Trade

Free trade is toxic, but Trump’s trade wars aren’t the alternative we need

Dorothy Guerrero writes that hostile trade wars and American protectionism will double down on the damage done by decades of US-driven global free trade policies.

Dodgy trade deals like CETA threaten UK workers

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement enshrines the right of corporations to make profit - whatever the cost to real people. By Jean Blaylock

The government is using the Oxfam scandal to push an anti-aid agenda

The actions of Oxfam officials are horrendous - but gutting foreign aid funding just puts more people at risk, writes Daniel Gibson.

To really take back control, we need to democratise our trade deals

Trade deals effect every area of our lives - from our public services to the water we drink to the air we breathe. Marienna Pope-Weidemann from War on Want argues that we need greater public scrutiny over potentially disastrous post-Brexit trade deals.

‘Brexit red lines’ – the most progressive terms possible for the UK’s exit from the EU

Labour is now opposing toxic trade deals, but what sort of trade do we want? Asks Nick Dearden.

International development and the potential for change beyond capitalism

Finn Smith speaks to Lucia Pradella and Thomas Marois, editors of Polarising Development, a collection of essays exploring the antagonistic structure of capitalist development

Chlorine chickens are just the start: Liam Fox’s Brexit trade free-for-all
A hard-right free marketer is now in charge of our trade policy. We urgently need to develop an alternative vision, writes Nick Dearden

Empire en vogue
Nadine El-Enany examines the imperial pretensions of Britain's post-Brexit foreign affairs and trade strategy

Essay: The death of international development
‘Development’ has failed to deliver. The reason, Jason Hickel argues, is that development organisations have failed to address the structural drivers of poverty

A manifesto for global justice
Ditching development doesn’t mean simply changing language – it’s about radicalising our demands and reassessing old and new political ideas. Nick Dearden makes some suggestions for a global justice manifesto

TTIP: Wheels come off trade deal
The movement is building against TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. John Hilary provides an update from a struggle that might just be going our way

Rough trade: the new corporate power grab
Trade and investment agreements currently being negotiated will mean the biggest corporate power grab in a decade. We need a new global movement to confront them, writes Nick Dearden

Bad deal for bees
After the EU banned pesticides linked to declining bee populations, the companies that make them launched a court case to challenge the ban. Sandra Bell reports

The new scramble for Africa
A host of new initiatives promise food security through ‘investment’. Christine Haigh examines the reality

Capital courts: how corporations can hold governments to ransom
Transnational corporations have won shocking powers to sue sovereign states, writes John Hilary, and they are not shy of using them

Anti-capitalism: alive and well
Ten years ago, the global justice movement burst from the streets of Seattle onto the world's television screens. John Hilary examines the victories and challenges of the last decade

Derailing the WTO
At one level, an unprecedented unity has emerged across the nascent "global justice and solidarity movement" towards the trade talks in Cancun. Conservative trade union organisations like the TUC and its international lobbying body the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) can now agree on a basic platform of demands with radical Southern-based NGOs and social movements of the "Our World is not for Sale" network.

The bluffer’s guide to… The WTO
The WTO? Not another governing body for boxing is it? Nope, it’s the World Trade Organisation. Oooh, that sounds grand. Tell me more. The WTO was set up in 1995 to replace the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (Gatt). Gatt was designed to reduce taxes on imports, but the WTO’s programme has greatly expanded […]

Free trade on a knife edge
Aileen Kwa outlines the issues that could make or break the WTO at Cancun:

NGO launches bid to force EC to open up GATS negotiations
Friends of the Earth has lodged a complaint with the European Commission's Ombudsman in a bid to force the Commission to release documents detailing the European Union's stance in international trade negotiations.