Trade

Gerard Aziakou, June 24, 2009, Agence France Presse - The UN General Assembly kicks off a three-day high-level conference Wednesday to weigh measures to help the poorest and most vulnerable countries weather the global financial and economic crisis.

Assembly President Miguel D'Escoto Brockmann, the organizer, said the event aimed to "identify emergency and long-term responses to mitigate the impact of the crisis, especially on vulnerable populations.

The conference will also "initiate a needed dialogue on the transformation of the international financial architecture, taking into account the needs and concerns of all member states."

Developing countries, which make up the vast majority of the 192-member assembly, argue that they are paying the price for a crisis that was created by the developed world.

Linda Diebel, Toronto Star, May 01, 2009 – Sewage-filled lagoons at a pig farm in eastern Mexico – a product of the North American free trade deal – are suspected of creating ground zero conditions for swine flu in this country.

Environmentalists argue lax regulations in the factory farming that boomed in Mexico right after the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and the U.S. are making people sick – and not just with swine flu.

"You might call this the `NAFTA flu,'" said Rick Arnold, co-ordinator of Common Frontiers, a Canadian coalition focusing on Latin America and issues of economic integration.

He argues multinationals are getting away with dire conditions not allowed north of the border.

Environmental groups three years ago began protesting against operations at the Carroll Farms in Veracruz, jointly operated by U.S. pork giant Smithfield Farms.

John W. Miller/The Wall Street Journal - At about half speed, fuel consumption drops to 100-150 tons of fuel a day from 350 tons, saving as much as $5,000 an hour. "The strategy now is to slow steam as much as possible," said Christian Hagart, the Eugen's chief officer.

That strategy is a key element in plans by AP Moeller-Maersk AS to cut $1 billion in costs this year, scaling back on everything from fuel to paper napkins. Analysts say the cuts should keep the whole company out of the red in 2009, since Maersk's container unit is expected to lose between $1 billion and $2 billion.

Toronto, ON - On March 26, 2009, the Government of Canada introduced legislation (Bill C23) in the House of Commons that could lead in short order to the implementation of a Canada-Colombia free trade agreement. This move calls into question why this government would be providing legitimacy to what the UN has called the worst humanitarian disaster in the Western hemisphere.

There are now some 4 million displaced people in Colombia mainly due to paramilitary violence. Extra judicial killings by the country’s military have been on the rise in the 2007-2008 time period, with the latest “false positives” scandal implicating members of the armed forces in killing civilians and then dressing them up as guerillas in order to receive a reward.

Click here to write a letter to your MP http://www.commonfrontiers.ca/Single_Page_Docs/SinglePage_1col_docs/Apr0...

Published in SUNS #6676 dated 7 April 2009

Bonn, 5 Apr (Martin Khor*) -- The G20 Summit in London last Thursday was
projected by the organisers and the Western leaders as having agreed to a
US$1.1 trillion package of measures to boost the sagging world economy, and
especially to help developing countries.

The trillion dollar figure was what caught the headlines. But as serious
analysis shows, this figure purporting to be new money was more hype than
reality. Some of it had already been decided long before the Summit, and
some of it reflected only an intention rather than concrete pledges.

As an incisive Financial Times article by Chris Giles commented caustically:
"Figures at the end of any international summit need to be examined closely,
particularly those presented by the UK prime minister. His reputation for
numerical inflation, repeat announcements and double-counting precedes him.

The brief was coordinated by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC) in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and has benefited from collaboration with counterparts in Colombia, including RECALCA and Colombian union colleagues.

Here is a link to the Executive Summary of Making a Bad Situation Worse http://www.ccic.ca/e/docs/making_a_bad_situation_worse.pdf and to the full text of the analysis http://www.ccic.ca/e/docs/making_a_bad_situation_worse_long_version.pdf.

The document is also available in French and in Spanish

En espanol: http://www.ccic.ca/e/docs/making_a_bad_situation_worse_long_version_es.p...

Pour consulter la synthèse du document cliquer ici http://www.ccic.ca/f/docs/making_a_bad_situation_worse.pdf.

Foreign Policy in Focus, March 30, 2009
By Walden Bello

Like an injured German U-Boat, the global economy continues to sink. Columnist Walden Bello asks: Can the G-20 meeting bring it back to the surface before we all perish?

The Group of 20 (G20) is making a big show of getting together to come to grips with the global economic crisis. But here's the problem with the upcoming summit in London on April 2: It's all show. What the show masks is a very deep worry and fear among the global elite that it really doesn't know the direction in which the world economy is heading and the measures needed to stabilize it.

SUNS #6667

Geneva, 24 Mar (Kanaga Raja) -- In what it viewed as the biggest such contraction since the Second World War, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has forecast that exports will decline by roughly 9% in volume terms this year due to the collapse in global demand brought on by the biggest economic downturn in decades.

The contraction in developed countries will be particularly severe with exports falling by 10% this year. In developing countries, exports will shrink by some 2% to 3% in 2009, WTO economists said.

In its annual assessment of global trade, the WTO said that economic contraction in most of the industrial world and steep export declines already posted in the early months of this year by most major economies - particularly those in Asia - makes for an unusually bleak trade assessment for this year.

Inside U.S. Trade

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk has privately cautioned foreign trade officials that the Obama administration will likely not be ready to engage in another Doha round ministerial meeting to try to reach an elusive breakthrough on agriculture and industrial goods until the fall at the earliest, and perhaps not until the end of the year, sources said today (March 30).

World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy had been interested in trying to hold another ministerial meeting this summer, but in light of the U.S. reluctance Geneva negotiators have already shifted their focus to identifying what could be accomplished by the end of the year, sources said.

In addition to the time needed for the new U.S. administration to determine its position in the talks, Kirk has also pointed out that India will hold elections this spring and has argued that it may take time for the new Indian government to get up to speed on the Doha talks, one source said.

Mexico City, March 16 – 18, 2009

At its Third Tri-National Meeting, unions, networks and social movement organizations from the energy sector of Canada, the US and Mexico committed to seeking solutions to the major challenges facing the sector in their respective countries and in the region overall.

The three countries are facing serious problems in their attempt to confront the current global economic crisis affecting North America as well as the other countries of the world: the crisis of the banking system, unemployment, the criminalization of social protest, the destruction of productive forces, deterioration of the environment, the irrational exploitation of energy resources, privatization and the dismantling of social programs and services.