Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson says the decision by TransCanada to sue the United States Government for $15 billion in damages using the Investor-State Dispute settlement provisions in NAFTA over the Keystone pipeline decision puts global climate action at risk and also serves as a warning for Australia to not ratify the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Australian Greens spokesperson for trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has today welcomed Hillary Clinton’s call for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) to be rejected.

The Australian Greens’ spokesperson on trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, called on the federal government to ‘come clean’ about what was discussed in respect of the TPP at a side meeting of APEC in Peru.

Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, has labelled the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) National Interest Analysis, tabled today in Parliament, a farce and reiterated his call for the Government to refer the entire TPP text to the Productivity Commission for independent assessment.

Today Andrew Robb has signed the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) on behalf of the Australian government. Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, provides the following comments:

“When the Government signed the China-Australia Free Trade agreement they made a month-long song and dance about it. But you would barely notice that the Government has signed the TPP because this time around they have been quite muted. I haven’t seen them ask a single Dorothy Dixer question in Question Time all week.

Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson welcomes Australia’s victory in the Investor-State Dispute-Settlement (ISDS) case against Phillip Morris over plain packaging laws.

“Plain packaging has proven to be an effective public policy tool to reduce smoking rates in Australia. Unfortunately as a nation we have signed up to trade and investment treaties that have given corporations the right to sue us for making laws that might impinge on a foreign corporation’s profits.

Today during the plenary session of the Australian Greens national conference, Greens party members have unanimously passed a resolution opposing the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Chinese-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA).

The House ranking Democrat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Sander Levin has begun a process to review the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement and has left open the possibility of changing the Agreement saying “The upcoming 90-day period was established to facilitate an intensive and informed debate over the merits of TPP as negotiated, as well as the necessity for any modifications to the agreement, before the agreement is signed

Greens spokesperson for Trade, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, says now the text has finally been released stakeholders and the community will at last get the chance to scrutinise it, but only after it is too late to change any of it.

Senator Whish-Wilson said, “We will be looking closely at the details and consulting with stakeholders to examine the implications of the fine print. The text is 6000 pages long and full of technical and legal jargon.

“So far, we have heard from stakeholders that our greatest concerns have been validated.