Global political economy and trade policy
A Call for Sustainable Alternatives to the EU-ASEAN Trade Regime
This report explores the effects of existing trade agreements between ASEAN and EU states, takes a look at possible effects induced by potential developments of these trade agreements, and discusses alternatives to their approach to organizing ASEAN and EU trade relations.
We seek to offer an understanding of the positions of the various layers and the general mechanisms behind historical and present developments around the emergence of a free trade regime leading us to FTA negotiations ...
read more "Casting off the Chains of Unfair Trade"
read more "Casting off the Chains of Unfair Trade"
The European Commission has proposed a slight loosening of debt limits — but Germany’s neoliberal finance minister Christian Lindner is blocking the change. His zombie economics will impoverish citizens and hasten the rise of the far right.
Coming after sixteen years of Christian-Democratic rule, Germany’s fall 2021 general election appeared to mark a turnaround. The Social Democrats (SPD) edged into first place (25.7 percent) and leader Olaf Scholz promised a new government that would act on poverty reduction and ...
read more "Germany’s Finance Minister Is the Most Dangerous Man in Europe"
read more "Germany’s Finance Minister Is the Most Dangerous Man in Europe"
An assessment of the agreement from an EU perspectiveExecutive Summary
EU-India trade negotiations were relaunched in June 2022. Behind the storytelling of the Commission, Member States and business lobbies lies the reality which can not be hidden for long: the EU-India trade deal is a neoliberal deal, entrenched in the idea that more trade between the two markets will bring significant benefits. Benefits there will be, for Indian and European multinationals but people and the planet will significantly lose from this deal.
Little is known on the ...
read more "EU-India Trade Deal: Business as usual?"
read more "EU-India Trade Deal: Business as usual?"
European Parliament, Brussels, May 15-17
The Beyond Growth Conference is a multi-stakeholder event aiming to discuss and co-create policies for sustainable prosperity in Europe, based on a systemic and transformative approach to economic, social and environmental sustainability and its encompassing governance framework. It is an initiative of twenty MEPs and will involve stakeholders from European and national policy-making, academia, social partners and civil society organizations.
The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is...
read more "The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is a partner of the Beyond Growth Conference"
read more "The Rosa Luxemburg Foundation is a partner of the Beyond Growth Conference"
A Study on Alternatives to the EU-ASEAN Free Trade and Investment AgreementThe European Union intends to conclude a new generation of free trade agreements in order to increase its global competitiveness. In doing so, the EU generally prioritizes rules-based multilateral trade agreements. Since the increasing liberalization and deregulation efforts within the framework of the multilateral trade policy of the World Trade Organization (WTO) were interrupted, the EU, contrary to its earlier rather restrained position, has increasingly relied on bilateral free trade agreements in ...
read more "Call for Study"
read more "Call for Study"
for Post-COVID-19 Food and Agricultural SystemsWith chapters on and contributions from Argentina, Brazil, Cambodia, India, Italy, the Philippines, Spain, the US, and Zimbabwe
Preface
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the chasms in the food and agricultural systems became plain for all to see. But even before COVID-19, the food and agricultural systems were in crisis: millions of people were hungry, there was a loss of biodiversity, climate change impacts were devastating, and labour conditions appalling. So, how do we do things differently to guarantee a different outcome in ...
read more "Crash Barriers"
read more "Crash Barriers"
About the book
The agricultural produce that ends up on our table from supermarket shelves and market stalls does not tell the story of the lives of the countless men and women who toil in the fields and greenhouses of Italy in conditions and at a pace that are often reminiscent of modern slavery.
In this production chain, thousands of “invisible” workers, many of them migrants, are isolated by Italian law and easily blackmailed due to the indifference of the European Union and its inability to agree on harmonisation processes for the effective ...
read more "The Struggle of Farm Workers in Italy"
read more "The Struggle of Farm Workers in Italy"
On 1 January 2021, the world gained another free trade area with the official launch of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), covering 55 member states, i.e. all the African countries except Eritrea. Its establishment has been widely welcomed not only in Africa but also in Europe – and indeed worldwide. It will give the African Union the chance to become a strong, independent player in the world economy – at least that is the optimistic forecast. And it is true that the economic weight of the countries making up the new ...
read more "Why we need to talk about the African free trade area"
read more "Why we need to talk about the African free trade area"
The COVID-19 pandemic is currently dominating our lives in every respect. Public discussion revolves around the pandemic and how to deal with it, which is understandable given its huge economic and social impact. Yet we are not just dealing with the effects of the pandemic; we are seeing very far-reaching structural changes in the social production process, too. These are primarily related to environmental challenges, especially climate change. Production based on fossil fuels no longer has a future. At the same time, the contradictions inherent in the ...
read more "The European Left and the Green New Deal"
read more "The European Left and the Green New Deal"
Workshop seriesThe current Corona Pandemic poses important challenges not only for virologists, but for political economists, economists, economic sociologists, and social theorists alike. With the second wave of the pandemic currently under way, it is increasingly obvious that we are about to face an economic crisis that exceeds that Subprime Crisis 2008 and the Euro Crisis 2012 by far. Given the structural changes we witnessed back then, it is only fair to say that the economic, political and social consequences will linger for the years to ...
read more "The socio-political economy of the Corona Pandemic"
read more "The socio-political economy of the Corona Pandemic"