Trade and Global Justice

We say No to the Ecuador Trade Agreement

Trade Agreements can be a powerful tool to improve people´s life and create fair trading rules. This agreement does not. We as Greens can’t vote in favour. The Ecuador Trade Agreement does not live up to the criteria we put on trade agreements:

  • In the last weeks and years, we got many letters, calls and mails by the Ecuadorian civil society, they are very concerned that Ecuador will leave its unique path of creating a popular and solidary economy.

 

There are major flaws in the way the trade agreement is constructed:

  • The Sustainable Impact Assessment of the Agreement shows that it will increase pressure on land distribution, loss of biodiversity and it increases displacements of people.

  • But the Commission decided to not take it into account.

 

  • The Financial Chapter of the agreement will create opportunities for more tax avoidance and money laundering. This will harm the European Union and the Ecuadorian society equally. Since the Panama Papers Scandal it is clear that we have to end this global tax avoidance. The agreement does not do it.

 

  • Lastly, the agreement does not improve the situation of the poor and the workers in Ecuador. The Sustainable Development Chapter has no teeth, there is no enforcement mechanism.

 

 

 

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