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Home arrow Programmes arrow Trade Campaign arrow Week of Strategy and Action Against EU FTAs
Week of Strategy and Action Against EU FTAs PDF Print E-mail
ep_public_hearing_eu_ftas_-_poster April 6-11, 2008

Join us for a week of strategy planning and action against European FreeTrade Agreements

Over 50 networks, movements and organisations from the Global South and Europe will join together to sound the alarm on EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)

- April 9 Public Hearing in European Parliament on EU FTAs followed by press conference, action and meeting, Brussels

- April 10/11 Lobbying and advocacy programmes in Brussels, Dublin, London, Madrid, Amsterdam/The Hague and other EU cities Since the end of the 1990s, the European Union has pursued a
multi-faceted trade strategy: at the same time as pursuing multilateral
negotiations it has also been pushing for bi-lateral and bi-regional
agreements (covert FTAs named: ŒAssociation Agreements¹ and ŒEconomic
Partnership Agreements¹ (EPAs)) with specific countries (Mexico, Chile,
South Africa) and regions in Latin America, Africa, and Caribbean and
the Pacific (ACP) countries.

However, by 2006 the EU decided to launch its most aggressive trade and
investment strategy, identifying FTAs as the main framework within which
to achieve sweeping liberalisation. This strategy is elaborated in the
EC Communication Global Europe: Competing in the World. This new and
far-reaching, TNC-serving, European strategy, marks a new phase in EU
trade policy. Since the launch of this communication, the EU has begun
negotiations with: the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN),
Central America Region, Andean Community of Nations (CAN), South Korea,
and India. Other key targets have also been identified: the MERCOSUR
region (where the EU-MERCOSUR FTA has been stalled for some time), the
Euro-Med Free Trade Zone, the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC). The EU is
also pushing for the creation of a Free Trade Area particularly focusing
on the US and Canada. Throughout 2007, the Commission has pursued a
divide and rule strategy with regards negotiations with ACP countries.

Since the beginning of these negotiations social movements and NGOs,
both from the regions of the South as well as from Europe, have been
critically assessing, strategizing and in many cases openly opposing the
content and form of these negotiations. From Mexico to Chile, Africa to
the Caribbean, initiatives attempting to tackle the negative aspects of
these negotiations began in isolation; now, as the EU strategy is being
seen as a much more systemic process we see that it is necessary to ally
our efforts, strategies and mobilisations.

The overall objective of the week is to assess the state of play of the
EU trade offensive, make its impacts in the South and in Europe known to
a wider audience and to develop appropriate strategies for future
campaigning.
 
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