http://aftinet.org.au/cms/1604-experts-rcep-dangers-perth Trade experts including AFTINET’s Convener Dr
Patricia Ranald, the Public Health Association’s Dr Belinda Townsend and
Dr Kyla Tienhaara from the ANU travelled to Perth to
attend Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)
stakeholder consultations. At a lively public forum warned of the dangers in the RCEP deal, which includes
the 10 ASEAN countries plus Australia, New Zealand, China, Japan, India and
South Korea.
A
new trade architecture Dr
Patricia Ranald is concerned about the potential “convergence" of the RCEP
with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). She said
both deals could impact on jobs, the price of medicines and on the ability of
governments to make laws to protect the public interest.“The main beneficiaries
will be global corporations, not ordinary citizens,” she said.
Impact on medicines Public health expert Dr Belinda Townsend is particularly concerned about leaked documents which indicate that some countries are
seeking stronger monopolies on medicines that could delay access to cheaper
generic medicines in low and middle income RCEP countries. “These
provisions would be particularly damaging if applied to India, which supplies
more than 80 per cent of the world’s supply of generic HIV/AIDS medicines,
because they could delay access to affordable versions of new life-saving
medicines,” said Dr Townsend.Read more about the Public Health Association’s
concerns here.
More corporate power Leaks also reveal that investor state dispute
settlement (ISDS) provisions are on the table in the RCEP negotiations.These
controversial provisions appear in the TPP and they give global corporations
the right to bypass national courts and sue governments for billions of dollars
if a change in law or policy harms their investment. Dr Kyla Tienhaarra
said that corporations have used ISDS provisions to challenge tobacco regulation, environmental policies and even a rise to the minimum wage.
Read the full article at http://aftinet.org.au/cms/1604-experts-rcep-dangers-perth
