Accounting for 23 percent of GDP worldwide, the United States has dominated the global economy for over 70 years. However, the US attitude towards trade policy has changed significantly since the new administration took office. President Donald Trump has removed the United States from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), slowed the progress of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and called into question the benefits of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
With these notable changes in policies, the United States is no longer situated at the forefront of international trade, and in its absence the European Union has stepped in.
If you've been campaigning against TTIP and CETA get ready for JEFTA - the upcoming EU trade deal with Japan. But this time, there may be a twist as JEFT...
Das Handelsabkommen CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) zwischen der EU und Kanada landet nun doch noch vor den EU-Richtern. Belgien werde den Europäischen Gerichtshof (EuGH) in Luxemburg ersuchen zu entscheiden, ob der in CETA geschaffene Investitionsgerichtshof (ICS) EU-Recht widerspricht, teilte Attac Österreich am Mittwoch mit.
Handel: CETA, TTIP, TiSA, JEFTA & Co.
„Panikmache“, „Desinformation“, „Anti-Amerikanismus“: Als Konzernlobbyisten die Argumente gegen die Kritik an TTIP und CETA ausgingen, versuchten einige von ihnen, die handelskritische Bewegung mit anderen Mitteln zu diskreditieren. Das zeigt unser neuer Bericht „Blaming the Messenger“, den wir gemeinsam mit unserer Partnerorganisation Corporate Europe Observatory veröffentlicht haben. Bei den Diffamierungen machten Lobbyisten vor dreisten, unhaltbaren Unterstellungen, wie etwa der Finanzierung der Bewegung durch Russland, nicht halt. Andere Vorwürfe lauteten, die zivilgesellschaftlichen Akteure seien „Anti-Amerikanisch“, verfolgten finanzielle Interessen oder betrieben das Geschäft von Populisten und Nationalisten. Besorgniserrend: Die EU-Kommission übernahm teilweise den Ton der Konzernlobbyisten.
Poland is threatening to block a part of the EU’s trade deal with Canada because of its concerns over a planned mechanism for resolving disputes between governments and multinational companies.
Einer NGO-Analyse zufolge könnte das EU-Japan-Handelsabkommen den Einfluss von Lobbyisten auf die Politik stärken – durch so genannte regulatorische Kooperation.
Headlines on both sides of the Atlantic trumpet daily hysteria about Trump’s “trade war.” When President Trump imposed tariffs on European steel, here in Berlin the mainstream media reacted as if it were a declaration of all-out war. Trump’s open break with the other G7 leaders and talk of new tariffs on automobiles fueled the fire.European business, political and media elites are perplexed about how the U.S. president can demolish the “rules-based global trade system” that the United States and Europe jointly built over the last 50 years – a system that served them so well. | By Jürgen Maier
Am Dienstag hatten Demokraten des linken Flügels im Senat gegen eine Verhandlungsvollmacht des Präsidenten gestimmt. Überraschend schnell gelang ein Kompromiss.
Dieser verantwortungsbewusstere Ansatz berücksichtigt im Einklang mit der Außenpolitik der EU neue wirtschaftliche Gegebenheiten. Gestützt auf drei Grundprinzipien – Wirksamkeit, Transparenz und Werte –, und sorgt diese Strategie dafür, dass die Handelspolitik möglichst vielen Menschen zugute kommt
Business Week 27 April
Angela Merkel did not rule out the possibility of a future free trade area between the EU and Russia. She also assured that the agreements of the EU with
In sum the draft confirms the will to impose greater regulatory "convergence" and "harmonization" of future regulations between the EU and the US in the only interest of transnational corporations and the financial industry. The vagueness of the draft would allow the Commission great freedom to achieve this. Social, labour and environmental rights in both sides of the Atlantic are under fire.
