Global Trade

Bush administration officials have been clear in saying that as the war winds down and they begin their campaign to bring political reform to Iraq and the Middle East, a critical step will be opening the region's markets to trade and investment. Read More

WASHINGTON, Apr. 10 (IPS) -- Activists from labor, development, human rights and farm groups are calling on the United States and five Central American countries not to rush a trade agreement that they say is undemocratic and would drive farmers and other vulnerable groups deeper into poverty. Read More

Socialist Vietnam is starting to learn the ways of capitalism as its products enter the global market. Read More

Agricultural workers and their families are being poisoned, rural lands, forests, oceans and waters are devastated, biodiversity is being destroyed, and food is unfit for human consumption. With these words, 140 participants from 17 countries at the First Pesticide Action Network Asia and the Pacific Congress in Manila last week warned the world that industrial agriculture as conducted by transnational corporations is undermining the resources needed to sustain food production. Read More

Ral Carballo, a nearly-blind street vendor in the capital of Costa Rica, is just one of the 4.3 million Central Americans working in the informal economy who have already begun to feel the indirect effects of the war on Iraq. Read More

Maybe it's just a coincidence that the Commerce Department announced decisions in recent days to confer "market-based-economy" status on Bulgaria and Romania, two Eastern European countries that support President Bush's tough stance on Iraq. Read More

Trade unions proliferated in Brazil from 1991 to 2001, but their power did not keep in step, says a report that is fuelling debate now that the nation's president is a man was a unionist himself, former metalworker Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Read More

An international list of chemicals subject to trade controls will expand to include all forms of asbestos, three pesticides, and two forms of lead if recommendations made by a committee of government appointed experts is approved under the Rotterdam Convention. The international treaty requires exporting countries trading in a list of hazardous substances to obtain the prior informed consent of importing countries before proceeding with the trade. Read More

While the world braces for a US war against Iraq, Washington is using its newly inked Free Trade Agreement with Jordan to open sweatshops and secure an ally in the region. Read More

You are invited to attend Fair Trade Activist Trainings with the Sierra Student Coalition & Sierra Club in Florida and New York. Read More