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MEDIA RELEASE, May 14, 2012
Canadian NGOs and labour unions have sent an amicus curiae submission to the World Trade Organization (WTO) on the eve of a second hearing tomorrow into Japan´s and the European Union´s joint attack on the Ontario Green Energy Act. The groups address Canada´s failure to properly defend Ontario´s actions and call upon the WTO to respect the priority of Canada´s international climate change obligations.
"These are the first international trade disputes which create the potential for conflict between a nation´s commitments under the WTO and its obligations under the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol. It raises fundamental questions about whether the goals of trade liberalization can be reconciled with ecological imperatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and if not, which are to prevail," says the joint amicus curiae submission from Blue Green Canada,...
Two dozen rogue "delegates" disrupted the corporate-sponsored
welcome gala for the high-stakes Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)
trade negotiations yesterday with a fake award ceremony and "mic
check." Other activists, meanwhile, replaced hundreds of rolls of
toilet paper (TP) throughout the conference venue with more
informative versions, and projected a message on the venue's facade.
The first action began when a smartly-dressed man approached the
podium immediately after the gala's keynote speech by Ron Kirk, U.S. Trade
Representative and former mayor of Dallas. The man (local puppeteer David
Goodwin) introduced himself as "Git Haversall," president of the "Texas
Corporate Power Partnership," and announced he was giving Kirk and other
U.S. trade negotiators the "2012 Corporate Power Tool Award," which
"Haversall's"...
James Hansen. Dir. of NASA Goddard Institute for Space studies, urges President Obama to deny tar sands oil additional access to Gulf Coast refining, which Canada desires in part for export markets, but also to encourage economic incentives to leave tar sands and other dirty fuels in the ground. He says If Canada proceeds, and we do nothing, it will be game over for the climate and civilization would be at risk..
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/opinion/game-over-for-the-
climate.html?_r=2
Game Over for the Climate
Op-Ed Contributor
Game Over for the Climate
By JAMES HANSEN
Published: May 9, 2012
GLOBAL warming isn´t a prediction. It is happening. That is why I was so
troubled to read a recent interview with...
Posted: 03 May 2012 01:53 PM PDT. Here is the text of the letter:
Dear President Obama,
We write in strong support of Buy American procurement policies, including the various federal programs that have been in place since the enactment of the Buy American Act in 1933 and passage by many states of similar preference policies. We are concerned about proposals we understand are under consideration in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement negotiations that could significantly limit Buy American provisions and as a result adversely impact American jobs, workers, and manufacturers.
Under the proposed TPP framework, individual states and the federal government would be obligated to bring existing and future domestic policies into compliance with norms set forth in 26 proposed TPP chapters, including one covering government procurement policy. Failure to conform our domestic policies to these terms would subject the United...