ISDS Case Map
agriculture | farmers | food
plus livestock, forestry, etc
This factsheet exposes the inherent dangers of the ‘free trade’ agenda pushed by corporate agribusiness under the aegis of India-EU FTA.
Small farmer organisations from across the Caribbean have criticized regional governments and their bureaucrats for leaving them to “see for themselves” during a period of rising food prices and declining agricultural products.
A group of farmers and ranchers from the US’s largest farm organization will be heading to South and Central America to show support for pending free trade agreements with Colombia and Panama.
National Farmers Union President Roger Johnson said March 16 that the organization’s decision to oppose the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement primarily was based on the group’s longstanding views rather than the failure of the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative to send a speaker to its recent convention in San Antonio, but a USTR spokeswoman said that USTR regrets any confusion surrounding Farmers Union’s request for a speaker.
South Korea’s inability to feed itself should not only be seen as a result of its economic development strategy, prioritization of the urban population and industrial development over agriculture, but also in the long term ties and dependency to the US, its largest trading partner.
The main demands of the farmers were to improve farmers incomes through more remunerative and scientifically calculated support prices, to provide health care to farm families, to scrap all agriculture deals in the various ongoing secret negotiations of bilateral FTAs and the WTO, to ban GMOs permanently since there is no need for them, to reduce the rate of farm loans.
COMESA is developing an agro-processing sector strategy in partnership with the International Trade Centre under the All-African Caribbean Pacific Agricultural Commodities Programme.
When negotiating international trade agreements, the European Commission must stop making concessions that can adversely affect European farmers, says a European Parliament resolution approved on Tuesday. MEPs warn of the effects of the trade talks with Mercosur and criticise the recent agreement with Morocco.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Tuesday called for early ratification of the pending free trade deal with South Korea, expressing hope that the deal will greatly increase shipments of U.S. agricultural products to South Korea.
In advance of a Senate Finance Committee hearing on Wednesday, March 9, with U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, the American Soybean Assn. (ASA), along with other representatives of the U.S. food and agriculture industry, reiterated support for swift passage of the pending U.S. trade agreements with Korea, Colombia and Panama.
