WikiLeaks reveals local health and environment rules under threat

Trade Minister Andrew Robb says the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations are at "a make-or-break point" over the next month. Photo: Sanghee Liu

Australian health, environment and public welfare regulation, including plain tobacco packaging legislation, will be open for challenge from largely US-based corporations, if a new deal that is part of the Trans Pacific Partnership goes through.

WikiLeaks has revealed that the Australian government is close to agreement on a wide-ranging trade deal that could allow multinational corporations to challenge these regulations as well as local food safety standards. The new TPP free trade agreement will cover approximately 40 per cent of the world economy.

Intellectual property law expert, Australian National University Associate Professor Matthew Rimmer says the WikiLeaks publication is "a bombshell" that will "galvanise resistance and opposition to fast-tracking of this mega trade deal".

"The investment chapter serves to boost the corporate rights and powers of multinational companies at the expense of democratic governments and domestic courts," Dr Rimmer said.

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A secret draft chapter of the TPP free trade agreement, published by WikiLeaks on Thursday, shows that the Abbott government is prepared to accept a controversial Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process if "certain conditions" are met in a broad agreement that it hopes will enhance Australian access to US and Japanese agricultural markets.

Trade Minister Andrew Robb says the TPP negotiations are at "a make-or-break point" over the next month, with potentially huge trade benefits at stake as well as major strategic interests in relation to the United States "pivot to Asia".

WikiLeaks latest disclosure of the secret TPP negotiations will fuel political debate as both the Labor opposition and Australian Greens have expressed strong opposition to inclusion of ISDS provisions in the TPP, pointing out that the former Howard government rejected such a provision in the Australia's bilateral free trade agreement with the US.

Trade officials from the US and 11 other Pacific Rim nations Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam are engaged in intensive, closed-door negotiations to finish the TPP in the next few months.

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WikiLeaks reveals local health and environment rules under threat