sovereignty | democracy
European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht has said that the national parliaments of the 28 EU member states will “very likely” need to ratify the future EU-US free trade agreement that is currently being negotiated.
A high-profile campaign by opponents to ISDS could complicate TTIP talks long after the listening period in Europe ends.
The European Parliament has called for a suspension of agreements with the US on sharing of private data in response to the revelations of wide-scale communications surveillance by the US National Security Agency. The resolution also threatens to suspend EU talks on a bilateral trade deal if the mass surveillance does not stop
The US is using transatlantic trade negotiations to push for a fundamental change in the way business regulations are drafted in the EU to allow business groups greater input earlier in the process.
The US/EU Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) is intended to set global trade rules, bypassing the World Trade Organisation which has up to now allowed developing countries to resist such an agreement.
It has finally been revealed in Korea that the biggest reason that the implementation of the low-carbon vehicle incentive system has been delayed to 2015 was the South Korea-United States Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). Concerns that the KORUS FTA would endanger not only legal but also legislative sovereignty and jeopardize Korea’s ability to create and enforce public policies are being realized.
Interview with Lourdes Castro, chief officer of Grupo SUR and representative of Alop, Aprodev, Cifca and Oidhaco.
Despite the secrecy, there are some intrepid souls who are mounting opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership. Interview with one of them, Jane Kelsey, a professor of law at the University of Auckland and long-term academic activist in the area of free trade and investment agreements.
The Union of South American Nations resolved today to put in place a six-point Plan of Action to protect the region from the international crisis that is shaking Europe and the United States.
The Government is offering no guarantees that New Zealand policies will not be changed to accommodate United States concerns in Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.
If the proposed nine-country Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement is one "for the 21st century" as negotiators are calling it, its text should be open so New Zealanders can see what their Government is planning to agree to, say groups concerned about the talks in Auckland.
China may use a trade pact with Taiwan to push for its political goal of reunification, the island’s parliament warned in a report on Wednesday.
"The time has come for us to take on an Economic Plan that places greater emphasis on projects and transnational companies, the People’s Trade Treaty, the sucre and the Bank of Alba as the foundational pillars for a common economic area."
In response to fierce criticism over a trade pact the government may sign with China, Premier Liu Chao-shiuan has pledged that Taiwan’s sovereignty will not be affected by such a deal and that no Chinese workers will be introduced to Taiwan.
Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan representative Tsay Ting-kuei said that if Taiwan signs a CECA under the “one China” principle, the agreement would symbolize Taiwan’s surrender to China.
As the global economy descends further into crisis, a new report finds that U.S. trade and investment agreements with 52 countries have removed one tool that has proved effective in past crises: capital controls.
The basic norm of international law is that a party to a treaty cannot invoke its internal law, including its Constitution, as a justification for failure to perform its obligation under the treaty. Therefore, JPEPA will prevail over the Philippine Constitution.
Ecuador’s new constitution provides that Ecuador will not enter into international agreements under which Ecuador would have to cede jurisdiction to international arbitral tribunals in contractual or commercial matters between the State and individuals or corporations.
As Sen. Miriam Santiago advises opposition senators to “love or leave” the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), research group IBON Foundation urges the Philippine Senate to choose the non-ratification of the deal and help reclaim the country’s economic sovereignty.
Indigenous groups in Peru ended more than a week of militant protests Aug. 20 at key energy sites after lawmakers agreed to overturn a new land law issued by President Alan García, which sought to ease corporate access to communal territories. García had issued the law by decree earlier under special powers Congress granted him to bring Peruvian law into compliance with a new free-trade deal with the US. A congressional commission voted to revoke the law Aug. 19, and floor vote is expected later this week.
