| CHILE: Native Community in Desert Oasis Threatened by Mines by Daniela Estrada, Inter Press News Service (IPS) October 9th, 2008 The Diaguita indigenous community in Huasco Alto, surrounded by rich gold, silver and copper deposits in the northern Chilean region of Atacama, are engaged in a struggle to prevent mining projects from infringing on their territory and destroying their way of life and ancestral identity. |
| IVORY COAST: Pollution trial opens in Ivory Coast Agence France Press (AFP) September 29th, 2008 The trial opened in Ivory Coast on Monday of 12 people charged with involvement in a 2006 toxic waste scandal which killed 17 Ivorians and poisoned thousands. |
| THAILAND: Green Groups Will Take GM Crops Issue To Court by Marwaan Macan-Markar, IPS News January 9th, 2008 Thai environmentalists are banking on the country’s courts to overturn a decision by the military-appointed government to allow field trials of genetically modified (GM) crops. |
| GERMANY: FSC's 'Green' Label for Wood Products Gets Growing Pains by Tom Wright and Jim Carlton, Wall Street Journal October 30th, 2007 The Forest Stewardship Council -- a widely recognized third-party labeling system to identify "green" wood and paper products -- has acknowledged that some companies using its label are destroying pristine forests and says it plans to overhaul its rules. |
| MEXICO: Thousands of Unpaid Teens Bag Groceries for Wal-Mart by Joseph Contreras, Newsweek August 1st, 2007 Wal-Mart prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. Wal-Mart is Mexico's largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico-and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. |
| BRITAIN: Companies 'looting' a continent by Fran Abrams, BBC News July 24th, 2007 Gordon Brown has signalled he wants to see poor countries develop through trade rather than aid. |
| CHILE: Gold rush threatens glacier by Lucia Newman , Al Jazeera July 8th, 2007 A new gold rush is under way as mining companies seek to supply the ever-increasing demand for the precious metal from emerging economies such as India, and with reserves dwindling all over the world they are going to extraordinary lengths to extract it. |
| CHINA: The Growing Dangers of China Trade by Jyoti Thottam, TIME Magazine June 28th, 2007 Growing concerns over the safety of everyday goods manufactured in China and imported to the US have thrown into relief the problematic (and dangerous) differences in safety and regulatory standards between the two countries. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: Globalization Brings South Africa Gains -- and Pains by David Wessel, The Wall Street Journal June 21st, 2007 Globalization has been both a boon and a bane for South Africa; it has helped along the country's integration into the global economy and strengthened its regional political position, but it has also contributed to the widening gap between a wealthy minority and the poor majority, something that is creating a whole new generation of disenfranchised citizens. |
| US: Offshoring and Cheap Imports May Hurt Workers, OECD Says by Marcus Walker, The Wall Street Journal June 19th, 2007 Offshoring and inexpensive imports may be hurting low-skilled workers in the U.S. and Europe to the extent that free trade and open markets could become increasingly difficult for politicians to sell to their constituents, according to one of the world's leading economics institutes. |
| UK: Starbucks stirred by fair trade film by Ashley Seager, Guardian Unlimited (UK) January 29th, 2007 A campaign by Ethiopia to get a fair price for its coffee - some of the world's finest - kicks off in London today as a spokesman for the east African country's impoverished coffee growers meets Tony Blair. |
| UK: Iraq poised to end drought for thirsting oil giants by Danny Fortson, The Independent (UK) January 7th, 2007 For more than three decades, foreign oil companies wanting into Iraq have been like children pressed against the sweet shop window - desperately seeking to feast on the goodies but having no way of getting through the door. That could soon change. |
| EL SALVADOR: Multinational Capital on the Offensive by Raúl Gutiérrez, Inter Press Service (IPS) January 5th, 2007 International financial consortia have already squeezed local shareholders out of banks in El Salvador, and now they are expected to sideline the state, all of which will contribute to widening the gap between rich and poor. |
| ASIA: Asian Govts Push Generic Drugs by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service December 18th, 2006 In moves that are winning them praise, two South-east Asian governments -- in Thailand and the Philippines -- appear determined to push ahead with plans to provide cheaper generic drugs even if they incur the wrath of pharmaceutical giants. |
| CAMEROON: NGOs to the Defence of Local Farmers by Sylvestre Tetchiada, Inter Press Service December 1st, 2006 Cameroonian civil society groups are expressing concern at the effects of trade liberalisation on the Central African country's food security. |
| COSTA RICA: Companies Eye Pull-Outs if CAFTA Flounders by Daniel Zueras, Inter Press News Service (IPS) August 29th, 2006 Weary of the snail's pace ratification process of the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA), which continues to dominate Costa Rica's political and social agenda, some companies are weighing the idea of moving to other Central American countries should Congress reject the treaty. |
| PERU: ‘Voluntary Payment' Instead of Taxes for Mining Firms
by Milagros Salazar, Inter Press Service (IPS) August 25th, 2006 Peruvian Prime Minister Jorge del Castillo told Congress that private mining companies operating in Peru would make a "voluntary payment" of 757.5 million dollars over the next five years, to go towards fighting poverty. However, they will not pay the tax on windfall profits that new President Alan García had promised in his campaign. |
| THAILAND: Patent or patient? How Washington uses trade deals to protect drugs by Alan Beattie, Andrew Jack and Amy Kazmin, The Financial Times August 22nd, 2006 As the World Health Organisation's top man in Thailand, William Aldis knew Thai officials were hosting their US counterparts in the northern city of Chiang Mai to negotiate what to many outsiders might seem an entirely worthy objective: a bilateral free-trade deal. But he saw dangers - and decided to make his views public. |
| WORLD: Legalizing Human Trafficking
by Basav Sen, Dollars & Sense June 28th, 2006 The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), now being negotiated in the World Trade Organization (WTO), is likely to reduce migrant workers to the status of commodities. |
| RUSSIA: Russian Download Site Is Popular and Possibly Illegal by Thomas Crampton, International Herald Tribune June 1st, 2006 So great is the official level of concern about AllofMP3 that American trade negotiators darkly warned that the Web site could jeopardize Russia's long-sought entry into the World Trade Organization. |