ISDS Case Map
labour | workers' rights
It is contemptible how the Philippine government trades its citizens for export goods that will only push the country to even greater disaster. This is the aim of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to sign with Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today during the Asia Europe Meeting in Helsinki, Finland.
For Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the future of the Filipino people has a very cheap price. So cheap that she has opted to sell it to Japan by further opening up the local economy in exchange for the annual deployment of 400-500 caregivers and nurses to Japan.
Philippine officials may be upbeat about finalizing the bilateral free-trade agreement with Japan this weekend, but there is some concern that the country's medical workers will be the losers in the deal.
Korean workers and farmers take the front line of a demonstration Wednesday against U.S. trade talks with South Korea. The midday march briefly stopped downtown traffic as demonstrators laid down in the streets around Westlake Park.
We've all been witness to the Bush administration's half-truths. Now, it's the same old song and dance with the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS-FTA) talks that are taking place in Seattle this week. While the administration boisterously makes claims about the wonders of free-trade agreements, the real story behind the rhetoric is: undemocratic, unfair and unconscionable.
The service sector has emerged as one of the major contributors in the global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and trade. On an average, while services account for more than 70% of GDP in developed countries and 50% in developing countries, their share in global exports have grown from 15% to nearly 25% over the last two decades. In the case of South Asia too, the share of services in GDP and trade has increased.
The US and South Korea begin a third round of free-trade talks on Wednesday, hoping to make progress toward an accord that could be the biggest of its kind for the US since the North American Free Trade Agreement of 1993.
American opponents of a proposed South Korean-US free trade accord on Monday accused the deal of devastating the lives of workers in both countries, while benefiting only big businesses.
Japan has agreed with the Philippines to set an upper limit on the number of Philippine nurses and caregivers -- 400 to 500 annually -- it will accept under a bilateral free trade agreement which is scheduled to be signed by leaders of the two countries on Sept. 9, government sources said Thursday.
An estimated 1.5 million agricultural jobs have been lost since NAFTA went into effect in 1994.
