ISDS Case Map
environment
The Bush administration and U.S. lawmakers have agreed on a blueprint to strengthen labor and environmental protections in four pending free trade deals, trade officials said on Monday.
The United States has proposed revisions for a free trade agreement with South Korea to reflect Washington's new guidelines that call for stricter labor and environmental standards, officials said Saturday.
The diplomatic notes state that "Japan would not be exporting toxic waste to the Philippines as defined and prohibited under the laws of the Philippines and Japan, in accordance with the Basel Convention." This is where the loophole and ambiguity lies.
Japan will give formal assurance to Philippine senators that it will not dump toxic and hazardous waste on the Philippines in an attempt to convince them to ratify the controversial Japan- Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
On the contentious issue of transboundary movement of toxic waste, which inclusion in the JPEPA had caused an uproar locally, Philippine Trade Secretary Peter B Favila said it is likely that the same provision would be carried in the Japan-ASEAN trade deal.
Washington plans to demand renegotiations on several areas of the Korea-US free trade agreement (FTA) signed on April 2, according to US media reports.
The agreement announced today is a fundamental shift in US trade policy and clears the way for broad, bipartisan congressional support for the Peru and Panama FTAs.
South Korea and the European Union made good progress this week in their first round of negotiations to forge a major free trade pact, chief negotiators from both sides said on Friday, but they conceded sensitive issues were barely touched.
If the agreements negotiated by Japan with the Philippines and Thailand are anything to go by, the India-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement that is being worked on by the two governments will open the floodgates to Japan's municipal, medical and hazardous wastes.
