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Europe’s China gambit
10-Apr-2021 Project Syndicate
Trade and investment agreements cannot transform China into a Western-style market economy or turn it into a democracy.
Rethinking investment law from the ground up: extractivism, human rights, and investment treaties
9-Apr-2021 IISD
For many people affected by resource extraction, it is the prevailing legal regime that dis-embeds and disintegrates, because investment treaties can protect ventures that upend their lives with little scope for voice or redress.
US suspends trade engagement with Myanmar after deadly crackdown
30-Mar-2021 The Hill
US Trade Representative announced the suspension of US collaboration with Myanmar, through the 2013 Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA).
US and Canada follow EU and UK in sanctioning Chinese officials over Xinjiang
23-Mar-2021 The Guardian
The EU is due shortly to sign a major investment deal with China, but Germany in particular will be concerned that the sanctions may destabilise economic relations with China.
Ombudsman: Sustainability assessment should have been completed before EU-Mercosur trade deal agreed by negotiators
19-Mar-2021 EU Reporter
The European Commission should have concluded an updated sustainability impact assessment before the EU-Mercosur trade deal was agreed, an inquiry by European Ombudsman has found.
No more free rides in free trade deals
11-Mar-2021 Swiss Info
The Swiss narrowly voted in favour of a free trade deal with Indonesia on Sunday. Will future agreements also have to win popular support?
Hong Kong activists urge EU not to ratify new deal with China
11-Mar-2021 The Guardian
Hong Kong democracy activists have warned the EU it must not ratify its planned new investment deal with China at a time when Beijing is tearing up international obligations to the people of Hong Kong.
China’s labour rights issues a threat to its trade deal with EU
16-Feb-2021 Hindustan Times
In the EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment is expected to face intense resistance from some European lawmakers, while international unionists, who say the pact will do nothing to stop human rights abuses or protect labour rights in China, have vowed to ramp up pressure over the deal.
Norway’s youth parties call for end to China free trade talks
11-Feb-2021 Axios
The youth wings of Norway’s main political parties have signed a letter calling for the country to rescind its normalization agreement with China and stop free trade negotiations due to China’s human rights violations.
The struggle in the Western Sahara combines old and new colonialism, says Sahrawi activist
8-Feb-2021 bilaterals.org
The EU claims to be a place of democracy and human rights but it is neglecting the reality in the Western Sahara and conducting its policies in full awareness of the situation.
100+ China experts and human rights activists slam “naïve” EU-China deal for “entrenching Europe’s strategic dependency on China”
27-Jan-2021 Hong Kong Watch
The open statement notes that the agreement appears not to take into account the steep deterioration of rights and freedoms in the mainland.
UK free to make trade deals with genocidal regimes after Commons vote
20-Jan-2021 The Guardian
The government has narrowly defeated a move requiring the government to reconsider any trade deal with a country found by the high court to be committing genocide.
EU-China investment deal lacks teeth on forced labor but could still be derailed
20-Jan-2021 Taiwan News
Potential gains not worth cost of overlooking ’blatant human rights violations’ in Xinjiang, Hong Kong, Tibet, and against Taiwan’: French senator
EU will not ask China to sign forced labor ban before ratifying investment deal, says French minister
13-Jan-2021 Politico
France will insist on a ‘calendar’ for Beijing’s reforms instead.
Artists and academics in Montréal oppose Canada-Israel free trade agreement in stand for Palestinian rights
9-Jan-2021 BDS Movement
More than 150 artists and academics and over 20 trade unions, cultural organizations, student groups and indigenous collectives in Montréal are calling on the Canadian government to cancel the Canada-Israel Free Trade Agreement.
Xinjiang forced labour concerns threaten to derail China’s investment deal with EU
21-Dec-2020 South China Morning Post
Officials say European Parliament could refuse to endorse deal over Beijing’s failure to commit to International Labour Organisation standards
EU-China comprehensive agreement on investment: A scoping study
16-Dec-2020 Heinrich Böll Foundation
Given China’s unique position, the study concludes that the EU must ensure that particularly strong protections for EU regulatory policy space are included in any future investment deal.
Deal with climate change, not climate deniers: How the EU-Mercosur trade deal threatens the environment and human rights
14-Dec-2020 Friends of the Earth Europe
This trade agreement aims to boost an export-oriented agricultural model that harms small-scale farmers, indigenous peoples, traditional and rural communities, in Mercosur and EU countries.
Lords vote to revoke UK trade deals with countries committing genocide
9-Dec-2020 The Guardian
Ministers’ scope to sign trade deals with governments that abuse human rights have been severely reduced after a double defeat in the House of Lords.
The EU-Mercosur agreement: increasing pesticide use and GMOs, and undermining healthy food production and standards
8-Dec-2020 IATP
The EU-Mercosur agreement is inconsistent with the EU’s recently announced Farm-to-Fork Strategy, which aims to dramatically reduce pesticide use and completely ban any residue on food of pesticides not registered for use in the EU.