The RCEP trade deal is currently being negotiated between 16 countries, including India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the ten ASEAN South East Asian countries. It is bigger and more secretive than the TPP, covering half the world’s population.
The implementing legislation for the TPP-11 trade deal was passed by Australian Senate on October 18, meaning the TPP-11 will come into force for Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Japan and Singapore on December 31, and for Vietnam, Peru, Chile and Brunei as they ratify it. The new Malaysian government is assessing whether the TPP-11 is compatible with its industry development and other reform programs and may not ratify it.
Following the majority Labor Caucus decision, Labor Senators voted with the Coalition government to pass the legislation, which was opposed by the Greens, Centre Alliance and most other crossbench Senators.
This was deeply disappointing, but not unexpected, as the ALP leadership group has majority support in the Caucus, and has never voted against implementing legislation for a trade agreement, despite Labor policy against many clauses in the TPP-11.
What the TPP campaign achieved
AFTINET campaigned through community education, social media, public meetings, protests and political lobbying on the TPP-12 and TPP-11 since 2010.
We contacted and met with more MPs and Senators than ever before and presented evidence to four parliamentary enquiries, as did many of our network organisations including unions, churches, public health, environment, aid and development, women’s and many other community groups. Thousands of individuals sent messages to MPs and Senators through our networks and through organisations like GetUp and ActionAid. This means that there are more people and more parliamentarians who are aware of the issues and prepared to speak about them than ever before.
We also achieved mainstream media coverage over the years which informed the public debate, most recently in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Conversation.
Holding Labor to account on the TPP-11 and future trade agreements
The huge union and community backlash against the Caucus decision pressured Labor to make stronger commitments in foreshadowed legislation to ban harmful clauses like foreign investor rights to sue government (ISDS) and increased numbers of vulnerable temporary workers from future trade deals. They also promised to attempt to change these provisions in the TPP-11.
If Labor wins government, it will be difficult to renegotiate TPP-11 provisions with other governments. There will also be resistance from business and from the conservative trade establishment. We will hold Labor and other parties to account on the TPP-11 and other trade agreements.
Labor’s stronger policy should mean that they will oppose future agreements that contain harmful TPP-like provisions, including the RCEP, the Indonesia FTA and the Peru FTA.
The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP): bigger and possibly worse than the TPP
The RCEP trade deal is currently being negotiated between 16 countries, including India, China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and the ten ASEAN South East Asian countries. It is bigger and more secretive than the TPP, covering half the world’s population.
The RCEP has been strongly resisted by communities in many RCEP countries, because leaked documents show proposals for investor rights to sue government (ISDS) and stronger medicine monopolies. It could have negative impacts on democracy, workers, essential services, the environment and women. See AFTINET’s latest flyer here.
While the TPP-11 had very weak chapters on labour rights and environmental standards, the RECP has none at all.
In India, strong resistance from both civil society and domestic industry has led their Government to commission a study on potential gains or losses to its economy from the RCEP. This will inform future RCEP negotiations for the Indian government, which decided earlier this year not to offer further concessions that could harm domestic industries.
In Indonesia, health specialist Eva Novi Karina has warned of possible dangers of the RCEP to public health. Under the leaked proposals, monopolies on medicines would be extended in Indonesia and other developing countries. This will delay the availability of cheaper generic medicines, meaning higher costs for governments, and reduced access to essential medicines overall.
Delegates from heath and community organisations across the globe met recently at the Global People's Health Assembly and produced a critical statement about the possible impacts of the RCEP on public health. The statement covers a wide range of issues including access to medicines and health services, climate change, food security and gender inequality. You can sign on to the statement as AFTINET did here.
RCEP negotiations will continue into 2019 and we’re fighting to take TPP-like proposals out of this deal. This will be a test of Labor policy if they win government.
You can donate to the campaign here, and send a message to the Trade Minister telling him you oppose TPP-like proposals in the RCEP here.
