Ten years on from the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, Australia is entering another round of negotiations towards the new and controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. In this Free Trade Scorecard series…
It’s not yet clear how the Coalition will weigh health issues against economic priorities.
jdwfoto/Shutterstock
Ten years on from the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement, Australia is entering another round of negotiations towards the new and controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership. In this Free Trade Scorecard series…
Talking of turkey, Samoa got a bum deal.
AcrylicArtist
Trade agreements are being used to “handcuff governments” over health policy, Margaret Chan, director-general of the World Health Organisation said at its assembly. This was “disturbing” she went on, adding…
Despite the positive spin that has accompanied negotiations over the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), reaching an agreement that would satisfy all 12 partners was always going to be difficult. The TPP…
Debt; dollar; deficit - the mantra for this year, amid a turbulent political period.
AAP
Debt. Dollar. Deficits. Three little words so close to the hearts of our contributors in a year dominated by a critical federal election, a waning mining boom and continuing international turbulence. The…
Trade ministers from countries negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership failed to finalise the deal at the recent Singapore meeting.
EPA/How Hwee Young
Just before leaving for Singapore on December 6 for the latest Trans Pacific Partnership meeting, I wrote about some of the major concerns surrounding the secretive agreement. This is an update on developments…
Representatives from Japan, New Zealand, and the United States at the start of the Trans-Pacific Partnership summit on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Bali, on October 8, 2013.
EPA/BARBARA WALTON
Expect to hear a lot about the Trans Pacific Partnership in the next few days. As it moves into final stages of negotiations, outrage over some of its more onerous provisions is ramping up around the world…
The intellectual property changes proposed by the United States won’t benefit poor countries party to the agreement.
Virginia Guard Public Affairs/Flickr
In the next few days, 12 Pacific Rim countries will make critical decisions about what is potentially the most damaging trade agreement for public health ever signed. The Trans Pacific Partnership agreement…
There are doubts provisions will benefit copyright holders.
AAP/Lukas Coch
Last week Michael Froman, a US trade representative, took his son touring around the Paramount lot in Hollywood to visit a sound mixing stage, watch a movie and pose for happy snaps with company executives…
The leaked IP chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations reflects a highly prescriptive set of rules that if adopted would prove harmful to Australia.
voteprime/Flickr
Trade Minister Andrew Robb has responded to last week’s leak of the intellectual property chapter negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, arguing Australia won’t agree to anything that would “force…
Concern over the transparency of TPP negotiations grew after it was revealed negotiating documents could not be released until four years after the completion of the negotiations.
Azhar Rahim/AAP
In the history of trade agreement negotiations, most have been undertaken in secret, justified on the grounds that the governments’ negotiating positions would be weakened if they became public. But this…
Boarded up: how companies are trumping our health.
Eschipul
If I asked you to name some of the current threats to your health, “international trade law” probably wouldn’t be on the tip of your tongue. Yet trade agreements, and the way we negotiate them, can affect…
What is the best trade option for Australia’s future?
AAP/Alex Ibanez
One of the first acts of Tony Abbott’s government was to declare it intended to “embrace free trade” in its first term in office. Calling the trade minister Australia’s “ambassador for jobs”, the Coalition…
By allowing ISDS clauses in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement Australia could be opening the door to more legal challenges from corporations.
mattyp_/Flickr
The leaking of a key Trans-Pacific Partnership document by Wikileaks this week suggests Australia may side with the US on some key issues including the insertion of an Investor-State Dispute Settlement…
Protestors picket the last round of Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations in Malaysia, as concerns about secrecy and the agreement’s contents grow.
EPA/Azhar Rahim
The public’s intellectual property rights will continue to be impeded if Australia signs on to the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement as it stands, according to copyright and patent experts following…
The new government faces sorting out a complex mess of stalled talks on various free trade agreements.
AAP
If headlines are to be believed, the new Coalition government is set to “embrace free trade” in its first term in office. In announcing his new Ministry last week, Tony Abbott has made significant changes…
Giving overseas investors more power over our energy resources is no way to ensure security or emissions reductions.
Ross Beckley
As we approach the Australian federal election, trade minister Richard Marles recently confirmed Australia will not sign the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement if it includes an investor-state dispute…
The finer points of Abenomics are not lost on this guy.
ippei-janine
Japanese PM Shinzō Abe has a problem, and he might end up killing an awful lot of frogs to solve it. Shares are up in Japan, but everything else has flatlined: kick-starting the stubbornly moribund economy…
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is being negotiated as we speak, but inventors and internet users look to lose out.
Ian.Go
Free trade: it sounds good for innovation, doesn’t it? Well, not necessarily - and here’s why. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a free trade agreement under negotiation among various Pacific Rim…
A Trans Pacific Partnership meeting hosted by US President Barack Obama with the Sultan of Brunei and prime ministers from Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia , Singapore and Vietnam, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on November 20, 2012.
AAP Image/Auspic, David Foote
International trade agreements bring new transnational food companies into countries, along with new food advertising and promotion. This has often led to an increase in unhealthy foods entering the domestic…
Research Fellow, NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity, School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University