By Leith van Onselen

A leading expert on intellectual property (IP), Associate Professor Kimberlee Weatherall, has warned that Australia “could be sued for billions” if it ratifies the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. From The Canberra Times:



“The Intellectual Property (IP) chapter of the TPP is an extraordinarily complex, extremely prescriptive chapter that locks in IP settings established decades and even a century ago – at the very time that the Productivity Commission is looking critically at Australia’s entire IP arrangements,” Ms Weatherall said. “[And] the adequacy of carve-outs for IP in the Investment Chapter is extremely concerning.” “We could get sued for billions for making some change to mining law or fracking law or God knows what else. We could literally have damages of more than a billion, but we don’t actually know. And we won’t know until any [law] suit gets started, and then we won’t know for another five years while it works through the process. Ms Weatherall’s criticism follows others such as Dr Matthew Rimmer, intellectual property law professor at the Queensland University of Technology, who says the section on foreign investors is “labyrinthine”.

In signing on to the TPP, Trade Minister Robb did at least achieve a ‘carve-out’ for tobacco, which is something. But it still leaves a bunch of areas where Australian taxpayers could be sued.

While Robb has labelled such concerns “scaremongering”, Canada’s experience with the US under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) provides a stark warning of what could be in store for Australia if it ratifies the TPP. As explained last month by Kyla Tienhaara, Research Fellow Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet), Australian National University:

Clearly, Australians should be very concerned about the gremlins lurking in the TPP, the full extent of which are likely to come to light long after Trade Minister Andrew Robb has left his post.

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