News Articles
| BURMA: Pressure Mounts on Energy Giant Chevron to Disclose Revenue by Marwaan Macan-Markar , Inter Press Service (IPS) April 29th, 2010 When shareholders of the multinational company Chevron gather for their annual meeting in the U.S. city of Houston in late May, they will come face to face with Naing Htoo, whose community has suffered due to the exploits of the energy giant in military-ruled Burma. |
| EUROPE: Europe’s Vast Farm Subsidies Face Challenges by STEPHEN CASTLE and DOREEN CARVAJAL, New York Times December 29th, 2009 The last time the European Union decided the future of its 50 billion euro agricultural aid program, in 2005, the deal was cut behind closed doors in a luxury suite at the five-star Conrad Brussels hotel. Now, 2013 is closer at hand and a new round of maneuvering has begun to reshape the richest system of agricultural handouts in the world. |
| FIJI: Fiji Water: Spin the Bottle by Anna Lenzer, Mother Jones August 17th, 2009 Obama sips it. Paris Hilton loves it. Mary J. Blige won't sing without it. How did a plastic water bottle, imported from a military dictatorship thousands of miles away, become the epitome of cool? |
| TANZANIA: Villagers storm Barrick gold mine: Inflict much damage, FFU police deployed to disperse them This Day (Tanzania) December 13th, 2008 Thousands of villagers raided the North Mara gold mine owned by Barrick Gold Corp on Thursday night and caused damage to various mining equipments worth more than $16 million (approx. 21bn/-). |
| GUINEA: One killed in Guinea protest over bauxite trains Reuters Africa October 10th, 2008 At least one person was killed when police in Guinea cleared protesters from a railway carrying bauxite for Russian aluminium company RUSAL, police and industry sources said on Friday. |
| 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. |
| US: Farm Groups Nix US Bid for Deeper WTO Cuts: Sources REUTERS May 30th, 2006 The Bush administration sought agreement from U.S. farm groups for a 70 percent cut in their most trade-distorting subsidies as a way to save world trade talks but was rejected, industry sources said on Tuesday. |
| ECUADOR: Bush administration breaks off free trade talks with Ecuador by Martin Crutsinger, Associated Press May 16th, 2006 The Bush administration said Tuesday it had broken off negotiations on a free trade agreement with Ecuador following the South American government's decision to annul an operating contract with Occidental Petroleum Corp. |
| AFRICA: U.S. Farm Subsidies Hurting Africa's Development by Joyce Mulama, Inter Press News Service (IPS) April 15th, 2006 In a renewed campaign, African trade ministers have urged the United States to remove agricultural subsidies that are hurting African farmers. |
| EU: Europe Defends Stance on Genetically Altered Foods by Paul Meller, The New York Times February 8th, 2006 The European Commission defended its current practices on screening genetically altered foods in the wake of a report from the World Trade Organization that criticized its past action in restricting the entry of modified products into the European Union. |
| PHILIPPINES: No new mining permits by Gil C. Cabacungan Jr. , Blanche S. Rivera, Philippine Daily Inquirer February 4th, 2006 PRESIDENT Macapagal-Arroyo has offered to suspend the issuance of new mining permits to try to appease Roman Catholic bishops strongly opposed to the country's new Mining Act, a top Malacanang official said yesterday. |
| THAILAND: Thai Farmers Fear Free Trade Deal With US by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service January 12th, 2006 When United States negotiators fly into Thailand to thrash out a bilateral free trade deal next week, they will be greeted with jeers rather than this country's famed smile of welcome. |
| GLOBAL: World Bank Gets Cold Feet on Bird Flu Drug Patent by Marwaan Macan-Markar, Inter Press Service November 4th, 2005 The World Bank has decided that it is not in keeping with its mission to get involved in the emerging global debate on the Tamilfu patent held by the Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche and that could be broken under the 'compulsory licencing' rules of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). |
| WORLD: From Bad to Worse: IFC Safeguards Bretton Woods Project June 13th, 2005 Devastating impacts of IFC-supported projects on people and the environment, and irresponsible company practises continue to highlight the serious shortcomings of the institution's environmental and social safeguards. |
| INDIA: Spice Farmers in Misery by Sunil Raman, BBC news May 13th, 2005 Thousands of spice farmers in India are in the midst of a major crisis, threatening one of the country's best known trades. |
| EUROPE: Loses Sugar Appeal at W.T.O.
