free trade
The coronavirus crisis is demonstrating the failure of existing trade policy. Goods that are in particular demand during the pandemic – such as protective masks, medicines and medical equipment – are being hijacked, immediately after coming off a plane, by cowboys on the wild-west global market or squirrelled away by rogue elements.
This wild-west mentality is particularly evident in the current crisis, but it also forms part of an international commercial framework geared towards free trade, where policy, dressed up in ideological terms, is tailored to ...
read more "The coronavirus free-trade crisis"
read more "The coronavirus free-trade crisis"
All is not well with the G20, which lacks democratic legitimacy, is hopelessly divided and is also losing its political influence. The main reason for this is the conflict between the US and China, the EU and the rest of the world. So how should we interpret the predictably surprising outcomes of the meeting of G20 leaders in Osaka, Japan, with respect to the role played by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), US trade wars and EU strategy?
In the run-up to the G20 summit, most of the mainstream media predicted another battle in the US trade ...
read more "The G20 in Osaka: all quiet on the Eastern front"
read more "The G20 in Osaka: all quiet on the Eastern front"
A North American Left Analysis of the USMCASince its implementation in 1994, NAFTA has been roundly criticized by nearly all North Americans to the left of Clintonian liberalism. The North American Free Trade Agreement freed flows of capital, ratcheted up deregulation, and introduced a variety of other pro-corporate measures. Meanwhile, the agreement did nothing to address pollution, labour standards, or consumer protections. The Economic Policy Institute and a host of others have meticulously documented the many ways that NAFTA was bad for working ...
read more "The New NAFTA: Making Matters Mostly Worse"
read more "The New NAFTA: Making Matters Mostly Worse"
Vision & Fiction
This year’s Public Forum of the World Trade Organization (WTO) focused on a vision of how world trade would look like in 2030. And when it comes to visions, fiction is often not too far. However, one thing seems to be already clear—the primary trade by 2030 will be e-commerce. The CEO of Alibaba, Jack Ma, went as far as to confess his believe not only in ‘free trade’ but also in the internet: “‘Made in USA’ or ‘Made in Switzerland’ or ‘Made in China’ will be out, almost everything will be ‘Made in ...
read more "The WTO goes “e”—but head over heels"
read more "The WTO goes “e”—but head over heels"
How the EU plans to entrench and institutionalize Investor-State Dispute Settlement
The European Commission proposal for a global investor court for investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) – known as the Multilateral Investment Court – threatens to enshrine, expand, and entrench the current system of corporate privilege in future trade deals.
A world court for corporations would be the capstone in the architecture of corporate impunity, undermining democratic institutions and lawmaking, and worsening the power imbalance that grants rights, protections, ...
read more "A World Court for Corporations"
read more "A World Court for Corporations"
Report from the forum on "The Shape of Trade to Come"About ten years ago, the European Union (EU) introduced Global Europe, its most ambitious trade policy strategy to date. It was intended to open up new markets worldwide through new bilateral trade and investment agreements. After all, many countries in the South had until then successfully resisted participating in what the EU envisaged to be the new "trade policy of the 21st century". This was not least because it went way beyond simply dismantling customs duties but ...
read more "What to do about the EU’s new trade agenda in Latin America?"
read more "What to do about the EU’s new trade agenda in Latin America?"
Keynote Speech to the Forum on European Union-Latin America Trade Relations, Brussels"We cannot leave the field to a neoliberalism that has failed or to an extremism that has appropriated some of our analysis and married them to hideous, reactionary values. A progressive future is not guaranteed. We must work to bring it about, and we will."
I would like to thank the Transnational Institute and other sponsors of the conference for inviting me to make the opening address. I am not exactly sure if I am the right person for the job, but I’m happy to be ...
read more "Four Challenges to Global Trade Activists"
read more "Four Challenges to Global Trade Activists"
This study, co-published with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA), examines the adverse impacts on public services and public interest regulation of the little-known Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), quietly being negotiated in Geneva by a group of 23 governments, including Canada. Senior CCPA trade researcher Scott Sinclair argues that under the guise of expanding international trade in services, TiSA will make it much harder for governments to regulate vital services such as energy, water, banking, ...
read more "TiSA Troubles: Services, Democracy and Corporate Rule in the Trump Era"
read more "TiSA Troubles: Services, Democracy and Corporate Rule in the Trump Era"
Series of 11 fact booklets about global trade policiesThe year 2017 begins with a peal of thunder. The newly elected US president Trump abandons the Trans Pacific Partnership, a genuine geo-political monster project which aimed at excluding China as main contender of the USA in the Pacific. Simultaneously it looks like the new US administration wants to renegotiate NAFTA, and the future of the TTIP negotiations are also highly uncertain. Does the USA thus abandon their classical political hinterland? These big trade agreements have often been understood as ...
read more "Unpacking Trade and Investment"
read more "Unpacking Trade and Investment"
Analysis of the free trade agreements between the European Union and MoroccoThis book by Attac Maroc was originally published in 2015 in Arabic and French and is geared towards readers in Morocco who want to learn more about the devastating effects of trade agreements on the country. We have translated it into English, because the different texts provide insight for the interested in other parts of the world as well, and we hope that this contributes to a wider international exchange between activists and initiatives struggling for ...
read more "Free Trade Agreements. Colonial Agreements Against The People"
read more "Free Trade Agreements. Colonial Agreements Against The People"