All comments

    Danseurs Citoyens Sud :
    7-May-2019

    Appel contre l’ALECA entre l’Europe et la Tunisie

    Christophe Duplay:
    4-May-2019

    J’ai acheté aujourd’hui la BD "TEXACO et pourtant nous vaincrons" . Je croyais que les Equatoriens avaient gagné, mais je vois que la cour d’arbitrage international de la Haye a déclaré en Avril 2018 le jugement de l’Equateur contre Chevron frauduleux...

    J’étais là-bas, entre 1980 et 1981 à Lago Agrio, en Equateur, pour le compte de la société Schlumberger, et j’ai travaillé sur de nombreux puits d’exploration et de production de la société TEXACO , rachetée depuis par CHEVRON.

    J’ai vu le saccage de l’environnement, le déversement de pétrole brut dans les mares et sur les chemins de terre, pétrole qui s’écoulait ensuite sur les terres adjacentes. Les ingénieurs de Schlumberger, nous vivions 29 jours par mois à Lago Agrio, travaillant jours et nuits sur ces puits, dont les puits d’exploration en particulier formaient des taches de boue au milieu de la forêt, on ne pouvait s’y rendre qu’en hélicoptère, ils étaient entourés de mares remplies de liquide de forage et de pétrole une fois les essais de pompage engagés, couche par couche.

    Il n’y aucun doute pour ceux qui ont travaillé comme moi à cette époque, que l’environnement de la forêt autour des Rio Aguarico et Napo a été durablement saccagé, et que ces cours de justice américaines ou Internationales montrent leur partialité totale en faveur des multinationales, c’est dégueulasse, comment un juge digne de ce nom avec le moindre honneur peut se laisser convaincre que Texaco n’a pas pollué gravement et nuit à la santé et à la vie des locaux.
    Voir ce commentaire sur ma page, Christophe Duplay, avec les quelques photos que j’ai prises pendant 8 mois là-bas entre septembre 1980 et Mars 1981.

    fernando de mateo:
    18-Mar-2019

    Surely countries that restrict trade like Brazil (yeah, the most closed country in the world just after North Korea), South Africa (not as closed, but making every effort towards it), Argentina with the Kirbers, Cuba, North Korea and of course Venezuela are examples of thriving countries. Mexico did for 40 years exactly what the author mentions it has to be done, and ended in a deep crisis (have you heard about the
    Lost Decade?). Trade liberalization is just part of the effort. The elimination of monopolies is the other side of the coin, and the most difficult to accomplish (and among these monopolies bureaucracy is the most difficult to deal with because of vested interests in maintaining the status quo). Regards

    bilateraux:
    15-Mar-2019

    Bonjour, le texte précise: "Les cookies sont gérés dans les paramètres de votre navigateur, où vous pouvez les désactiver."

    Willot:
    14-Mar-2019

    "The World Bank ruled"? Please check facts and figures. Such title diminishes unfortunately the credibility of the article.

    Boucard:
    13-Mar-2019

    j’ai bien lu votre texte concernant les cookies mais il était question d’accepter ou de refuser, note qui est introuvable....

    Miller:
    8-Feb-2019

    So where is the petition for me to sign and pass on to my friends?

    Luciana Ghiotto:
    15-Jan-2019

    Y el Artículo 16 del Código Civil chileno establece que: “Los bienes situados en Chile están sujetos a las leyes chilenas, aunque sus dueños sean extranjeros y no residan en Chile”.

    Thomas Williams:
    10-Jan-2019

    Utterly dishonest piece. As a lifelong environmentalist with a degree in economics I followed NAFTA unfold with horror. BUT saying NAFTA II is worse is a pure canard. It is marginally better. The ISDS segment is on the way out. Serious discussions are underway on rapid enforcement of labor and environmental standards.

    NAFTA !! ain’t much but it is better than NAFTA. Still sucks though and needs lots of work.

    Ramakrishna Venkatasamy:
    1-Nov-2018

    There has already been a huge historical mistake in believing in the goodwill of corporations and giving them too much latitude. We have reached a stage where corporations wish to govern the world, and hold politicians to ransom. We, as free citizens of the world cannot allow that.

    rick arnold:
    26-Oct-2018

    Excellent article. Because of the 34 Foreign Investment Protection Agrrements (FIPA) that Canadá has signed with mostly smaller and more economically vulnerable nations in the South that all contain ISDS, the title for this article could also read....”Liberals should consistenly fight trade deals that allow Canadian corporations sue other nations”.

    Giampietro Fraccari:
    21-Sep-2018

    Unfortunately very few people do things for the interest of all ,but we look always what is convincente to us as individual .
    We are also getting poor intellectually because we are incapable of seeing the irreversible damage that we are bringing upon us.

    Alan Adams:
    15-Sep-2018

    The article gives a good perspective and some information. However, I am always surprised to see Rafael Correa referred to as left wing when he has followed the Chicago school of economics toward a neoliberal extractivist policy. Correa built infrastructure, but did not invest in economic growth or stability. He sold resources and built nice things.

    Jacques Berthelot:
    13-Sep-2018

    Quel "partenariat économique entre partenaires égaux" quand le PIB par tête de l’UE28 était en 2016 15,3 fois supérieur à celui de toute l’Afrique; 29 000 euros contre 1 900 euros ? Lire "Vous avez dit LIBRE échange? L’Accord de Partenariat Economique Union européenne-Afrique de l’Ouest", L’Harmattan, juin 2018 (17,50 euros)

    Jumbi Kato Lobom :
    29-Aug-2018

    Your paper is really interesting and detailed I wish you had made an effort to study the geographical location of Pangsau - Pass.
    Pangsau - Pass is located in Changlang District of Arunachal Pradesh not in Mizoram.

    Cees Witsen:
    29-Aug-2018

    Thanks for keeping this in the public eye, please keep up the heat, I’m old but we need to defeat this for future Australian’s

    Craig Welch:
    20-Aug-2018

    Interesting. Membership of the CPTPP is not Kōno’s to give. There is a whole accession process, involving concensus of all members.

    Craig Welch:
    19-Aug-2018

    That should more correctly read "South Korea decides to *ask* if it can join the CPTPP". There is a process for accession.

    Jacques Berthelot:
    11-Aug-2018

    There are several inconsistencies in the assertions that "ESA and EU need to speed up negotiations towards a full and comprehensive EPA that meets regional integration ideals". It is stupefying to see that Comesa wants to negotiate a full EPA with the EU despite the opposition of civil society, including farmers and industries, of most SSA countries. However it is in line with the roadmap for the post-Cotonou agreement adopted by the ACPs on 30 May 2018 in Lomé to "derive greater trade benefits and the developmental gains on which the EPAs are premised". It is also in line with the EU support to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and its willingness to negotiate the post-Cotonou agreement with the whole Africa, including North Africa, and no longer with the regional economic communities (RECs). As the AfCFTA has decided to delete 90% of tariffs in intra-Africa trade, this would reduce the customs duties of most SSA countries beyond the 80% reduction on imports from the EU foreseen in most EPAs, and the MFN clause of the interim EPAs (iEPAs) of Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Ghana will force them to reduce also by 90% their customs duties on imports from the EU instead of the 75% of their iEPAs. To negotiate a single post-Cotonou agreement for the whole of Africa together with a single EPA is clearly to put the cart before the horse with a too fast top-down process of continental integration when there should be a longlasting bottom up process of reinforcing during at least one generation a full political integration of each REC, including with a significant redistribution budget to offset the loss of competitiveness of many countries and enterprises, before trying to enlarge it to the whole of Africa. In that perspective the reluctance of Nigeria to sign the West Africa EPA and the AfCFTA should be viewed as a salutary warning.

    Another inconsistency in this text relate to the ESA geopolitical perimeter. The article speaks of 11 Members when the ESA Summit of July 2018 claimed to have 21 Members (after Tunisia and Somalia joined in 2018). The only implemented EPA of ESA Members concerns four countries since 2012: Madagascar, Mauritius, Seychelles and Zimbabwe. But 4 of the 5 EAC Members (Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Uganda) belonging to Comesa are negotiating a regional EPA with the EU and even if the fifth EAC member, Tanzania, is a member of the 15 SADC States, it is not in the SADC-EU EPA of 6 States, of which Swaziland and Namibia are members (as in Comesa). The DR of Congo is also in the whole SADC (but not in the SADC-EU EPA consisting of 6 States) and in the Central Africa EPA that only Cameroon has been implementing since August 2014.

    Jacques Berthelot:
    10-Aug-2018

    Belle fresque de la perpétuation de l’impérialisme européen en Afrique sub-saharienne.Cependant une mise à jour des dernières relations UE-ASS est utile : 1) l’APE d’Afrique de l’Ouest (AO) n’a été que paraphé par les Chefs d’Etat en juillet 2014 mais trois (Gambie, Mauritanie et surtout Nigéria) ne l’ont pas signé et ce dernier a confirmé qu’il n’a pas l’intention de le faire à l’avenir. Par contre les APE intérimaires de Côte d’Ivoire et du Ghana sont mis en oeuvre depuis la fin 2016 et vont ruiner l’intégration régionale de l’AO. Lire "Vous avez dit LIBRE échange? L’Accord de ’Partenariat’ Economique Union européenne-Afrique de l’Ouest", L’Harmattan 2018 par Jacques Berthelot.