Ei-iE

With World Trade Organisation negotiations stuck in neutral, a group of key WTO countries has launched a separate set of talks aimed at creating an International Services Agreement (ISA).

With World Trade Organisation negotiations stuck in neutral, a group of key WTO countries has launched a separate set of talks aimed at creating an International Services Agreement (ISA).

The two largest of EI’s national affiliates in the UK, the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and the National Union of Teachers (NUT), have strongly reacted against Downing Street's plans to open a further 100 free schools in England from next year onwards.

A group of developing countries is calling on the World Intellectual Property Office (WIPO) to step up efforts to fully implement the Development Agenda adopted in 2007.

Concerns over the secrecy and substance of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations prompted 32 leading American legal scholars to send a letter to the office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) demanding transparency in the process.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is facing a growing backlash in Europe. On 31 May, all three committees of the European Parliament advising the International Trade Committee recommended rejecting the deal.

A group of countries billing themselves as the “Really Good Friends of Services” have agreed to start negotiations on an ambitious new global free trade agreement covering all service sectors. Meeting in Geneva at the end of May, the group agreed in principle to begin talks on a new International...

In joining the WTO, Russia had to modify nearly 300 pieces of legislation to conform with international trade rules, and agreed to lower tariffs across a number of industrial sectors and to reduce agricultural subsidies on dairy products and cereals.

A public spate broke out between WTO Director General Pascal Lamy and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Olivier de Schutter, during the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference in December.

The 8th World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference concluded on December 17th after 3 days of high level meetings exposed deepening divisions between developed and developing nations.

EI’s UK affiliates, the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), have deplored the fact that the Education Secretary, Michael Gove, is pushing ahead with plans to have schools taken over by outside sponsors and removed from the control of the...

The 8th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) was held in Geneva, Switzerland, from 15-17 December. EI joined the international trade union movement in warning of growing social unrest, rising inequality, and increased hardship if trade liberalisation continues in its current form.

The final communiqué of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Financial Committee has taken heed of warnings from Global Unions to acknowledge that ‘the global economy has entered a dangerous phase’ and support calls for ‘bold action from members and the IMF’.

With a biannual meeting of the world’s trade ministers set for December in Geneva, negotiations to liberalise global trade show little sign of progress.

A new report commissioned for the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) and the Austrian Federal Chamber of Labour says the European Union is weakening protections for public services like education in current trade negotiations with Canada.

In its annual trade report released in September, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development sharply criticised those developed countries that have adopted austerity measures.

EI has endorsed the Global Unions statement for the 2011 annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, to be held in Washington, USA, from 25-26 September.