APWLD | 22 July 2016
Briefer on the RCEP – Robbing communities to extract profit
On the heels of the recently concluded Trans Pacific Partnership Agreements, another binding, global agreement is being negotiated behind closed doors. Similar to the TPP, this trade agreement will institutionalise inequalities;it will severely curtail peoples’ rights and freedoms and cement corporate rights over national public interest law and the right of governments to govern in the interests of their constituents. The obscurely named Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership is a “free trade” agreement between big corporations, ASEAN and its 6 major trading partners from the Asia Pacific region. In the future the TPP and RCEP are likely to come together and form the economic blueprint for the “Free Trade Area of the Asian Pacific”.