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| Mali: Doubts Grow About Debt Relief
by Emad Mekay, InterPress News Service
March 10th, 2003
International creditors of Mali have agreed to cancel $675 million of its debt over time under a controversial debt relief scheme, rewarding the West African nation for its pro-free market economic restructuring plan, they say. |
| JAPAN: Tokyo Meeting Aims To Boost Flagging WTO
by Katharine Millar, Agence France Presse
February 12th, 2003
Trade ministers gather in Tokyo on Friday for a three-day meeting to try to step up the pace of flagging global trade talks, beset by failed deadlines and a lack of progress. Only 25 of the 145 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) have been invited to send ministers to the February 14-16 "mini-ministerial". Their task: to thrash out ideas for giving a boost to negotiations, mainly on greater market access in services, industrial goods and the traditionally-thorniest subject of agriculture. |
| EL SALVADOR: World Trade Body Ignores Union Appeals Over Treatment of Workers
by Marty Logan, OneWorld US
February 6th, 2003
The World Trade Organization praised El Salvador Wednesday for taking steps to open up its economy, but ignored a damning report from a global grouping of trade unions that accuses the country of dismissing workers' rights, particularly in export processing zones (EPZs), known locally as 'maquilas.' |
| EU: Trade Commission to Block Talks on Public Services Liberalization
by By Tobias Buck in Brussels and Guy de Jonquieres in London, Financial Times
February 5th, 2003
The European Union is expected to bow today to political and popular concern about public services, by ruling out talks in the Doha world trade round on further liberalization of its health, education, energy and water markets. |
| SWITZERLAND: Police Ward Off Protesters at World Economic Forum
by Alan Cowell, New York Times
January 26th, 2003
DAVOS, Switzerland -- While participants in the World Economic Forum here debated the consequences of a possible war in Iraq, police officers with tear-gas grenades and water cannons mounted a huge security operation to keep protesters away from the delegates, who included Secretary of State Colin Powell. |
| LATIN AMERICA: Is FTAA Integration or Annexation?
by Cecilia Remn, Latin America Press
December 9th, 2002
"We don't want to be an American colony!" shouted demonstrators who staged massive protests in Quito, Ecuador, on Oct. 31, as the region's trade ministers held their seventh meeting on the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Meanwhile, thousands of Brazilians took to the streets of So Paulo to protest the deal, set to take effect in 2005, which would create the world's largest free-trade zone, with a market of 800 million people. |
| Mexico: NAFTA Equals Death, Say Peasant Farmers
by Diego Cevallos, InterPress Service
December 3rd, 2002
MEXICO CITY, Dec 3 (IPS) -- More than 2,000 peasant farmers from throughout Mexico staged a protest Tuesday in the capital to demand a freeze on the agricultural provisions of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which they blame for most of their economic and social woes. |
| BOLIVIA: Time to Open Up Secret Trade Courts
by Jim Shultz, Pacific News Service
November 8th, 2002
Two years ago, rioters protesting increased water rates forced a Bechtel, U.S. company, in Bolivia to pack its bags and leave. Now, in a harbinger of the loss of local control through globalization, the corporation is striking back in secret proceedings. |
| ECUADOR: Anti-Free Trade Protests in Quito End on Positive Note
Food First
November 1st, 2002
The protests against the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) --and the police violence that rocked Quito during the day yesterday--ended on a positive note for protesters in the evening, putting the Bush Administration's negotiator, Robert Zoellick, in an embarrassing and awkward position. |
| BRAZIL: Lula Wins Landslide Elections
by Scott Wilson, Washington Post
October 28th, 2002
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a former union leader who never attended college, won a landslide victory today in a Brazilian presidential election that reflected the disenchantment sweeping much of Latin America after a decade of free-market reforms that have failed to deliver promised prosperity. |
| US: Sweatshop Case Settles for $20M
by Alexei Oreskovic, The Recorder
September 27th, 2002
Three overseas sweatshop lawsuits involving dozens of the United States' largest retailers and a 30,000-member class of garment workers have settled for $20 million. |
| AUSTRALIA: Police Seek to Shut Down WTO Protest Sites
Sydney Morning Herald
September 25th, 2002
New South Wales (NSW) Police Minister Michael Costa has asked the Federal Government to shut down websites with instructions to disrupt a World Trade Organisation (WTO) meeting in Sydney. |
| WORLD: New WTO Director Submits Plans for South
by Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press Service
September 2nd, 2002
The new director-general of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), economist Supachai Panitchpakdi, outlined a long-term assistance plan for developing countries and a project for opening of a branch office in Africa on his first day on the job Monday. |
| USA: Bush on Verge of Fast-Track Trade Victory
by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service
July 30th, 2002
WASHINGTON -- U.S. President George W. Bush is on the verge of winning ''fast-track'' authority to negotiate new trade agreements, but at the expense of human rights and environmental protections, say die-hard critics. |
| Canada: Country Poised to Receive G-8 Leaders and the Alternative People's Summit
Environment News Service
June 24th, 2002
CALGARY -- Canada is committed to preserving and protecting the environment during all phases of the G-8 Summit which is set to open in Kananaskis, Alberta on Thursday and Friday, government environmental officials have pledged. A parallel peoples' forum, the Group of Six Billion, says theirs is the gathering that reflects full respect for the environment and human rights. |
| WORLD: New Survey Shows 2001 Grim for Trade Unions
by Jim Lobe, OneWorld US
June 18th, 2002
Labor unions around the world faced a difficult year in 2001 due both to direct and sometimes violent repression, as well as the continuing pursuit by major multinational corporations of cheap labor in poor countries, according to the latest in a series of annual reports by the Brussels-based International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU). |
| US: IMF and World Bank Meetings Open as Protestors Gather
Reuters
April 20th, 2002
Chanting, singing and beating drums, tens of thousands of protesters converged on the U.S. capital on Saturday to demonstrate against the U.S.-led war on terror, Israeli military actions in the West Bank and globalization |
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