Australia and NZ Food Unions Oppose Secret Trade and Investment Treaty

Australian and New Zealand unions have united to call on governments negotiating the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA – a free trade agreement for Asia Pacific) to protect the rights and living conditions of working families.

IUF affiliated food unions have made three key demands on participating governments.

These demands are that the TPPA maintain the rights of working people to access affordable generic medicines by ensuring the rights of governments to subsidise the costs of medicines not be jeopardized. That the TPPA respect freedom of association, the rights of workers to collectively bargain and that TPPA not give foreign investors the rights to sue governments if their investments are harmed by law or policy. For example Australia’s plain packaging tobacco laws would have exposed the Federal Government to such legal action if investors had these rights to sue. Read more about the TPPA  here.