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News from the movements

Next steps on the USMCA corn case: What the panelists should ask
25-Jun-2024 IATP
This week the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) dispute over Mexico’s restrictions on genetically modified (GM) corn and glyphosate enters a new phase.
NAFTA at 30: The mother of all free trade agreements
13-Jun-2024 bilaterals.org & GRAIN
As the first free trade agreement in contemporary history, the North American Free Trade Agreement, turns 30, it’s a good time to ask why this particular treaty played such a watershed role in the history of the global regime of trade and investment.
The corporate colonization of Latin America
11-Jun-2024 Public Citizen
How Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) harms indigenous communities.
UN criticises EFTA for jeopardising the right to food
7-Jun-2024 Swiss Right to Seed Coalition
The member countries of European Free Trade Association (EFTA) are jeopardising the right to food through free trade agreements with countries of the Global South.
Peoples of Mesoamerica in defence of seeds and maize
7-Jun-2024 GRAIN
This call for the defence of maize and all peasant seeds comes amid increasing pressure to impose the so-called UPOV laws through trade agreements and other neoliberal policies throughout the region.
Free trade frenzy: the hidden costs of South Asia’s economic gamble
6-Jun-2024 GRAIN
As debt pressures rise, South Asia’s economic strategies are increasingly revolving around FTAs. The frenzy, however, is not only reshaping the region’s trade dynamics, but also a wide array of national legal frameworks, from labour rights to agriculture policies.
Anticipating the 2026 CUSMA review
6-Jun-2024 TIRP
The mandatory six-year review of the Canada-US-Mexico Agreement is still more than two years away, but TIRP researchers are ahead of the game.
Secretive court system has awarded over $100bn public money to corporations, finds new analysis
6-Jun-2024 The Guardian
More than $100bn of public money has been awarded to private investors in investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) courts, according to the most comprehensive analysis yet.
New Sierra Club report: Trading away our climate exposes how trade pacts undermine climate action
3-Jun-2024 Sierra Club
Report urges elimination of ISDS Provisions, calls for stronger trade policies to protect climate.
Historic victory: Council gives green light for EU withdrawal from climate-wrecking Energy Charter Treaty
31-May-2024 CAN Europe
The Council of the EU adopted a historic decision to withdraw the European Union from the Energy Charter Treaty, an international investment treaty from the 1990s increasingly used by the fossil fuel industry to sue governments over their climate and energy policies.
Modernisation of the Chile-EU FTA: a false promise of equity and development
22-May-2024 PSI
An in-depth analysis of the Chile-EU FTA reveals its profound neo-colonial character and that it is an instrument of the neo-liberal economic order that emerged in the 1980s.
Resisting green colonialism for a just transition
20-May-2024 Global Justice Now
A serious overhaul of how we run the economy and live our lives is needed to tackle the climate crisis – and there are signs that decision makers are recognising the urgent need for a ‘green transition’: a massive shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy systems.
The EU’s critical minerals crusade
16-May-2024 SOMO
The EU is aggressively pursuing critical minerals globally to benefit from the energy transition, securing access via trade agreements and partnerships. Failure to address resource overconsumption risks reinforcing inequalities and intensifying extractivism.
How the fast-track law could expose future NZ governments to expensive trade disputes
10-May-2024 The Conversation
Foreign investors wanting to protect their gains under the controversial new law could hold the country to ransom by threatening a dispute. As a result, they would constrain New Zealand’s democratic ability to exercise its sovereignty, and to protect te Tiriti rights.
bilaterals.org podcast: NAFTA’s 30th anniversary
9-May-2024 bilaterals.org
Special edition on the 30th anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement that came into force in 1994 and inspired many free trade agreements that were subsequently signed around the world.
The tide is turning against the global court for corporations – ISDS
8-May-2024 PSI
After a decade long struggle by PSI and affiliates against trade rules that put corporate profits before people, victory is in sight!
The global laws that help corporations block climate action
6-May-2024 Jacobin
Companies have long used international treaties to try to prevent Global South countries from asserting economic sovereignty. In recent decades, corporations have used such laws to stymie European governments’ attempts to tackle the climate crisis.
Victories in the global movement against corporate globalization
3-May-2024 Public Citizen
For half a century, the ISDS system has allowed multinational corporations to run off with billions of taxpayers dollars while allowing them to undermine environmental standards, public health protections, financial regulations, and other sound policies throughout the world.
ECVC rejects free trade narrative of AGRIFISH council and demands market regulation and an end to FTAs to address root causes of farmers’ issues
2-May-2024 European Coordination Via Campesina
For farmers on the ground, FTAs and the WTO rules only serve to drive down prices as far as possible, with no regard for the costs to the wellbeing and health of farmers and citizens, nor the impact on climate and biodiversity.
Human rights organizations sound alarm as Canada-Ecuador trade talks get underway
1-May-2024 Mining Watch
Surging violence surrounding Canadian mining projects in Ecuador should raise red flags for the Canadian government as it commences trade talks with the Ecuadorian government.