Phillip Morris has used ISDS in other trade agreements to sue Australia and Uruguay over regulations requiring “plain packaging” on packs of cigarettes.
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Our Kim In-kyung has more.
The text of the long-awaited Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – a historic 12-country trade agreement between Pacific region nations, including Australia and the United States – was finally released overnight.
In particular, it said the South Korea-U.S. FTA will eliminate tariffs on 95-point-eight percent of all South Korean goods sold in the USA beginning in 2017, allowing South Korea to maintain its advantage in the US market for the time being.
The dozen countries that signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership have committed to refrain from competitive currency devaluations and be transparent about their exchange-rate policies, the USA said.
However, the government expected more competition for machinery, electrical and electronic goods. But neither Obama, nor U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman – who issued a separate statement – explicitly addressed claims that ISDS will jeopardize environmental laws and tobacco regulations, or that the treaty will drive up drug prices.
“The effects of this trade agreement will be no different than what we have seen in the past: more factories shuttered, middle class families continuing to struggle while our trade deficit skyrockets, and we continue to do business with countries that don’t measure up to our environmental and labor standards”, remarked Kaela Berg, director of the Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition.
Robb said years of careful negotiations had led to the best deal for Australia, which now has greater freedom to export commodities such as sugar, beef, dairy and rice, as well as a number of services and materials. “We need trade policies in this country that work for working families, not just CEOs”. “There are improvements, but we do not believe those improvements are significant or meaningful for workers”, the AFL-CIO’s trade and globalization policy specialist, Celeste Drake, said during the same call.
But it is not part of the TPP, largely because the other countries didn’t want it included.
ISDS provisions allow foreign investors to sue governments. The agreement will dramatically change the lives of millions of people across its 12 member states, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States.
After months of private briefings on the details, a key Republican congressman, Kevin Brady, would only say: “I will study the agreement carefully, consult with my colleagues and constituents in the coming months and give the administration the opportunity to answer all our questions”.
Environmental groups did not find anything in the text of the final deal that would preclude fossil fuel companies from using ISDS to challenge a government’s ability to ban or limit energy extraction as a way of addressing climate change and other ecological risks.
The country’s record came into focus earlier this year after Washington upgraded Malaysia in its annual trafficking scorecard, sidestepping a law which would have barred the TPP from a fast track through Congress.
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The enforcement provision says this: “No party shall fail to effectively enforce its labour laws through a sustained or recurring course of action or inaction in a manner affecting trade or investment between the parties after the date of entry into force of this agreement”.
