01 March Stop exploitation: Stop EU-Chile!
Important decision on EU-Chile free trade agreement
This Thursday, the EU Parliament voted in favor of the expanded trade and investment agreement with Chile. But what is really behind it?
There is much more behind the term "commodity security": the free trade pact is a further step in the EU's unjust trade policy. That is why more than 500 organizations from European and Latin American civil society raised their voices in a joint appeal before the vote: #StopEUChile! I joined them and voted against the agreement!
The agreement promotes the ruthless extraction of raw materials such as lithium and copper without ensuring adequate protection mechanisms or compliance with environmental and labor protection standards.
At the same time, it contains corporate rights of action that enable companies to take states to private arbitration tribunals. These lawsuits often cost billions of taxpayers' money and seriously jeopardize the protection of people, the environment and the climate.
But that's not all: the agreement also threatens to intensify competition between agricultural producers by further reducing tariffs on agricultural products. Another danger for farmers!
Would you like to find out more? Here you can read the open letter signed by over 100 civil society organizations and personalities to the MEPs: