Trade justice
Things are moving fast with the US trade deal negotiations at the moment. The fourth round of trade talks with the US has just concluded. As ever, the secrecy around them is extreme but Liz Truss, the trade minister, has said that negotiations are in “advanced stages” and that negotiators were “in the process of consolidating texts in the majority of chapter areas”. Nick has been speaking at various events about his book (see opposite page), including at The World Transformed, which was an online festival this year. Groups have variously held webinars and street stalls about the US deal, and banner drops are already planned in a couple of places. As always, we can help with speakers for webinars, materials for stalls and banners – contact guy.taylor@globaljustice.org.uk The UK has also agreed a trade deal with Japan. This now goes to the Japanese parliament, the Diet, which needs to vote on it in a ratification process that will take up to the end of the year. The UK parliament by contrast is not guaranteed a vote and the deal can be ratified in 21 working days. 4 October 2020
US deal day of action
Plans for the day of action against the US trade deal on 24 October 2020 are shaping up. As we wrote last time, with negotiations having speeded up in the past few months, we think we need to take the next step of coming together in a day of action. Many of our allies are on board – the day is being supported by Keep Our NHS Public, War on Want, Traidcraft, We Own It, Open Rights Group, SumOfUs, Compassion in World Farming, Another Europe is Possible and the Stop Trump Coalition. We’re campaigning in pandemic times and things are changing fast, so this day of action will be a mix of things you can do from home, virtual online events and ideas for socially distant action outside on the streets when possible. We’ll keep the plans under review as we get closer to the time. At the moment, this is the plan – there’s a bit of a Halloween theme!
From home Carve a pumpkin lantern to say ‘Stop US deal’ (or the full ‘Stop the US trade deal’ if