30.000 Menschen haben sich am vergangenen Samstag unter dem Motto "Wir haben es satt!" auf dem Potsdamer Platz in Berlin versammelt und anschließend im Regierungsviertel für eine Agrarwende und gegen das geplante Freihandelsabkommen EU-USA (TTIP) demonstriert. Denn die Große Koalition fährt die Agrarpolitik an die Wand. Wer Megaställe genehmigt und subventioniert, wer auf Export und Freihandel setzt und dann auch noch darüber nachdenkt, Gentech-Pflanzen auf Europas Äckern zuzulassen, der lässt die Bäuerinnen und Bauern im Stich und handelt gegen Verbraucher_innen und Umwelt. Am Samstag haben wir gesehen, wie schnell die Bewegung für eine sozialökologische Agrarwende wächst. Das ist gut so – und auch notwendig: Noch 2014 müssen wir TTIP verhindern!
There is a ruler — Jeff Bezos, even though he has stepped down as CEO — and there are lesser officials, not just senior vice presidents but fulfillment center managers, human resources employees, and the heads of Amazon’s delivery service partners, which, while legally separate entities, pop up in Amazon’s wake and often exist solely to carry out its delivery needs, the separation so fictitious that many of their drivers wear Amazon-branded uniforms and drive Amazon-branded vans.
BBC / Jorn Madslien 6 jun 2011 "Corruption in the arms trade contributes roughly 40% to all corruption in global transactions," the think tank said in its 2011 yearbook. The problem could be tackled by a global arms trade treaty, Sipri said The industry's "deep and abiding link to matters of national security obscures many deals from oversight and accountability", according to yearbook authors Andrew Feinstein, Paul Holden and Barnaby Pace.
(Bloomberg) -- President Joe Biden has selected Celeste Drake, a longtime trade expert from AFL-CIO, to be the first director of his initiative to steer more federal dollars to U.S. manufacturers and producers, an administration official said.
"The biggest Brazilian investor in Africa - and one of the biggest investors in the continent from anywhere - is Companhia Vale do Rio Doce, which is usually known as Vale. It is one of the three biggest mining companies in the world and is the world's biggest iron ore miner, controlling about 27% of the global market. It also produces coal, nickel, copper, bauxite, alumina, aluminium and a wide range of other commodities. As a result of the needs of its mining operations, it also invests heavily in power plants, railways and port infrastructure. Vale currently has investments totalling $7.7bn in nine African countries and plans to invest more than $18bn in Africa over the next five years but much will depend on the direction of global markets over that time." "The firm's biggest investment, however, is its Moatize coal mining project in the Moatize Basin of Tete Province in northwestern Mozambique."
Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations have become the territory where a brewing perfect storm over investor-state dispute resolution (ISDR) is making landfall. The June 2012 leak of the draft TPP Investment Chapter text added energy, but much more is fueling this tempest.
For the first time in centuries China has overtaken the US as the world’s biggest trading nation, with total trade standing at $4.16 trillion in 2013. The world's second-largest economy has raised its exports by 7.9 percent to $2.21 trillion, while imports increased by 7.3 percent to $1.95 trillion, bringing the total trade to $4.16 trillion, up 7.6 percent from 2012, according to the Financial Times.
European Trade Commissioner, Cecilia Malmström has made a bad choice in appointing Jan Eric Frydman as Special Adviser on EU-US Trade Policy. Frydman, whose ongoing work for Swedish law firm Ekenberg & Andersson creates potential conflicts of interest, has a strong pro-ISDS background and a tricky revolving door history. He's part of the problem, not the solution.
Ein Paradebeispiel für solche Geschäfte ist der Verkauf von 170 Panzern, die Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) bis vor kurzem an die Griechen lieferte. Dafür sollte das Unternehmen 1,7 Milliarden Euro erhalten. Bei solchen Deals fließen in der Regel Millionen für Beratungsleistungen. Was genau da beraten wird und warum die Firmen meist in Steueroasen sitzen, wird selten bekannt. Die geheimen Firmen gehören in der Regel griechischen "Vermittlern" - oft honorige Industrielle. Die, so besteht häufig der Verdacht, verteilen dann die Gelder an Entscheidungsträger.
