This episode unpacks the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, world’s largest free trade agreement, and the dangerous push to insert the Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism into its investment chapter.
Between July 14 and 17, in the city of Choluteca (Honduras), more than 60 people from 20 local communities and representatives of national and international social movements gathered for the “Meeting of communities affected by energy projects in southern Honduras - Without human rights, there is no energy sovereignty.”
The billionaire’s last three cases are part of a growing global list from fossil fuel companies against government decisions to reduce carbon emissions.
With COP30 in Brazil around the corner and with the prospect of Australia co-hosting COP31 next year, a major threat to effective climate action continues to fly under the radar: Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanisms in trade and investment agreements.
Tens of thousands of people took to the street in a nationwide strike opposing various Canadian-owned mining projects while the Canada-Ecuador Free Trade Agreement could be tabled any day now.
The United States is waging a trade and investment war with various countries in the name of reciprocal tariffs, as it tries to pressure importing countries to curb China’s growing export growth.
Countries in the global South being pressured through trade agreements to adopt restrictive UPOV seed laws, threatening farmers’ rights and food sovereignty.
The European Union aims to finalize a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Philippines by the end of 2027, ahead of the expiration of the current GSP+ arrangement that grants the Philippines duty-free access to the EU market for over 6,200 products.
Türkiye and the UK are set to hold a third round of negotiations after the second in September to reach a "next-generation" and comprehensive free trade agreement to replace the existing one since 2021.
This blog attempts to shed light on the question of whether the liberalisation of merchandise trade on the African continent – which is the stated goal of the AfCFTA – will help cushion the trade impacts of US tariffs and the end of preferences under AGOA.