by Tom Wright, New York Times April 29th, 2005 The World Trade Organization's highest court issued a final ruling Thursday ordering the European Union to stop illegally dumping subsidized sugar on global markets or face punishment. |
| LATIN AMERICA: AIDS Patients See Life, Death Issues in Trade Pact
by Marla Dickerson and Evelyn Iritani, LA Times April 22nd, 2005 Under CAFTA American pharmaceutical giants would gain a five-year edge on the development of new drugs by low-cost competitors. Generic versions of name-brand drugs are the main weapon for battling the AIDS pandemic in the developing world. |
| LAOS: Massive Dam Project Could Backfire by Emad Mekay, IPS April 8th, 2005 A new dam funded by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and hailed as a windfall for Laos may end up doing more harm than good to one of the world's poorest nations and its vulnerable farmers, several independent development groups say. |
| LATIN AMERICA: Banana Producers Go to WTO by Raphael Minder and Frances Williams , Financial Times March 30th, 2005 Ecuador and four other Latin American banana producers sought World Trade Organisation arbitration on Wednesday in their dispute with the European Union, raising the prospect of another long trade battle over the EU's banana import regime. |
| BOLIVIA: Not A Drop To Drink by Kelly Hearn, The American Prospect February 25th, 2005 In parched Latin American countries, the battle over water is ready to explode. |
| EU: WTO gives U.S. the Byrd by Agencies, Times Online U.K. August 31st, 2004 The World Trade Organisation (WTO) backed the EU and seven other WTO members in their demand to punish a US failure to revoke an anti-dumping law -- the so-called Byrd amendment -- declared illegal under international trade rules. |
| CHINA: China Vows To Protect Markets by Mure Dickie, Financial Times July 5th, 2004 China wants to make greater use of World Trade Organisation market protection measures, including the use of anti-dumping cases against foreign companies, as its economy and domestic industries adjust to increased competition brought by membership of the WTO. |
| UK: Oxfam Hopes To Stimulate Taste For Fair Trade by Simon Bowers, Guardian May 14th, 2004 The charity, backed by a loan from Glasgow-based coffee supplier Matthew Algie, yesterday said it hoped consumers' appetite for fair trade-certified coffee will attract new customers and draw others away from the mainstream chains. |
| Iraq: Amec Deal Saves UK from Embarrassment by Terry Macalister, Guardian (London) March 25th, 2004 Amec has won part of a $1bn (550m) contract to rebuild water and sewerage networks in Iraq. The deal is the biggest so far by a UK company for reconstruction work in the war-torn country, but otherwise British firms have lost out. |
| Nigeria: Shell Revamp to Cost Jobs BBC News March 22nd, 2004 The oil company Royal Dutch Shell has said it plans to cut jobs in Nigeria, so it can invest more money in better production methods. The aim is to raise output by 500,000 barrels a day within two years, says the head of Shell's Nigeria operations, Chris Finlayson. |
| EU: Microsoft's Last-Ditch Offer Is Rejected by Daniel Dombey, Financial Times March 18th, 2004 The European Commission said it had been unable to reach a settlement with Microsoft after considering the software group's last-ditch offer to end the long-running antitrust battle. |
| US: FERC Claims Jurisdiction on Gas Plant by Deborah Schoch, Los Angeles Times February 27th, 2004 The federal position on a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in Long Beach sets up a possible conflict with state regulators. |
| Iraq: Occupation, Inc. by Pratap Chatterjee and Herbert Docena, Southern Exposure February 4th, 2004 Bechtel's projects are examined by freelance journalists. Locals complain of shoddy work, problems with schools, sewage, electricity, gas lines, and low wages. |
| Chile: Santiago Signs Free Trade Deal with US by Elliott Gotkine, BBC September 17th, 2003 On 3 September, eight days before the country was due to mark 30 years since the military coup that ushered in 17 years of rule by General Augusto Pinochet, the United States approved a long-awaited free trade agreement with its South American neighbour. |
| World: Rich and Poor Clash Over Farm Aid BBC September 12th, 2003 The Group of 21 (G21), which includes China, India and Brazil, has threatened the traditional dominance of rich countries during world trade talks in Cancun, Mexico. The G21 is demanding the complete abolition of subsidies paid by rich countries to their farmers which, they say, locks the developing world out of international markets. |
| SWITZERLAND: Transnationals Urge Flexibility from Rich Nations by Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press Service August 22nd, 2003 An organisation of transnational corporate executives urged the United States, European Union and Japan to cede to some of the demands of developing countries -- particularly in regards to agriculture and drugs patents -- in order to jump-start the WTO trade liberalisation talks |
| WORLD: A Month from Cancun, WTO and Critics Rev Their Engines by Gustavo Capdevila, lnter Press Service August 12th, 2003 International trade negotiations this week enter the final stretch before the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, with the first signs of progress in the otherwise troubled agricultural talks and announcements of new mobilizations by groups opposed to the multilateral trade system. |
| PHILIPPINES: VP Advises Protecting Farmers from Excesses of Trade Liberalization ABS-CBN.com July 10th, 2003 Vice President Teofisto Guingona Jr. said the Philippines must adopt a firm policy to protect its agricultural and service sectors from the negative impact of excessive liberalization of tariffs and related policies mandated by its obligations to the World Trade Organization (WTO). |
