ISDS Case Map
finance | banking | taxes
This trade deal -- largely based on the North American Free Trade Agreement model -- was written by and for multinational companies. It enables companies to increase their profits while skipping town on taxes.
Under new supplements to their Closer Economic Partnership Agreement, China will further open banking and securities services to Hong Kong companies
Finalizing a free-trade deal with the United States is a major goal for Panamanian President-elect Ricardo Martinelli, but the supermarket tycoon rejects US accusations that the country is a tax haven.
The trade deal would leave tax shelters for AIG and narcotraffickers intact while removing existing US tools to combat tax evasion and other financial crimes
Unlike other bilateral agreements, the potential implications of India-EU FTA would be far-reaching since nine EU-based banks together controlled 65% of total assets of foreign banks in India in 2008. By asset size, out of the top 10 foreign banks in India, six are European.
Anger is brimming over in diverse corridors over the Bush hangover agreement with Panama, and the new rights it would give to AIG-linked bodies in Panama to sue US taxpayers.
Under the Panama FTA, AIG-Panama would be able to sue the US taxpayer for cash damages by claiming common regulatory actions were "tantamount" to an ("indirect") "expropriation."
The report looks at how financial services liberalisation, and especially the entry and ongoing presence of foreign banks in the global south, as promoted at the World Trade Organisation and through European bilateral trade deals, leads to the prioritisation of richer customers and larger companies resulting in poorer customers losing out.
A new TWN report finds that North-South free trade agreements, bilateral investment treaties and World Trade Organization commitments often contain a number of provisions that can increase the likelihood of a financial crisis and make it more difficult to take the necessary measures to deal with one once it occurs.
This report questions the much-touted benefits of opening up banking sector under the India-EU FTA. Are big European banks going to augment the reach of the banking system to millions of Indians citizens who have no access to basic banking services? What specialization and experience do European banks have when it comes to providing basic banking services to landless rural workers and urban poor dwellers? Will the India-EU FTA reduce the domestic regulatory space?
