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)

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
Law suit prospects seen in TPP deal
Radio NZ | 7-Feb-2011
A top United States trade official says New Zealand is ready to accept investor-state disputes in the nine-country TransPacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP).
CPTPP , investor-state disputes | ISDS , New Zealand
Big tobacco takes fight over plain cigarette packs to free trade agreement
| 16-Jan-2011
Big tobacco is hoping a new multilateral free trade agreement will enable it to sue the Federal Government if Australia introduces plain packaging for cigarettes in mid-2012 as planned.
Australia , corporate interests , CPTPP , investor-state disputes | ISDS , US