publish

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)

FTAs actually restrict free trade
| 3-Aug-2013
We are told that when trade is free, there will be more trade and nations will prosper. To achieve even freer trade the nations of the world must enter into free trade agreements.
CPTPP , investment | BITs , investor-state disputes | ISDS , Malaysia
Nurul Izzah: Don’t bow down to pressure on TPP
| 31-Jul-2013
Malaysia’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat VP Nurul Izzah Anwar has accused the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of bowing down to pressure when it agreed to clauses on investor-state dispute settlement in negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement.
CPTPP , investment | BITs , investor-state disputes | ISDS , Malaysia
Consumers International releases three new papers on the TPP for the Lima round
| 20-May-2013
Consumers International (CI) has commissioned the production of three papers, the first on the competition chapter by one of our members, and the other two by independent experts, respectively covering the investment chapter and how it affects A2K, and the free flow of information provision and its impacts on privacy.
actions | resistance , competition policy , CPTPP , investor-state disputes | ISDS
Will the Pacific trade deal protect workers?
AJE | 8-Dec-2012
Al Jazeera ask if the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement negotiations have rendered democratic decision-making irrelevant.
CPTPP , investor-state disputes | ISDS , video
Big Tobacco warning at free-trade talks
| 11-Sep-2012
Delegates attending trans-Pacific free-trade negotiations in the United States are being warned their countries could end up like Australia if they agree to allow corporations to sue governments in international courts.
Australia , CPTPP , health , investment | BITs , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US
Plain packaging risks lawsuits
| 21-May-2012
Smoking is bad for our health. Smoking is detrimental to our economic well-being - smoking-related conditions and diseases cost the health service in this country millions and millions of dollars each year. But moves to reduce or stop smoking in this country could cost us just as much if not more.
CPTPP , health , intellectual property , investment | BITs , investor-state disputes | ISDS , New Zealand , US
Labor standing firm on Pacific trade deal
Sydney Morning Herald | 5-Mar-2012
The federal government is standing firm against Australian and US business demands that it allow controversial dispute settlement clauses into an ambitious new Pacific free trade deal.
Australia , CPTPP , investor-state disputes | ISDS
World-first plain packaging for tobacco products becomes law in Australia
The Conversation | 25-Aug-2011
Legislation requiring tobacco products to be in plain packaging was passed by Australia’s House of Representatives last night. This is the first such measure in the world to become law.
Australia , CPTPP , Hong Kong , investor-state disputes | ISDS
Philip Morris v. Uruguay on cigarette branding: Will investor-state arbitration send restrictions on tobacco marketing up in smoke?
Info Justice | 4-Aug-2011
Philip Morris asserts that fair and equitable treatment includes a right to a “stable and predictable regulatory framework” as well as rights under treaties in addition to customary international law.
Australia , corporate interests , CPTPP , investment | BITs , investor-state disputes | ISDS , New Zealand , Uruguay , US
Tobacco giant suing Australian govt ’a warning’ for NZ
| 28-Jun-2011
Tobacco giant Philip Morris suing the Australian government for introducing plain packaging laws for tobacco should send shockwaves through this country as it seeks a free trade deal involving the US, says an academic critic of the deal.
actions | resistance , corporate interests , CPTPP , health , investor-state disputes | ISDS , New Zealand , US