreement.
October 17, 2017: The Finance Secretary of the Philippines, Carlos Dominguez, has stated that the Philippines will not join the TPP without the US. The US withdrew from the TPP agreement on January 24, 2017. Manila Bulletin reports that Mr Dominguez recently told a leaders' forum in Washington DC, “Without the US I don’t think it’s going to be too hot… Without the US, it doesn’t make sense.”
October 3, 2017: Corporate Europe Observatory reports that ISDS lawyers are predicting that foreign investors may be able to sue for claimed losses after Brexit.
September 25, 2017: A coalition of labour, public health and environmental groups have urged the United States to remove the investor-state dispute settlement system (ISDS) from NAFTA, arguing it undermines State sovereignty, human rights and environmental protections.
September 25, 2017: Last week the eleven remaining countries attempting to revive the Trans-Pacific Partnership (the ‘TPP-11’) met in Tokyo.
They will meet again in Japan next month, and hope to reach general agreement by November.