ISDS Case Map
agriculture | farmers | food
plus livestock, forestry, etc
What are we fighting against? Imperialism, neo-liberalism, neo-colonialism and patriarchy, and all systems that impoverish life, resources and eco-systems, and the agents that promote the above such as international financial institutions, the World Trade Organisation, free trade agreements, transnational corporations,and governments that are antagonistic to their peoples...
When the Mexican government negotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), in force since 1994, it estimated that 14 years of safeguards for its maize and beans would be enough time for local production of these crops to become competitive. But things did not work out that way.
The military-installed Thai government is entering into a risky new battle with farmer's groups and the anti-FTA movement by pressing ahead with the Thai-Japan free trade agreement. Thousands of farmers, environmental activists and medical patients now plan to stage a mass protest next month against the government's pro-FTA policy.
South Korea's chief negotiator in free trade agreement (FTA) talks with the United States on Friday said the two sides could resolve a trade dispute over his country's rejection of US beef shipments, one of a few lingering obstacles in the nine-month-old negotiations.
The so-called "free trade" deal between Colombia and the US would likely displace hundreds of thousands of poor rural Colombians from their lands, sending them into far deeper economic despair-and forcing many of them to work for the very groups that violently displaced them from their lands. You can not make this agreement--or any similar past agreement--better by tinkering around the edges.
Grassroots movements have made great strides towards putting the power of the food system in citizens' hands, but ongoing bi-lateral and regional trade negotiations threaten to curtail these advances.
With maize trade scheduled to be fully liberalized under NAFTA in 2008, many farm groups are
calling for a renegotiation of the treaty's agricultural provisions to prevent further
damage. This analysis examines the room for alternative policies in Mexico under
existing economic and environmental agreements, including NAFTA. It concludes that
the Mexican government retains access to many useful policy instruments that could
promote rural livelihoods while arresting the losses of important maize diversity. What is
lacking is the political will to make use of them.
The deadline is looming for the day when the preferential treatment that Namibia has enjoyed for its beef, lamb and table grape exports to the European Union ends on January 1 2008.
Contrary to its long-standing assertion that rice will be excluded from a free trade agreement (FTA) with the US, South Korea's government is reviewing measures to open some less sensitive rice products.
US Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer sounded a positive note Wednesday over a possible free trade agreement between the world's two major economies and indicated that resolving farm issues would be the key.
