Labor has committed to review Australia’s trade agreements that enable foreign corporations to sue Australian taxpayers if it wins the upcoming election. From The Guardian:
The opposition’s trade spokeswoman, Penny Wong, said Labor would try to remove so-called investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses from every trade agreement, and every bilateral investment treaty, that Australia has signed…
Wong says Labor would develop a “negotiating plan” to remove such ISDS provisions from every agreement Australia has signed.
Where it proves impossible to remove them, she said, Labor would try to put stronger safeguards into existing agreements to make it harder for corporations to sue the government…
Wong says a Labor government would not accept ISDS provisions in new trade agreements.
Great news. But why stop there? Why not get the Productivity Commission (PC) to evaluate all of Australia’s “free trade agreements” (FTAs) for all clauses that are clearly contrary to Australia’s interests, including not just ISDS but also restrictive patent and copyright provisions?
A case in point is the recently signed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
The TPP is an incredibly complex agreement whose text numbers some 6,000 pages and 30 chapters. There’s only one way to properly assess the agreement: get the PC to undertake an assessment before Parliament votes to ratify the deal. It is far too complex for the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) to comprehensively review.
Moreover, under the terms of the TPP, member countries have two years from signing to assess the TPP before it must be ratified. Therefore, there is plenty of time for a thorough assessment by the PC.
The ALP should, therefore, commit to referring the TPP to the PC for assessment should it form government.
