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19-Jul-2008
AFL-CIO Now blog
It is gratifying that our government will go to such lengths to stamp out a dangerous bacterium. It is less encouraging to know that the inspectors were not looking at massive labor rights violations, especially the systematic employment of young children in hazardous conditions, which have existed in the tomato industry for decades.
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19-Jul-2008
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18-Jul-2008
AFP
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to endorse a continued push for free trade agreements with Australia & New Zealand, the EU and India during talks this weekend, a draft document said Friday.
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18-Jul-2008
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17-Jul-2008
Caribbean World News
The Guyana government wants more time to consider "troubling" aspects of the Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU. "No Government can be deaf to the outcry of important groups in its society," Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues, said. "We are democracies, not command economies. If our populations do not believe the agreement is in their interest, if they believe it has been imposed upon them, it will not work."
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17-Jul-2008
ABS-CBN
The No Deal! Movement, which has actively campaigned against the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement said that the Supreme Court decision to uphold secrecy of Philippine government negotiations over trade deals "will set a dangerous precedent, legitimizing the marginalization of ordinary Filipinos from having access to pertinent information on economic treaties such as JPEPA that will have a deep impact on their interest and livelihood"
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17-Jul-2008
Reuters
The United States signed a pair of agreements on Wednesday to boost trade and investment ties with countries in southern and eastern Africa, the US Trade Representative’s office said.
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17-Jul-2008
Xinhua
Trade ministers from the United States and the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) signed Wednesday their first Trade, Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement (TIDCA).
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17-Jul-2008
Jamaica Observer
Jamaica enacted legislation for the protection of GIs through the Protection of Geographical Indications Act of 2004. However, protection under the law strictly complies with the standards laid out in the TRIPS Agreement and does not contemplate the "TRIPS plus" and "TRIPS extra" elements incorporated in the EPA.
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16-Jul-2008
Radio Mundo Real
Bolivia’s position on intellectual property rights, on the one hand, and biodiversity, on the other, had earlier put a damper on Colombia and Peru’s drive to sign a trade deal with the US and is now affecting that to reach one with "the 27".
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16-Jul-2008
The Bullet
It is not merely the depth of suffering or length of exile that makes the Palestinian struggle an imperative of international solidarity in the current period. It is also the central location of the struggle within the broader context of global resistance to imperialism and neoliberalism. At the heart of this regional framework is the intrinsic relationship between the development of neoliberal capitalism in the Middle East and normalization of relations with Israel. All of the efforts of the US and their client regimes in the region are aimed at promoting these.
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16-Jul-2008
Malaysiakini
We are shocked and disappointed to find that the government is persisting with the Malaysia- US Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations despite all the protests and the fact that the US government is in transition. The latest round begins on Monday, July 14 in Washington, DC.
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16-Jul-2008
PDI
The Philippine Supreme Court has upheld the “executive privilege” invoked by the government in refusing to accede to a request by several lawmakers, and partylist and militant groups for a full disclosure of its negotiations with Japan involving the controversial trade agreement.
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16-Jul-2008
The Nation
The Barbados Association of NGOs (BANGO) is seeking 5 000 signatures for a petition calling on Government to work out a better Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe.
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16-Jul-2008
Monsters and Critics
Taiwan’s free trade agreement (FTA) with Honduras has gone into effect, further expanding trade ties between Taipei and Tegucigalpa, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
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16-Jul-2008
Norman Girvan
The growth of relations between several Caricom states and the Venezuelan-promoted
ALBA and Petrocaribe initiatives is one of the most significant recent developments in
regional affairs. An immediate issue that has arisen is whether membership of ALBA
might conflict with the obligations of membership of Caricom itself. There are also larger
issues of a strategic nature for Caricom.
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16-Jul-2008
Norman Girvan
Analyses the Cariforum-EC EPA from a critical standpoint, including the EPA architecture, what each side gets from the Agreement, the scope of binding commitments, the institutional machinery and the scope for revision of the Agreement. The points are illustrated with direct quotations from the EPA text.
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16-Jul-2008
Norman Girvan
The ACP countries, by opening up their markets freely to European goods, services and companies will be transformed into a state of development via an impressive chain of unproven, theoretical assumptions. The EPA itself is replete with development rhetoric and references to the development objectives of the Agreement, most, if not all, of which are compromised by the content of the Agreement itself. Nowhere in the Agreement is there a direct, targeted attack on the basic supply-side problem, let alone binding commitments to put in place a complement of measures aimed at this problem.
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15-Jul-2008
Korea Times
South Korean activists Monday sent a petition to the United Nations, asking the international organization to admonish their government for its hardline crackdown on street protests over US beef imports.
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15-Jul-2008
IPS
New street protests were called for Thursday in some Amazon regions, in response to decrees issued by President Alan García, making it easier for private investors to enter the territories of native communities. The decrees were set in motion thanks to the powers granted by the legislative branch to the executive under the free trade agreement (FTA) signed with the United States. Political analysts say the government has exceeded its legal powers.
