RCEP A secret deal

The report concludes that RCEP negotiations have failed transparency and public participation tests, operating largely in secret while granting privileged access to business lobby groups. It examines the specific failures of participating nations—including Australia, India, Japan, South Korea, China, Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia—highlighting the exclusion of parliaments and civil society. The document warns that this secrecy facilitates corporate influence over intellectual property, investment rules, and public services, and recommends a shift toward a democratic, participatory policy-making process.

• The RCEP negotiations are conducted with extreme secrecy, lacking public access to draft texts, government positions, or independent impact assessments.
• Business lobby groups have a privileged and institutionalized role in the negotiations, contrasting with the tokenistic engagement offered to civil society.
• The East Asia Business Council (EABC) serves as a formal mechanism for feeding corporate priorities into the RCEP negotiations.
• National parliaments in many participating countries are excluded from meaningful oversight of the RCEP process and may not be required to ratify the final deal.
• Japan and South Korea have proposed intellectual property provisions that could extend pharmaceutical patent monopolies and restrict farmers' ability to save seeds.
• In India, the RCEP negotiations are described as some of the most secretive in the history of the country's trade policy, with a focus on expanding the privatisation of essential services.
• The Australian mining industry, via the Minerals Council of Australia, has actively influenced RCEP to remove 'non-tariff barriers' such as government taxes on multinational mining companies.
• The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) framework within RCEP is identified as a tool that allows corporations to pressure governments against legitimate worker demands, such as minimum wage increases.

APA

Tansey, R., & Cossar-Gilbert, S. (2018). RCEP A secret deal. Friends of the Earth International. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/RCEP-trade-deal-secret-deal.pdf

Chicago

Tansey, Rachel, and Sam Cossar-Gilbert. RCEP A secret deal. Friends of the Earth International, 2018. https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/RCEP-trade-deal-secret-deal.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Tansey |first1=Rachel |last2=Cossar-Gilbert |first2=Sam |title=RCEP A secret deal |publisher=Friends of the Earth International |date=July 2018 |url=https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/RCEP-trade-deal-secret-deal.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{tansey2018rcep, author = {Tansey, Rachel and Cossar-Gilbert, Sam}, title = {{RCEP A secret deal}}, institution = {Friends of the Earth International}, year = {2018}, month = jul, url = {https://www.foei.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/RCEP-trade-deal-secret-deal.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }