The Australian government is negotiating the TPPA with the US, New Zealand, Canada, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Singapore, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam. The negotiations are secret, and there is only limited consultation with community groups. But leaked documents show that corporate rights are being extended at the expense of peoples’ rights.There have been 16 rounds of negotiations since 2010. The agenda is being set by US global corporations and international business groups. They want to open up as many services as possible to international investment, and to reduce the right of governments to regulate those services, paving the way for privatisation of public services and deregulation of other services..The TPPA agenda is to treat all regulation as if it were a tariff, or tax on imported goods, to be frozen, reduced and removed over time, often without adequate consideration of the health, social or environmental impacts of particular regulation.
Advice from AFTINET www.aftinet.org.au
