THE 16th round of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations ended here yesterday with chief negotiators of the 11 participating countries noting the progress made in the working groups on regulatory coherence, telecommunications, customs and development.

The most successful (and controversial) basis for investors’ challenges of government measures under U.S. trade and investment agreements is alleged violations of “fair and equitable treatment” (FET). Fully 74 percent of “successful” investor claims under U.S. Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) –17 awards—have found FET violations.

Tokyo and Washington have agreed on exemptions for the auto industry in a mooted Pacific-wide free trade pact, as Japan readies to announce its entry into negotiations, reports said on Wednesday.

NEW YORK, 4 MARCH 2013 — As closed-door talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement resume in Singapore this week, international medical humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) calls on the U.S. government to end its stall tactics and revise its proposals for what otherwise promises to be the most harmful trade deal ever for access to medicines in developing countries.

Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement to exacerbate Vietnam’s access to medicines crisisThe United States is again pursuing an important free trade agreement that will lock in high drug prices out of poor people’s reach – this time across the Asia-Pacific region, warns international agency Oxfam.

Eli Lilly and Company has initiated formal proceedings under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to attack Canada’s standards for granting drug patents, claiming that the denial of a medicine patent is an expropriation of its property rights granted by the agreement.1 The investor privileges provisions included in NAFTA and other U.S.

The United States government has unveiled details of proposed flexibilities it wants to introduce into the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement which will allow importers to buy scarce clothing, textiles and yarns from outside the bloc.

On 20/11/2012, the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) sent a letter to the U.S Secretary of Labor to oppose the inclusion of Vietnamese Brick and Garment in DOL Forced, Child Labor Report. Download the Letter in Vietnamese and English here:

During the debate surrounding the U.S.-Peru Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in 2007, many observers warned of the dangers associated with its extreme foreign investor rights and private “investor-state” enforcement that mirrored provisions in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These extreme investor provisions in the U.S.-Peru FTA empowered foreign firms to obtain compensation over any government action – health, environmental, zoning, labor, or other policies – that they claim undermined their “expected future profits”.

Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiators were pleased to report further solid steps forward in closing the remaining gaps between them during the 15th round of negotiations, which closed today. Their announcement of new progress followed recent discussions between President Obama and the Leaders of other TPP countries, during which the Leaders reaffirmed their mutual priority of concluding a state-of-the-art, comprehensive agreement as quickly as possible and of smoothly integrating the newest members, Canada and Mexico, into the negotiations.