ISDS Case Map
RCEP
As the 6th round of negotiations on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade agreement take place in India, people living with HIV are rallying in the streets of New Delhi to warn that harmful intellectual property provisions - put forth by Japan - could severely restrict access to affordable medicines for people in developing countries.
As negotiators from 16 nations meet in New Delhi for 5 day consultations on the Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership (RCEP), farmers, trade unions, retailers groups, and civil society organisations protested outside the India Expo Mart in Greater Noida. RCEP is a complex North South Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that India is negotiating with the 10 member ASEAN block plus Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Activists say the RCEP free trade pact will damage Indian manufacturing, dairy and agriculture sectors
In the backdrop of 6th Round of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations scheduled to take place from 1-5 December 2014 in Greater Noida, India farmers' organizations, trade unions and civil society organizations expressed serious concern over the very idea of free trade agreement (FTA), lack of transparency and the absence of socio economic impact assessments to asses the impact of the proposed FTA.
Japan wants Thailand to support the RCEP negotiations and proposes the resumption of the Japan–Thailand Economic Partnership Agreement (JTEPA) due to the changing political situations in the two countries.
The inclusion of intellectual property in the ongoing negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership between 16 countries, most of them Asian, is raising concerns about “TRIPS-plus” measures that could jeopardise generic drugs production in India, according to Médecins Sans Frontières.
As an exhausted World Trade Organisation struggles, expect a war of FTAs as rich countries hit back with new trade regimes under TPP and TTIP while emerging markets build the RCEP
About 75 civil society organisations have written to India's Commerce Minister Nirmala Seetharaman conveying their concern on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).
The fifth round of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) talks is set to commence in June, barely two months after the last round, a sign that the efforts by 16 Asian countries to create the world’s biggest free trade area are gaining momentum.
Far from being a means to open up the world to a further intensification of trade, TPP and TTIP will carve up the world into two or more power blocs waging economic war with one another.
