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agriculture | farmers | food


EU-US trade deal threatens food safety
The trade agreement being negotiated between the US and EU threatens public health, consumer rights and animal welfare standards, shows new analysis today by food and trade experts
Tokyo offers to cut tariffs on US pork in TPP talks, sources say
The Abe administration has proposed sharply cutting Japan’s tariff on a certain amount of US pork over a 10-year period in talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to sources.
California wine producers claim B.C. liquor reforms violate NAFTA, GATT, and EU-Canada Agreement
The association representing California wine producers has called on Premier Christy Clark to revoke or modify plans to favour the sale of B.C. wines in grocery stores claiming that "they violate Canada’s international trade obligations including NAFTA, GATT and the EU-Agreement on wine sales".
Japan offers compromise on rice in Asia-Pacific trade talks: Nikkei
Japan has offered to import more rice from the United States in a compromise aimed at pushing forward the Asia-Pacific regional trade talks, the Nikkei reported on Sunday.
Government urged to protect interests of UK poultry farmers
The competitiveness of UK poultry producers is at risk if the EU-US trade negotiations proceed on the basis that products are of an ’equivalent’ standard.
PKS demands that agro-food sector should be excluded from TTIP
The Slovak Food Chamber (PKS) demands that the entire agro-food sector should be excluded from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the European Union (EU) and the USA from the very beginning
Licensed to grab: How international investment rules undermine agrarian justice
This brief analyses and illustrates how international investment rules thwart the struggle for land and food sovereignty.
Food issues will not block EU-US trade deal: German minister
Germany’s farm minister Christian Schmidt says the United States is likely to back down on its opposition to the compulsory labeling of products containing or fed by GMOs.
Lowest common denominator: EU-US trade deal threatens to lower standards of protection from toxic pesticides
A new analysis exposes how the American and European pesticide industry is using ongoing EU-US trade negotiations to lower human health and environmental standards in order to increase trade in toxic pesticides.
Lifting of US beef ban ’not a TTIP trade off’, EU says
The United States’ decision to lift its long-standing ban on EU beef imports is not a trade-off as part of the ongoing transatlantic free-trade talks, the European Commission has said.
Cornish pasty ’at risk’ from EU-US trade deal
The proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership could mean that the EU may not be able to uphold laws that protect regional foods
The grapes of wrath
The US is among very few countries that allow the Champagne name to be used on wine not from Champagne, France. TTIP may change that.
Agriculture, food and the TTIP: Possibilities and pitfalls
Two think tanks - the Centre for European Policy Studies and the Center for Transatlantic Relations - lay out possible "landing zones" on agriculture and food regulations in the TTIP
’We can’t protect every sausage,’ says German agriculture minister over TTIP deal
Germany’s Minister of Agriculture, Christian Schmidt, says some German specialties may be stripped of their regional protection due to a free-trade deal with the US.
Dairy farmers warned of possible New Zealand/EU trade deal
Concerns have been voiced for the Irish dairy farmers as New Zealand pushes for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the EU by Sean Kelly MEP for Ireland south.
TTIP: A recipe for disaster
This brochure explains how TTIP will promote the industrial model of food and farming, further threatening the survival of small family farms, local food initiatives, standards for healthy and safe food, animal welfare, the environment, and public health.
TTIP talks: What’s cooking?
A Greens-EFA Group in the European Parliament conference on 10 December 2014
Protests by farmers and trade unions against the mega FTA RCEP
As negotiators from 16 nations meet in New Delhi for 5 day consultations on the Regional Cooperation Economic Partnership (RCEP), farmers, trade unions, retailers groups, and civil society organisations protested outside the India Expo Mart in Greater Noida. RCEP is a complex North South Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that India is negotiating with the 10 member ASEAN block plus Japan, China, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Farmers, trade unions and CSOs call to halt RCEP negotiations
In the backdrop of 6th Round of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations scheduled to take place from 1-5 December 2014 in Greater Noida, India farmers’ organizations, trade unions and civil society organizations expressed serious concern over the very idea of free trade agreement (FTA), lack of transparency and the absence of socio economic impact assessments to asses the impact of the proposed FTA.
The TISA threat to food and agriculture
Agriculture depends on a whole complex of services – water, credit, research, testing, marketing – which may be privatised by TISA, warns Peter Rossman.