By Debbie Too http://www.bt.com.bn Saturday, August 24, 2013
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
THE comprehensive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) will not compromise a nation’s sovereignty, and laws that are perceived to be “a disguised form of trade restriction” can be challenged.
By BJ Siekierski | Aug 22, 2013
From the lobby of the venue where the nineteenth round of TPP negotiations are taking place in Brunei over the next eight days, seven pieces of paper reveal — at least in part — what chapters are being discussed.
As seen in the photo above, which was sent to iPolitics, the initial focus will be on financial services, intellectual property, government procurement, market access, environment, investment, and rules of origin.
The agreement contains 26 chapters in total, somewhere between five and nine of which are believed to be completed.
What makes this round particularly interesting, however, is the presence of TPP-member ministers.
Again, as the photo shows, they’ll actually be gathering in the same venue as the negotiators (though the ministers are only there Thursday and Friday) — creating as good an opportunity as any to resolve differences.
© 2013 iPolitics Inc.
Submitted by Krista Cox on 22. August 2013 – 21:14
The 19th round of Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) began this week in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. Although this round just started yesterday, it is evident that there are many differences between this round and previous rounds.
First, the meeting started with an overlapping TPP ministerial meeting where the Trade Ministers of the various countries met for two days to (presumably) discuss the TPP, efforts moving forward, and outstanding or controversial issues. It has been reported that not all countries’ trade ministers were able to attend, and I have heard that Australia, Chile and Peru’s trade ministers are not here (but that a deputy or other person has attended instead).
These meetings, like the rest of the TPP, have been secretive.
A large number of press, nearly all member of the Japanese media, were camped out in the lobby of the negotiating venue yesterday, eagerly awaiting the emergence of any trade minister from behind the closed off areas. Any time a trade minister walked out of the room yesterday, they were instantly bombarded by cameras and press but refused to comment even when asked very open questions such as “Would you like to say anything about the TPP?”
The logistics of this round have been much more difficult and the venue seems more inaccessible than previous rounds. There is a feeling that this venue is a bit isolated.
Although stakeholders are allowed in the lobby of the International Convention Centre (ICC) — I note that there was one prior round, the December 2012 round in Auckland, New Zealand where stakeholders were prohibited even from the lobby or common areas of the convention center, so perhaps we should be thankful not to be locked out this time — the venue itself is quite far from the hotels, shops, or restaurants.
This has made it difficult to meet for lunch with the negotiators as there are no restaurants in walking distance from the ICC. Ordinarily, stakeholders are able to make appointments to meet negotiators over breakfast, lunch or dinner. This time, however, while there is some food catered to the venue that food (as well as the area where it is being served) is reserved for negotiators only and stakeholders are not allowed to even purchase the food. I learned that there is a cafe here, but was closed when I tried to get food yesterday.
Lunch and dinner meetings have become more complicated, as well, given the near isolation of the negotiation venue in relation to the rest of the city. There does not appear to be many hotels that are close to each other and negotiators are scattered in hotels far and wide across the city. Taxis are quite expensive in Brunei (a literally 5 minute taxi ride from the airport to my hotel was $20 BND) and also difficult to find. Some stakeholders have reported paying $25 BND (approximately $20 USD) from their hotel to the negotiating venue, costing $40USD round trip each day. It is therefore difficult to find a convenient meeting spot and find the time to meet when the hotels are not close to the venue.
Meeting after the negotiating day is done may also be difficult for some delegations because while they have their own shuttle buses to transport them from the venue to their hotels, they may get left behind if they stay too long after the day supposedly ends. From the stakeholder perspective, it makes meetings more difficult and I can only imagine that this situation is not particularly convenient for the negotiators as they meet bilaterally or for delegation meetings (as many negotiators even within the same delegation are not located within the same hotel). With regard to the IP negotiators, for example, out of the eleven countries I know that there are at least five hotels that the delegations are staying at, none of which are walkable or convenient to each other. They may well be spread across even more hotels, as well, that I am not aware of. Hosting side events or luncheons, something that stakeholders have done at many previous rounds, is obviously made more difficult. The closest possible venue to host such a side event is close to 30 minutes away by walking, making it basically impossible to have the event and reasonably expect the negotiators to come.
