Pacific trade deal: Campaigners warn of environmental threat

Date: 15 December 2024
Campaigns: Trade

Responding to the UK joining the Trans-Pacific trade agreement today, Cleodie Rickard, trade campaign manager at Global Justice Now said:

Earlier this year the UK left the Energy Charter Treaty due to the financial threat its corporate court mechanism posed to climate action. Yet today we formally join the Pacific trade deal, second only to the Energy Charter Treaty in protecting fossil fuel assets. This illogical and inconsistent approach to outdated Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clauses is completely out of step with the government’s aspirations of climate leadership.

But there’s a simple way to remove the threat this treaty poses. The UK previously signed ‘side letters’ with Australia and New Zealand agreeing to exclude the ISDS provisions in the deal between these countries – it can and must now do so with all other Pacific trade deal members. In opposition, Labour spoke out against corporate courts. It’s time they turn words into action, oppose their inclusion in our trade deals and protect the UK from the risk of eyewatering corporate lawsuits – simply for taking the climate action we need.”

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