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human rights

Legal obstacles emerge over free trade deal with Europe
25-Oct-2007 Business Daily Africa
A landmark case has entered the Kenyan corridors of justice as a group of farmers and a human rights watchdog move to challenge the State over ongoing negotiations for a new trade agreement with Europe.
Amnesty: NZ too scared to push rights with China
16-Oct-2007 Epoch Times
New Zealand negotiators have been accused of being ’too scared’ to bring up human rights with China’s communist officials during free trade discussions.
Myanmar should be excluded from ASEAN-EU free trade deal - EU parliamentarians
2-Oct-2007 Sharewatch
Myanmar should not be included in the free trade agreement (FTA) between the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the EU following the Yangon military regime’s crackdown on mass protests last week, according to members of the European Parliament visiting Singapore.
Calls to scrap ASEAN trade deal over Burma
28-Sep-2007 ABC
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union says the Federal Government should cease Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade negotiations immediately, in line with Burma sanctions.
Repression on FTA opponents denounced
27-Aug-2007 Prensa Latina
The Costa Rican Human Rights Association denounced the increase of the police repression against local citizens, students and social leaders opposed to the Free Trade Agreement with US in their Sunday statement.
The swell of boycott
23-Aug-2007 New Matilda
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions has called for divestment from Israeli companies: a campaign aimed at the European Union, which accounts for two-thirds of Israel’s exports under an EU-Israel Association Agreement. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Jean Ziegler, has said that human rights conditions in the agreement should be invoked and Israel’s trading preferences suspended. This is unusual, for these were once distant voices.
Free trade is a prison
19-Aug-2007 East African
As the world prepares to celebrate the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23, a new book on the lessons learnt from that trade and how its “successor,” free trade is undermining democracy and justice in Africa has just been published.
EU wants proposed cooperation pact tied to RP rights record
14-Aug-2007 PDI
An official from the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs admitted that given the country’s record of extrajudicial killings, the negotiating team is seriously concerned about whether the Philippines may qualify for a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement with EU, a requisite for the country taking part in the EU-ASEAN free trade agreement.
Evaluation of the impact of NAFTA on manufacturing
9-Aug-2007 Scoop
The evidence is overwhelming: NAFTA has damaged the manufacturing industry in the US and Mexico. As the maquiladora industry thrives and human rights are continuously eroded in sweatshops across the globe, it is the responsibility of the US, the world’s most insatiable consumer, to call attention to this injustice in the manufacturing sector and correct it.
EPA threatens the Human Right to Food of peasant farmers in Ghana
20-Jul-2007
Import surges of tomato paste and chicken parts already have severe impact on the ability of Ghanaian peasant farmers to feed their families. Cuts in the levels of import tariffs on these products, through an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU, are likely to cause further violations of their Human Right to adequate Food.
Saying no to free trade
18-Jul-2007
The US Congress has postponed discussion of free-trade agreements (FTAs) signed with Peru and Panama for several months, while indicating that it will not consider the accord with Colombia at all at this time. This represents a huge setback for the Colombian government of President Alvaro Uribe, who has invested much political capital in his strong alliance with Washington and in promoting a bilateral trade agreement.
Canada steps into void left by US-Colombia rift
16-Jul-2007
Canada started trade talks with Colombia on Monday and pledged full support for President Alvaro Uribe, who has seen his key bilateral relationship with the United States bog down in a scandal over human rights.
Free trade, human rights top Harper’s Colombian agenda
16-Jul-2007
Free trade talks, human rights and Colombia’s efforts to end its decades-old civil war will top the agenda today as Prime Minister Stephen Harper gets down to business on the first stop on his four-nation tour of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Trade talks to start soon with Colombia, source says
12-Jul-2007
A free trade deal likely to be launched between Canada and Colombia next week will go beyond the usual focus on dollars and cents to spell out the ethical responsibilities of Canadian companies seeking to exploit the South American country’s untapped resources.
Colombia warns over ties to US
6-Jul-2007
This Andean nation would be compelled to rethink its close ties to Washington if the Democratic-controlled US Congress refuses to ratify a bilateral free trade agreement, the country’s vice president said Thursday.
EU may not put human rights condition for FTA
6-Jul-2007
The European Union may back off from its insistence on including non-trade issues like human rights in the proposed free trade pact with India.
US complicit in labor abuse
31-May-2007 Argus Leader Media
Why would the business community be applauding an agreement that guaranteed workers’ rights in FTAs — something they’d been fighting against for years? Because they’d been given assurances, relative to American workers, "that the labor provisions cannot be read to require compliance with ILO Conventions."
APHC appeals to EU to cancel free trade agreement with India
26-May-2007 Pak Tribune
All Parties Hurriyat Conference senior leader and Chairman Jammu and Kashmir Salvation Movement Zaffar Akabar Bhat on Thursday appealed the European Union to cancel the FTA with India due to its poor human rights record across the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir where, from the last 18 years Indian soldiers are not only killing the innocent people but also disappearing the youth and dumping them in fake encounters aimed at converting the majority of Muslim population into minority .
Burmese junta prepares for FTA talks with EU
11-May-2007
Asean and the European Union have agreed to allow Burma to participate in free trade agreement talks with the EU, amid signs the military junta is preparing to highlight what it claims are recent democratic advancements.
US-Korea trade deal disappoints labor, rights activists
3-Apr-2007 One World
Trade unionists on both sides of the Pacific expressed disappointment Monday after the United States and South Korea agreed the biggest US trade pact in 15 years with only minutes to go before a deadline.