TPP

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP or TPP for short) is a trade and investment agreement that was signed on 7 March 2018 between 11 Pacific Rim countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. The pact went into force on 30 December 2018 among the members who have ratified it. The US withdrew from it in January 2017.

The investment chapter includes investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions. Civil society groups have blasted the mechanism, as it gives a foreign investor or company disproportionate powers vis-à-vis governments or domestic companies. Foreign investors can resort to a parallel system of justice specifically made for them to challenge public health, the environment and other public-interest ‘safeguards’, and bypass national justice courts.

Photo: Blink O’Fanaye / CC BY-NC 2.0

(March 2020)

South Centre | 29-Jun-2016
A growing international community of policy makers and analysts that recognizes that major reforms in the investment treaty regime are needed.
Kaos en la Red | 28-Jun-2016
El próximo 1 de Julio, el gobierno de Mauricio Macri participará como “país observador” de la Alianza del Pacífico.
Sidney Morning Herald | 27-Jun-2016
Australian governments of late seem only to listen to the din of money as though that equates with national interest.
Mapuexpress | 18-Jun-2016
El Acuerdo Transpacífico o TPP representa un sofisticado instrumento jurídico orientado a maximizar los beneficios de empresas transnacionales que operen en los países adheridos a él.
CCPA | 15-Jun-2016
This study examines the special privileges, enforced through investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), which would be given to foreign investors under the TPP.
Le Devoir | 7-Jun-2016
Les négociateurs canadiens ont donné de grands avantages aux multinationales du Web, ce qui risque d’avoir des conséquences fâcheuses sur notre production et de limiter la diversité culturelle.
Reuters | 6-Jun-2016
More than 450 groups on Monday called on Congress to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) if it comes up for a vote this fall, saying the trade deal would allow fossil fuel companies to contest U.S. environmental rules in extrajudicial tribunals.
Common Dreams | 30-May-2016
Emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) show U.S. Trade Rep. Michael Froman discussing TPP with Goldman Sachs lobbyists
Tech Dirt | 1-Apr-2016
Why would investors continue to file these highly costly cases, if the expected success rate is so low?
Huffington Post | 4-Mar-2016
Corporations can still sue governments over public policy decisions they don’t like but the real lesson from the ISDS reforms, in fact, is that public opposition and political mobilization can change things.