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EU FTAs
In view of the unlikely conclusions of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations before the end of 2008, the European Union´s (EU) attention has increasingly shifted towards concluding a new generation of comprehensive and competitiveness-driven bilateral and regional free trade agreements (FTAs) with key partners. WIDE is actively following this process and advocating against this push by the EU that is based on a neo-liberal agenda that is pushing beyond what is been agreed within the WTO. EU-India FTA 'Trade - A Driving Force for Jobs and Women´s Empowerment? Focus on China and India' - Christa Wichterich counters the mainstream argument that trade has the potential to be a driving force for jobs and for women´s empowerment. WIDE, together with other European CSOs made a declaration to immediately halt the ongoing FTA negotiations between India and the EU and India and EFTA. Download the declaration. MEP Report on EU-India FTAs - In the coming weeks the European Parliament will vote on an own initiative report by Sajjad Karim (UK MEP) on the planned EU-India Free Trade Agreement as part of the implementation of the EU´s Global Europe strategy. The draft report is thoroughly pro-free trade, calls for far-reaching reciprocal and symmetrical liberalisation between unequal partners and widely ignores development, social, gender and environmental concerns. Indian Civil Society Organisations ask for an immediate halt of EU-India FTA negotiations, New Delhi, 21 September 2008: read the statement. Gender in Sustainability Impact Assessments, by Christa Wichterich, WIDE E-newsletter September and October 2008. Indian civil society´s response to the EU India summit: halt the EU India FTA negotiations, WIDE E-newsletter September and October 2008. WIDE advocacy and exposure visit of Indian CSO representatives to Brussels, Belgium, 24 and 25 June: Advocating for gender equality within EU-India trade negotiations: are they listening?,and: Leaking into the Brussels bubble, WIDE Newsletter June 2008 Workshop on gender and the EU-India FTA, New Delhi, India, 25-26 March, co-organised by WIDE: Economic growth without social justice: EU-India trade negotiations and their implications for social development and gender justice´, Christa Wichterich, WIDE, November 2007  This paper attempts to place the EU-India FTA negotiations in their historical and topical context, and questions the coherence between the development aid agenda on the one hand, and the trade and investment agenda on the other. Does it still hold true what the European Commission stated in 1996 aiming at enhancing the EU-India partnership: "The European Union firmly believes that social development must be a parallel objective to economic development"? Exploring the main interests behind the FTA on both sides, the paper asks whether considerations regarding social inclusion, poverty eradication, and gender equality are informing trade policy-making. It looks at trade liberalisation and the FTA procedures through the prism of social justice and human development. Since bilateral trade negotiations are held in great secrecy, the paper wishes to provide civil society actors in the EU and India with background information and to build their capacity to engage critically in policy-making on trade and development and in transregional networking.
This WIDE publication can be ordered for free by contacting WIDE secretariat.
Or it can be downloaded: click here for electronic copy Other EU FTAs ASEAN/EU Free Trade Agreement, Opinion from the European Civil Society, 14th February 2008, Christa Wichterich, WIDE - Background Paper by Christa Wichterich European and Korean Social Movements and Civil Society unite against the 'Global Europe' Strategy and the South Korea-EU FTA, Joint Statement, September 2007 -Naty Bernadino, 'Gender Implications of the European Union - ASEAN Free Trade Agreement WIDE Factsheet', November 2007.
-Tessa Mackenzie, 'Gender Implications of the European Union - Central America association agreement WIDE Factsheet', November 2007.
-Oksana Kisselyova, 'Gender Implications of the European Union - Ukraine trade Relations WIDE Factsheet', November 2007. On the policy of the FTAs in general WIDE and EU Free Trade Negotiations: Seattle2Brussels organises a week of strategy and action 6-11 April, April Newsletter 2008 Gender, Trade and Development in Present EU Policies, Presentation prepared for the Committee of International Trade of the European Parliament, Brussels, 18th December 2007, Christa Wichterich, WIDE CSOs call for a moratorium on EFTA bilateral free trade agreements with developing countries, WIDE newsletter, December 2007. Full Report available of WIDE consultation 'EU bilateral and regional free trade agreements bringing women to the centre of the debate', 22 November 2007, Brussels, Belgium At the end of November 2008, WIDE held a successful and intensive one-day consultation "EU bilateral and regional free trade agreements: Bringing women to the centre of the debate". The consultation analysed the objectives of the EU trade strategy in relation to development, poverty eradication and its impact on women´s rights, entitlements and livelihoods. These were examined in relation to the current trade negotiations in Asia, the Middle East, Ukraine and Central America. This report of the consultation provides a good overview of the processes and a gender analysis of the potential impact in different geographical regions. Interestingly, although the negotiations are at different stages in these regions the case studies indicate many similarities in relation to the potential impact on women of free trade agreements. This WIDE publication can be ordered for free by contacting WIDE secretariat. WIDE members, subscribers and partners will get automatically a copy. Or it can be downloaded: click here for electronic copy Is the EU still managing to ´divide and rule´ in the African, Caribbean and Pacific countries?, WIDE newsletter July/August 2008 EPAs, the European Commission neoliberal roadmap for ACP states: a lost opportunity?, WIDE newsletter, November 2007.
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