ISDS Case Map
US
Lawmakers and corporations have worked hard these past few weeks to cinch a slew of free trade agreements in Congress, eager to repeat the tried-and-true formula of shifting jobs overseas and undermining working conditions at home and abroad. But just as the ink was starting to dry, something got in the way: workers.
US Trade Representative Ron Kirk asked an international commission to investigate Guatemala’s alleged failure to enforce worker protections, the first labor case brought by the US against a trade-accord partner.
In the bilateral game, the US has enormous advantages – its huge market for imports, and its huge willingness to internationalise its supply chain via FDI, offshoring, etc. But it also has the big disadvantages – its agriculture and labour interests.
Recent documents obtained by the National Security Archive at George Washington University from the US Justice Department show that Chiquita Brands International, in direct contradiction of the claims of both Chiquita and the US government for many years, made illegal payments to both guerrilla groups and then AUC death squads over the course of about 14 years in return for security from these groups.
The ruling Grand National Party and the Blue House increasingly raised their voices yesterday to stress that Korea’s legislature should approve the long-pending Korea-U.S. free trade agreement before August.
The White House is threatening to hold up final passage of three coveted free trade agreements unless lawmakers expand retraining assistance for American workers who lose their jobs because of foreign competition.
South Korean civic organization MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society filed an administrative lawsuit against the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT) on May 15, demanding that the ministry make public a letter on professional worker visa quotas that former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Kim Hyun-chong is said to have received from the U.S. administration.
Some of New Zealand's most prominent businesspeople are rallying to the support of drug buying body Pharmac as lobbying firm Saunders Unsworth mounts a campaign against the agency ahead of free trade negotiations with the US.
All eyes are on the new floor leaders of the Grand National Party and Democratic Party, who will lead their parties until the 2012 general election.
The American Farm Bureau Federation supports the proposed US free trade agreements with Korea, Panama and Colombia, while the National Farmers Union is opposed.
