July 13, 2026: An analysis by Fernando Hernández Espino, Head of Trade and Investment Policy at Both ENDS, argues that the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law's (UNCITRAL) recently adopted investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) reforms, while not without some merit, fall short of the "significant" changes described by the UN, and do not change the fundamentally unbalanced power relations of the system.

July 9, 2026: A new interactive map from Public Citizen reveals how the Trump administration is using US trade policy to challenge digital regulations around the world, following renewed threats to impose 100% tariffs on European countries that levy digital services taxes.

The map documents digital policy measures targeted in 76 countries in the 2026 US Trade Representative's National Trade Estimates Report, including rules covering artificial intelligence, data protection, competition law and digital services taxes.

July 7, 2026: The government introduced last week the Trade and Investment Agreements (Consultation) Bill 2026, which proposes to legislate for an improved consultation process for trade and investment agreements and for certain issues to be included or excluded from them. This is part of Labor’s trade policy and follows a 2023 parliamentary inquiry,

July 6, 2026: AFTINET has joined with Médecins sans Frontières Australia, Public Health Association of Australia and Uniting Church in Australia Synod of Victoria and Tasmania in writing a letter to Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler. They are calling on the government to supporting developing countries in their push for enforceable equitable access to vaccines and other pandemic-related products in the World Health Organisation (WHO) Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing (PABS) Annex negotiations.

July 3, 2026: AFTINET and the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) have written to Australian Health and Aged Care Minister Mark Butler urging the Federal Government to resist growing pressure from the US’ Trump Administration and the pharmaceutical industry to increase medicine wholesale prices in Australia. It warns that conceding to such pressure would weaken the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), which relies on government negotiation of wholesale prices to secure affordable access to medicines based on clinical value and cost-effectiveness.

MEDIA RELEASE         June 9, 2026

Over 80 civil society organisations across a majority of the 12 ASEAN- Australia -New Zealand Free Trade Agreement  (AANZFTA) member countries have endorsed an open letter urging governments to remove controversial rules for investor rights to sue governments, known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) in the forthcoming review of ISDS in the AANZFTA by governments. 

June 5, 2026: The proposed 10- 12.5% tariff  on 60 countries including Australia announced this week by the US Trade Representative is a second attempt to replace previous 10 %tariffs on many  countries including Australia which were struck down by the US Supreme Court in February 2026. The Supreme Court ruled that Congress alone had the power to impose permanent tariffs and that US President Trump did not have the legal authority to use International Emergency Powers to impose permanent “reciprocal” tariffs on imports from many countries from April 2025.

May 29, 2026: Australian and 10 other member governments are reviewing and negotiating changes to the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). 

May 28, 2026: AFTINET held a webinar on Wednesday, 27 May, discussing the aftermath of the Santa Marta First Conference on Phasing Out Fossil Fuels.

The Youtube video of the webinar can be found here.

Speakers: 

Kyla Tienhaara, Queens University, Canada 

Adam Woldenden, Trade Justice Campaigner for the Pacific Network on Globalisation (PANG)