ISDS Case Map
Japan
About 150 activists trooped to the Philippine Senate on Tuesday, calling on senators to reject the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement
The Japanese side is strongly selling the concept of capacity-building in Indonesia in key areas such as the auto parts industry. Despite such promises, it is difficult to envision how such nascent industries will compete with the now cheaper Japanese imports.
Japan has moved to exclude key agricultural products from the next round of free-trade negotiations with Australia, due to be held in Tokyo next week.
A Joint Study Group of Pakistan and Japan considering the feasibility of Free Trade Agreement between Islamabad and Tokyo would submit its draft report to the two governments by the end of November 2008.
The East Asia Summit, a “leaders-driven forum” with India, as also China and Japan in its fold, “is studying the feasibility of a free trade area among its 16 countries.”
“WE must overcome the entropy of the old tradition of secrecy,” counseled Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno in his lengthy argument on the petition to have the government disclose details of the negotiations between the Philippines and Japan in relation to the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Obviously, it was an advice that went largely unheeded as majority of his colleagues upheld for a second time the Arroyo government's invocation of executive privilege.
The Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade), whose affiliates are among the petitioners on the lack of government transparency in trade negotiations, denounces the cowardly decision of the Supreme Court on the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Said decision upholds the secrecy of executive treaty-making exercise even if such treaty puts Philippine jobs and industries at risk.
Talks between Japan and South Korea on resuming negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement have been postponed indefinitely after Seoul said it was unhappy over a reference to the Takeshima islets in school handbooks
The No Deal! Movement, which has actively campaigned against the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement said that the Supreme Court decision to uphold secrecy of Philippine government negotiations over trade deals "will set a dangerous precedent, legitimizing the marginalization of ordinary Filipinos from having access to pertinent information on economic treaties such as JPEPA that will have a deep impact on their interest and livelihood"
The Philippine Supreme Court has upheld the “executive privilege” invoked by the government in refusing to accede to a request by several lawmakers, and partylist and militant groups for a full disclosure of its negotiations with Japan involving the controversial trade agreement.
