Displaying items by tag: TPPA

The Australian Council of Trade Unions says it will present independent economic evidence to a parliamentary committee today to show that the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement will cause 39,000 Australia jobs to disappear by 2025.

The first Australian beneficiary of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement appears to have surfaced and unsurprisingly it is the Trade Minister himself.

The text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement was released a little more than a month ago, but given the fact that it is 5544 pages long only a few aspects of it have come under scrutiny.

At least one article of a chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement, the text of which was released on Friday, appears to have the fingerprints of lobbyists from the proprietary software industry all over it.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement may have been signed by the 12 countries involved but that doesn't mean it is a done deal.

Call me a cynic if you like, but is it a coincidence that the government — elected by the people, mind you — always releases material that could result in a backlash on the weekend or close to it?

COMMENT The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement had hardly been initialled early on Tuesday morning before the website of the Australian trade minister, Andrew Robb, published a list of what were termed the benefits of the deal.

COMMENT The 12 countries that are negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement have begun what is considered a last-ditch round of talks to conclude a deal before the US election season swings into high-gear.

A US Congressional deal to give President Barack Obama so-called fast-track negotiating authority to accelerate two trade deals with nations in the Asia-Pacific and Europe respectively has broken down, with the Senate voting against granting the president this authority.

The finalisation of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, a trade deal involving 12 countries including Australia, has moved a step closer after the US Congress agreed to give President Barack Obama's administration the authority to speed up negotiations.

COMMENT The current Australian government is prepared to bend over a little more than Labor was over the question of investor-state dispute settlements (ISDS) in the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, according to a leaked draft of this chapter of the proposed treaty.

It is an indication of the level of craven cowardice within Labor Party ranks that members of what is supposed to be the Opposition are congratulating themselves on backing the Coalition government's data retention bill that Prime Minister Toby Abbott is seeking to rush through Parliament this week.

Australia's Opposition Labor Party has been given a get out of jail free card by the Government in relation to the proposed data retention bill: we'll make exceptions for journalists, if you vote for it.

COMMENT In what is a perfectly natural confluence, the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement, the data retention proposals and the copyright law changes are coming together to take effect around the same time. Nothing surprising here.

Another round of talks to finalise the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement will conclude next week, this time in Dallas, Texas.

COMMENT Australian ISP iiNet has every reason to feel vindicated today after it was cleared by the High Court of being responsible for its customers' violation of copyright.

The United States has decided to do away with the day-long stakeholder programme at future rounds of talks to bed down the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.

Predictably, a proposal by five big ISPs to counteract the downloading of copyrighted material in Australia has not found favour with the copyright holders.

The poll ratings of the Australia federal Labor government are likely to drop further if it gives in to draconian new proposals made by the US as part of the secret Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement.

The next round of secret talks to negotiate details of the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement will be held soon in Peru.