Deglobalisation

THE COUNTRY should carefully study investment provisions before entering into foreign trade agreements (FTAs) as these may infringe on government’s regulatory power on foreign firms, an advocacy group on Friday said.

This statement comes as the government prepares for FTA negotiations with the European Union (EU), which is expected to push through before the end of the year.

EU-ASEAN FTA CAMPAIGN NETWORK-PHILIPPINES 
No. 19 Maginhawa Street, UP Village, Diliman Quezon City 
Telephone Nos. +6324331676; Fax: +6324330899 

Senate Committee on Foreign Relations 
23 February 2012 

Position Paper of the EU-Asean FTA Network on the Double Taxation Agreements signed by the Philippine Government with the governments of Kuwait, Qatar, Sri Lanka and Turkey and submitted to the Senate for Ratification 

The EU-Asean FTA Campaign Network-Philippines is network of NGOs and social movements monitoring negotiations for free trade agreements between the European Union and Asean Member States as well as global and regional trade and investment policies and their implications on the Philippines. 

By Walden Bello*
Foreign Policy in Focus 

Apple’s march to market supremacy has been accomplished at tremendous cost to both American and Chinese workers.

Ever since the beginning of the current global economic crisis, the focus of both critical analysis and public odium has been speculative capital. In the populist narrative, it was the breathtaking shenanigans of the banks in an atmosphere of deregulation that led to the economic collapse. The “financial economy,” characterized as parasitic and bad, was contrasted to the “real economy,” which was said to produce real goods and real value. Resources flowed into speculative activities in finance, resulting in a loss of dynamism in the real economy and eventually leading to credit cutoff at the height of the crisis, causing bankruptcies and massive layoffs.

by Walden Bello (FPIF)

Germany towers over Europe like a colossus. Its economy is the biggest in the European Union, accounting for 20 percent of the EU’s gross domestic product. While most of Europe’s economies are stagnating, Germany’s will have grown by some 2.9 percent in 2011. It boasts the lowest unemployment rate, 5.5 percent, of Europe’s major economies, compared to those of France (9.5 percent), the United Kingdom (8.3 percent), and Italy (8.1 percent).

In many ways, Germany is like Japan. Both countries were forced to give up armed expansion during the Second World War, only to have the national energy channeled into building formidable economies. But whereas Japan faltered in the 1990s, Germany has steadily plowed ahead, becoming the world’s biggest exporter from 1992 to 2009, replaced in first place by China only in 2010.

By Walden Bello

The world’s population surpassed 7 billion on October 31. But except for perhaps the anti-family planning lobby, this was a milestone that few were in a mood to celebrate. 

Concerns about overpopulation were present when the world hit the 6 billion mark in 1999, but they were subdued in that era of growth and — at least in the North — optimism. There was a sense then that although there would be major hurdles along the way, the world’s future could only get brighter. 

From August 9-11, 2010, Focus on the Global South, the Foundation for Ecological Recovery/TERRA, World Rainforest Movement (WRM), International Rivers, Bank Information Centre and the Thai Working Group on Climate Justice (TCJ), organised a workshop entitled “Food, Livelihoods and Climate Change in the Mekong Region”. The workshop was held at the Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, and attended by 52 representatives of local networks and civil society organizations from Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and China.

By Walden Bello (originally published in Foreign Policy in Focus)

With the tenth anniversary of the crime that was 9/11, the question inevitably crops up: who won, the United States or al-Qaeda? According to the politically correct answer, although al-Qaeda has been decimated, it has been a Pyrrhic victory for Washington. In defeating al-Qaeda, the U.S. government engaged in many unnecessary violations of human rights and due process that diminished America in the eyes of both its citizens and the world.

Hardly anybody, whether on the left, the middle, or the right dares to claim that al-Qaeda actually won. The reason is, most likely, the fear that such an assertion could be taken as legitimizing al-Qaeda’s reprehensible act. Yet, viewed with a cool eye that looks beyond its undoubtedly perverse ethics, al-Qaeda, despite being on the run and its leader Osama bin Laden killed, clearly came out ahead on points, and the United States may have won the battle but lost the war.

ON 20 SEPTEMBER 2011 in New York, President Benigno S. Aquino III will deliver his keynote remarks at the Open Government Partnership (OGP) conference titled “The Power of Open: A Global Discussion”.  The conference brings together governments, civil society, industry leaders, academics and  media, with panels discussing the role of openness in improving government responsiveness and accountability, fighting corruption, and creating efficiencies, innovation and growth.