| China: US Bosses Step Up Yuan Row BBC June 18th, 2003 A powerful industrial lobbying group is calling on the US government to take China to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over its fixed exchange rate policy. The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) has said it plans to file a trade complaint with the US Trade Representative, which would force trade officials to consider an official response. |
| Brazil, India and South Africa: Form G3 to counter G8 by Reuters, The Hindu June 7th, 2003 Brazil, India and South Africa have formed a trilateral bloc to boost trade and pool their political muscle in talks with rich nations. The new grouping follows soon after the G8 meeting of major industrial nations failed to act on a proposal for subsidy cuts to help Africa and a Brazilian plan to create a global fund to fight hunger. |
| FRANCE: The G8 Summit: Leaders Paper Over Cracks on WTO Talks by Robert Graham, James Blitz and Guy de Jonquires, Financial Times June 3rd, 2003 The Group of Eightmembers yesterday committed themselves to concluding the stalled Doha world trade round on schedule by the end of next year, but hinted at no shifts in negotiating positions that could lead to progress in the talks. |
| Latin America: Churches Call for Alternative to Free Market by Marcela Valente, Inter Press Service May 2nd, 2003 BUENOS AIRES-- Leaders of Protestant churches of Latin America, tired of alleviating social problems that they blame on neo-liberal free market policies, have decided to advance their own alternative proposals to governments and the multilateral lending institutions. |
| Middle East: U.S. Hopes to Pry Open Region's Economies by James Sterngold, San Francisco Chronicle April 16th, 2003 Bush administration officials have been clear in saying that as the war winds down and they begin their campaign to bring political reform to Iraq and the Middle East, a critical step will be opening the region's markets to trade and investment. |
| Central America: Free Trade Deal a Dud, Activists Say by Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service April 10th, 2003 WASHINGTON, Apr. 10 (IPS) -- Activists from labor, development, human rights and farm groups are calling on the United States and five Central American countries not to rush a trade agreement that they say is undemocratic and would drive farmers and other vulnerable groups deeper into poverty. |
| VIETNAM: Country Jolted Over Trademark Debacle by Tran Dinh Thanh Lam, Inter Press Service April 8th, 2003 Socialist Vietnam is starting to learn the ways of capitalism as its products enter the global market. |
| PHILIPPINES: People's Congress Urges Land, Food Without Poisons Envinroment News Service April 7th, 2003 Agricultural workers and their families are being poisoned, rural lands, forests, oceans and waters are devastated, biodiversity is being destroyed, and food is unfit for human consumption. With these words, 140 participants from 17 countries at the First Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific Congress in Manila last week warned the world that industrial agriculture as conducted by transnational corporations is undermining the resources needed to sustain food production. |
| China: Chip Makers Exchange Barbs in Corporate Espionage Suit by Laurie J. Flynn, New York Times March 25th, 2003 Semiconductor Manufacturing International, China's largest maker of custom chips, accused Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Wednesday of conducting a "smear campaign" after Taiwan Semiconductor filed new documents this week in its lawsuit accusing the Chinese company of corporate espionage. |
| CENTRAL AMERICA: Experts, Citizens Fear Economic Fallout of Iraq War by Nfer Muoz, Inter Press Service March 21st, 2003 Ral Carballo, a nearly-blind street vendor in the capital of Costa Rica, is just one of the 4.3 million Central Americans working in the informal economy who have already begun to feel the indirect effects of the war on Iraq. |
| US: Bush May Use Trade Pacts for Iraq Leverage by Paul Blustein, Washington Post March 18th, 2003 Maybe it's just a coincidence that the Commerce Department announced decisions in recent days to confer "market-based-economy" status on Bulgaria and Romania, two Eastern European countries that support President Bush's tough stance on Iraq. |
| BRAZIL: Weakened Trade Unions Look to Lula for Help by Mario Osava, Inter Press Service March 12th, 2003 Trade unions proliferated in Brazil from 1991 to 2001, but their power did not keep in step, says a report that is fuelling debate now that the nation's president is a man was a unionist himself, former metalworker Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. |
| World: Prior Informed Consent: Asbestos, Pesticides, Lead Environmental News Service March 11th, 2003 An international list of chemicals subject to trade controls will expand to include all forms of asbestos, three pesticides, and two forms of lead if recommendations made by a committee of government appointed experts is approved under the Rotterdam Convention. The international treaty requires exporting countries trading in a list of hazardous substances to obtain the prior informed consent of importing countries before proceeding with the trade. |
| 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. |
| EGYPT: Cairo Offers to Host WTO Mini-Ministerial Meeting in June by Daniel Pruzin, WTO Reporter March 4th, 2003 Egypt is eyeing a late June date to host the next World Trade Organization "mini-ministerial" meeting, Egyptian officials told BNA February 28. |
| 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. |
| INDIA: Government Seeks Accountability From Foreign Corporations by Mamata Singh, Business Standard December 12th, 2002 In a significant development, India and China have joined hands to demand a legally enforceable code of conduct for foreign investors to check their abuse of economic power in host countries. |
| 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. |
| USA: Tariffs on Manufactured Goods Proposed to be Dropped by Emad Mekay, InterPress Service November 26th, 2002 The United States, recently criticised for its protectionist trade policies, on Tuesday proposed removing world tariffs on manufactured goods no later than 2015. |
| 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 |
| Central America: Price of Free Trade is Famine by Marc Edelman, Los Angeles Times March 22nd, 2002 Central America is in the grip of famine, and if President Bush mentions it when he visits El Salvador on Sunday, he will likely suggest that free trade is the solution. Yet Bush's proposed Central American Free Trade Agreement is hardly going to remedy the worsening disaster in rural Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.Unregulated markets are a large part of the reason why 700,000 Central Americans face starvation and nearly 1million more suffer serious food shortages. |
| MEXICO: Skepticism as UN Summit Opens by Alejandro Ruiz, Washington Post March 19th, 2002 One of the poorest towns in Mexico, El Porvenir last year signed a sister-city agreement with one of the richest, San Pedro Garza Garcia, on the outskirts of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon state. The pact signed last August with President Vicente Fox on hand was meant to be a model for a new vision of fighting poverty: an exchange of products, help with schooling and technical training, new investment for a town where fewer than one in five homes has electricity. |
| USA: Tomato Tariff Wars by Laura Durnford, Radio Netherlands March 11th, 2002 Americans consume almost 17 pounds of fresh tomatoes per person every year. It's a $1.4 billion industry. Most are grown in Florida and California but, thanks to a bilateral free trade agreement of 1988 and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, Canadian tomatoes now command more han 43% of the market, beating imports from Belgium and The Netherlands. But far from nourishing economic health and pleasing the business-oriented palate, this particular globalisation recipe is making a mess of the whole kitchen. |
| SOUTH KOREA: Government Considers Challenging U.S. Over Steel Tariffs at the WTO by Kim Mi-hui, The Korea Herald March 6th, 2002 Expressing great discontent over U.S. President George Bush's decision to impose 8-30 percent safeguards on Korean steel imports, the Korean government said that it will consider taking the United States to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to battle the ''unfair'' safeguard measure. |
| Germany: Ecotax Exemptions Approved Environment News Service February 13th, 2002 The European Commission today approved a German request for several sectors to be exempted from its national energy tax program, ending long running negotiations between EU Competition Commissioner Mario Monti and Germany's Finance Minister Hans Eichel. |
| US: NY Cops Pushed Legal Limits in WEF Protests by Esther Kaplan, The Village Voice February 13th, 2002 New York City police commish Ray Kelly may be congratulating his Shea-honed troops on ''a tough job well done,'' but several activists and attorneys say policing of the World Economic Forum protests last week was a civil rights disaster. They cite baseless arrests, punitive detentions, and surveillance so aggressive it may have crossed the line even in this Ashcroft era. |
| FRANCE: Activist Gets Jail for Ransacking McDonald's Reuters February 6th, 2002 France's highest court upheld on Wednesday a three-month jail sentence for anti-globalization activist Jose Bove over his ransacking of a McDonald's restaurant to protest U.S. trade barriers. |
| BRAZIL: World Social Forum for Global Equity, Say Activists Agence France Presse February 2nd, 2002 Activists at the second annual World Social Forum rejected the label ''anti,'' saying they were working for democracy and equitable distribution of wealth. |
| BRAZIL: Porto Alegre Day One by Martha Honey, Foreign Policy in Focus January 31st, 2002 Under a strong summer sun and a broad political proclamation that "Another world is possible," tens of thousands of activists from around the world are arriving here for the second annual World Social Forum. The host, like last year, is Brazil's southernmost major city, capital of the state of Rio Grande de Sul. |
| WTO Urged to Hold Guatemalan Government Accountable for Maquila Abuses International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers' Federation January 18th, 2002 A WTO review of Guatemala's trade policies has prompted international labor to spotlight that government's total failure to uphold freedom of association and the right to bargain collectively. |
| USA: Washington Pressures EU to Drop GMO Labeling Environment News Service January 16th, 2002 Confidential documents obtained by Friends of the Earth Europe underline American opposition to European Union plans for compulsory tracing and labeling rules for all food and animal feed containing genetically modified organisms (GMOs) above a certain threshold. |
| USA: Bush Administration Changes Meaning of Dolphin Safe Tuna Label by Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service January 6th, 2002 The Bush administration has decided that a controversial fishing method involving encircling pods of dolphins with mile long nets to catch tuna has "no significant adverse impact" on the dolphins. Conservation groups say the determination, which will allow tuna from Mexico to be sold in the U.S. under a "dolphin safe" label, could spell disaster for imperiled dolphin populations. |
| QATAR: WTO Still Harmful to Developing Countries by Walden Bello and Aileen Kwa, Focus on the Global South (Bangkok, Thailand) November 14th, 2001 The revised draft ministerial declaration issued in the afternoon of November 13 continues to highly detrimental to the interests of developing countries. |
| QATAR: WTO to Launch New Trade Talks Associated Press November 14th, 2001 DOHA, Qatar -- They went down to the wire and then some, but delegates at the World Trade Organization conference formally agreed Wednesday on starting a new round of negotiations to further lower barriers to trade. |
| WORLD: Doha's Kamikaze Capitalists by Naomi Klein, Toronto Globe & Mail November 7th, 2001 On Friday, the World Trade Organization begins its meeting in Doha, Qatar. According to U.S. security briefings, there is reason to believe that al-Qaeda, which has plenty of fans in the Persian Gulf state, has managed to get some of its operatives into the country, including an explosives specialist. Some terrorists may even have infiltrated the Qatari military. |
| USA: Bayer, Anthrax and the WTO by Sarah Boseley, The Guardian (UK) October 24th, 2001 Three people have died of anthrax in the US. Two million die every year of AIDS in Africa. The difference in numbers in huge, but the issue is the same -- patents. Is it right to ban cheaper copies of drugs when public health is at risk? And will the world wake up to the problem now the west has been hit? |
| US: Nobel Laureate Encourages Global Justice Movement by Tim Shorrock, Inter Press Service October 16th, 2001 Joseph Stiglitz, whose critiques of free market fundamentalism cost him a senior job at the World Bank in 1999 but won him the Nobel Prize for economics last week, has succinct advice for the global justice movement: Keep it up. |
| WORLD: WTO May Move Meeting Out of Qatar Associated Press October 15th, 2001 The World Trade Organization may move a November meeting out of the Persian Gulf country of Qatar because of security worries following the U.S. strikes on Afghanistan, trade envoys said Monday. |
| WORLD: No Action Yet on WTO by Robert Evans, Reuters September 12th, 2001 Trade officials said on Wednesday work was continuing to prepare the World Trade organisation's ministerial meeting in Qatar in November despite the terror attacks in the United States. |
| USA: Wartime Opportunists by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation September 6th, 2001 Corporate interests and their proxies are looking to exploit the September 11 tragedy to advance a self-serving agenda that has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with corporate profits and dangerous ideologies. |
| FRANCE: Farmer Jose Bove Leads New McDonalds Protest by Jamey Keaten, Associated Press August 13th, 2001 Militant farmer Jose Bove and two thousand supporters returned Sunday to the same McDonald's restaurant he helped dismantle two years ago, this time holding a more restrained rally to protest unchecked globalization and demand support for farmers. |
| MEXICO: Farmers March Against Free Trade Associated Press August 8th, 2001 Thousands of farmers marched through the Mexican capital Wednesday demanding subsidies and a halt to free trade -- posing the most direct challenge yet to President Vicente Fox's 8-month-old administration. |
| US: Letter from Inside the Black Bloc by Mary Black, AlterNet July 25th, 2001 The following story was sent to us anonymously (Mary Black is a psuedonym) two days after a violent protester was killed in Genoa, Italy. While we may not share the author's opinion about Black Bloc tactics, it is a perspective that hasn't been fully covered, even in the progressive media, and as such deserves publication. |
| ITALY: Genoa Awaits Protestors by Alessandra Stanley, New York Times July 19th, 2001 British by birth, Ms. Brown is married to an Italian and works at a hair salon that will not open for business on Friday when President Bush and seven other government leaders arrive. Neither will almost all of the other shops and restaurants inside the so-called red zone, a secure six- square-mile area where leaders will meet from Friday though Sunday. Some anti-globalization groups have pledged to penetrate the zone. |
| EU: Anti-Globalization Movement Prepares for Genoa Summit Agence France Presse July 11th, 2001 Nine days ahead of this month's G8 summit in the Italian city of Genoa, an ever-developing anti-globalization movement prepares to make its presence felt. |
| Americas: Free-Trade Draft Exposes Rifts, Opportunities for Critics by Tim Shorrock, Inter Press Service July 6th, 2001 The public release of the draft negotiating text for the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA)underscores the wide gulf between the 34 countries involved in the talks while giving impetus to the citizens' movement to stop it. |
| MEXICO: Economic Downturn Deepens by Chris Kraul, Los Angeles Times July 1st, 2001 From farms and automotive plants on the outskirts of Mexico City to the industrial heartland of Monterrey and the wineries and electronics firms in Tijuana and Guadalajara, signs are that this nation's recession is becoming more entrenched. |
| New Study: Mexicans Unable to Live on Sweatshop Wages Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras, Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, et al. June 28th, 2001 Workers in foreign-owned export assembly plants in Mexico are not able to meet a family's basic needs on sweatshop wages, according to a comprehensive study conducted in fifteen Mexican cities. |
| ITALY: Prime Minister Expects 100,000 Protestors at G-8 Summit by Alessandra Stanley, New York Times June 19th, 2001 Worried about a repetition in Italy of the violent protests that occurred at a European Union meeting in Sweden last weekend, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said today that he wanted to open a dialogue with demonstrators who are planning to march at the Group of 8 summit meeting in Genoa next month. |
| SWEDEN: Bush and EU Fail on Global Warming by Paul Taylor, Reuters June 14th, 2001 President Bush and European Union leaders failed to resolve deep differences over global warming Thursday, but agreed to stay together in the Balkans and made some progress on world trade. |
| SWEDEN: Thousands of Protestors Converge on EU Summit by Kim Gamel, Associated Press June 14th, 2001 Thousands of anti-globalization and environmental activists converged Thursday on this port city as President Bush joined 15 European Union leaders for a summit expected to focus on the widening gap between Washington and its European allies. |
