Text of ASU letter . http://gmpsiaprec.blogspot.com.au/2014/07/australian-services-union-writes-to.html
Re:
Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement (KAFTA)
The ASU is one of Australia’s largest Unions, and
represents approximately 120,000 employees. Our members work in the public
services and private sector industries and occupations. The ASU is a member of
AFTINET (Australian Fair Trade & Investment Network Ltd) and as such, we are
in receipt of their well researched information on issues related to ISDS and
the Korea-Australia Free Trade Agreement.
Given the experiences of many nations in relation to
ISDS, it seems incredulous that the Australian government would include such
provisions in any free trade agreement.
ISDS provisions undermine democratic processes by
enabling foreign investors to sue governments for compensation where they
consider domestic law or policy harms their investment. ISDS provisions
enable corporate interests to override legitimate public policy measures which
are in the interest of community health, workers rights and environmental
protection.
Global experience of the use of ISDS provisions has
indicated the readiness of wealthy corporations to use ISDS provisions against
the interests of communities and nation states. The efforts of the Philip
Morris Tobacco Company in suing Australia and Uruguay over tobacco packaging
regulation is an example which drew the particular attention of other nations
which are considering similar plain packaging legislation. The union is of the
view that citizens and their governments have a right to determine how best to
safeguard public health and it should not be over-ridden by the interests of
powerful foreign companies.
Many nation states have found that, as a result of ISDS
provisions, the cost of running cases and related compensation can have
crippling impacts on their economy (often running into hundreds of millions of
dollars and in some cases billions of dollars). Such potential impacts can
inhibit governments from initiating legitimate domestic legislation. It is
therefore not surprising that there are an increasing number of governments
refusing to sign agreements containing such provisions. Indeed, it is
significant that many governments are withdrawing from ISDS. For example,
Indonesia has recently announced it will terminate all 67 bilateral investment
treaties.
The supposed “safeguards” included in the KAFTA are not
sufficiently adequate to prevent foreign investors from suing governments over
health, environment or other public interest policy and legislation. These same
“safeguards” have proved to be ineffective in other agreements with potentially
devastating impacts on the capacity of governments to work in the interests of
its own people. For example, the ASU is aware that the Government of El
Salvador has been sued by Pacific Rim Mining Corporation under the Central
American Free Trade agreement because of a ban the government had imposed on
mining in order to preserve limited groundwater resources.
The inclusion of ISDS provisions in a free trade
agreement sends a signal to the community that the Australian Government is
prepared to put foreign company interests ahead of the interests of its own
people, its own resources and its national wealth. It also indicates that it
would not be concerned about the consequences of such provisions on the
citizens of other nations. For these reasons the Union opposes the ISDS
provisions in free trade agreements.
In addition, the KAFTA should include commitments to
international labour rights and these should be enforced by government to
government disputes processes of the agreement. The KAFTA labour
chapter has relatively low standards and weak labour commitments but even these
are not enforceable. As a union, we are concerned about the rights and
wellbeing of workers and their families, as such, we consider the lack of
adequate labour protections in the KAFTA to be totally unacceptable.
We recommend that this committee call on the Australian
Government to join the growing number of nations which refuse to include ISDS
in free trade agreements and to review the KAFT with the interest of the public
and the environment in mind.
We also wish to advise that we would be pleased to accept
any further opportunity to support the submission made by AFTINET (Australian
Fair Trade & Investment Network Ltd).
Yours faithfully,
Greg Mclean
OAM
Assistant National Secretary
Australian Services Union
8/321 Pitt St. Sydney 2000
gmclean@syd.asu.asn.au
Assistant National Secretary
Australian Services Union
8/321 Pitt St. Sydney 2000
gmclean@syd.asu.asn.au
