September 4, 2019: International peasant’s Movement, La Via Campesina, has called for an International Day of Struggle against the WTO and Free Trade Agreements on September 10. The event marks the anniversary of the death of South Korean farmer and activist Lee Kyung Hae, who took his own life at the WTO ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico in 2003.
September 2, 2019: AFTINET has joined with the ACTU, APHEDA and other Union and community groups to stand in solidarity with workers’ and pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong.
August 28, 2019: The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has called on the Government to delay ratification of the recently signed trade and investment agreements with Hong Kong until concerns about human rights abuses against pro-democracy protesters have been resolved.
August 27, 2019: European Union leaders have threatened to block the ratification of the recently signed trade deal between the EU and the Mercosur countries of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay in response to Brazil’s handling of the Amazon forest fires.
August 26, 2019: Indonesian civil society groups protested against the RCEP trade agreement last Friday, arguing that the agreement promotes corporate rights over people’s rights. The protest coincided with intersessional RCEP negotiations that took place in Jakarta from 23-25 August.
August 22, 2019: The Canadian government has been ordered to pay US$7 million plus compound interest from 2007 to US concrete company Bilcon, which sued the government using ISDS in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
August 19, 2019: The Financial Times is reporting that a future UK Labour government could face a flood of ISDS claims if it were to attempt to nationalise utility services. The report comes after the Labour Party announced its plan to nationalise the energy grid and other unities if it were elected in the next general election, and warned that compensation could be below market value.
August 14, 2019: a new 16-minute video by UK organisations Global Justice Now and War on Want documents the threat that ISDS is posing to democratic protest in Armenia.
August 13, 2019: In a submission to the UNCITRAL review of investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS), ClientEarth, an environmental law organisation, has detailed the threat that ISDS poses to action on climate change.