January 9, 2018: A working group of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) recently held talks to discuss current concerns about the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) scheme, and possible reforms. UNICTRAL is one of the two bodies which provides panels of investment law arbitrators for ISDS disputes.
December 21, 2017: The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has warned that the attempt to revive Trans-Pacific Partnership without the US would still lead to increased numbers of vulnerable temporary migrant workers from at least six countries outside of Australia.
6 December, 2017: Professor Jomo Kwame Sundaram, a former UN Assistant Secretary-General and co-author of this critical study measuring the employment costs of the original TPP, has written an article debunking some of the main myths about the newly named Comprehensive Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTTP).
November 28, 2017: The Turnbull government is trying to revive the TPP and retain many of the worst US-initiated clauses. The TPP-11 leaders have not met their deadline to finalise the text, but at the latest round of negotiations they salvaged a possible deal. The agreement has been rebranded the ' Comprehensive and Progressive TPP', and some of its most controversial clauses have been suspended, pending the US rejoining the agreement. The negotiations will continue in 2018.
November 23, 2017: GetUp! has produced a video about the zombie TPP – ‘now back from the dead.’
The TPP-11 talks have only been salvaged by an agreement to rename the deal, suspend some of its most controversial clauses and to have further talks over several months on issues raised by Canada and other governments.
It’s not a done deal yet. But as the video explains –
November 15, 2017: Labor, the Greens and NXT have responded to the latest TPP-11 news.
15 November, 2017: The Conversation features critical analysis from Pat Ranald, Deborah Gleeson, Belinda Townsend and others about what has and hasn’t changed in the TPP11 after the ministerial meetings last week. See also Peter Martin's article in Fairfax media.
November 9, 2017: A new paper by leading health experts published in the Australian Health Review and summarised in Fairfax news and The Conversation has found that the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement could add up to $367 million to the cost of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme if increases in data protection monopolies for biologic medicines proposed in the original TPP text are implemented.
November 7, 2017: Bernard Keane writes in Crikey that Malcom Turnbull should follow the lead of New Zealand and even the US NAFTA negotiators and ditch ISDS. in the TPP 11.
November 6, 2017 “The Australian Government should oppose foreign investor rights to sue governments in the talks attempting to resurrect the TPP without the US later this week,” AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald said today.
The talks will take place in da Nang, Vietnam on November 8-9, ahead of the APEC meeting to be held on November 10.