NO to the EU - Colombia/Peru Free Trade Agreement

27 April 2012

Call on your MEP to oppose EU's proposed Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, Peru and Central America because they will undermine human rights, increase unemployment and put corporate profits above human needs.

TNI is working with a coalition of organizations to oppose the ratification of Free Trade Agreements with Colombia, Peru and Central America for the following principal reasons:

The substantial differences in the economies and living standards between Europe and Central America, Colombia and Peru will mean that the EU, can impose conditions beneficial to their own interests, by imposing regulations that restrict the policy space for countries to define their own development model.
These agreements will further entrench the role of Latin American countries as providers of raw materials for export, with serious consequences, including environmental and social factors that have not been taken into account.
These agreements place emphasis on the protection of privileges for business at the expense of human rights, which means that the provisions contained in the agreements on human rights are inadequate and have little chance of being implemented.
European citizens have been misinformed about the development of these negotiations and we have not been consulted about whether this is the kind of business relationship we are interested in developing with these countries.

Join our campaign to tell our European parliamentary representatives: ‘In my name, don’t ratify’.

Recent publications from Trade & Investment

The right to say no As European Union (EU) member states consider the implications of environmentally risky shale gas development (fracking), negotiations are underway for a controversial EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which would grant investors the right to challenge governments’ decision to ban and regulate fracking.	The EU trade and Investment Agenda: quashing the aspirations of the Arab Spring? The EU's launch of negotiations for Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreements (DCFTAs) with four Arab countries in transition – Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia - looks set to entrench an economic model that was one of the root causes of the Arab Spring.
Balancing Trade and Aid Balancing Trade and Aid With the arrival of the Rutte II cabinet, a wish of the members of the Fair, Green and Global Alliance (FGG) has come true; trade and global development are under the supervision of the same minister.	Intra-EU Bilateral Investment Treaties Corporations in Western Europe are suing Central and Eastern European countries at international arbitration tribunals through a vast web of intra-EU Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). Yet while the European Commission has questioned the validity of these BITs, Netherlands, Germany, and the UK, oppose their termination.