TPP_ Australia rejects criticism of Trans-Pacific Partnership on health, investors and IP

FINANCIAL REVIEW

Jun 25 2015 at 1:59 PM
Updated Jun 25 2015 at 2:30 PM

Australia rejects criticism of Trans-Pacific Partnership on health, investors and IP


The TPP has sparked protests in most member countries. Reuters

by Greg Earl

The federal government has responded to growing criticism of its planned next big regional trade deal by denying that there will be any changes to the intellectual property regime or that the agreement will undermine the sovereignty of the Australian courts.

The first detailed public comment from the government on several controversial provisions in the US-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) follows strong criticism from the Productivity Commission this week of regional trade deals and of expected provisions in the TPP relating to intellectual property and foreign investor protection.

The Australian response follows a bitter fight in the US Congress over the past week over the passage of trade deal promotion authority for President Barack Obama; it saw growing debate about the amount of transparency over the TPP negotiating process.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on Thursday issued a wide-ranging statement covering health, investor protection, secrecy claims, and environmental issues, underlining how the stakes are rising now that the passage of trade promotion authority in the US has ushered in the final negotiating round for the TPP.

It says that contrary to some expectations, the TPP will not diminish Australia's ability to regulate food labelling, food standards and border quarantine, nor to control medicine prices.

On the independent arbitration of disputes with foreign investors, DFAT says the agreement will not protect investors from a mere loss of profits and does not prevent a government from changing its policies or regulating in the public interest.

"Modern Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanisms incorporate explicit safeguards to reaffirm the right of governments to take decisions in the public interest, including in the areas of health and the environment, and reduce the chances that foreign investors bring frivolous claims," it says.

On the power of Australian courts DFAT says: "Should the Australian government agree to include ISDS in the TPP, then Australia would retain the ability to determine domestic laws, and Australian courts will retain their exclusive jurisdiction to determine matters of Australian law."

And on intellectual property, DFAT says the government is " negotiating intellectual property provisions in the TPP within the framework of Australia's existing laws and policies and does not support any proposals that would require changes to Australia's current intellectual property arrangements, including our copyright and enforcement regimes."

The strong defence of the IP provisions and judicial sovereignty follows a flood of criticism of the TPP on this front from the Productivity Commission (PC), the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, the Harper competition review and High Court chief justice Robert French.

The DFAT statement rejects the criticism that the TPP has been negotiated in secret, arguing that it has engaged in constant stakeholder engagement. But the detailed statement of rebuttal at this point in the process suggests there is some concern in government that the message has not been getting out.

The TPP – which involves 12 countries – is a more complex trade negotiation than a traditional negotiation because it extends beyond traditional goods trade to more complicated issues such as government procurement and regulation.

Some trade observers say that member countries should be more transparent about the process because of this complexity, to maintain support for trade liberalisation. But the latest comprehensive polling about the TPP by the Pew Research Centre shows general support for the process in the member countries.

The Business Council of Australia has defended the government's support for bilateral and regional trade deals following the PC's strong criticism, including of the way the bilateral deal with Japan was assessed.

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