Trade

IATP has long been a leader in making sure global agreements protect the rights of farmers around the world. We are active at the United Nations and World Trade Organization and through various bilateral and multilateral agreements to ensure that the rights of farmers to receive a fair price, engage in conservation and sustainable practices, and even just to stay on their land are upheld and respected. We also monitor trade agreements to make sure food safety, environmental safeguards and the rights of farm workers are protected. Visit our Trade & Governance page to learn more. 

What’s at stake for farmers, food and the land in a new NAFTA

The re-negotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the U.S., Mexico and Canada begins tomorrow and there is much at stake for farmers and rural communities in all three countries. Despite promised gains for farmers, NAFTA’s benefits over the last 23 years have gone primarily to multinational agribusiness firms. NAFTA is about much more than trade.

Trump's racist agenda is not fair trade

The racist and bigoted policies, statements, posture, and transparent intentions of the President of the United States Donald Trump are fueling the white supremacy movement. His racism and bigotry can and should be seen as building the conditions for the murder of one and deaths of three people in total last night in Charlottesville, Virginia.  

Trump's action plan with China puts global agribusiness first

Politicians and headline writers often tout new trade announcements as big wins for U.S. farmers and ranchers. Almost never do they declare plainly, and more accurately: this deal is a big win for global agribusiness! Conflating the interests of global agribusiness operating in multiple countries and U.S. farmers’ is a misleading spin that serves corporate interests over the rest of us.

NAFTA renegotiation objectives fall short for farmers and the planet

The release of the Trump administration’s objectives for renegotiating NAFTA confirm the suspicions of fair trade advocates that President Trump would break his promise to create trade deals that are in the public interest. The negotiating objectives, which failed to incorporate input from civil society organizations despite detailed and extensive proposals, continue the administration’s trend of putting multinational corporations’ narrow interests first by using the same blueprint that shaped the failed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Candidate Trump railed against the TPP: Trum