bilaterals.org

France draws red lines for EU-US free trade negotiations

2013-03-20 13:50:50

Food safety, GMO cultivation and France's cherished “cultural exception” for audiovisual services are non-negotiable areas in view of upcoming EU-US free trade talks, the French stressed. The message was apparently well received by the European Commission in Brussels.

EU-US free trade deal will dismantle EU public health protections on GM foods

2013-02-18 08:27:16

An EU-US free trade deal would obliterate EU safeguards for health and
the environment with regard to genetically modified (GM) crops and
foods, warns Earth Open Source.

Transatlantic trade talks near lift-off

2013-01-10 04:38:40

Like putting an astronaut on Mars, a US-EU bilateral transatlantic trade deal has been a long-held dream of policy makers that seemed always out of reach. Yet Brussels and Washington are edging closer to the launch pad.

Commissioner 'optimistic' of speedy start to EU-US trade talks

2012-11-08 08:03:32

EU trade commissioner Karel De Gucht has voiced optimism that negotiations for a comprehensive free trade agreement between the EU and the United States could start at the beginning of next year.

Will the US push for non-labelling of GMOs in trade pact?

2011-12-09 03:32:18

Commentators are worried that the US may be pressuring countries in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) - an Asia-Pacific-wide free trade pact - to abolish the labelling of GM foods, which it regards as a trade barrier.

The great food labelling debate

2011-07-26 14:01:38

After 16 years of bitter debate, it has been agreed at the international level that governments are free to decide on whether and how to label foods derived from modern biotechnology, including foods containing genetically modified organisms.

5 WikiLeaks revelations exposing the rapidly growing corporatism dominating American diplomacy abroad

2011-06-27 15:39:01

One of WikiLeaks' greatest achievements has been to expose the exorbitant amount of influence that multinational corporations have over Washington's diplomacy.

Government plans safeguards for farmers

2009-12-27 23:11:09

Thai authorities are taking precautions to shield businesses and farmers from the fall in farm product prices after tariffs are cut under the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) at the start of 2010.

Sri Lanka pressed by USTR on IP protection, GM food

2009-10-19 04:47:56

The United States has asked Sri Lanka, ranked high for software piracy in Asia, to better enforce intellectual property rights and also lift restrictions on American imports like genetically modified food.

For safety's sake

2009-10-13 01:12:23

Malaysia is about to adopt its biosafety regulations despite pressure from the US Biotechnology Industry Organisation that called on the US trade representative to reject mandatory labelling of GM products in the US-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement, claiming that labelling is tantamount to trade barrier.

BIO position on Trans-Pacific Partnership FTA

2009-05-08 05:04:04

Position paper of the US-based Biotechnology Industry Organisation on the US negotiation of a Trans-Pacific Partnership FTA with Singapore, Chile, Brunei, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand and Peru

US to push back on SPS farm trade barriers -Kirk

2009-03-13 07:38:35

The United States will make it a priority to get rid of barriers to US farm exports based on unjustified sanitary and phytosanitary concerns about human, animal and plant health — including the EU ban on GM crops — the designee for US Trade Representative said on Thursday.

Food safety - rigging the game

2008-07-02 16:42:12

In the food safety arena, both the US and the EU are pressing their standards on other countries through bilateral free trade agreements.

UN Committee recommends that India assess likely impacts of EFTA and EU trade talks

2008-06-05 13:17:14

A leading UN Committee has recommended that India review all aspects of its trade negotiations - particularly those with EU and EFTA - to ensure that they do not result in a situation which undermines the rights of people within the country, particularly the most disadvantaged and vulnerable. Meeting last month in Geneva, the Committee also noted its concern about the impact of genetically-modified seeds in India on farmers' livelihoods.

US agrees to expand trade and investment with Sri Lanka

2008-06-03 00:00:00

The US-Sri Lanka TIFA Council discussed issues affecting US exports, such as Sri Lanka's agricultural biotechnology policies, import tariffs, intellectual property rights protection, and transparency in government procurement.

Food safety on the butcher's block

2008-04-18 14:19:08

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.

Costa Rican Indigenous protest FTA

2008-02-29 23:54:10

Hundreds of Costa Rican indigenous people began a protest against the Free Trade Agreement between Central America, the Dominican Republic and the United States. They accused the FTA of imposing the use of patented seeds that prevent traditional crops and warned that the use of transgenic seeds from the United States would affect ancestral crops closely linked to the people's view of the world and spirituality.

US-Korea Understanding on Agricultural Biotechnology (2007)

2008-02-18 23:32:11

Negotiated on the sidelines of the US-Korea FTA, in March 2007.

GM trials in India threaten trade ties

2008-02-13 03:52:08

India finds itself increasingly on the defensive in agricultural trade for permitting field trials across the country in a host of genetically modified food crops — rice, brinjal, okra, potato, tomato and groundnuts — and thereby exposing conventional crops to the risk of transgenic contamination. A case in point is a rather dodgy no-contamination certificate that the regulator, Genetic Engineering Approval Committee, was forced to give two months ago in response to a restriction imposed by Russia on import of rice, groundnuts and sesame seeds from India.

Corporate globalisation: Standing at the end of the road

2008-02-13 03:47:00

Corporate globalization, savagely embodied by NAFTA, is not just a threat to Mexican farmers and rural villagers. The economic, health, and social damage created by industrial agriculture, corporate globalization, and the patenting and gene-splicing of transgenic plants and animals, are inexorably leading to universal "bioserfdom " for farmers, deteriorating health for consumers, a destabilized climate (energy intensive industrial agriculture and long-distance food transportation and processing account, directly or indirectly, for 40% of all climate-disrupting greenhouse gases), tropical deforestation, and a rapid depletion of oil supplies.