[CTC] CTU | Trade unions in TPP countries call for a fairer trade framework

Mon Mar 15 08:23:05 PDT 2010

The Media Release and Joint Statement below were issued Sunday 14th March
2010 and sent to Hon. Simon Crean Minister For Trade.

Media Release
14th March, 2010

Unions, community groups want safeguards for health, environment and labour
rights in US-Trans Pacific trade pact

Thirty Australian unions and community groups today asked the Trade Minister
to safeguard the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Australian local content in
media, regulation of GE food, regulation of foreign investment and industry
policies that support local employment in the Trans Pacific Partnership
Agreement (TPPA) negotiations which start on Monday March 15.

The TPPA involves the US, Australia, Chile, Peru, Brunei, Singapore, New
Zealand and Vietnam in negotiations for a new trade agreement based on the
bilateral agreements the US has with five of these countries. This will
resurrect all of the issues that were debated in the Australia-US Free Trade
Agreement in 2004.

The organisations represent a wide range of union, church, health,
environment and pensioners' groups including the Australian Council of Trade
Unions, the Australian Conservation Foundation,  the Australian Catholic
Social Justice Council, the Public Health Association of Australia, the
Australian Nursing Federation, the Australian Pensioners and Superannuants
Association, the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union and the Media
Entertainment and Arts Alliance. 

"US business groups have said in public submissions that they want changes
to the PBS, local content in media, labelling of GE food, regulation of
foreign investment and government purchasing policies that support local
employment.  They also want an investor-state complaints process which will
give special rights to international corporations to sue governments for
damages. We are asking the Trade Minister to stand firm against these
demands, and to support strong, enforceable labour and environment standards
in any agreement," said Harvey Purse, AFTINET campaigner. 

See full statement and list of signatories attached.

For comment contact:

Harvey Purse, Trade Justice Campaigner, AFTINET - 02 9212 7242 or 0404 140
886

David Legge, Public Health Association, 0408 991 417

Cam Walker, Friends of the Earth, 03 9419 8700 or email
cam.walker at foe.org.au

Paul Bastian, Acting National President, AMWU - 0419 409 285

Don't trade away health, labour, cultural and environmental policies

The Australian Government is involved in negotiations for a Trans Pacific
Partnership Agreement (TPPA) with the US, Chile, Peru, Brunei, Singapore,
New Zealand and Vietnam to develop a multilateral agreement based on the
bilateral agreements the US has with five of these countries. This will
resurrect all of the issues that were debated in the US-Australia Free Trade
Agreement.

The Howard Government negotiated the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement in
2003-4. The US government and companies identified the following Australian
polices as barriers to trade that they wanted to remove or change as part of
the free trade agreement:

*	Price controls under the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, which
ensure Australians affordable access to medicines 
*	Labelling of genetically engineered food
*	Australian content rules in audio-visual media like film and
television
*	The Foreign Investment Review Board
*	Quarantine regulations
*	Local content requirements for government purchasing

The US government also wanted an investor-state disputes process, which
would have given US companies the right to sue Australian governments for
damages on the grounds that environmental or other public interest laws
could harm their investments. US companies have used this process in the
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to sue Canadian and Mexican
governments for millions of dollars.

There was strong community opposition to the US agenda, because we believed
that health, environmental, social and cultural policies should be decided
through democratic parliamentary processes, not secretly bargained away in
trade agreements. 

The community campaign did have an impact. There was no investor-state
disputes process, no changes to GE food labelling, and limited changes to
the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and local media content. 

The agreement also had very weak labour and environment clauses, which were
not legally based on International Labour Organisation standards.

The TPPA means that all the issues we kept out of the US-Australia Free
Trade Agreement will be up for negotiation again. We know from submissions
made by US business groups that they want to use the negotiations to obtain
more changes in most of the areas listed above, and to push for an
investor-state complaints process.

The government has said that they will try to use the agreement to improve
Australian access to US agricultural markets, but the danger is that further
changes to the PBS and the other policies will be demanded as trade-offs.

We are asking the government to adopt the following principles in the TPPA
negotiations:

*	No further changes to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme which would
reduce affordable access to medicines 
*	No investor-state disputes process which would give special rights
to international corporations to sue governments for damages 
*	Full rights to regulate labelling of genetically engineered food and
to regulate GE crops, including existing moratoria
*	No further weakening of Australian Government power to regulate
audiovisual media for Australian content purposes 
*	Retention of the Foreign Investment Review Board, and of its powers
to review foreign investment in the public interest
*	No weakening of quarantine regulations
*	No reductions in the ability to have local content requirements for
government purchasing and industry policies that support local employment
*	Strong labour clauses that require signatories to enforce the core
International Labor Organisation's (ILO) standards in the ILO Conventions,
with trade penalties for non-compliance
*	Strong environmental clauses that require signatories to meet all
applicable international environmental standards including those contained
within UN environmental agreements, with trade penalties for non compliance.

The following organisations support these principles:

Australian Council of Trade Unions

Friends of the Earth Australia

Australian Conservation Foundation

Finance Sector Union of Australia

Australian Catholic Social Justice Council

Global Trade Watch

Australian Pensioners and Superannuants Federation 

The Grail Global Justice Network (Australia)

Public Health Association of Australia

Latin American Solidarity Network (LASNET)

Australian Education Union

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance

Australian Manufacturing Workers Union

Maritime Union of Australia Victorian Branch 

Australian Nursing Federation

National Tertiary Education Union

Australian Services Union

Nature Conservation Council NSW

Australian Pensioners' and Superannuants' League Queensland

Quaker Peace and Legislation Committee

Combined Pensioners' and Superannuants' Association of NSW

Western Australian and Canberra Regional Meetings of Religious Society of
Friends (Quakers)

Community and Public Sector Union, State Public Services Federation

Republic Now Association 

Community and Public Sector Union, (Commonwealth) Public Sector Union  

SEARCH Foundation

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union

The Alliance to Expose GATS

Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (Retired Members)

The Environment Centre, Northern Territory

Organic Federation of Australia

Union Aid Abroad- APHEDA

Economic Reform Australia

Yours in Unity
Harvey Purse

--

Harvey Purse

Trade Justice Campaigner

Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network

Level 3, Suite 3B, 110 Kippax Street

Surry Hills NSW Australia 2010

Tele: +61 2 9212 7242

Fax: +61 2 9211 1407

email: campaign at aftinet.org.au

website: www.aftinet.org.au

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