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Stop burdering people at the end of the term, Mr. President!
23-Jul-2024 Bilaterals.org
A total of 37 organizations and 29 people conveyed their urge to President Joko Widodo via open letter to stop negotiations between Indonesia - European Union Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (I-EU CEPA). This demand was conveyed after Indonesia completed the 19th round of negotiations on 1-5 July 2024 behind closed doors.
I-EU CEPA negotiations hijack democratic rights and ignore potentional impacts on society
4-Jul-2024 Indonesia AIDS Coalition
Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ) and the Indonesia AIDS Coalition (IAC) criticized the I-EU CEPA, which hijacked the people’s rights to democracy while ignoring the negotiations’ wider impact. The I-EU CEPA negotiations lacked transparency, ignored public aspirations, and did not allow for meaningful participation from civil society groups.
ISDS courts have helped fossil fuel firms rake in $80 billion in public money
11-Jun-2024 Common Dreams
"ISDS is the secret weapon for fossil fuel companies against climate laws," said one advocate.
Peoples of Mesoamerica in defence of seeds and maize
7-Jun-2024 GRAIN
This call for the defence of maize and all peasant seeds comes amid increasing pressure to impose the so-called UPOV laws through trade agreements and other neoliberal policies throughout the region.
Free trade frenzy: the hidden costs of South Asia’s economic gamble
6-Jun-2024 GRAIN
As debt pressures rise, South Asia’s economic strategies are increasingly revolving around FTAs. The frenzy, however, is not only reshaping the region’s trade dynamics, but also a wide array of national legal frameworks, from labour rights to agriculture policies.
Modernisation of the Chile-EU FTA: a false promise of equity and development
22-May-2024 PSI
An in-depth analysis of the Chile-EU FTA reveals its profound neo-colonial character and that it is an instrument of the neo-liberal economic order that emerged in the 1980s.
Resisting green colonialism for a just transition
20-May-2024 Global Justice Now
A serious overhaul of how we run the economy and live our lives is needed to tackle the climate crisis – and there are signs that decision makers are recognising the urgent need for a ‘green transition’: a massive shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy systems.
bilaterals.org podcast: NAFTA’s 30th anniversary
9-May-2024 bilaterals.org
Special edition on the 30th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement that came into force in 1994 and inspired many free trade agreements that were subsequently signed around the world.
The tide is turning against the global court for corporations – ISDS
8-May-2024 PSI
After a decade long struggle by PSI and affiliates against trade rules that put corporate profits before people, victory is in sight!
The global laws that help corporations block climate action
6-May-2024 Jacobin
Companies have long used international treaties to try to prevent Global South countries from asserting economic sovereignty. In recent decades, corporations have used such laws to stymie European governments’ attempts to tackle the climate crisis.
Victories in the global movement against corporate globalization
3-May-2024 Public Citizen
For half a century, the ISDS system has allowed multinational corporations to run off with billions of taxpayers dollars while allowing them to undermine environmental standards, public health protections, financial regulations, and other sound policies throughout the world.
Human rights organizations sound alarm as Canada-Ecuador trade talks get underway
1-May-2024 Mining Watch
Surging violence surrounding Canadian mining projects in Ecuador should raise red flags for the Canadian government as it commences trade talks with the Ecuadorian government.
Why people of Ecuador were right to keep the corporate courts out
29-Apr-2024 Common Dreams
In a referendum, Ecuador voted to keep its constitutional ban on using international arbitration and investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms.
Ecuador said “no” to international arbitration: a sovereign decision with international resonance in the fight against ISDS
24-Apr-2024
April 21st has been a historic day. The Ecuadorian people voted massively NO in the referendum question about whether Ecuador should return to arbitration.
Canada pushes for more mining in Ecuador despite resistance
22-Apr-2024 The Maple
The Canadian and Ecuadorian governments continue to forge ahead with free trade agreement plans, despite opposition from social movements and Indigenous Peoples within Ecuador, along with rampant instability.
Joseph Stiglitz, Jayati Ghosh, Zephyr Teachout, Dani Rodrik, and 295 law and economics professors urge Biden to terminate ISDS provisions in existing US trade and investment agreements
15-Apr-2024
As US law professors and economics professors deeply committed to the rule of law and economic well-being both domestically and globally, we strongly urge you to remove ISDS provisions from existing US trade and investment agreements.
100 organizations from around the world call on Ecuador to defend its sovereignty against international arbitration: No to ISDS!
10-Apr-2024 International organisations
Various organisations express their support for Ecuador’s rejection of international arbitration tribunals in a gesture of international solidarity.
Farmers ride tractors into central London in major protest over trade deals
26-Mar-2024 The Independent
The organisers claim trading arrangments will ‘decimate’ British farming and damage UK food security
Reject EU-PH FTA as serious concerns continue to hound ambitious corporate trade deal
25-Mar-2024 Focus on the Global South
Trade Justice Pilipinas questions and challenges the assertion of the Philippine government that this EU-Philippines FTA will be beneficial to the Philippines, particularly the Filipino working classes. It is high time that the government abandon the already discredited free market ideology.
Trade agreements’ influence on the global mineral transition in critical raw materials
22-Mar-2024 Bilaterals.org
Trade agreements shape the global minerals transition by determining access to essential raw materials, influencing investment decisions, and enforcing environmental and social regulations. This article examines the underlying agenda of trade agreements in shaping the global minerals transition, including how they affect the distribution of benefits and risks.