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labour | workers’ rights

What’s the problem with free trade?
16-Mar-2016 Huffington Post
Economists say that free trade allows us to take advantage of the "comparative advantages" offered by other countries. Unfortunately, low labor and environmental-protection costs are seen as a comparative advantage.
US and EU trade union leaders: TTIP negotiations ’On the wrong course’
15-Mar-2016 ETUC
AFL-CIO and ETUC stressed that the current negotiations on the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) are on the wrong course.
Will Vietnamese garment contractors win in the TPP?
8-Mar-2016 Vietnamnet Bridge
Many contract manufacturers in Vietnam are likely to see little benefits if the TPP goes through.
Migrants from the South, the contemporary faces of exclusion and marginalization
4-Mar-2016 Alai
Today’s migrations, as macro international displacements of hundreds of thousands of people with or without documents — in many cases in precarious conditions of transit — have been and are one of the social processes that characterize what is happening in different latitudes of the earth since in the new century, in the global context of neoliberal economic restructuring directed by transnational enterprises and the capitalist countries of the first world.
Look to Honduras for reasons the TPP will fail
1-Feb-2016 AFL-CIO
The U.S. government claims the labor protections in the Trans-Pacific Partnership are “gold standard,” but we need to look no further than Honduras to see how inadequate and unenforced labor obligations endanger workers’ lives.
What economists got wrong about free trade
1-Feb-2016 The Atlantic
Considering how Chinese imports have affected American workers, the downsides of global exchange are much more intense and enduring than many make them out to be.
Trade deals and the TPP corporate power grab - resistance must continue!
27-Jan-2016 IUF
Unions and their allies have a window of opportunity to stop the TPP.
The TPP will cost Canada 58,000 jobs — and won’t grow the economy
19-Jan-2016 Rabble
New study shows that Canada can expect a mere 0.28 per cent increase to GDP growth and will lead to 58,000 net job losses over the next ten years.
Trading down: Unemployment, inequality and other risks of the trans-pacific partnership agreement
15-Jan-2016 Global Development And Environment Institute
TPP would lead to losses in employment and increases in inequality. Benefits for economic growth are more limited, and they are negative in some countries such as the United States.
Tom Moore: TPP will mean fewer U.S. jobs
8-Jan-2016 Times Call
The Trans Pacific Partnership will make it easier for businesses that are based here to move production offshore.
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.
Another TPP loser? Canadian trades workers
30-Nov-2015 The Tyee
Trade where we don’t really get anything in return isn’t really ’trade’ at all.
Expect influx of foreign workers, professionals under TPP, experts say
29-Nov-2015
An influx of skilled foreign workers is expected under the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but the agreement also makes it easier for Canadians to work abroad. Whether the gains and losses will balance themselves out in Canada is up for debate among experts.
A transatlantic agreement but at what cost to SMEs?
24-Nov-2015 Veblen Institute
The potential effects of the United States / Europe trade agreement (TTIP) on local economies and SMEs.
Europe’s leaders must devise a global trading system that puts the poor first
21-Nov-2015 The Guardian
The EU’s professed commitment to sustainable development is not reflected in its proposed text for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
What a new NAFTA complaint can tell us about the TPP
16-Nov-2015 AFL-CIO
A coalition of U.S. and Mexican labor and civil society groups are taking an unprecedented legal approach to protect workers’ rights that will test the strength of labor protections in international trade agreements.
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.
US asks India to step up investment treaty talks
2-Nov-2015 Smart Investor
The US government has again pushed India to expedite negotiations on the proposed Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT).
No to FTAs!
8-Oct-2015 Ibon
TPP, like other Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), is fashioned by industrial countries and their transnational corporations to further intensify the concentration of resources, wealth, and power into their hands leaving developing countries.
Libre-échange : des effets difficiles à mesurer sur l’emploi
7-Oct-2015 Le Monde
Les conséquences des accords multilatéraux sur le commerce mondial et l’économie sont loin de faire consensus.