to read or download the 20-page Alternative Trade Mandate, click on

http://www.alternativetrademandate.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Trade-time_for_a_new_vision-JAN14-PRINT.pdf

"Trade should be about exchange, with ecologically

and culturally distinct regions equitably sharing their

products, skills and creativity. But in recent decades,

trade has become less about exchange of goods and more

about eliminating social and environmental safeguards

in pursuit of corporate profit. The proposed EU-US free

trade agreement – the Transatlantic Trade and Investment

Partnership – is a good example: while the elimination of

trade barriers between Europe and the US is touted as a

way out of the economic doldrums for these two blocs, in

reality it is set to seriously erode social, environmental and

labour rights.

This ever-quickening race to the bottom has destroyed

lives, livelihoods and communities. Today, trade is used

as a system of control by the powerful, and to promote the

specific interests of the few..."