By WfP Nicaragua Team “What I would like and what I hope for (my country) is that in every Free Trade Zone there be a union and that workers would not be mistreated and would be paid a just salary. But that can’t be so one has to continue working like always because that can’t be.” -Free Trade Zone Worker, Nicaragua This quote comes from a meeting between a Witness for Peace delegation and a Nicaraguan Free Trade Zone worker, recorded (with interpretation). The delegation cam

Por Equipo de APP Nicaragua ” Lo que me gustaría y deseaba es que en todos la Zonas Francas tienen un sindicato donde no fueron maltratados y, si, pagan un salaria justo. Pero eso no se puede—siempre uno tiene que trabajar así porque eso no se puede.” Trabajadora de una Zona Franca Esta cita viene de una reunión con una delegación de Acción Permanente por la Paz y una nicaragüense que trabaja en las Zonas Francas, grabada (con traducción) en el clip de audio. La delegación ll

Josh Wise, Coalición por el Comercio Justo de Minnesota Ayer leímos una introducción al Acuerdo Estratégico Trans-Pacífico de Asociación Económica (TPP) y exploramos algunas de las maneras en que estos tipos de acuerdos de libre comercio dan prioridad a las empresas y perjudica al sector trabajo de todos los países involucrados. Hoy vamos a hablar un poco más sobre lo que hace al TPP una versión especialmente peligrosa de los acuerdos de libre comercio anteriores y lo que po

Josh Wise, Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition Yesterday we read an introduction to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and explored some of the ways these types of free trade agreements prioritize corporations and hurt jobs in all the countries involved. Today we’ll discuss a bit more about what makes the TPP an especially dangerous version of previous free trade agreements and what we can do to stop it. When NAFTA was negotiated, it largely dealt with goods – tangible items. As

Español abajo Josh Wise, Minnesota Fair Trade Coalition For nearly five years now, government bureaucrats and lobbyists on both sides of the Pacific Ocean have been negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in secret. Despite claims from the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Michael Froman, that this is going to be a “high-level” agreement that will create lots of jobs, everything we’ve learned through leaks to the public (which essentially amount to negotiato

Español abajo Margaret Boehme, WfP Colombia Team What does Free Trade mean, exactly? According to The Economist Magazine, it’s “the ability of people to undertake economic transactions with people in other countries free from any restraints imposed by governments or other regulators.” What kind of restraints? Tariffs, for instance, which are taxes paid on certain imports or exports. That doesn’t sound so bad. I don’t want to pay more than necessary for gas, electronics, cl

Español abajo By Allison Mountjoy, Community Alliance for Global Justice’s Food Justice Project I recently traveled to New Orleans for the first time and where did I find myself on the first day but the New Orleans food co-op. For my sister, who was traveling with me, it was not surprising when I spent thirty minutes looking through produce and taking pictures of their mission goals. Later we met up with a friend who works in New Orleans at a food hub. Naturally, the thre

The Witness blog series is back! This month, Witness for Peace, in close collaboration with coalition partners in the United States and partners on the ground in Colombia, Nicaragua, Honduras and Mexico, is hosting our second annual blog series – this one focused on the changing system of international trade and its effects on communities both small and large. When most people hear the word “trade,” their eyes already start to glaze over, visions of tariffs and collective bar

It all started 20 years ago, on January 1st of 1994, when the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) went into effect. Despite the promises of wealth, progress, and job creation, multinational corporations emerged as the sole beneficiaries of NAFTA and left many others in desperate situations. The effects of NAFTA have been devastating for the citizens of Mexico, Canada, and the United States. In Mexico, NAFTA opened the door to transnational corporations allowing them

Tri-National Multisectoral Forum 20 years of NAFTA: Enough Free Trade! No to the TPP! México D.F., January 28-31, 2014 JOINT DECLARATION On the 20th Anniversary of the signing of NAFTA, labor unions, farmers, women, environmentalists, and human rights organizations from Mexico, the United States, Canada and Quebec came together in a Tri-national Forum in Mexico City. We have assessed the impact on human, environmental, labor, social, and cultural rights. We conclude that the