Our work on trade and investment revolves around local, national and international campaigns on free-trade and investment negotiations and agreements. A new wave of free trade agreements and investment treaties are shaping and influencing the direction of Asia’s developing economies in a way that has led to the erosion of rights, livelihoods and natural environments of local communities in rural and urban areas, contributing to the further marginalization of already marginalized farmers, workers, urban poor, indigenous peoples, women and children. Central to our trade and investment campaigning has been our work on the World Trade Organization (WTO), the progress of which has stalled, largely as a result of strong civil society opposition. We coordinate the EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network, a regional network that monitors negotiations on free trade agreements between the EU and ASEAN member states, as well as global and regional trade and investment policies. We provide analyses of bilateral investment treaties, other free-trade agreements, Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) provisions to social movements, civil society organisations, parliamentarians, unions and the press in the region. We monitor the impacts of trade and investment on agriculture, manufacturing, essential services, finance and the environment in India, the Mekong region and the Philippines. We are also working with international campaigns to demand greater accountability from corporations and international financial institutions (IFIs) through the Global Campaign to Dismantle Corporate Power, the NGO Forum on ADB, the Asian Peoples’ Safeguards and International Planning Committee.
Work
- Critiquing, opposing BITs, TPP, RCEP, new generation FTAs, and GFIs
- Challenging corporate-led growth, resource extraction, labor exploitation
- Advocating for citizens’ needs first, public participation in trade negotiations
