The Peoples Media

Trans Pacific Partnership Details Explained

PIJIP Trade Agreement Table Updated: Compares TPP, ACTA, TRIPS, US-Chile FTA »

Recently, Inside U.S. Trade reported that Australia, New Zealand and Singapore have proposed replacing some elements of the U.S. proposed TPP chapter on IP with provisions from ACTA. The table below compares the provisions from the two texts (as well as with TRIPS and the U.S.-Chile Free Trade Agreement). Overall, the comparative analysis shows that TPP contains a plethora of TRIPS-plus provisions as well as ACTA-plus and Chile FTA-plus provisions.

The chart is organized in the following order of categories: General Provisions; Scope; Special Measures Relating to Enforcement in the Digital Environment; Technological Protection Measures; Criminal Enforcement; Provisional Measures; Civil and Administrative Procedures and Remedies; Special Requirements Related to Border Enforcement; Rights Management Provisions.

This table is the product of work by multiple PIJIP fellows, including myself, Carrie Ellen Sager, and Sophia Castillo.

Click here to download the table.

Another NAFTA - Trans - Pacific Partnership

Another NAFTA on the making: Trans Pacific Partnership

Free Trade Agreements Kill People!

We, representatives of peasants, workers, consumers, urban and rural poor, social movements and civil society organizations are gathering in Chiba and Tokyo, Japan from 12 to 15 October 2011. La Via Campesina South East and East Asia region with FTA Watch (Thailand), Shokkenren (Japan) and Task Force against Korea-US FTA (Republic of Korea) organize a strategic meeting to discuss Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This is to express our alarm on the implementation and pursuing of the agreements across Asia. Currently there are dozens of FTAs between countries and/or regions and they have been threatening peoples’ livelihood in the region.

At present, the world is still experiencing food, energy, financial and environmental crises. Corporations and capitals who cause these crises are trying to fill their already-full pocket by pushing FTAs and TPP. Only 1 percent of the world’s population are practicing and reaping benefits from free trade. This attempt will exacerbate the current crises and sacrifice the people, especially the poor.

TPPA New Zealand Forum

The TPP Forum was a public meeting about the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. It was held in Wellington on July 7th, 2011.

http://tppwatch.org/
http://techliberty.org.nz

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

TPPA - Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement or Toxic Profiteers Plunder Aoteaora?

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is a “free trade” currently under negotiation between NZ and 8 other countries, including the U.S. The countries want to complete negotiation by the end of 2011.

Trade is only a minor part of the agreement. That’s just a clever branding exercise. A TPPA would be an agreement that guarantees special rights to foreign investors. If these negotiations succeed they will create a mega-treaty across 9 countries that will put a straight jacket around what policies and laws our governments can adopt for the next century — think GM labelling, foreign investment laws, price of medicines, regulating dodgy finance firms, NZ content on TV …To find out more go to http://tppwatch.org/what-is-tppa/

The Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement

The Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement: NAFTA for the Pacific Rim?

Read CTC’s Most Current Fact Sheets

The Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement
What Corporations Want in Trans-Pacific Trade Negotiations
The Trans-Pacific FTA’s Threats to Public Health
The Trans-Pacific FTA and the Environment

Trade negotiators from the United States and eight other countries have been busily negotiating the Trans-Pacific Free Trade Agreement (FTA) — sometimes called the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP. This regional trade deal currently includes Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Peru and Chile, but is also intended as a “docking agreement” that other Pacific Rim countries would join over time, such as Indonesia, Russia, the Philippines and possibly even China. Already, Japan, Mexico and Canada have announced their intentions to join.

The Obama administration’s recent embrace of the Bush-negotiated Korea, Panama and Colombia Free Trade Agreements leaves many worried that the Trans-Pacific FTA will become nothing but a massive new NAFTA-style agreement. Indeed, while not all the negotiating text for the FTA has yet been released, it is already clear that trade negotiators are using past free trade agreements as their basic starting point for this one. The leaked text of several chapters, in fact, show rollbacks from the Bush years on topics like access to medicine.

The ongoing, multi-year negotiations over the Trans-Pacific FTA are supposed to conclude in 2012, and as such, the window of opportunity for preventing the FTA from becoming a new “NAFTA for the Pacific Rim” is rapidly closing. Here are some of the questions yet to be answered:

Labor rights: Will the Trans-Pacific FTA include labor standards based on International Labor Organization conventions, and if included, how will they be enforced?
Investment Provisions: Will the Trans-Pacific FTA include so-called “investor-state” provisions that allow individual corporations to challenge environmental, consumer and other public interest policies as barriers to trade?
Public Procurement: Will the Trans-Pacific FTA respect nations’ and communities’ right to set purchasing preferences that keep taxpayer dollars re-circulating in local economies?
Access to Medicines: Will the Trans-Pacific FTA allow governments to produce and/or obtain affordable, generic medications for sick people?
Agriculture: Will the Trans-Pacific FTA allow countries to ensure that farmers and farm workers are fairly compensated, while also preventing the agricultural dumping that has forced so many family farmers off their land?

Statement TPPA Food Sovereignty Network

La Via Campesina / Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance

La Via Campesina and the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance jointly make this statement at the conclusion of the APEC meeting in Hawaii regarding the further negotiation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA).

This statement is to express our alarm about the implementation and pursuit of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) across the Asia-Pacific Region, in particular the TPPA. In the wake of the collapse of the Doha Development Round of the World Trade Organisation, national governments are seeking to promote the free trade agenda through FTAs. There is a growing web of FTAs between countries and/or regions, across the world. Australia is currently party to 6 FTAs with ASEAN, New Zealand, Chile, United States, Singapore and Thailand, as well as in the process of negotiating a further 9 FTAs; the TPPA, PACER-Plus; China, Japan, India, Malaysia, South Korea, Indonesia and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1146:la-via-campesina-australian-food-sovereignty-alliance-&catid=21:food-sovereignty-and-trade&Itemid=38

Japan: “We will continue farming on Japanese soil!”

NOUMINREN Youth held its 20th conference in Tokyo on February 11thand 12th this year. Approximately 100 people participated in the conference (the largest ever). For NOUMINREN, this conference was probably its most important in last 20 years as it was the first conference after 3.11 earthquake, tsunami and the nuclear plant accidents. All participants were eager to share and reflect on what they underwent after 3.11 and to use these understandings to overcome their concerns.

On the first day, a forum was held to discuss the issue Why we must continue farming on Japanese soil: Understanding how nuclear power plants and the Trans-Pacific Partnership will destroy us. In this forum, five panelists (three farmers, one food researcher, and one local community activist) presented their commitment to protect agriculture and food sovereignty of Japan.

http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1211:japan-we-will-continue-farming-on-japanese-soil&catid=44:youth&Itemid=66

In response to the recent events in Chicago, a message from Occupy San Diego to the Worldwide Resistance that joined in the anti-NATO demonstrations, as well as the various Occupations, and students in Quebec as it was condensed by OSD GA.

In response to the recent events in Chicago, a message from Occupy San Diego to the Worldwide Resistance that joined in the anti-NATO demonstrations, as well as the various Occupations, and students in Quebec as it was condensed by OSD GA.