Thursday, October 20, 2022: In an article for Pandemic, Philip Schellekens, a Senior Advisor at World Bank Group, reports there are 2.5 billion unvaccinated people today. They have not had their first shot. A staggering 90 per cent live in the developing world and 71 per cent in the poorer half of the world. Tracking the COVID-19 unvaccinated across countries rich and poor highlights the regressive outcome of the global vaccination campaign so far.
Monday, October 17, 2022: The Chilean Senate ratified the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement on Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) on October 11, by 27 votes to 10, amid strong protests from 200 worker and civil society organisations. The Chamber of Deputies had ratified it back in April 2019.
Thursday October 13, 2022: The UK-based Transform Trade - People centred trade report and its associated legal research report – Foreign Investment, Human Rights and the Climate in the UK – Asymmetric Legal Protection – hit two powerful themes – people’s action is transforming international trade and can do much more; and British law enables British corporations to cruelly exploit ISDS in bilateral investment agreements for super profits.
Monday, October 10, 2022: This 41 minute podcast from the Conversation explains how an obscure investment provision in many trade agreements is being used by the fossil fuel sector to block action to cut carbon emissions.
October 4, 2022: The US Trade Representative Office has confirmed that it signed secrecy agreements with Australia and 12 other members of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) in April 2022, after an FOI request revealed the secrecy agreement signed with New Zealand.
September 30, 2022: an international arbitration panel appointed last week will hear the claim of TransCanada Corporation for $15 billion compensation against the US government because it revoked a permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, claiming it would cause environmental damage. The pipeline is opposed by indigenous, farmer and other local communities because it aimed to transport to the U.S. Gulf Coast up to 830,000 barrels per day of highly corrosive crude oil extracted from tar sands in Alberta, Canada, across more than a thousand rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands across six U.S. states.
September 19, 2022: In 2017, the Colombian Constitutional Court decided in favour of local communities and to protect the Bruno River from an expansion of the huge Correjón open-pit thermal coal mine.
September 15, 2022: The first known Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) claim concerning COVID-19 pandemic-related regulation was registered by French airport operating companies ADP International and Vinci Airports in August 2021 against Chile. The companies are arguing that Chile’s decision to close its borders during the height of the pandemic cost them US$37 million.
September 12, 2022: Trade ministers from the 14 countries involved in the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum met in Los Angeles on Friday and published a more detailed statement of the negotiating objectives for the four pillars which aim to form a framework for trade and investment in the region.
AFTINET MEDIA RELEASE
September 9, 2022
Forty-six community organisations from Australia and the region have endorsed a letter calling for greater transparency and rejection of failed past trade models as Ministers from 14 member countries of the Indo Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) meet in Los Angeles today. IPEF includes the US, Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and Fiji.