Currently the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is being renegotiated. Demand a NAFTA that supports good jobs and a safe environment instead of eroding wages and undermining critical environment and health protections.
A new grand coalition in Germany would say good bye to climate protection as demanded by the Paris agreement. It would accept the CETA free trade agreement as is and advance in privatising highways and schools. Unfortunately they would not demand a finance market transaction tax any more, approve the carcinogenic weed killer Glyphosat and continue burning highly pollutant soft coal for electricity. In deed the social democratic party had resolved on its last party convent concerning CETA not to repeal the precautionary principle and to demand a sanction mechanism against violations of work-, social and environmental standards.
Peru entirely bans GMO food and crops. The ban prohibits the import, production and use of genetically modified foods. The law is aimed at safeguarding the country’s agricultural diversity and should prevent cross-pollination with non-GMO crops. Even selling genetically modified food has been prohibited since cross-polination of GMO maize originally imported as food into Mexico has shown that malformed maize appeared at traditional farms.
Besides the newest advance by Peru, Guatemala and El Salvador had abolished the 'Monsanto Law' a few years ago. It was a precondition for the CAFTA free trade agreement and should have forced farmers to buy genetically modified seeds. However the free trade agreement was not that beneficial as a whole. It had raised the price for some medicine prohibitively because of longer patent timeframes, contained investor state dispute settlement clauses and the promised new workplaces were paid too bad in order to make these countries benefit.
It would basically be justified to forbid GMO food just because of the risks to human health; read more: 'Seeds of Deception' from Jeffrey Smith.
The grand coalitioin in Germany does not come up to its previous promises and fails to implement the climate protection goal for 2020; what a shame and what a negative example for all the efforts worldwide!
The new Austrian finance minister Hartwig Löger continues defend tax heavens; read more at Attac Austria.
On January 11st, the Luxembourg Court of Cassation fully recognised that Antoine Deltour’s action as a whistleblower’s has to be appreciated as a whole and thereby cancelled his conviction. This is an undisputable victory!
