Australia
Despite India’s decision to walk out of the ASEAN-led 15-nation RCEP Free Trade Agreement last month, officials from India’s Indo-Pacific partners Australia and Japan are still discussing the issue in the hope that the government will rethink the decision.
The decision of keeping India out of the Regional Comprehension Economic Partnership (RCEP) has helped crores of farmers and prevented the likely shift shift of India from a self-sufficient milk producer to importer.
India has long had a reputation in Australia as being a challenging negotiator that may not share the same enthusiasm for concluding free trade agreements.
Climate change targets are shaping to be a major sticking point in trade negotiations with Europe after France publicly tied Australia’s domestic action on climate change to the proposed FTA.
The very idea of a free trade agreement is a contradiction. You don’t need a complex agreement to trade freely.
In this interview, we discuss the PACER+ trade deal, the post Cotonou talks with the EU and the influence of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in the Pacific region.
Australian businesses in China have praised a New Zealand trade deal which overcomes prohibitive red tape and any unofficial go-slow at Chinese ports that can plague Australian exporters.
In the short- and medium- terms, however, it seems unlikely that those additional rules will facilitate any significant increase in Australian exports to ASEAN.
FTAs can be downright harmful. These agreements often include clauses that deliver power to foreign corporations to launch legal action against democratically elected governments on decisions they believe harm their commercial interests.
A common set of rules on intellectual property (IP) and e-commerce and a new scope of trade for telecommunication services are among some of the expected benefits that will arise from the RCEP agreement when it is signed next year.
India’s departure from the RCEP announced yesterday in Bangkok is not only caused by India’s resistance to lower tariffs. There is a hidden agenda of non-tariff issues that could restrict future government regulation by giving more rights to global corporations.
It has been more than eight years since Australia and India began negotiations on a free trade deal, but the two countries have yet to reach a settlement that both New Delhi and Canberra feel comfortable with.
Interview with AFTINET convenor Dr Patricia Ranald about how the ISDS regime developed, the reasons why these mechanisms are so detrimental, and the impact the TPP-11 agreement could have on Australia.
Organisations representing millions of Australians wrote to Labor MPs last week asking them to implement their policies against harmful proposals including special rights for foreign investors to sue governments for millions over domestic laws.
The Morrison government hopes to pass legislation cobbling together three free-trade deals within months. Draft legislation to lock in trade pacts with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru was introduced to parliament on Wednesday.
PM Narendra Modi will take up India’s unresolved issues in the proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade agreement at the leaders’ summit next month if the 16 members are unable to resolve them over the next few days.
The Australian red meat industry is calling on the government to ratify the free trade agreements with Indonesia and Hong Kong without delay.
Community groups representing millions say trade deals with Indonesia, Hong Kong and Peru put corporate rights before people and environment and urge Labor and cross-bench to oppose them.
Australia has refused to offer preferential market access to Pakistan on the grounds that the country has a very limited basket of tradable goods and services.
Australia will ratify a controversial trade deal with Hong Kong despite growing concern over Chinese government control of the city and the brutal treatment of protesters demanding universal suffrage for its people.
