U.S. energy giant Chevron (profits $26.2 billion USD) is encouraging the United States to pursue a strong NAFTA-like investment chapter and investor-state dispute settlement process in the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the European Union.

This week, the Citizens Trade Campaign -- a U.S. coalition of environmental, labor, consumer, family farm, religious and other civil society groups -- reported that farmers and labour groups across the Pacific region are demanding that dairy be taken out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement altogether. Removing all barriers to trade in milk and milk products is a major demand of New Zealand and the United States in the TPP negotiations. But U.S., Canadian and Japanese dairy farmers and workers agree this is not in the interests of family farmers in any of the participating countries.

As expected, people aren't very happy with the WTO decision this week reaffirming the illegality (under global trade rules) of local content requirements in the Ontario Green Energy Act. The WTO Appellate Body, which has a final say in trade disputes between countries, agreed with a WTO panel report on December 19 that the high local content quotas on solar and wind components (up to 60 per cent) discriminate against products manufactured elsewhere. Japan and the European Union were the complainants in the WTO case, which has attracted global attention for the threat this final decision will create for similar local content rules on energy, transit and other types of government spending around the world.

On Monday this week, the Council of Canadians co-launched a timely briefing note on investment treaties and fracking bans with the Brussels-based Corporate Europe Observatory and Amsterdam-based Transnational Institute. As we hoped, the report, The Right to Say No, is making an impact in Europe, where many countries are deciding to ban shale gas development because of the public health and environmental impacts.