Eight health and community organisations have written to the Trade Minister Andrew Robb expressing "grave concerns" about the latest leaked draft of the nearly concluded Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
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The draft of the investment chapter published by Wikileaks last week outlines the controversial investor‐state dispute settlement mechanism which would allow foreign corporations to sue governments in offshore tribunals.
It includes a footnote proposing to exempt Australia from the mechanism in accordance with the position of the previous Labor government followed by a note saying that the deletion of the footnote is "subject to certain conditions". A separate annex to the draft says Australia's Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme, Medicare Benefits Scheme, Therapeutic Goods Administration and the Office of the Gene Technology would not be subject to the mechanism.
"While we agree that these programs should definitely not be subject to investor‐state dispute settlement clauses, we are concerned that the inclusion of this annex indicates that the Australian government may not have confidence in the 'safeguards' in the investment chapter," the letter says. "We are very concerned about the implications for other public health policies and programs which are not named as specific exclusions."
The letter is signed by the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations, the Australian Health Promotion Association, the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, the Australian Medical Students Association, the NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association, the Centre for Health Equity Training Research and Evaluation, the Public Health Advocacy Institute of Western Australia and the Public Health Association of Australia.
The eight organisations last month released a health impact assessment which found that the the investor‐state dispute settlement clauses were a threat to public health and recommended that ISDS be excluded from the agreement altogether.
"If the clauses are to be included in the agreement, what we want to see is safeguards that prevent corporations from making claims against governments over policies like tobacco plain packaging, limits on alcohol advertising and food labelling requirements," said Michael Moore of the Public Health Association of Australia. "As it stands, the chapter appears to allow these sorts of policies to be challenged."
Last week's Harper Competition Review criticised the secrecy of the talks recommending that future trade negotiations by informed by an independent and open analysis of the costs and benefits of any proposed intellectual property provisions.
The talks between Australia and 11 other Pacific nations have reached their final stage.
Mr Robb has said he will not sign anything that harms Australia's health system.
