Concern over the transparency of TPP negotiations grew after it was revealed negotiating documents could not be released until four years after the completion of the negotiations.
Azhar Rahim/AAP
In the history of trade agreement negotiations, most have been undertaken in secret, justified on the grounds that the governments’ negotiating positions would be weakened if they became public. But this…
What is the best trade option for Australia’s future?
AAP/Alex Ibanez
One of the first acts of Tony Abbott’s government was to declare it intended to “embrace free trade” in its first term in office. Calling the trade minister Australia’s “ambassador for jobs”, the Coalition…
Protestors picket the last round of Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations in Malaysia, as concerns about secrecy and the agreement’s contents grow.
EPA/Azhar Rahim
The public’s intellectual property rights will continue to be impeded if Australia signs on to the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement as it stands, according to copyright and patent experts following…
The new government faces sorting out a complex mess of stalled talks on various free trade agreements.
AAP
If headlines are to be believed, the new Coalition government is set to “embrace free trade” in its first term in office. In announcing his new Ministry last week, Tony Abbott has made significant changes…
Giving overseas investors more power over our energy resources is no way to ensure security or emissions reductions.
Ross Beckley
As we approach the Australian federal election, trade minister Richard Marles recently confirmed Australia will not sign the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement if it includes an investor-state dispute…
The finer points of Abenomics are not lost on this guy.
ippei-janine
Japanese PM Shinzō Abe has a problem, and he might end up killing an awful lot of frogs to solve it. Shares are up in Japan, but everything else has flatlined: kick-starting the stubbornly moribund economy…
The decision by Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe to enter into the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations enlivens the process and places Australia in the passenger seat.
Two recent events promise to breath life into the lumbering Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, with significant consequences for Australia. Earlier this month, Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo…
The case of Aaron Swartz has put punitive intellectual property enforcement provisions under the spotlight.
Flickr
In light of the death of internet activist Aaron Swartz, there is a need to reconsider intellectual property enforcement standards in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The 16th round of the Trans-Pacific…
Obama has unveilled two key trade treaties designed to reaffirm America’s place as the world’s leading nation - but many aspects of the treaties run counter to its social development stances.
US President Barack Obama’s State of the Union plan to boost American exports and grow American jobs centres around two key regional trade agreements: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic…
The High Court has ruled the enforcing plain packaging is constitutionally legal.
AAP/Lukas Coch
After much political debate, the Australian Parliament passed the Tobacco Plain Packaging Act 2011 (Cth). Australian legislators, such as Richard di Natale, provided moving accounts for the need for plain…
The Federal Government’s plain packaging legislation has been emblematic of how a foreign investor’s right to sue governments can be abused. So why is ACCI’s new campaign ignoring some important facts?
AAP
The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) has apparently decided that it is up in arms over a Gillard government policy announced more than a year ago. In April 2011, the federal government…
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key and Julia Gillard are at loggerheads over the investment chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
AAP
This week, San Diego is hosting the latest round of talks over the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Australia and New Zealand are at loggerheads over this secretive new trade treaty spanning the Pacific Rim…
The task of simultaneously negotiating our traditional security and cultural ties with the US, and our burgeoning economic relationship with China, can justifiably be described as the “great foreign policy…
Research Fellow, NHMRC Centre for Research Excellence in the Social Determinants of Health Equity, School of Regulation and Global Governance, Australian National University