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)

El Desconcierto | 21-Mar-2019
La Cancillería y su Dirección General de Relaciones Económicas Internacionales (DIRECON), se están defendiendo del mar de críticas contra el Tratado Integral y Progresista de Asociación Transpacífico (CPTPP), conocido como TPP-11, a punta de argumentos engañosos y derechamente falsos.
Yellowhead Institute | 26-Feb-2019
Exception clauses amount to little more than tokenism, and short-change our full rights to determine trade relationships on our land and oceanic territories.
Piensa Chile | 14-Jan-2019
Este tratado es nocivo para la economía y la soberanía nacional, pero no es posible abarcar todas esos aspectos en una columna, por lo que nos limitaremos a comentar cuatro de sus cláusulas más nocivas.
El Economista | 7-Jan-2019
El nuevo acuerdo que sustituirá al TLCAN eliminará la solución de controversias entre inversores y estados para Canadá.
Sydney Morning Heralds | 26-Oct-2018
The UN Conference on Trade and Development new research shows that increased market power of global corporations is driving global income inequality. It recommends a review of existing regulation and trade agreements to develop “measures to curb abusive business practices.”
Radio Uchile | 24-Oct-2018
En entrevista con Radio y Diario de la Universidad de Chile, la profesora de la Universidad Nacional de San Martín de Buenos Aires e integrante de Argentina Mejor sin TLC desenmascaró los mitos que existen frente a los tratados de libre comercio y sus eventuales beneficios para los países en desarrollo.
Financial Review | 12-Oct-2018
Crossbenchers are ramping up pressure on Labor at the 11th hour to reject the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement, drafting amendments that would force opposition senators to vote against the party’s policy.
Voxy | 14-Aug-2018
A range of labour, health and environmental organisations are calling for a clause to be inserted into the CPTPP Amendment Bill that would prevent future governments from extending investor-state dispute settlement to countries seeking to join the agreement.
AFTINET | 30-Jul-2018
“AFTINET will present evidence today to a Senate inquiry that the TPP-11 increases corporate rights at the expense of people’s rights and the environment and should not be implemented,” AFTINET Convener Dr Patricia Ranald said today.
Sydney Morning Herald | 20-Jun-2018
Despite this growing rejection of ISDS, the Australian government claims that ambiguous general “safeguards” in the TPP-11 will protect public interest laws.