Devon Whittle

Lots of interesting provisions in Indonesia's "Agreement on Reciprocal Trade" with the US ustr.gov/sites/defaul... But this one on not making digital services providers support news orgs is particularly interesting for Australia given upcoming reforms: piji.com.au/blog/news-ba...

Costa Rica to reach CPTPP deal in 'few weeks,' trade minister says Central American country eager to join world's largest free trade bloc

"Costa Rica to reach CPTPP deal in 'few weeks,' trade minister says" asia.nikkei.com/editor-s-pic...

Australia's Carbon Leakage Review has found that carbon leakage is adequately addressed in short/medium term but has recommended a border carbon adjustment mechanism be introduced for commodities most at risk (starting with cement and clinker) www.dcceew.gov.au/climate-chan...

5 things holding up the EU’s trade deal with Australia Can the EU and Australia get over their differences to seal a no-brainer deal?

More from @politico.eu : www.politico.eu/article/5-th...

Australia's Trade Minister is off to Europe to talk EU-Australia FTA negotiations - www.trademinister.gov.au/minister/don...

Great post from @simonlester.com comparing the drafting of national security trade policy alignment provisions in recent US deals: ielp.worldtradelaw.net/2026/02/comp...

Lots of interesting things in this analysis of China’s AI registry, including a “China-ASEAN Legal Model” - an AI tool for “legal coordination and mutual recognition between China and ASEAN”. Also explicitly linked to RCEP (see Google translate of dsjfzj.gxzf.gov.cn/dtyw/t211636...).

‘Not helpful’: Australia against tariffs on China minerals, says King Washington is mulling price guarantees and tariff carve-outs for allies that sign up to a market aimed at breaking China’s grip on critical minerals production.

Australia's Resources Minister says she does not "think it’s helpful to introduce tariffs" on China as part of the US's proposed Agreement on Trade and Critical Minerals, instead higher prices "should be based on high labour and environmental standards" www.afr.com/policy/forei...

I don't see where the DEPA lets parties opt-out of modules? And has any DEPA party done this? The more plausible explanation of the 'module' language is that these could be 'picked up' by other agts ... but so can FTA chapters (modules are just chapters - as NZ's NIA says!).

I keep seeing claims that the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement uses a 'modular architecture' that lets parties pick 'modules as their systems mature'. But this just doesn't seem to be right?

Canada's Standing Committee on International Trade has also been considering the bill to implement the UK's CPTPP Accession this week - www.ourcommons.ca/committees/e... - including industry and departmental evidence

Interesting - I'm not familiar with Mexican law, is there another step domestically after this one (dof.gob.mx/nota_detalle...)?

CPTPP: Overthinking the entry into force of the United Kingdom's Accession Protocol - rules of origin and decision-making While the UK's CPTPP Accession Protocol enters into force on 15 December, this may not apply for up to five CPTPP Parties who are yet to ratify the Protocol. This post considers two of the complicatio...

See also my previous post on the Accession Protocol's entry into force provision: tradenotes.substack.com/p/cptpp-over...

"Mexico approves the United Kingdom's accession protocol to the CPTPP" vtz.mx/legal-alerts... The Protocol will enter into force for Mexico 60 days after it notifies the Depositary of its ratification. This leaves just Canada as the only non-ratifying party.

ASEAN Digital Ministers recently adopted the Hanoi Digital Declaration - some interesting parts for those following digital trade including on AI as critical infrastructure, paperless trade, digital public infrastructure, and "strengthening collective safety efforts" on AI asean.org/wp-content/u...

Trade ministry details plan for Việt Nam’s CPTPP chairmanship in 2026 Việt Nam has mapped out tasks across ministries as it prepares to chair the CPTPP in 2026.

"Trade ministry details plan for Việt Nam’s CPTPP chairmanship in 2026" vietnamnews.vn/economy/1764... - looks to be mostly administrative information at this stage

UK and Indonesia have signed an Economic Growth Partnership, focused on cooperation/info-sharing including on clean energy, digital trade and supply chain resilience www.gov.uk/government/p... also refers to Indonesia’s OECD and CPTPP ambitions

EU and Australia wrangle over food imports in push to seal trade pact European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen expected to travel to Australia next month to sign agreement

Interesting story suggesting revival of EU-Australia trade talks. Would require MEPs not to vote against Mercosur (very tight) and the world's second largest beef exporter to accept a quota far lower than that of the largest (and than given by the UK). Tricky.

www.ft.com/content/85c5...

Joint Press release on the Substantive Conclusion of Discussions for the Republic of Peru’s Accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement

Substantive conclusion of discussions for Peru's accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement announced today. Accession Working Groups are underway for Canada, China and the UAE. El Salvador, Ukraine, Uruguay and Thailand are also in the queue. www.mti.gov.sg/newsroom/joi...

EU-Australia FTA getting very close to finish line www.news.com.au/finance/econ...

Interesting read on how US-China trade tensions are impacting South East Asia, looks at trade reallocation and trade rerouting: cepr.org/voxeu/column...

The release of Australian Government Cabinet records from 2005 today includes two trade-related minutes. The first on Australia's Trade Negotiating Agenda (recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetri...), the second on the Australia-China Free Trade Agreement (recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetri...)

The decision in Clive Palmer's first ISDS case against Australia is now public, this was a $300 billion claim that Palmer lost as the Tribunal found he was not a Singaporean investor (Palmer is seeking annulment): pcacases.com/web/sendAtta...

And the US launches Pax Silica, an initiative focused on AI, critical minerals, etc, supply chains with Australia, Israel, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Singapore, the UAE, the UK (and “guests” from Canada, EU, Taiwan and the OECD) www.state.gov/releases/off...

More detail on the October IPEF supply chain tabletop exercise including that it focused on critical minerals disruptions: biz.chosun.com/en/en-policy...

Three Explanations for the Foreign Investment Pledges

A New Central Organizing Principle for U.S. Trade

Not niche at all given all the movement on digital trade of late!

Australia's steel industry has lodged a safeguard application requesting the government apply temporary emergency measures to protect the industry as it is "facing an unprecedented surge in imports"
www.steel.org.au/news-and-eve...

Public Consultation on the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA)

Singapore’s running consultations on UAE’s accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA) www.mti.gov.sg/newsroom/pub...