Proposed negotiations on e-commerce in the WTO are inconvenient for developing countries, for our SMEs and for people in general. by Sally Burch, dec 2017
BRUSSELS, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Transparency campaigners have hauled the European Union's executive to court for withholding documents about free trade talks with India, intensifying pressure on the bloc to make its policy-making less secretive. The lawsuit, lodged with the EU's second-highest court on Tuesday, accuses the EU Commission of breaking transparency and democracy rules by refusing to disclose to campaigners details of plans shared with EU industry on how to open Indian markets.
"About 6,200 German companies are engaged in Russia, some of them very strongly," Anton Boerner, head of the BGA exporters' body, told the Dortmunder Ruhr Nachrichten newspaper in an interview published on Friday. "For them, economic sanctions would be a real catastrophe." Germany's "wise men" council of economic advisers said on Thursday the Ukraine crisis was the biggest threat to global growth, and especially Germany, because of Russia's importance of an energy exporter. The BGA said last week that while a trade conflict would be damaging for Germany, "for the Russian economy it would be life-threatening." Bilateral trade with Russia, which totals about 76 billion euros, fell last year.
BRUSSELS (AFP) – A long-awaited trade deal between the European Union and the United States could be in jeopardy over allegations that Washington bugged EU offices, European Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding warned.
more than 93% of the Commission’s meetings with stakeholders during the preparations of the negotiations were with big business. The list of meetings reveals that, in addition to the civil society dialogue meetings reported on the DG Trade website, there is a parallel world of a very large number of intimate meetings with big business lobbyists behind closed doors - and these are not disclosed online.
the Trade and Development Report 2013 argues that export-led strategies – mainstay policies for countries such as China, South Korea and, to a lesser extent, South Africa – are no longer viable. Instead, more balanced strategies, geared towards generating a greater role for domestic and regional demand, should be pursued.
U.S. corporations have launched an alarming new offensive against Canadian health and environmental policies under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Three U.S. firms recently announced plans to use the “trade” pact to seek nearly one billion taxpayer dollars...
Marietje Shaake: "I am the spokesperson for the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) on TTIP. This FAQ will answer the main questions and sets out my priorities for TTIP. Please check out this page regularly as I will update it as the process evolves. I will also use this page to ask for your input and ideas, whether it’s on public procurement, foreign direct investment (FDI) protection, Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs), quality of beef or the convergence of technical standards for new IT devices or cars, etc."
Die Gesamtausfuhr 2010 erreichte inklusive des Exports von gebrauchten Bundeswehrkriegswaffen mit 2,119 Milliarden Euro einen historischen Höchstwert! Das angesehene internationale Friedensforschungsinstitut in Stockholm (SIPRI) hatte bereits im Juni Deutschland wieder auf Platz drei in der Weltrangliste der Rüstungsexporteure platziert. Seit 2005 hält Deutschland laut SIPRI den zweifelhaften (west-)europäischen Spitzenplatz beim Rüstungsexport. Im Jahrfünft von 2006 bis 2010 verdoppelte Deutschland seinen Kriegswaffenausfuhrwert gegenüber dem Jahrfünft davor. Es führte in den letzten fünf Jahren beinahe so viele Rüstungsgüter aus wie Frankreich und Großbritannien zusammen.
Euractiv Dec 2, 2022: The Bundestag has officially ratified the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), which has been under provisional application since 2017.
Only after the adoption of all EU member states can the agreement come fully into force, including provisions on investment protection, which proved controversial in the past.
“11 countries are still missing,” said Verena Hubertz, vice-chairman of the Bundestag group of Germany’s leading governing party SPD. “But we’re optimistic, now that we’re leading the way, that others will follow quickly,” she said.
Der chinesische Export erreicht immer neue Rekordmarken und läßt nun den deutschen weit hinter sich. Dabei hat sich Chinas Anteil an der Weltindustrieproduktion seit 1996 von unter 5 % auf über 20 % mehr als vervierfacht und ist an den USA vorbei auf die Weltspitzenposition vorgerückt. Industriproduktion in 2012 in Mrd US$: USA 2064: CHINA 2168. Exporte von Industriegütern in die EU in Mrd € (2011) : aus Deutschland 312; aus China 294.