With regard to the stakeholder engagement day, there are also substantial changes. Initially, we were told that there would be no tables and no presentations, a huge change from any of the previous rounds. At the last minute, and with just two days of notice, we were told that we could register to make presentations. However, the presentations are limited to 7 minutes each, less than half of the 15 minutes we have been traditionally allotted at the most recent TPP rounds, and quite a bit less than the 20 minutes allotted at some early rounds. It is obviously difficult to give a presentation when only allotted a 7 minute speaking slot.
The location of the stakeholder engagement day is at the Empire Hotel, about 30 km away and according to google maps a 35 minute drive from the ICC negotiating venue. It is quite far from many of the hotels that negotiators are staying at, and some countries have indicated that they do not know how they will get to the stakeholder presentations because they are so far away. Some hotels do have private transportation that can be used for a fee, but at least one hotel has said that they do not transit to the Empire Hotel. Not only do they have to get to the Empire Hotel by the start of the stakeholder day (which begins at 8:30 am), but they must ensure their ability to return to the ICC for negotiations afterward.
I asked one of the organizers whether they would be arranging for buses or transportation to and from the Empire Hotel and was told that they were not. I then asked again, clarifying that I was inquiring only about transportation for the negotiators and not for stakeholders, and was again told that no transportation arrangements were being made to/from the Empire Hotel. It is therefore up to the negotiators to ensure that they can get to and from the stakeholder venue, located 35 minutes away by car.
Everyone seems to be waiting for direction and answers from the trade ministers as to what will be happening going forward, when the next meetings may be for outstanding chapters, whether this is indeed the last full round, and what will happen at the APEC meeting in October.
By Council of Canadians August 23, 2013
Ottawa – Ministers from the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries, including International Trade Minister Ed Fast, should stop their secret negotiations and immediately make public the 26 chapters of the TPP when they meet in Brunei this week, say Canadian groups, citing precedent for transparency in previous trade negotiations of this size and scope.
“It is a scandal that a far-reaching deal like the TPP could be signed in the coming months without anyone across the 12 participating countries having seen or had a chance to challenge some of the many new restrictions an agreement will put on our ability to govern in the public interest. The only acceptable road forward for the TPP is for ministers to publish the text now before it’s too late,” says Stuart Trew, trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians, a national grassroots activist and social justice organization.
“The TPP looks more like a corporate power grab than a trade deal from what we’ve seen of it. It would impose a free-market dogma on governments and override domestic laws in a way that would be rejected if put forward through democratic legislative processes,” says Raul Burbano, program director at Common Frontiers, a network bringing together labour, human rights, environmental, and economic and social justice organizations.
The Council of Canadians and Common Frontiers point out that only two of the 26 chapters relate to trade as most people understand it. The other chapters involve restrictions on government’s ability to make health policy, the criminalization of everyday uses of the Internet, new limits on access to affordable medicines, prohibiting ‘buy local’ policies (e.g. local food), encouraging privatization, discouraging the creation of Crown corporations or new public utilities, and empowering corporations to sue governments before private tribunals outside the court system when they’re unhappy with environmental or other measures that lower profits.
The groups point out that there is a precedent for transparency in a trade negotiation of this size and scope. In July 2001, responding to public pressure about secrecy in the negotiations toward a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), North and Latin American ministers published the full text of the agreement in four languages. Former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick called it an “important step” and an “unprecedented effort to make international trade and its economic and social benefits more understandable to the public.”
“What has changed in the past decade is that it would no longer be in the interests of countries to make the economic and social benefits of deals like the TPP understandable to the public,” says Trew.
The Council of Canadians and Common Frontiers have called for a week of action (August 22 to 31) to protest TPP secrecy in partnership with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines and OpenMedia.ca. More information: http://canadians.org/action-tpp.
Andrew Phillip Chernoff 