Publication archives

Dec 16, 2015

Response to USTR Froman's "Time to be honest, we are at the end of the line on Doha"

Letter to the Financial Times in response to USTR Froman's editorila of December 13, 2015, Time to be honest, we are at the end of the line on Doha.   December 14, 2015 Nairobi, Kenya
Dec 14, 2015

Dumping Responsibility on Third World Farmers Yet Again

On the eve of their Nairobi ministerial, WTO members should remember it is not food procurement policies in developing countries like India but unfair US agricultural subsidies which threaten free trade and farmer livelihoods across the world
Dec 11, 2015

Don't talk about "trade" at the global climate talks

by
Ben Lilliston
Earlier this week, a leaked internal European Union document on climate negotiation priorities (posted by Corporate Observatory Europe) made clear that any global climate deal would not mention trade.
Dec 9, 2015

Senators—Voluntary is not COOL!

by
Shefali Sharma
This week the World Trade Organization (WTO) gave Canada and Mexico the right to impose over a billion dollars’ worth of sanctions per year unless the U.S. Congress repeals a common sense law, Country of Origin-Labeling (COOL) for meat (beef, pork and poultry).
Dec 8, 2015

Mennonites leave Mexico in search of water

by
Dale Wiehoff
News coming out of the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua is most often about narco-traffickers but, in recent weeks, attention has shifted to farmers protesting increased cost of production and shutting down the importation lane at the El Paso and Ciudad Juarez crossing.
Dec 7, 2015

4 things we’re tracking as Paris climate negotiations hit the home stretch

by
Ben Lilliston
Paris - After four years of negotiations, countries from around the world aim to complete a new global climate deal in the next week. A new 48-page draft text was circulated this weekend and there will be a lot of horse-trading and late nights in the coming week. Here are a few of the key issues we’ll be tracking: Can national climate commitments become stronger?
Dec 7, 2015

Understanding the Nature of Peace

by
Juliette Majot
On our way back home from the European Rural Parliament, where people from all over the Continent agreed to a Common Manifesto on the future of rural Europe, we were confronted with a very real human experience.
Dec 4, 2015

The Clever Ambiguity of Climate Smart Agriculture

by
Ben Lilliston
Paris – The term “climate smart agriculture” (CSA) is popping up frequently in the official events of the global climate talks here in Paris. But what climate smart agriculture actually means seems to depend on who’s talking. In fact, the term has entered into an Orwellian space of meaning both everything and nothing simultaneously.