With the help of governments and their intelligence agencies, the global arms trade continues to be a controlling and corrupting force throughout the world.
Alice Marwick, New York Review of Books Jan 2014 Here I will discuss two things: the involuntary, or passive, collecting of data by private corporations; and the voluntary, or active, collection and aggregation of their own personal data by individuals. While I think it is the former that we should be more concerned with, the latter poses the question of whether it is possible for us to take full advantage of social media without playing into larger corporate interests.
By jking on Jul 24, 2013 "The @WalmartLabs team has been busy delivering the next generation of commerce combining online, mobile and stores to let customers shop when, where and how they want. To do this, we are focused on being one of the top technology companies in the Silicon Valley and the world, and we are expanding our very gifted team to continue creating best-in-class e-commerce technologies."
SK matkasi neljä päivää rahtilaivalla, joka kuljetti terästä Torniosta Hollannin Terneuzeniin. Kriisioloissa Suomen lipun alla ajavat laivat riittävät vain elintärkeisiin kuljetuksiin.
huoltovarmuus 10.11.2022
Saari nimeltä Suomi
SK matkasi neljä päivää rahtilaivalla, joka kuljetti terästä Torniosta Hollannin Terneuzeniin. Kriisioloissa Suomen lipun alla ajavat laivat riittävät vain elintärkeisiin kuljetuksiin.
Teksti
Petri Pöntinen
Intellect is the trade association for the UK hi-tech industry. Our members comprise organisations both large and small from the UK's information technology, telecommunications and electronics sectors. Intellect is the body UK hi-tech companies must be
Anna MacDonald of Control Arms speaks at the start of the ceremony for the signing of the Arms Trade Treaty at United Nations headquarters in New York, Jun. 3, 2013
It is no surprise that South Africa, after a careful review of investment treaties, has decided that, at the very least, they should be renegotiated. Doing so is not anti-investment; it is pro-development. And it is essential if South Africa’s government is to pursue policies that best serve the country’s economy and citizens.
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI) has obtained from Wikileaks a complete copy of the consolidated negotiating text for the IP Chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). (Copy here, and on the Wikileaks site here: https://wikileaks.org/tpp/) The leaked text was distributed among the Chief Negotiators by the USTR after the 19th Round of Negotiations at Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei, in August 27th, 2013.
YLE/Jaana Kivi 15.11.2013 " Monikansallisten yritysten toimitusjohtajat on koottu neuvottelemaan siitä, kuinka he parhaiten voivat edistää omaa toimintaansa - Marko Juutinen, Attac
EurActiv 10 janvier 2014 Lors d'un débat au Sénat, l'ensemble des partis a émis de vives critiques à l'encontre du Partenariat Transatlantique en négociation avec les Etats-Unis. La ministre en charge du Commerce extérieure, Nicole Bricq, le souligne non sans dépit. C'est surtout en France que l'on constate une mobilisation sur ce que les français appellent le « traité » transatlantique. Chevènement: "On ne peut pas parler de libre-échange lors les parités passent de 1 à 2 entre l'euro et le dollar en l'espace d'une décennie seulement " Marie-Noëlle Lienemann, sénatrice PS: "« Je suis très hostile à ce traité » a d’emblée prévenu l’ex-député européenne. « Force est de constater que la mondialisation heureuse n'a pas eu lieu ! Nous sommes dans une logique où les firmes multinationales ne sont pas dans une situation que nous pouvons réguler a-t-elle indiqué.
