US Trade Rep doesn't know what "transparent" or "lobbyist" means
The US Trade Representative claims that the Trans-Pacific Partnership, closed-door copyright treaty being negotiated in even greater secrecy than the notorious ACTA, is "transparent." Actually, he...
View ArticleSOPA IS BACK: Lamar Smith trying to quietly revive SOPA and cram it down the...
It's not just ACTA that is being snuck back into law through undemocratic means. Lamar Smith, the powerful committee chairman and corporatist archvillain who tried to ram through SOPA last year is now...
View ArticleWhat's wrong with TPP, the son of ACTA
The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Carolina Rossini has a very good editorial explaining what's wrong with the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secret trade treaty with punishing copyright provisions...
View ArticleSouth Korea lives in the future (of brutal copyright enforcement)
The US-Korean Free Trade Agreement came with a raft of draconian enforcement rules that Korea -- then known as a world leader in network use and literacy -- would have to adopt. Korea has since become...
View ArticleHerring Wars: Attack of the Faroe Islands
Herring travel in schools billions of fish strong and, thanks the outsized role they've played in North American and European culture, they've been called the most influential fish in history. Now,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Prominent politicians and negotiators in poor countries speak out against TPP
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a sweeping, secret global treaty that sets out many corporatist policies by which countries surrender their national interest and sovereignty in favor of corporations,...
View ArticleCanada and South Korea manage a free trade agreement without crazy copyright...
Michael Geist writes, "Canada and South Korea announced agreement on a comprehensive trade agreement earlier today. The focus is understandably on tariff issues, but the agreement also contains a full...
View ArticleTech companies to Senate Finance Committee chair Wyden: no Fast Track for TPP!
More than 25 tech companies -- including Happy Mutants, LLC, Boing Boing's parent company -- have signed onto a letter asking Senator Ron Wyden (chairman of the Senate Finance Committee) to oppose...
View ArticleClik here to view.
US trade rep demands end to other nations' healthcare, privacy rules, food...
Public Citizen analyzes the new Obama 2014 National Trade Estimate Report, in which the US Trade Rep demands that: Japan abolish its privacy rules and its requirement that food be labelled with its...
View ArticleCanada's anti-counterfeiting bill stalled by US demand for removal of...
Michael Geist writes, "Last year, the Canadian government trumpeted anti-counterfeiting legislation as a key priority. The bill raced through the legislative process in the winter and following some...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Stephen Harper sells Canada: China can secretly sue to repeal Canadian laws
Under the terms of the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement, approved by PM Harper on Friday, China can sue Canada in secret tribunals to repeal national and provincial...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sandwars: the mafias whose illegal sand mines make whole islands vanish
Singapore's insatiable appetite for sand to use to expand its island's territory has led to a worldwide boom in illegal sand-mining, run by criminal gangs who are responsible for the destruction of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
TPP leak: states give companies the right to repeal nations' laws
A new Wikileaks-published leak from the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty reveals a January 2015 draft "Investment Chapter" of the agreement, where the investor-state dispute settlement...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Former IMF chief economist on the problems with TPP
Tim Harford writes, "Simon Johnson is a fascinating character, former chief economist of the IMF and now scourge of bankers and lobbyists everywhere." (more…)
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rare look at how big business defends "Investor State Dispute Settlements"
ISDSes are the most controversial element of secret trade deals like TPP and TTIP: they let giant international corporations sue countries to repeal environmental, safety and labor laws that interfere...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Wikileaks: NSA spied on UN Secretary General and world leaders over climate...
In less than an hour, Wikileaks will publish a set of TOP-SECRET/COMINT-GAMMA documents -- "the most highly classified documents ever published by a media organization" -- that document NSA spying on...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The U.S. just labeled Switzerland an internet piracy haven
Switzerland is a haven for internet piracy, the Obama Administration's global trade rep says. The European nation famous for Swiss Alps, Swiss Cheese, Fondue, and being a long-term U.S. political ally...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Greenpeace dumps TTIP documents that show USA arm-twisting the EU
Greenpeace has handed newspapers 240 pages of current negotiating documents from the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a secretly conducted trade deal between the USA and the EU,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Chinese state-backed corporations beat US lawsuits with sovereign immunity
Sovereign immunity prevents one government from using its courts to attack another, but Chinese state-backed industries are taking it to new places, arguing that sovereign immunity means that the US...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Brigadier General: TPP is a threat to America's national security
Retired Brigadier General John Adams served for 30 years, including a stint as a military intelligence officer: in an op-ed in The Hill, he says that while he supports trade deals, the secretive Trans...
View ArticleClik here to view.
ShipMap generates gorgeous maps of global shipping routes
Here's a fun interactive map of global shipping. ShipMap allows users to selected color coding for ship types: container, dry bulk, tanker, gas bulk, and vehicles. It even lets you select animated...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Rich-world agricultural subsidies ensure coca leaves are Colombia's only...
With the shambolic FARC peace deal finally in place, the Colombian government is hoping to shift the country's farmers from Colombia's major cash crop: the coca leaves that are refined into the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Canada stripped the TPP of its terrible IP proposals: will the US seek...
It's been nearly a year since Trump killed the Trans Pacific Partnership by pulling the US out of it; last week, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that Canada and the other TPP...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trade negotiators are increasingly unwilling to entertain "corporate...
One of the most repugnant features of international trade agreements, from TPP to TTIP to CETA, is the "Investor State Dispute Settlement" (ISDS) clause, which gives corporations the power to sue...
View ArticleTrump to 'impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from...
China, Mexico -- He's gonna wreck the economy one way or another. President Trump tweeted today: On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from...
View ArticleTrump's trade war cost the world $2t, wiping 6% off the global one percent's...
Trump's trade war has reduced the world's net worth by $2 trillion ($1.5 trillion of which came off the balance sheets of the 1%), with losses most deeply felt in China and Europe; North and South...
View ArticleTrump imposes metal tariffs on Brazil and Argentina
Acting United States President Donald J. Trump just imposed some new metal tariffs against the South American nations of Brazil and Argentina. Trump told reporters that currency weakness in both...
View Article
