Deal on U.S.-Korea Trade Would Expand Excessive Investor Protections
The White House’s proposed U.S.-Korea trade deal would expand corporations’ rights to bypass public interest regulations.
Tax Cuts and Trade: Is Obama Triangulating?
President Obama’s rightward drift continues.
Free Trade: A Corporate Scam
There’s a lot of money to be made in destroying the environment and abusing workers.
Obama: Blowing It on India?
The President’s double talk on offshoring and India’s nuclear liability law will hurt U.S.-India relations
Obama’s About-Face on Trade
Candidate Obama wanted to stop U.S. companies from sending jobs overseas. President Obama appears, however, to have drunk the free-trade Kool-Aid.
Forget the FTA Fix, Just Say No
The U.S.-Korean free-trade agreement holds no promise for workers or small farmers in either the United States or South Korea
Don’t Celebrate Mexico’s Independence…Yet
It is the 200th anniversary of Mexico’s independence and the 100th anniversary of its revolution. But the celebrations taking place this week are premature.
Mining for El Salvador’s Gold — In Washington
An international tribunal gives the green light to a lawsuit brought by two companies attempting to overcome strong public and government resistance to their destructive gold mining.
Hunger Strike in Defense of Work Begins in Mexico
The struggle of Mexican electricians, now converted into a hunger strike, is against the historic injustice that is worsening daily in the country, particularly under the present government.
China Lassoes its Neighbors
It might be the world’s largest free trade area, writes columnist Walden Bello, but Southeast Asia is still getting a raw trade deal from China.
U.S.-China Bilateral Investment Treaty Negotiations
Expedited talks with China may shine a brighter spotlight on these controversial agreements.
The Struggle Against Free Trade Continues
As the international community’s attention is fixed on the coup and crisis in Honduras, another Central American country fights the constraints and inequalities caused by flawed Free Trade Agreements between the United States and the hemisphere.
Report of the Advisory Committee on International Economic Policy Regarding the Model Bilateral Investment Treaty
IPS participated in this Obama administration review process.
Briefing: Investment Rules in Trade Agreements Who Benefits? The Case of Mining in El Salvador
Community leaders from El Salvador will be in Washington to receive the 2009 Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Award on behalf of the National Roundtable on Mining. This broad coalition of environmental, faith-based, and community activists has successfully worked to block permits for potentially environmentally devastating mining in El Salvador.
The coalition will speak about the investor-state suits recently filed under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) by U.S. and Canadian mining companies against El Salvador. They will also discuss their work to oppose mining, and the attacks and threats that they and other members of the National Roundtable have suffered in El Salvador.
Speakers:
Representatives of El Salvador’s National Roundtable on Mining: William Castillo, Center for Research on Investment and Trade (CEICOM); Francisco Pineda, Environment Coordinating Committee of Cabañas
Sarah Anderson, Global Economy Project Director at the Institute for Policy Studies. Anderson will report on her recent experience serving on an official advisory committee to the Obama administration on bilateral investment treaties (BITs). The administration is currently reviewing the U.S. Model BIT, which includes rules that are similar to those in the investment chapter of CAFTA and other trade agreements.
Rep. Michael Michaud, Democratic Congressman from Maine and the lead sponsor of the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment (TRADE) Act. One provision of the TRADE Act would ensure that trade agreements no longer permit foreign investors to sue governments in international tribunals over domestic regulatory policies that protect public health and the environment.
Stephanie Burgos, Oxfam America (moderator)
For more information on this event, please contact Manuel Perez-Rocha, Institute for Policy Studies, at manuel@ips-dc.org or (240) 838-6623 (mobile). For more information on the struggle over mining and the investor-state cases, read El Salvador’s Gold Fight, a Foreign Policy In Focus commentary.
This event was organized by the Institute for Policy Studies, Oxfam America,and the Washington Office on Latin America, and sponsored by Rep. Michael Michaud (D-ME).
Why a Real Recovery Must be a Global Recovery
Civil society proposals to fix the global financial system would benefit ordinary people in impoverished countries and in the United States.