Patrice Bouveret, citerad i Philippe Lemayres artikel i LMD o: "De fait, les auteurs du traité restent au milieu du gué en focalisant sur les trafics illicites plutôt qu’en limitant fortement le commerce “légal”, répondant ainsi au souhait des principaux Etats exportateurs, pour qui, l’objectif prioritaire était de limiter la concurrence déloyale, en imposant une réglementation plus stricte aux concurrents du Sud, d’Europe de l’Est et d’Asie. Mais certainement pas de diminuer leurs flux d’armes colossaux qui contribuent à alimenter les conflits et l’instabilité croissante de nos sociétés. De même, l’absence de référence, dans les critères d’évaluation avant tout transfert, au développement des droits économiques et sociaux que cet achat d’arme viendrait contrecarrer, est une grave entorse à cette “règle d’or” exigée par la coalition “Contrôlez les armes”. Et sur plusieurs autres points — comme, par exemple, l’absence d’obligation de transparence ou l’exclusion des accords de coopération entre deux Etats du champ d’application —, le traité n’est pas à la hauteur des enjeux."
Wilkerson: "Let's make it a commercial empire and let's maintain that empire in terms of commerce and not in terms of killing people, killing people for oil or killing people for human rights. I think both are just as bad as the other..."
Few people know that the European member states taken as a whole is one of the biggest arms exporters in the world. On the international stage Europe likes to present itself as a continent that stands for democracy and peace, but this façade does not correspond to reality.
Did you know that the EU wants to allocate more than 40 billion euros to the research, development and procurement of new arms? That the arms industry is trying to hijack the European Defence policy? Read all about it on this page.
When he isn’t spewing insults, the Republican frontrunner is hammering home a powerful message about free trade and its victims
Trump’s words articulate the populist backlash against liberalism that has been building slowly for decades and may very well occupy the White House itself, whereupon the entire world will be required to take seriously its demented ideas
" “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure,” he said. One of the world’s largest dealers of petroleum coke is the Oxbow Corporation, which sells about 11 million tons of fuel-grade coke a year. It is owned by William I. Koch, a brother of David and Charles. Lorne Stockman, who recently published a study on petroleum coke for the environmental group Oil Change International, says, “It’s really the dirtiest residue from the dirtiest oil on earth,” he said. "
Tom Mulcair is urging traditional NDP allies to wait until they see the fine print of a Canada-European Union free trade deal before assuming it's unacceptable or that he's sold out.
The Oiseaux Sisters are two mixed-media artists whose work incorporates humor, movement and metaphor. The materials they use include paper, tin, clay, cloth, carved and painted wood, and found objects. They have created a series of figurative, often biogr
My name is Kyle MacDonald and I traded one red paperclip for a house. I started with one red paperclip on July 12 2005 and 14 trades later, on July 12, 2006 I will trade with the Town of Kipling Saskatchewan for a house located at 503 Main Street. Feel fr
World trade growth has not returned to its pre-crisis rate; it fell to just 2% in 2012, and Unctad points out that imports to developed regions, including the US and Europe, are still below 2007 levels. It suggests this downward trend "highlights the vulnerabilities developing countries continue to face at a time of lacklustre growth in developed countries".
2014-06-19 Today, WikiLeaks released the secret draft text for the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Financial Services Annex, which covers 50 countries and 68.2%1 of world trade in services. The US and the EU are the main proponents of the agreement, and the authors of most joint changes, which also covers cross-border data flow. In a significant anti-transparency manoeuvre by the parties, the draft has been classified to keep it secret not just during the negotiations but for five years after the TISA enters into force.
The WTO and the Global War System Susan George Mark Ritchie Alice Slater Steven Staples November 28, 1999 Hildebrand Hall, Plymouth Congregational Church Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. Forum proceedings edited by Estelle Taylor Northwest Disarmament Coalition "Globalization is creating a three-track society in which there will be the exploiters, the exploited and the outcasts, the people who are not even worth exploiting. "
DN 2014-02-21 Vi i Sverige producerar numera bara hälften av det vi äter. Höga krav på miljö förväntas kombineras med global frihandel, samtidigt som jordbruksstöden kritiseras. Vi måste tänka om och ta ansvar för vår del av matproduktionen på en jord som ska försörja allt fler, skriver tre forskare på SLU.Anders Wästfelt, docent i kulturgeografi, SLU och Stockholms universitet Camilla Eriksson, fil dr i landsbygdsutveckling, SLU Erik Westholm, professor i landsbygdsutveckling, SLU