Unite has backed the growing number of Conservative voices speaking out against the Government’s Trade Union Bill and planned changes to party funding. Concerns were expressed by members of…Read more…
Battling to save Europe’s steel and manufacturing industries from China’s unfair trade
The TUC and many others – unions in Britain and across Europe and manufacturing employers – are battling to defend jobs in Europe from unfair competition from China. The impact of underpriced steel flooding the UK market is well-known, but if the EU grants China ‘Market Economy…Read more…
Trans-Pacific Partnership good for workers? The big lie
As the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, passes its final round of negotiations, the White House is going all out to portray the deal as a great gain for working people. US unions don’t agree, and they’ll be fighting the new generation trade deal between twelve countries around the…Read more…
Global teacher unions oppose neo-liberal trade & investment agreements
At this week’s Education International (EI) World Congress in Canada, education unions around the globe voted to oppose the new wave of trade and investment agreements that are being negotiated…Read more…
ISDS: we won’t be fooled by a rebranding
Yesterday, Brussels was full of rumours that the European Commission had finally found a way to respond to the massive backlash generated by its proposal for a special court for US investors: a simple rebranding should do the trick. Currently known as …Read more…
ISDS-lite could yet scupper the EU-Canada trade deal
The TUC is no fan of the revised Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) process that EU Trade Commissioner Malmstrom has persuaded the European Parliament to back in the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) deal between the EU and US…Read more…
#TTIP news: 10 reasons why the latest #ISDS compromise is a bad deal
Yesterday the Socialists & Democrats Group in the European Parliament voted 56-34 to endorse a compromise amendment to the Parliament’s draft resolution on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP, the EU-US trade deal), covering the controversial issue of Investor-State…Read more…
Kicking the trade agreements can down the road
Trade deals are stalled due to popular pressure In both the European Parliament and Congress. What’s going on? When the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations were launched in 2013, veteran Tory politician Ken Clarke MP was at his most avuncular when he said that…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…
‘Fast track’ defeated – for now! US unions at forefront of campaign
The legislation President Obama needs so that he can drive through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement being negotiated by the US and twelve Pacific Rim countries is stalled –…Read more…
Why diet-ISDS is almost as bad as ISDS, and why we should oppose both
The popular outcry against Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), the element of trade deals which gives foreign investors a privileged route to claim compensation for measures they claim cost them future profits, led the European Union Trade Commissioner to come up earlier this month with an…Read more…
Where is the UK Parliament on the EU-US trade agreement?
This soon after a General Election, the short answer is that we don’t know. The Conservative majority, narrow though it is, suggests that the new House of Commons is more likely to support EU trade deals like the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the US and the…Read more…
TTIP – after US Senate blow, European Parliament is next up
The shock decision by the US Senate on Tuesday not to deliver ‘Trade Promotion Authority’ to the President for negotiating a trans-Pacific trade deal dealt a serious blow to the EU-US Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that is currently being negotiated. It now seems…Read more…
US Senate blow to Pacific trade deal means TTIP is in trouble
The US Senate decision last night to withhold fast-track ‘Trade Promotion Authority’ for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a blow also to the EU-US Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP), and it demonstrates that opposition to TTIP is not a solely European…Read more…
Who’s really in favour of #ISDS?
The investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provisions in the proposed trade deal between the EU and the USA (TTIP) are the most controversial part of the deal. And they appear in all new trade negotiations, like the one between the EU and Canada (CET…Read more…
CBI on TTIP: a policy based on faith and avoiding their critics
The CBI’s top leaders were in Brussels today along with the Prime Minister to help him put ‘rocket boosters’ under the increasingly unpopular Transatlantic Trade & Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the USA. They gathered a range of business organisations across…Read more…