Protecting workers’ rights in trade deals is essential to ensure trade is fair. If trade deals don’t contain effective protections for workers’ rights, they just make it easier for companies to locate themselves in countries where wages are lower and workers are less able to resist…Read more…
Free trade: what would it take to get union backing?
Today I was asked to give a speech at the Foreign Office by Liam Fox, Secretary of State for International Trade, about free trade. This is an edited version of my remarks. The debate over free trade is a timely one, given that those who advocate prote…Read more…
CETA is not dead yet, UNISON warns
With the EU-Canada trade deal in limbo, the union calls for full parliamentary scrutiny of all post-Brexit trade agreeements
The article CETA is not dead yet, UNISON warns first appeared on the…Read more…
Urge your MEPs to halt damaging trade deal with southern Africa
UNISON calls for aaction on trade deals with global South which stress liberalisation and threaten to damage economies and workers’ rights
The article Urge your MEPs to halt damaging trade deal…Read more…
23 June: five key questions on the EU referendum
When you’re considering how to vote in the EU referendum later this month, here are five key points to have in mind
The article 23 June: five key questions on the EU referendum first appeared on the…Read more…
Is neo-liberal globalisation running out of road?
I was inspired recently by an article in the Washington Post, which asked “what’s behind the revolt against global integration?” Partly because the policy prescriptions for getting…Read more…
TTIP negotiations ‘On the wrong course’, say EU and US union leaders
The agreement must not include a private justice system for foreign investors…Read more…
What’s changed about attitudes to free trade?
I’ve already blogged once about the Wilton Park conference I attended recently on the subject of the Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) in terms of the impact of investor…Read more…
Do you know where your next meal is coming from? ‘Free’ traders say you mustn’t!
Just before Christmas, the US Congress caved in to a ruling from the World Trade Organisation (WTO), and agreed that displaying the country of origin of beef and pork products should no longer be required. Canadian and Mexican meat producers (and the U…Read more…
Korea’s broken promises sound alarm over OECD membership & trade agreements
South Korea is often held up as the poster boy for international development. A poverty-stricken country after the war with the North, and ruled by a military dictatorship from 1961 to 1987, it is…Read more…
Congress deals blow to trade deals as US wakes up to worker concerns
Just a couple of years ago, US unions attacking trade deals because they cost jobs and lowered wages were accused of bogus economics, protectionism and worse (they still are in some circles.) Now their views are expressed even by centrist Democrats and…Read more…