ISDS Case Map
actions | resistance
We in America need to be aware of the effects our economic imperialism has around the world. Instead of looking to move away from free trade agreements such as the one in Peru, we are working to establish new agreements, such as those in Panama or Colombia. The pork industry, for example, is lobbying very hard for a Panama FTA, so it can open up Panamanian markets to American pork.
Protestors' top demand is the repeal of a series of decrees, known collectively as the "Law of the Jungle," signed by García last year using extraordinary powers granted to him by Peru's Congress to enact legislation required by the 2006 US-Peru Free Trade Agreement. Under the government's current plan, oil and gas concession blocs alone would cover 72 percent of Peru's Amazon.
Many Indigenous groups, human rights organizations, and environmental groups have called for President Garcia to step down and have issued calls for demonstrations at Peruvian embassies around the world "until the bloodbath is stopped and the legislative decrees for the Free Trade Agreement with the United States are repealed."
At the heart of the dispute are laws passed last year as Garcia sought to bring Peru's regulatory framework into compliance with a free-trade agreement with the US. "This has to be seen as one more chapter in the national struggle against the FTA," Mirko Lauer, a political commentator at Peru's La Republica newspaper, told Al Jazeera.
The indigenous groups in Peru have surprised the authorities with their sudden strength and organization and are now threatening to blunt President Alan García's efforts to lure foreign investment to the region.
The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) was withdrawn from the table while being debated for its second reading in Canadian Parliament on May 27, 2009. Stalled for now, the CCFTA will certainly be back: it has not been defeated, and its proponents (the Conservatives and some of the Liberals) await an opportunity to bring it back.
Open letter from Hiyam Noir, editor of Palestine Free Voice, to EU-Isral Association Council
Since April 9, indigenous communities have shut down oil fields and gas pipelines, and blocked roads, rivers, airports and other installations. These actions are in protest at government decrees that open access to indigenous people's lands to facilitate oil, mining, logging and agricultural companies. Garcia decreed the laws under special powers awarded to him by Congress to bring Peruvian law into line with a free trade agreement (FTA) signed with the United States in December 2007.
Public pressure has forced a victory in the fight to stop the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA). Sources from Canada's three opposition parties have confirmed that the ruling Conservative
Party has removed Bill C-23, implementing legislation for the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, from the government's current legislative agenda.
Unions will urge Rudd's Labor government at a national conference next week to end future free trade deals and give local firms a price advantage when bidding for government contracts, Australia's top union boss Sharan Burrow said.
