9 October, 2023: Last week the Philippine Supreme Court ordered two mining companies to cease operations at a nickel mine and ordered concerns raised by the Pala’wan Indigenous community be addressed. The Pala’wan community have fought since 2005 against plans to mine nickel in an environmentally protected area of cultural significance.

Critical minerals, such as nickel, lithium, cobalt, copper and rare earths, are essential for technologies needed for a green transition, such as wind turbines, electricity infrastructure and batteries. However, the boom in demand and rush to mine has led to concerns that critical mineral mining will continue the association of extractive industries with human rights violations, particularly for indigenous peoples.

November 15, 2023: Trade Ministers from the 14 countries of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) who met this week in San Francisco have signed an agreement to improve supply chain cooperation, known as IPEF Pillar 2. Reports indicate IPEF heads of government may announce on Friday that the environment and anti-corruption pillars have made progress, and that talks on the trade pillar may continue. However, there is uncertainty about whether IPEF negotiations will continue during the US presidential election campaign next year. 

19 October, 2023: Despite requests, Māori Indigenous peoples have said in the recently released Ngā Toki Whakarururanga position paper that they that they have been denied direct independent sovereign representation in negotiations in the Indo-Pacific Economic Forum negotiations that are currently underway.

15 October, 2024: AFTINET has made a submission to the joint Standing Committee reviews of three agreements on the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework for Prosperity (IPEF), the agreements on Clean Economy, Fair Economy and the overarching framework agreement. The submissions highlights AFTINET’s concerns and recommendations on how the IPEF agreements could better align with Australia's commitments to human rights, labour rights, and environmental sustainability. 

September 9, 2023: Negotiations for this text were completed in May and the text was released on September 8. The text may be signed in November 2023, after which it will be tabled in Parliament and reviewed by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties. It could come into force in the first quarter of 2024.

The 14 IPEF members are the US, Australia, Brunei, India, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Fiji and Vietnam. Three other pillars on trade, environment and tax and anti-corruption issues are still being negotiated.

June 11, 2024: As previously reported, the IPEF Pillar 2 Supply Chain agreement was signed last November, has been tabled in Parliament and is now being reviewed by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties.

The  AFTINET submission is here.

May 16, 2024:  The Indo Pacific Economic Framework Pillar 1 Supply Chain agreement was signed by 14 Indo-Pacific countries in November 2023, following release of the text in September.

This agreement has now been tabled in Parliament and will be reviewed by the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties for 20 Parliamentary sitting days before reporting in September or October.

The committee has called for submissions by Wednesday, June 5. The text of the agreement and the DFAT National Interest Analysis is at https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Joint/Treaties/IPEFSupplyChain/Treaty_being_considered

March 20, 2023: DFAT has called for submissions for the Government’s Southeast Asia strategy 2040.

Despite the long-term time frame of the strategy, there is no reference so far to inequality in the region or to human rights, labour rights or environmental standards.

The strategy will not take the form of a legally enforceable trade agreement, but is likely to be a series of Memoranda of Understanding to increase Australian trade and investment in the region. The strategy will include topics like supply chains, green economy/environment, agriculture and digital trade. These will sit alongside trade agreements like the Australia-ASEAN-NZ FTA and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).