1. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP): Corporate Rights vs Peoples’ Rights

2. Map of TPP negotiating countries:

3. What is the TPP?
A trade agreement being negotiated since 2010 between 12 countries
The US is driving the agenda to suit its most powerful industries and corporations: pharmaceuticals, media, information technology
Aim is to remove tariffs and “barriers to trade” but most of the 29 chapters are not actually about traditional trade issues
The TPP threatens to change Australian laws and policies to suit US corporate interests
Negotiations are secret

4. Longer patents leading to higher medicine prices
The TPP could extend patents on medicines meaning higher prices for longer
Companies could be able to continually extend patents through “evergreening,” and even surgical methods could be patentable
“Most harmful treaty ever for access to medicines” – Doctors Without Borders (MSF)

5. Other impacts on public health
The TPP would undermine Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) by restricting governments’ ability to make medicines affordable
Restrict government public health regulations for warning labels on food, tobacco or alcohol

6. Threats to sustainable, healthy food
The TPP could also restrict mandatory labelling of genetically modified food, or nutrition information
The TPP will restrict governments’ ability to give preference to sustainably and locally grown foods for public programs
Investors could challenge new legislation designed to protect our food security or public health

7. Rights for foreign investors to sue governments over health and environment laws
This is known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS
A single investor can sue for hundreds of millions of dollars if their investments are ‘harmed’ by a law or policy
The previous ALP Government had a policy against ISDS
The Howard Coalition government did not agree to ISDS in the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement
But the current Coalition government is prepared to agree to it in the TPP

8. ISDS threatens democracy and sovereignty: Tobacco
Australia’s tobacco plain packaging law was passed by our Parliament, and our High Court found that tobacco companies were not entitled to compensation
Philip Morris shifted assets to Hong Kong to use an obscure 1994 investment treaty to sue Australia for hundreds of millions in damages
This undermines our Parliament and High Court

9. ISDS would prevent regulation of mining
Just the threat of ISDS can have “freezing” effect on public health or environmental legislation
A US energy company is suing the Canadian provincial government of Quebec for $250 million because it suspended shale gas mining pending an environmental study
ISDS could threaten the regulation of coal seam gas mining in Australia

10. Internet freedom under threat
Copyright should balance creative rights with consumer rights
Copyright laws could be extended from 70 years to 90 or more years after the author’s death, meaning higher costs for schools, universities and libraries
Restricted access and higher costs for downloading temporary copies on the internet
Criminal penalties for internet users without safeguards for legitimate use

11. Reduced Australian content in media
Australia has laws for minimum levels of Australian content in film, television and other media to ensure Australian stories are told
US media companies see these laws as a barrier to trade and want to reduce or abolish them
This threatens our ability to preserve and develop our culture

12. TPP: Workers’ rights and environmental protection
Competition for investment can lead to a race to the bottom on workers’ rights and the environment unless effective standards are in place.
Leaked documents show the TPP contains only weak environmental standards which are not enforceable
There is still no agreement for enforceable workers’ rights
Contrast with expansion of corporate rights
In April 2013, Bangladeshi clothing factory workers left an unsafe building but were ordered back to work. The building then collapsed, killing 1200 people.

13. Australian Trade Agreement Process lacks democracy
No release of text before signing
Cabinet signs off on text, which cannot then be changed
After Cabinet signs, becomes public, tabled in Parliament for 20 sitting days and reviewed by Joint Standing Committee on Treaties, but cannot change text
Parliament votes only on legislation required for implementation:
Eg., ISDS does not require legislation
Other restrictions on future regulation, eg food regulation, may not require legislation
Can lock in existing legislation and prevent future reform, eg. IP law
Final ratification after legislation

14. Local and international resistance to the TPP: impacts on negotiations
Negotiations for five years as community groups have pressured governments to resist US demands
Strong campaigns in many TPP countries
Could be signed by August 2015

15. The Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network (AFTINET)
AFTINET is a network of 60 unions, community organisations and many individuals campaigning in Australia for fair trade based on human rights, labour rights and environmental sustainability
Coordinates with similar groups in other TPP countries
Website: