Free Trade Agreements

Is Taiwan Style Protest Developing In Hong Kong?

March 27, 2014 Alex Lo, www.scmp.com Resist! China, Free Trade Agreements, Protest, Taiwan

We all know how Occupy Central will play out if its organisers go ahead with it - exactly like the scenes of mayhem in Taipei we have just witnessed this week. Organiser and academic Dr Benny Tai Yiu-ting has called it Occupy Central with Love and Peace. He sounds almost like a hippie. His protest colleague and fellow academic, Dr Chan Kin-man, says all peaceful and legal means will be tried before resorting to civil disobedience, which by definition, is illegal. But he warns they may have to push forward the planned "occupation" to this summer, rather than wait till the end of the year, as Tai has hinted. Apparently, the occupation of the parliament by Taiwanese student protesters and their failed bid to take over Taiwan's cabinet building has energised their counterparts in Hong Kong.

Police Evict Students From Taiwan Parliament, Injure Over 150

March 27, 2014 Lawrence Chung, www.scmp.com Resist! China, Free Trade Agreements, Protest, Taiwan

More than 150 people were injured and 61 students arrested after riot police armed with batons and water cannon waded in to break up a protest over a trade pact with China at Taiwan's parliament in the early hours of Monday. Seven waves of police brandishing riot shields marched towards students forcing them away from the courtyard of the Executive Yuan building, which demonstrators had broken into hours earler, after President Ma Ying-jeou failed to soothe public anger at his administration's handling of the free-trade pact with the mainland. Demonstrators chanting "No more police brutality" and "Police back off" laid down and linked arms and legs in an effort to halt the eviction from the cabinet compound, while others lashed out at police before being beaten back with batons and, as dawn broke, water cannon.

Taiwan’s Sunflower Student Revolution

March 26, 2014 China Uncensored, www.youtube.com Resist! China, Free Trade Agreements, Taiwan, Video

On March 18, thousands of Taiwanese students occupied Taiwan's Legislative Yuan. A few days later, hundreds more took the Executive Yuan, before police violently evicted them, even going so far as using water cannons. They call themselves the Sunflower Revolution. Taiwanese President Ma Ying-jeou has pushed forward a trade deal with China called the Trade in Services Agreement that many in Taiwan feel will give the Chinese Communist Party control over the island, eroding away their hard won democracy, freedoms, and human rights. But Ma sees it as vital to maintain Taiwan's competitive edge in the international market and if they go back on the agreement, it will damage their credibility as a trading partner. But with the CCP gradually encroaching on Hong Kong using similar economic soft power, will Taiwan be next? Find out on this episode of China Uncensored.

Tech Companies Tell Wyden: Oppose Any Form Of TPP “Fast Track”

March 23, 2014 Staff, www.fightforthefuture.org Resist! Free Trade Agreements, Internet Freedom, TPP

More than 25 leading tech companies and startups have joined a public letter urging Senator Ron Wyden, the newly appointed Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, to firmly oppose any form of “fast track” authority for trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), and to demand transparency and an opportunity for public participation in negotiations that affect Internet freedom, free speech, and the tech economy. “These highly secretive, supranational agreements are reported to include provisions that vastly expand on any reasonable definition of ‘trade,’ including provisions that impact patents, copyright, and privacy in ways that constrain legitimate online activity and innovation,” the companies write. The letter continues: “Our industry, and the users that we serve, need to be at the table from the beginning,” which has not been the case with TPP negotiations.

New Study Shows Dangers of Trade Agreements that Help Corporations Sue Govenments

March 22, 2014 Robin Broad and John Cavanagh www.triplecrisis.com Educate! El Salvador, Free Trade Agreements, Mining

“Debunking Eight Falsehoods” is a careful refutation of the arguments of a giant Australian/Canadian mining firm, Pacific Rim/OceanaGold, that is suing the government of El Salvador over that government’s decision to stop issuing new mining licenses. The Salvadoran government did this precisely because its citizens deemed the environmental and social costs too high. Pacific Rim’s proposed gold mine was in the fragile and already compromised watershed of the key river that supplies water to over half the country’s people. Pacific Rim/OceanaGold is, according to a 2013 IPS study, one of 31 oil, gas, and mining corporations suing governments in Latin America in the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), based at the World Bank. ICSID is the most frequently used tribunal under existing pro-corporate, anti-democratic trade and investment rules.

Taiwan Activists Challenge Trade Agreement With China

March 21, 2014 Agencies in Taipei, www.theguardian.com Resist! China, Free Trade Agreements, Taiwan

Thousands of young Taiwanese waved banners and shouted slogans to mark the third day of their occupation of parliament to protest against a trade pact with China which they fear could further swell Beijing's economic influence. Parliamentary approval of the pact would pave the way for greater economic integration between the two former geopolitical foes by opening 80 of China's service sectors to Taiwan and 64 Taiwanese sectors to China. The protesters say the deal will damage Taiwan's economy and leave it vulnerable to political pressure from China. "We will continue [the occupation] since [President] Ma did not respond to our demands or hold an open dialogue with the students and the people. We will take further actions," one of the protest leaders, Huang Yu-feng, told reporters. Details would be unveiled later in the day, she said, after their ultimatum expired at noon on Friday.

Job Growth Claims From Trade Deals Debunked

February 25, 2014 Stuart Trew www.rabble.ca Educate! Free Trade Agreements, TAFTA

A recent German television news spot on the fledgling EU-U.S. Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership blows up the myth of massive job growth and higher wages from a free trade deal. (See video capture below with subtitles courtesy Corporate Europe Observatory.) Director of European trade policy, Karel De Gucht, is speechless (around minute 6:30) when presented with the findings of his own Commission report on the TTIP showing per annum GDP growth of only 0.05 per cent under the most "ambitious" (liberalized) result. "Let us interrupt (the interview)," he says, asking "Is that the study that we have commissioned? Can I see it?" The comical situation is depressingly familiar.

Obama Loosening Trade With Mexico For US Frackers

February 22, 2014 Steve LeVine, www.qz.com Educate! Fracking, Free Trade Agreements, Oil and Gas

If all goes well, drillers responsible for a shale-oil bonanza in Texas will soon cross the southern US border and extend the hydraulic fracturing boom to Mexico. But first the Mexican government, foreign oil companies or some combination of the two will have to neutralize some of the most savage gangsters in the world. Oil and gas were a key subtext of yesterday’s North American summit between Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and US President Barack Obama. Hoping to join the US and Canadian energy boom and invigorate the laggard Mexican economy, Peña has pushed through a dramatic reversal of the country’s seven-decade-old ban on private oil and gas drilling. His goal is to lure companies that are drilling in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico and the Texas shale patch to lead the development of Mexico’s potential 42 billion barrels of oil.

No Fast Track To TPP: Fix NAFTA First

February 17, 2014 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Organize! Free Trade Agreements, NAFTA

There has been a lot of news about the upcoming TPP trade agreement. The agreement is being negotiated in extreme secrecy in a corporate-dominated process that appears to be leading to an agreement that would give corporations even more power than they already have. Now there is a push to pass a process called fast track through Congress in order to enable the large corporations to strong-arm TPP into law mobilized organizations around the country to sound the alarm. Those resisting this TPP/Fast Track effort have put out a lot of good, solid information detailing the problems that previous trade agreements have caused. For example Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch issued a report, “NAFTA at 20: One Million U.S. Jobs Lost, Mass Displacement and Instability in Mexico, Record Income Inequality, Scores of Corporate Attacks on Environmental and Health Laws"

Free Trade And Genocide

February 11, 2014 Staff, www.rabble.ca Educate! Free Trade Agreements, Genocide

There are limited tools the Canadian government could use to start to fix the situation. One of them is the annual human rights impact assessment both Canada and Colombia are required to perform. In Canada, the government must present its report to Parliament within 30 days of May 15 each year. For the past two years, Canada's reports have avoided the impact of Canadian investment and trade on Indigenous communities by claiming limply, "There is no evidence of a causal link between reductions in tariffs by Canada in accordance with the CCOFTA, and changes in human rights in Colombia." Duque told the Citizen, "We think that including mention of this situation and a serious report on the very serious human rights crimes that have taken place and with which Canadian corporations are associated in a report to Parliament could help make a difference."

Is the TPP Dead? Have We Won?

February 3, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Corporate Personhood, Finance and Economy, Free Trade Agreements, NAFTA, TPP, Video

An interview with Kevin Zeese, organizer with Flush the TPP and Popular Resistance.

It has been 20 years since NAFTA, (North American free Trade agreement) went into effect with the promise of more equality, more jobs, and a better, more prosperous and peaceful world for all of us. Given that NAFTA has contributed to a world that is a negative image of what was sold to us, it is no surprise that the global elite and the Obama administration have been negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership in secret.

Is Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority For The TPP Dead?

January 30, 2014 Alexander Bolton and Vicki Needham, www.thehill.com Resist! Corporatism, Fair Trade, Free Trade Agreements, TPP

The people are on the verge of a major victory against transnational corporate power. Stopping the TPP seemed unlikely less than a year ago, but a campaign to educate the activist base of all the issues impacted by the TPP, pulling in more cautions non-profit organizations and unions as well as a growing awareness in the public has resulted in what looked liked a sure thing trade agreement becoming so toxic that politicians up for re-election do not want to be associated with it. This success shows that the people have more power than they realize. Of course, we are well-aware that the corporations do not give up and that we need to remain active in our opposition in 2014 and that this issue will come back in future years. Activists must remain vigilant to stop corporate trade agreements that undermine all we work for. At the same time we need to show a new path were trade can be designed for the betterment of people and the planet, negotiated in open with the participation of people all around the world. Our goal is not only to defeat fast track and the TPP but end the era of rigged corporate trade agreements. It is a goal the social movement can achieve if we remain focused on the task.

“Free Trade” Era Increased Income Inequality

January 28, 2014 Staff, www.citizen.org Educate! Free Trade Agreements, Inequality

Since 1941 standard economic theory has held that trade liberalization will contribute to greater income inequality in developed countries like the United States. In the early 1990s, as U.S. income inequality soared amid the enactment of U.S. “free trade” deals, a spate of economic studies put the theory to the test, aiming to determine the relative contribution of trade flows to the rise in U.S. income inequality. The result was an academic consensus that trade flows had, in fact, contributed to rising U.S. income inequality. The only debate was the extent of the blame to be placed on trade, with most studies estimating that between 10 and 40 percent of the rise in inequality during the 1980s and early 1990s stemmed from trade flows.

Students Rally To Topple The TPP

January 22, 2014 Dennis Trainor Jr, www.PopularResistance.org Resistance Report Barack Obama, Corporatism, Free Trade Agreements, NAFTA, TPP

Click here to stop Fast Track of the TPP: http://www.stopfasttrack.com Former US Trade Representative Ron Kirk said that if the people knew what was in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it would be impossible to get it signed. The Obama administration is going to great lengths to make sure that people do not know what is in the TPP before it gets signed into law, and have made “fast tracking” the TPP bill a top priority. January 22^nd marks the beginning of a ten-day push by groups who work on a wide variety of issues to stop Congress from granting the President Fast Track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The push culminates in an Intercontinental Day of Action against the TPP onJan 31- with events and actions being planned all around the world.

Canadian Organizations In Solidarity With Colombian Strikers

August 31, 2013 Common Frontiers Blog, www.mediacoop.ca Organize! Finance and the Economy, Free Trade Agreements, Worker Rights and Jobs

This past weekend an estimated 200,000 people blocked roads and marched peacefully across Colombia to protest the negative impacts on their communities of the U.S.-Colombia and Europe- Colombia Free Trade Agreements. There is a growing discontent with Free Trade Agreements that benefit only large multinational corporations and impose privatization, deregulation and anti-union policies. President Juan Manuel Santos government’s economic policy known as “locomotora minero-energetica” is promoting the development of large scale mining and resource extraction in the hands of multinational corporations many of which will benefit Canadian companies like Pacific Rubiales Energy and Gran Colombia Gold at the expense of small scale local miners and workers.

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