Trade and investment liberalisation are considered to be important instruments of development policy, and indeed a fair and open trade system is one of the Millennium Development Goals. However, governments are still pursuing traditional policies of liberalisation, partly because of the strong influence of the business community.
SOMO wants to raise the political debate about the impact of trade and investment agreements on poverty and other social aspects, going beyond the traditional discourse on the macroeconomic impact of trade and investment liberalisation. SOMO links the negotiations and rules on international trade and investment with the actual conduct of corporations within these rules and agreements. This provides the basis for SOMO and her partners to engage in developing - within existing civil society networks - alternative trade and investment policies that contribute to poverty eradication, higher social and labour standards, and sustainable development.
News Trade & Investment
01-12-2009
During the WTO-conference taking place this week in Geneve representatives of the global network Our World Is Not for Sale (OWINFS) from four continents showed how the trade liberalisation model still promoted by the WTO has devastated communities across the world and how it has dramatically worsened the exploitation of women, food shortages, unemployment, and the financial crisis.
24-11-2009
Has the WTO's services agreement contributed to the crisis or is it a tool which can help create a more stable environment for international financial services? Myriam Vander Stichele, TNI Fellow and senior researcher at the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, and Sergio Marchi, senior fellow at the International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, discuss this topic with Keith Rockwell, WTO Spokesperson.
29-09-2009
Through a collective mass fax and e-mail action, more than 80 organisations in 30 countries across Europe, Africa and the Pacific have today called on decision-makers to fundamentally change the course of the ongoing negotiations on Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union and ACP countries.