| EL SALVADOR: Government Report Details Labor Abuses by Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times May 10th, 2001 A long-suppressed report by the Salvadoran government, made public yesterday by an American labor rights group, spelled out serious problems in the country's apparel factories, including unhealthy air and water, large amounts of forced overtime and the frequent dismissal of workers who supported labor unions. |
| US: Making World Trade Fair by Doreen Hemlock, South Florida Sun-Sentinel May 6th, 2001 They're often portrayed as obstructionists to trade and the global economy. But the social movement that mobilized thousands in Quebec last month -- and earlier in Seattle and Prague -- is maturing beyond street protests. |
| Canada: Summit Called 'Sham,' 'Wishy Washy' by Melanie Seal, Globe and Mail April 23rd, 2001 Reaction to the summit's final declaration ranged from a ''deplorable sham'' to ''a good start, but there's still a lot more work to be done.'' |
| USA: Bush Says Will Push for Fast Track After Summit by Steve Holland, Reuters April 17th, 2001 President Bush pledged to Latin America on Tuesday that after he returns from a hemispheric summit he will intensify his effort to get key trade negotiating authority from Congress. |
| Canada: Activists Turned Back at Border by Basem Boshra and Kevin Dougherty, The National Post (Canada) April 17th, 2001 Two of three foreign spokesmen for the alternative People's Summit, which opened in Quebec City yesterday, were detained for questioning by Canadian immigration officials and granted limited visas to enter Canada. |
| US: My Nike Media Adventure by Jonah Peretti, The Nation April 9th, 2001 Nike's website allows visitors to create custom shoes bearing a word or slogan -- a service Nike trumpets as being about freedom to choose and freedom to express who you are. Confronted with Nike's celebration of freedom and their statement that if you want it done right, build it yourself, I could not help but think of the people in crowded factories in Asia and South America who actually build Nike shoes. |
| Argentina: Governments Advance on FTAA - Without Citizen Input by Marcela Valente, Inter Press Service April 7th, 2001 The meeting of Western Hemisphere trade officials to make progress towards the creation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) took place in the Argentine capital, which was practically under siege by heavily armed police backed by armoured cars and police dogs on blockaded streets. |
| Canada: Prosecutors Pull out of Anti-Activist Conspiracy Montreal Gazette April 6th, 2001 Prosecutors say provincial Justice Minister Paul Begin has directed them to delay all bail hearings of arrested protesters for the maximum three full days allowed by law, as a way of keeping them off the street for the duration of the summit, April 20-22. |
| Canada: Police Arrest Trade Summit Protestors Canadian Press April 2nd, 2001 Still, about 70 of the 500 protesters outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade were arrested during a ''search and rescue mission'' to retrieve a working draft of the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas. |
| Canada: Silencing Quebec by Naomi Klein, Globe and Mail March 20th, 2001 It turns out that the most effective form of crowd control isn't pepper spray, water cannons, tear gas, or any of the other weapons being readied by Quebec police in anticipation of the arrival of 34 heads of state. The most cutting-edge form of crowd control is controlling the crowds before they converge: this is state-of-the-art protest deterrence -- the silencing you do yourself. |
| CHINA: Government Puts Brakes on WTO by Robert Marquand, Christian Science Monitor March 16th, 2001 After a strong '90s-era push by China's top echelon of reformers to insert this huge but developing country into the fast lane of the world's economy, including World Trade Organization membership this year, a quiet but significant shift toward caution is under way, with a wing of Communist Party brass reportedly worried about the potential social pressures that wrenching and wholesale structural changes to China's economy may bring. |
| SOUTH AFRICA: Financial Institutions Eye Public Services by Gumisai Mutume, Inter Press Service March 6th, 2001 Anti-privatisation protestors are expected to descend on the streets of Johannesburg this month as they demand a reversal of the sale of their municipal water supply to French multinational Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux. |
| SRI Lanka: Overtime Law Hurts Sweatshop Workers by Renuka Senanayake, Inter Press Service March 2nd, 2001 Rights activists are unhappy with the Labour Ministry's plan to amend labour laws to introduce 80 hours of overtime every month for factory workers, including those in export processing zones (EPZ). |
| MEXICO: Rocks, Tear Gas at Cancun Protest by Traci Carl, Associated Press February 28th, 2001 Injured protesters were loaded into ambulances and tourists strolled past bloodstained streets in this beach resort after police charged a group of anti-globalization demonstrators,kicking and beating those they could catch. |
| MEXICO: World Economic Forum, Anti-Globalization Protestors Gather in Cancun Agence France Presse February 26th, 2001 Anti-globalization activists were set Monday to stage a series of protests against the World Economic Forum gathered here for a two-day meeting, but also said they hoped to meet their opponents in debate. |
| Canada: Government Fights NAFTA Ruling in Court Environment News Service February 23rd, 2001 Canada is asking its own federal court to overturn a North American free trade tribunal ruling that Canada breached trade rules when it banned exports of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) waste in the 1990s. |
| Canada: Quebec Set to Crackdown on FTAA Protests by Darryl Leroux, AlterNet February 20th, 2001 From April 20-22, Quebec City has the dubious honour of hosting the 3rd Summit of the Americas. The Summit will bring together 34 heads of state -- every head of state in the Americas except Fidel Castro. And despite stringent security measures, including the largest police deployment in Canadian history, a tremendous contingency of anti-globalization protesters will be there to shake up the process. |
| FRANCE: McDonald's Foe Jose Bové Back in Court Agence France Presse February 15th, 2001 Jose Bové, French peasants' champion and hero of the international anti-globalism movement, was due back in court Thursday on trial for his part in the dismantling of a McDonald's restaurant. |
| Grave Danger Posed Under NAFTA by Unsafe Mexican Trucks Public Citizen February 6th, 2001 Although a trade panel is expected this week to order the United States to permit access to all U.S. roads by Mexican trucks, the U.S. should continue to limit access because of the grave dangers many Mexican trucks pose to motorists on U.S. highways, Public Citizen has concluded in a report released today. |
| USA: Going Bananas by Michael Jessen, AlterNet February 6th, 2001 With a history tied to colonial exploitation, union busting, presidential influence peddling, and environmental degradation, it's obvious the banana is much more than a topping for breakfast cereal or a nutritious snack food. The banana has been at the center of a controversial World Trade Organization ruling and just last month the world's top banana producer (Chiquita Brands International) appeared to teeter on the brink of bankruptcy even as it filed a half-billion dollar lawsuit against the European Union. |
| AMERICAN SAMOA: Abuses Cited at Apparel Plant That Supplied U.S. Retailers by Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times February 6th, 2001 Workers at a factory in American Samoa that made apparel for the J. C. Penney Company and other retailers were often beaten and were provided food so inadequate that some were ''walking skeletons,'' a Labor Department investigation has found. |
| SWITZERLAND: Police Barricade Davos to Prevent Protests by John A. Dillon and Malini Goel, Forum News Daily January 28th, 2001 The police used water cannons and steel fences to stop protesters on Saturday from getting within a mile of the World Economic Forum's Annual Meeting in Davos. |
| US: Shoe Manufacturer Latest Casualty to Free Trade by Justin Pope, The Associated Press January 22nd, 2001 Sneaker maker Converse Inc., best known for its basketball and ''Chuck Taylor'' brand shoes, is closing three North American production plants and shifting production to Asia as part of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. |
| BRAZIL: World Social Forum Seeks a 'Possible World' by Mario Osava, Inter Press Service January 22nd, 2001 The World Social Forum, meanwhile, involves leaders and groups with links to the political left and centre-left, who are attempting to build a broad, worldwide organization to take on what they consider the ''exclusive globalisation'' process imposed by the big capitalists who meet in Davos and to prove that ''another world is possible,'' the theory adopted as a the meeting's slogan. |
| CHINA: Government Refusal to Cut Aid to Farmers Blocks Bid to Join WTO Bloomberg News January 16th, 2001 China won't sacrifice income support for farmers in talks this week to join the World Trade Organization, officials and analysts said yesterday. |
| SWITZERLAND: WTO Still Not Ready for New Round by Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press Service December 21st, 2000 One year after the failed World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference, the hostile climate established in the US city of Seattle with respect to new negotiations to broaden global economic liberalisation persists. |
| USA: Latin America Is Priority on Bush Trade Agenda by Anthony DePalma, New York Times December 18th, 2000 He may not be comfortable discussing unrest in East Timor, or pronouncing the name of the leaders of Turkmenistan, but President-elect George W. Bush considers the rest of the Western Hemisphere "our backyard" and will have several opportunities in his first year in office to make Latin America a trade and foreign policy priority. |
| Brazil: Unions Want FTAA Put to Popular Vote by Mario Osava, Inter Press Service December 15th, 2000 Some 700 representatives of the central trade unions of the members of South America's leading trade bloc, the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay - called on their governments to submit an eventual continent-wide free trade treaty to national plebiscites. |
| NICARAGUA: Pentagon Contracts Nicaraguan Sweatshops by Steven Greenhouse, The New York Times December 3rd, 2000 An arm of the Pentagon has come under fire for procuring large quantities of apparel from a Nicaraguan factory that labor rights groups say is a sweatshop and that the United States trade representative has voiced serious concerns about. |
| Zambia: Toxics Worry Critics of African Free Trade Pact by Singy Hayona, Environment News Service November 28th, 2000 Environmentalists in Zambia are concerned that a new free trade agreement will open the floodgates for dangerous imported products and industrial wastes. |
| US: Student Movement is Thriving After Seattle by Bhumika Muchhala, Boulder Daily Camera November 25th, 2000 Nov. 30 is the first anniversary of the ''Battle of Seattle.'' As thousands of students joined with trade unionists, environmentalists and others to demonstrate against the World Trade Organization, a new era of protest was dawning. |
| US: Seattle WTO Protests Mark New Activist Age by Luis Cabrera, Associated Press November 25th, 2000 The protests that all but shut down last year's World Trade Organization meeting may have been a surprise, but they were no fluke, organizers and observers say. |
| BRUNEI: Clinton Urges Economic Globalization by Dirk Beveridge, Associated Press November 15th, 2000 President Clinton sought to nudge economic globalization forward Wednesday by calling for new world trade negotiations by 2001 -- a deadline developing nations are resisting. |
| Canada: Arctic Pollution Linked to Industrial Plants and Incinerators by Danielle Knight, Inter Press Service October 3rd, 2000 Toxic pollution that has mysteriously entered Canada's pristine Arctic region has now been linked to air emissions from specific municipal waste incinerators, cement kilns and industrial plants in the United States, Canada and Mexico, according to a new study released Tuesday. |
