[Ip-health] Fighting FTAs: new publication and website launched

[GRAIN LB]

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Press release | 7 February 2008

*FIGHTING FTAS: NEW PUBLICATION AND WEBSITE ON RESISTANCE TO BILATERAL
FREE TRADE AND INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS LAUNCHED*

bilaterals.org, GRAIN and BIOTHAI are today launching a collaborative
publication, "Fighting FTAs: The growing resistance to bilateral free
trade and investment agreements". While global trade talks at the World
Trade Organisation (WTO) stagnate, governments and corporations are busy
spinning a complex web of bilateral free trade and investment agreements
(FTAs). "Fighting FTAs" looks at what this FTA frenzy is really about,
how social movements are fighting back and strategic learnings emerging
from these struggles.

FTAs are powerful weapons of neoliberal globalisation that go much
further than WTO agreements. Through these secretive deals, states and
corporations are trying to divide and conquer the world, creating vast
new privileges for transnational corporations. Typically, FTAs cover a
broad array of issues, from giving corporations the right to sue
governments, to legalising the dumping of American farm surpluses, to
raising the cost of life-saving medicines through longer patent terms.
FTAs further concentrate economic power and natural resources in the
hands of a few, disempower communities, destroy biodiversity and
undermine food sovereignty. And each concession made through an FTA
becomes a benchmark for further deals.

FTAs are not just trade deals, though. They are important foreign policy
tools to advance governments' geopolitical interests. The US, for
example, explicitly links its FTAs to the so-called "war on terror". The
EU, China and Japan and others also combine economic and political
agendas through these agreements.

Small farmers, workers, people living with HIV/AIDS, indigenous peoples
and many others have been under attack from FTAs and bilateral
investment deals ever since the North America Free Trade Agreement was
signed in 1992. But together with many other social sectors, they have
been fighting back. From Australia to Colombia, and from Morocco to
Korea, massive popular struggles to defeat FTAs have been waged by
grassroots movements, often met with fierce repression. Today, as FTAs
continue to mushroom, people's resistance is growing.

It can be hard to get an overall view of what all these FTAs mean. And
because these deals are often bilateral ones, many resistance struggles
are carried out at the national level, which can make it difficult to
link forces across borders. "Fighting FTAs" aims to help to overcome
these hurdles and facilitate more sharing and learning from the diverse
movements against FTAs worldwide.

"Fighting FTAs" is a collaborative effort of many people involved in
these struggles on the ground. To accompany the publication, a dedicated
website is available with additional texts, audio interviews, photos
from the struggles, anti-FTA films and other resources.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

*"Fighting FTAs: The growing resistance to bilateral free trade and
investment agreements", bilaterals.org, BIOTHAI and GRAIN (editors), 102
pages, February 2008. Available in English, French, Spanish and soon
Thai. Online at http://www.fightingftas.org. Hard copies available on
request from fightingftas.org@gmail.com
<mailto:fightingftas.org@gmail.com>. Groups are free to reproduce and
translate the material.*

MEDIA INTERESTED IN THIS RELEASE MAY CONTACT (PHONE OR SMS UNTIL 15
FEBRUARY 2008)

-  Aziz Choudry (bilaterals.org) in Montreal, Canada: +1 514 7707488
(Cell) or webteam[at]bilaterals.org
-  Witoon Lianchamroon (BIOTHAI) in Bangkok, Thailand: +66 894497330
(Cell) or witoon[at]biothai.net
-  Alexis Vaughan (GRAIN) in United Kingdom: +44 7969561208 (Cell) or
alexis[at]grain.org