ISDS Case Map
Australia
The fourth round of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between India and Australia is expected to be held in November this year, in New Delhi, a top official has said.
At first blush, it looks like a suicide mission - taking hundreds of businesspeople to China for a big encounter with a one-party state, just weeks before that one party is to stage a 10-yearly leadership transition that will cascade down through every significant job in the country.
Delegates attending trans-Pacific free-trade negotiations in the United States are being warned their countries could end up like Australia if they agree to allow corporations to sue governments in international courts.
Sixteen nations home to roughly half the world's population have agreed "in principle" to create a free trade area spanning Asia, according to Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan.
Australia and the European Commission on Tuesday agreed to link their carbon trading schemes by 2018, allowing Australian companies to buy cheaper EU carbon credits and providing a much-needed boost for the flagging European market.
Australia’s High Court has rejected a challenge by the world’s biggest tobacco companies which are seeking to overturn a law requiring cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging from the start of December.
“We welcome the High Court decision as a vindication of the Government’s right to regulate tobacco as an addictive substance that still kills 15,000 Australians per year,” Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, said today.
The Gillard government's refusal to reconsider its decision not to demand sovereign risk protection for Australian companies in free-trade agreements has been met with loud objections from leading business groups who say such provisions are vital to international trade, according to The Australian Financial Review.
Members of the Australian business community have launched a campaign for trade agreements to include provisions to allow private companies to sue foreign governments for breach of contract or property rights.
Tony Abbott's speech in China is interesting on a number of levels.
Since May, the Opposition leader has been executing a positive pivot on the Asian Century. This transition has left Mr Abbott more comfortable conceptually than he was last October about a bilateral free trade deal between Canberra and Beijing.
