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Group fasts to highlight food crisis
25-May-2008 Courrier Journal
A handful of local residents will wrap up a three-day fast tomorrow to draw attention to the global food crisis, saying Americans need to re-evaluate the food policies supported by their government and international financial organizations. They say free-trade agreements and related policies have decimated local farming in the United States and around the world and have contributed to the current food shortage.
Meat wars with South Korea
16-May-2008 Counter Punch
While the FTA delivers on Lee’s pledge to double South Korea’s wealth if elected and lets the U.S. rebuild its Asian beef trade obliterated by a mad cow scare five years ago—especially exports to China and Japan—many in South Korea are saying, "You want us to import WHAT"?
Free to be poisoned
8-May-2008
Not everyone was disappointed when the Doha round of trade talks got bogged down in endless wrangling. After all, the United States and the European Union were pushing developing countries to liberalise their economies still further, while refusing to abolish their own agricultural subsidies. Better no trade deal than a bad one, or so we thought.
Food safety on the butcher’s block
18-Apr-2008 FPIP
The United States is using bilateral trade agreements to arm-twist weaker countries into accepting its food safety standards as a tool to expand the market control of US corporations. South Korea is the latest victim.
Eating seed corn not always tasty
14-Apr-2008 TH
US farm and ranch voices avoid singing same tune on US-Colombia trade proposal
China, US move forward on new food safety agreement
2-Apr-2008
The US and China have agreed to implement a new bilateral food safety system by initially focusing on four product categories, said FDA officials.
Will US trade policy again trump public health?
27-Mar-2008 Marinij
The Bay Area in California has been in an uproar over the proposed light brown apple moth program, which involves aerial spraying of an untested synthetic pheromone-based pesticide, because of quarantines invoked by Mexico and Canada under NAFTA.
Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) concerns in agricultural trade
3-Mar-2008
As free trade agreements lower agricultural tariffs, more countries may turn to SPS measures to protect their farmers from import competition.
“Free Trade”: Is it working for farmers? Comparing 2007 to 1988
27-Feb-2008 NFU
For farmers, so-called “Free Trade” agreements do two things simultaneously: By removing tariffs, quotas, and duties, these agreements erase the economic borders between nations and force the world’s one billion farmers into a single, hyper-competitive market. At the same time, these agreements facilitate waves of agribusiness mergers that nearly eliminate competition for these corporations.
"Via Campesina, from anti-WTO to anti-FTA"
21-Feb-2008 VOP
Interview with Jun Gi-Hoan, General Secretary of Korean Peasants League
Food sovereignty and free-trade agreements
31-Jan-2008 Via Campesina
From 11th to 13th January 2008, 21 delegates and members of Via Campesina, from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Peru, South Korea, Norway, France, Haiti, Mali, Italy, the United States, Mozambique, Turkey, the Basque Country and Nepal, met in Dijon for a strategic seminar on the theme “Food Sovereignty and Free-Trade Agreements” convened and organised by the Via Campesina’s Food Sovereignty work committee.
EU keen to renegotiate Mauritania fish deal
22-Jan-2008 Reuters
European Commission experts will head to Mauritania later this week to renegotiate the EU’s most valuable fishing deal with another country. The European Union has signed more than 20 bilateral fishing agreements, nearly all with developing countries and mostly in Africa, that give the EU a substantial extra supply of fish. The deal with Mauritania is the largest and most valuable.
FTAs and safety standards
1-Jan-2008 Economic Times
Unlike India, most Asean countries have a very robust regime of quality and safety standards for products imported into their markets. What that means under an India-ASEAN FTA is that Indian manufacturers, despite having lower entry tariffs into Asean, will still not be able to export their products unless they meet the strict safety and quality regulations of those countries.