EU trade deals

The EU Green Deal includes bold promises to vastly reduce the use of toxic pesticides. But big pesticide corporations like Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and Corteva are lobbying hard to counter these initiatives. They also want to continue producing and exporting pesticides that are banned in Europe to other countries. This video tells the story of toxic pesticides, international trade and these EU Green Deal promises.

Will the EU concede to the demands of US negotiators on food standards? While the EU's narrow negotiation mandate makes this seem impossible, the Commission can in fact circumvent the mandate by using other methods that make it much easier to weaken standards – and tilt voting procedures to their own advantage.

More than 100 civil society organisations demand a stop to trade talks with the US that will further endanger EU rules on health and the environment and aggravate the climate crisis. A change of course is needed.

A new investigation reveals how pesticide corporations and trade partners have put immense pressure on the EU to allow residues of certain hazardous pesticides - banned in Europe - to be present in food and feed imports.

The ongoing trade talks between the EU and the US give reason to many of the same concerns as the negotiations on TTIP. The US is looking to weaken EU standards on eg. chemicals, pesticides, GMOs and food. The European priorities include ideas that could undermine US protection levels on medical devices, toys and equipment used at workplaces. 'Conformity assessments' is a much more risky area than it sounds, according to our report 'Trading away protection'.

One year after a landmark ECJ judgment that the EU’s GMO rules should apply to new genetic engineering techniques, industry groups and the US Government are keeping up pressure on the European Union to deregulate, with implications for food and bio-safety, as well as consumer choice.

Two years after the suspension of TTIP, the EU is preparing mandates for new trade talks with the US. Once again corporate lobby groups are working to set the agenda, while the European Commission covers over its links with big business.

Today, more than 60 international, European and national civil society groups have called on European decision makers to uphold the Paris Agreement and not mandate new trade negotiations with the USA.

All eyes may be on the 'Brexit' process, but far more attention needs to be given to the way in which post-Brexit EU-UK trade negotiations are being conducted. While corporate interests seek to shape the future trade deal in their own interests, the public remains in the dark.

The EU member state vote on the EU-Japan trade agreement is close, but not all interest groups had an equal say when the deal was hashed out. Official figures from the European Commission show that big business had many more meetings with the EU trade negotiators than small businesses, trade unions and other civil society actors did.

On the occasion of the International Day of Farmers' Struggle, we have jointly with allies prepared five short visions for a sustainable, healthy and fair food and trade policy to restart this important debate.

Following calls for openness and public participation, the European Commission now advertises its trade negotiations as transparent and inclusive. But crucial information about EU trade deals are still kept from citizens. Even member state governments regularly complain about being left in the dark. At the same time, corporations continue to call the shots on EU trade talks.