Screenshot of ‘No RCEP’ Campaign Video *
The ‘No RCEP’ campaign urges the16 governments negotiating the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) to consider the adverse impact of the mega free trade agreement on human rights, labour rights, agriculture, intellectual property rights, and access to generic medicines.

People’s groups across the region are concerned that provisions like ISDS give corporations the right to sue governments if they protect human rights over corporate profits, undermining their sovereignty.
An agreement that covers 50% of the world’s population and 29% of the world’s GDP is being negotiated in secrecy. In the past four years and to this day, no text has been made available to members of the public, parliamentarians, civil society or media. While certain corporate and business groups have had access to the negotiations alongside government officials from participating countries, ordinary citizens who have to live with the results have had no say.
We are calling upon our governments to stop negotiating away our rights away at trade negotiations and the absolute end to unfair trade agreements.
We are calling our governments to say No to RCEP.

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APWLD – Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law & Development

02 May, 2017 – Manila, Philippines

Today, several hundred negotiators from 16 countries¹ will descend on metro Manila to continue negotiations of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), against the backdrop of the increasingly growing movement and sentiment globally against secret free trade agreements, as evident from the recent demise of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). A day after the call to regain our power echoes across the world, marking the ongoing struggle against the social, legal, political, moral, verbal and economic injustices against workers everywhere.

The RCEP negotiation started in 2012, and yet to this date, no text of the negotiations has been released. The 3.5 billion people including those in least developed countries, who will be impacted by these agreements have been kept in the dark, while corporate lobbies have been invited to advise government officials.

But negotiators are not the only ones coming. Since the start of the negotiations, civil society, academics and activists has been following the negotiations, exposing the secretive nature of this agreement, and reminding governments of their obligations to not trade away their citizens and people’s rights in the name of profit.

APWLD members from across the region, working with broad coalition of environmental groups, trade unions, farmers groups, health groups and other social movements has been steadfast in exposing the RCEP for what it is – a means to impose neo-liberal policies of competition, privatization, liberalization, and deregulation that have been proven to have the most negative impact on women and continue the exploitation of workers, indigenous people, migrants, domestic workers and every marginalised group in the region. It will allow for governments to be sued in secret tribunals for regulating in people’s interest. It will threaten people’s access to medicine and farmers control over their seeds and lands.

Today, as civil societies, activists, trade unions and other people’s organizations from across the region prepares to also gather in Manila to rise and mobilize against RCEP as part of a No RCEP Week of Action, we release this video to further urge the governments to listen to the voices of its citizens, of broad and diverse constituencies and movements, from across the region. We are calling upon our governments to stop negotiating away our rights away at trade negotiations and the absolutely end to unfair trade agreements

We are calling our governments to say ‘No to RCEP’.