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News from the movements

Digital colonialism
18-Nov-2021 TNI
The global battle for control of the digital economy is typically portrayed as one fought by only two titans: US and China, but that does not mean that the EU has been standing still.
How the Mercosur deal’s ethanol boost contradicts EU green promises
16-Nov-2021 Euractiv
While the EU maintains that ethanol has a role to play in Europe’s shift to clean transport, the production of ethanol is damaging the environment and hurting local communities in South America.
Campaign win: Australia cuts ties with Energy Charter Treaty (ECT)
8-Nov-2021 AFTINET
In a significant step forward in the campaign against Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS), Australia has announced its withdrawal from its signatory status to the Energy Charter Treaty.
Indonesia’s digital economy commitments in EU and RCEP trade agreements
4-Nov-2021 Transnational Institute
In recent years, Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have started to include rules for the digital economy as a result of pressure from Big Tech. This summary analyses the most important points being negotiated by Indonesia with the European Union and RCEP.
Debunking government claims on RCEP
3-Nov-2021 Rappler
As Trade Justice Pilipinas articulated in an earlier statement: “RCEP will further prop up a broken economic model that we need to radically transform in favor of one that is more resilient.”
Missing from the climate talks: Corporate powers to sue governments over extractives policies
2-Nov-2021 Inequality.org
Allowing oil, mining, and gas companies to continue to file expensive lawsuits over environmental regulations could undermine whatever agreements might be reached in the COP26 in Glasgow.
Fossil fuel companies claiming 18bn against government climate action in secret courts
28-Oct-2021 Global Justice Now
Courts allow big polluters to sue governments into “a state of climate paralysis”, campaigners say.
Old wine in new bottles – why the NZ-UK free trade agreement fails to confront the challenges of a post-COVID world
27-Oct-2021 The Conversation
The price of allowing this FTA to proceed without open public and media debate is just too high. Another TPPA-style agreement will lock us into the failed neoliberal project of the 20th century.
Parliament passes RCEP enabling legislation, despite acknowledging flaws in the agreement
26-Oct-2021 AFTINET
The government will now proceed with the ratification process by exchanging letters with RCEP governments as required by the agreement.
Jane Kelsey: Such a good free trade greement with the UK, we aren’t allowed to read it
25-Oct-2021 NZ Herald
With the release of an Agreement in Principle for a New Zealand United Kingdom free trade agreement we are once again left shadow boxing with a deal whose text we aren’t allowed to see.
Colombia: Environmental defenders criticise ISDS tribunal decision favouring Canadian mining giant
13-Oct-2021 AFTINET
While the tribunal has yet to make a decision about compensation to be paid, Eco Oro Minerals is claiming nearly $700 USD million.
The false hopes and empty promises of investment treaty modernization
13-Oct-2021 The Monitor
A Canadian company’s successful challenge to a precautionary mining ban in Colombia shows how little investor–state dispute panels care about the right to regulate.
Transnational corporations and free trade in Mexico
11-Oct-2021 TNI
This report examines how, over the last 30 years, Mexico has become one of the main industrial paradises on the planet.
The people of Asia against free trade: “society endures the trauma of debt”
13-Sep-2021 Capire
The struggle against free trade has been strategic for social movements, especially La Via Campesina, which has actually built a proposal for food sovereignty to counter the capitalist free trade model for agriculture.
Indonesian civil society urged the Government to be cautious in taking position in Indonesia-EU CEPA negotiations related to Omnibus Law
6-Sep-2021 Indonesia for Global Justice
In the process of developing negotiations, there are new policies issued by the two countries, such as the Job Creation Law (Omnibus Law) which was passed by Indonesia in 2020, and the EU New Trade Policy which was issued in February 2021, and these policies seem to have an impact on the IEU CEPA discussion.
Companies cannot use ECT to sue governments for climate progress, top court says
2-Sep-2021 Client Earth
Environmental organisations have hailed a court decision that could mean the end of a little-known legal mechanism that poses a massive threat to climate action.
Brussels: Nest of lobbyists
1-Sep-2021 bilaterals.org
Interview with Lora Verheecke, a researcher specialising in trade and lobbying.
Urgent mobilisation against the signing of the Samoa Agreement to succeed the Cotonou Agreement
27-Aug-2021 SOL
The agreement was concluded between the chief negotiators (foreign or trade ministers) in December 2020 and initialled on 15 April 2021 in Samoa.
African social movements demand that AU suspends undemocratic and pro-industry seed and GMO guidelines and processes
26-Aug-2021 ACBio
More than 50 African groups denounce how the African Union is using the African Continental Free Trade Area as a justification to push the seed harmonisation agenda.
Why a hasty trade deal may not be good for us – or for the environment
26-Aug-2021 Friends of the Earth
What precedent might be set by the new Australia trade deal and what could it tell us about the future for UK environmental standards?