27/May/20

 

The amounts of lobby spending as declared by corporations and lobby groups in the EU Transparency Register often present vast under-estimates of the real figures. A case in point was the dubious lobby campaign by lobby firm FleishmanHillard carried out for Monsanto, aimed at safeguarding the re-authorisation of the pesticide glyphosate. This job involved a €14.5 million contract, tenfold the amount either corporation had officially declared. Corporate Europe Observatory filed complaints to the Register regarding the inaccurate lobby spending figures declared by Monsanto and its lobby firm FleishmanHillard. In response the Register’s secretariat has announced it will present new guidelines to make sure registrants include their lobbying spending at national level if it concerns EU policy-making. This should generate a far more realistic picture of corporate lobby spending in the EU. Corporate Europe Observatory

 

 

Ethiopian civil society organisations have published a statement condemning the unnecessary and illegal rush to introduce GMOs without proper institutional and regulatory mechanisms being set up and without proper public consultation. PELUM Ethiopia Consortium and others

 

 

On 24 February 2020, Donald Trump made a two-day presidential visit to India where he was expected to sign a bilateral free trade deal with Narendra Modi. A statement issued from that meeting said that the two leaders agreed to soon conclude a “phase one” trade agreement, if possible before the end of the year. This would be followed later on by a comprehensive trade agreement. Considering the trade agreements Trump has signed over last three years with South Korea, China, Canada and Mexico, it’s clear that a US-India deal will be bad news for India’s farm sector. GRAIN