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agriculture | farmers | food

US moves toward greater trade with Africa
27-Feb-2015 WSJ
Pact with Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda — to be expanded to other countries later on — seen as a stepping stone to full fledged FTA
US, EU agriculture leaders try to ease trade concerns
23-Feb-2015 Farm Futures
US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack shared the stage with his counterpart EU commissioner Phil Hogan at the US Department of Agriculture’s annual Outlook Forum and discussed TTIP.
Signing of the Japan-Ukraine Investment Agreement
6-Feb-2015 METI/MOFA
Tokyo announces the signing of a bilateral investment treaty with Kiev, which it highlights as opening Ukraine farmland and mineral resources to Japanese investors.
EU-US trade deal threatens food safety
5-Feb-2015 FOEE
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
3-Feb-2015 Kyodo
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
28-Jan-2015 Straight.com
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
25-Jan-2015 Reuters
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
21-Jan-2015 Western Morning News
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
21-Jan-2015 TASR
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
20-Jan-2015 TNI
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
12-Jan-2015 Reuters
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
8-Jan-2015 CIEL
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
8-Jan-2015 EurActiv
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
7-Jan-2015 The Independent
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
5-Jan-2015 Washington Post Magazine
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
5-Jan-2015 CEPS
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
5-Jan-2015 Deutsche Welle
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
19-Dec-2014 Agriland
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
15-Dec-2014 CEO
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?
3-Dec-2014 Greens/EFA
A Greens-EFA Group in the European Parliament conference on 10 December 2014