| US: Roundup of Student Activism Against Sweatshops by Keith Meatto, Mother Jones October 1st, 2000 This year's cause celebre was the campaign to end the use of sweatshop labor by the $2.5-billion collegiate apparel industry. Undergraduates nationwide demanded their colleges quit the Fair Labor Association (FLA) -- an industry-backed watchdog that opponents liken to a fox guarding the hen house -- and join the Worker Rights Consortium. Founded by students, academics, and labor unions last October, the WRC promises strict workplace oversight, free from industry influence. |
| AUSTRALIA: U.S. Soccer Players Confront Nike Protestors Times of India September 12th, 2000 This was Sunday, the day before the start of the three-day World Economic Forum in Melbourne, the same type of meeting that sparked riots in Seattle last year. The two players just happened to pass one of the demonstrations at a park. |
| Australia: Anti-Globalization Protestors Claim Victory Agence France Presse September 11th, 2000 Anti-globalisation campaigners claimed victory Monday after blockading a major international economic conference in a pitched battle with police in which scores of people were hurt. |
| USA: Billion Dollar NAFTA Challenge to California MTBE Ban by Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service September 11th, 2000 The Canadian challenger, Methanex Corporation, has argued that a plan to remove the toxic chemical MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) from California's gasoline violates the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). |
| MEXICO: Country Ordered to Pay US Company $17 Million for NAFTA Violations by Danielle Knight, Inter Press Service August 31st, 2000 An international trade tribunal based here has ruled that Mexico violated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and ordered the government to pay 16.7 million dollars to a US company. |
| NICARAGUA: US Retailers Contract with Sweatshops by Carrie Antlfinger, Associated Press August 22nd, 2000 Gonzalez was one of two workers invited Monday to recount conditions at two Nicaraguan factories that human rights, religious and labor groups claim supply Kohl's Department Stores with cheap garments. |
| SWITZERLAND: Report Calls WTO 'Nightmare' by Robert Evans, Reuters August 11th, 2000 A United Nations-appointed study team has labeled the World Trade Organization a ''nightmare'' for developing countries and suggested the body should be brought under the U.N.'s purview. |
| CHINA: China WTO Deal Imminent Associated Press August 1st, 2000 Mexico expects to sign an agreement with China ''very soon'' on the communist nation's entry into the World Trade Organization, Mexico's foreign minister said Tuesday. |
| FRANCE: José Bové a 'French Gandhi'? by Charles Bremner, Times of London July 1st, 2000 The anti-capitalist campaigner José Bové compared himself to Gandhi when he went on trial yesterday for demolishing a McDonald's restaurant in a southern French market town. |
| US: High Court Considers Massachusetts Anti-Burma Law by Steven Mufson, Washington Post March 23rd, 2000 Tearing a page from the anti-apartheid movement, the two drew up legislation that penalized companies with ties to Burma when those firms competed for Massachusetts state contracts. Using the draft of an anti-apartheid bill, they crossed out South Africa and inserted Burma. Two years later, the measure became law. |
| CARIBBEAN: Banana Producers Fear Falling Victim to US-EU Trade War by Brian Kenety, Inter Press Service March 16th, 2000 A group of Caribbean banana-producing states fear that a prolonged lull in negotiations between the European Union (EU) and the United States over the EU's banana import regime could work against them. |
| USA: Clinton Backs Multinationals Against States in Challenge to Burma Sanctions by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service February 16th, 2000 In a major boost for the forces of economic globalisation, US President Bill Clinton has decided to back multinational corporations in a key court challenge to a Massachusetts law designed to promote democracy in Burma. |
| JAPAN: Officials Blamed for Promoting Toxic Incinerators in Thailand Environment News Service February 9th, 2000 Japan is using official lending agencies which provide development aid to promote the export of Japanese incinerators to Thailand, Greenpeace alleges. |
| WORLD: Critics Fear New Treaty Subordinates Biosafety to Trade by Danielle Knight, Inter Press Service February 1st, 2000 Environmental groups, while praising aspects of the first worldwide treaty governing trade in genetically modified organisms (GMO), criticise the scope of the agreement and worry it could be subverted by powerful free trade interests. |
| USA: Seattle Dismisses 280 WTO-related Cases Associated Press January 4th, 2000 Citing lack of evidence, the city attorney said Monday he was dropping about 280 cases against demonstrators who blocked the streets and demonstrated against the recent World Trade Organization meetings. |
| Bordering Injustice by Traci Griggs and Martha Valds, La Jornada December 9th, 1998 Non-profit environmental justice groups such as the San Diego-based Environmental Health Coalition (EHC), are trying to remove the rose colored glasses and expose the harsh reality of the U.S/Mexico border in an attempt to protect public and environmental health. EHC's battle against an abandoned maquiladora turned toxic dump, serves as a microcosm of what's wrong with border health and how NAFTA, for the most part, has exacerbated the problem. |
| Double Standards: Notes for a Border Screenplay by Debbie Nathan, Texas Observer June 6th, 1997 The case had been settled only minutes ago, and now jurors for Mendoza v. Contico were seated in a room outfitted with movie theater chairs and plugs for devices like VCRs. They were in the ''Ceremonial Court'' in El Paso, where victorious lawyers often hold post-trial press conferences. |