EU pushes for trade agreements with Latin America
18 May 2010
Today European and Latin American heads of state will meet for the EU-Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) Summit. The central theme of the summit is “a new phase of the bi-regional association: innovation and technology for sustainable development and social inclusion”. The fact is that EU members will be wielding their power to complete an Association Agreement with the Central America region and free trade agreements with Colombia and Peru. The so-called Association Agreements are the new face of the free trade agenda that has been pursued by the EU for many years. This can be seen by the Global Agreement signed between Mexico and the EU 10 years ago.
As head of states discuss sustainable development and social inclusion, thousands of small farmers, indigenous people and afro-descendants have been displaced in Colombia to clear tracts of land for bio-fuels production, logging and mining.
Is the EU using the terms innovation and technology to refer to the use of bio-technology, genetically modified organisms and other practices that will only benefit agri-business and increase the number of people going hungry?
The weekend prior to the Summit, hundreds of people met in Madrid for Enlazando Alternativas IV, (the People’s Summit) and the People’s Permanent Tribunal. At the summit over one hundred social movements representing women, small farmers, indigenous communities, trade unions and jobless people from Latin America and Europe provided evidence of the environmental, social and economic damages that have been caused by trade agreements. These agreements have paved the way for multinationals to plunder the Latin America’s human, natural and financial resources. War on Want’s partner CODEMUH denounced the transnational Hanes Brands Incorporated for systematic violation of workers' rights at People’s Tribunal.
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