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CAFTA

Guatemala labor case drags on
21-Jun-2016 Politico
A long-running dispute over Guatemala’s compliance with the labor provisions in the Central American Free Trade Agreement won’t be resolved soon.
Rural communities’ struggle against US-owned mine continues in Guatemalan Supreme Court
21-Jun-2016 Upside Down World
The long-running struggle of rural communities in Guatemala against the United States-based mining firm Kappes, Cassiday, and Associates (KCA) continues in Guatemala’s national courts.
Mining company threatens Guatemala with lawsuit in USA
20-Jun-2016 Prensa Latina
The Guatemala Mining Explorations (Exmingua) threatens with filing a lawsuit against Guatemala after being forced to suspend operations by decree of the Constitutional Court .
Human rights, corruption and the Canada-Honduras free trade agreement: the assassination of activist Berta Caceres
8-Mar-2016 Global Research
Human rights leader Berta Caceres’ assassination now serves as a global symbol of the struggle for freedom and democracy as colonized peoples world-wide languish beneath the yoke of imperialism.
US dairy industry thanks government for Honduras cheese name work
7-Mar-2016 The Cattle Site
The dairy industry has thanked the US government for its extensive work aimed at securing clarifications regarding the right to use several generic cheese names in exports to Honduras.
The impact of CAFTA: drugs, gangs, and immigration
3-Mar-2016 Tele Sur
It’s clear that the free-trade panacea promised by policymakers, especially its most enthusiastic cheerleaders has not come to pass.
Honduras and CAFTA show us one of the key reasons why TPP should be opposed
11-Dec-2015 AFL-CIO
What labor complaints seek is not “dispute settlement” but freedom and rights for workers. CAFTA has not yet achieved this in Honduras.
As US promotes TPP as a way to improve labor standards, Guatemala shows failed promises of previous trade deals
12-Nov-2015 International Business Times
When Guatemala joined CAFTA in 2006, proponents of the deal said it would improve conditions for workers. Seven years later, Guatemala was named the most dangerous country for trade unionists. Supporters of the TPP are making many of the same promises.
Corporate bias at the World Bank Group
30-Sep-2015 Bretton Woods Project
This briefing finds significant ICSID bias in favour of corporations and commercial interests by analysing ICSID overall and by looking at a specific case brought by a global mining corporation against El Salvador.
El Salvador vs Pacific Rim: the price of saying ‘no’ to a gold mine
29-Sep-2015 The Argentina Independent
El Salvador is defending itself against a US$301m lawsuit filed after it blocked a mining project to protect the country’s heavy-polluted water supply. The imminent verdict will set a precedent amid a growing trend of companies suing governments when they can’t exploit their natural resources.
S. Korea, Central America to begin FTA negotiations
21-Sep-2015
South Korea and six Central American countries will hold their first round of free trade agreement talks in Seoul for five days beginning Monday.
Think free-trade deals can raise labor standards? This case suggests otherwise
17-Sep-2015 In These Times
The Obama administration promotes the TPP as “the most progressive trade bill in history,” with the highest labor standards yet but similar promises have been trotted out to justify every free-trade agreement from NAFTA on.
For the love of water: El Salvador’s mining ban
3-Sep-2015 Counter Punch
Over 90 percent of El Salvador’s surface water is contaminated with industrial chemicals, making it unsuitable to drink even if the water is boiled, chlorinated or filtered beforehand. A new action plan for passing a nationwide ban has begun to unfold, as Salvadorans await the outcome of the Pacific Rime ICSID case.
CAFTA’s 10th anniversary spotlights TPP’s threat to affordable life-saving drugs
31-Jul-2015 The Hill
Ten years ago today, in the dead of night, Congress passed the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement by two votes. Lessons learned from the actual effects of CAFTA on access to affordable life-saving prescription drugs provide a vivid illustration of the impact of TPP-like rules on people and their health.
El Salvador: “Arbitration with Pacific Rim has cost the State $12.6 million”
28-Jul-2015 El Salvador
Luis Parada, a lawyer with the law firm Foley Hoag, is optimistic that the company, Pacific Rim, will not prevail in the proceedings.
Bringing community perspectives to investor-state arbitration: the Pac Rim case
27-Jun-2015 IIED
Civil society organisations can play an important role in carrying and strengthening community voices in arbitration processes, by making submissions to arbitral tribunals.
Report: US trade and migration policies feed crisis in Honduras
28-Jan-2015 National Catholic Reporter
Failed trade and migration policies of the United States have exacerbated political problems in Honduras, leading to greater poverty and violence, says a recent report by the AFL-CIO.
ISDS cannot be fixed
12-Dec-2014 Public Citizen
The European Commission’s claim that threats posed by the investor-state dispute settlement system can be fixed by “improving” ISDS provisions in trade pacts has already been proved false, says Public Citizen
What “free trade” has done to Central America
25-Nov-2014 FPIF
Ten years after the approval of DR-CAFTA, we are seeing many of the effects that citizens who opposed the deal cautioned about., write Manuel Perez-Rocha and Julia Paley.
Guatemala sets up a commission to defend the US claim
9-Nov-2014 Prensa Libre
The Government of Guatemala set up an inter-agency commission to support its dispute settlement process. The Commission will support Guatemala’s defence in the labour proceedings initiated by the United States.