Issue 2, February 2003

1. USTR Refuses to Make Public the U.S.-Chile and U.S.-Singapore Free Trade Agreements

2. The World Bank’s Private Lending Arm To Finance Diamond Project in Protected Habitats

3. Groups Call on Private Banks to Commit to Sustainability

USTR Refuses to Make Public the US-Chile and US-Singapore Free Trade Agreements

On behalf of six environmental and development organizations, Friends of the Earth (FoE) has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the US Trade Representative (USTR) to obtain the texts of the US Chile and US-Singapore Free Trade Agreements.

On Jan. 30, USTR provided Congress a 90-day advance notification that the US-Chile and US-Singapore Free Trade Agreements will be signed. To date, USTR has refused to make the agreements public.

Democratic members of the Congressional Oversight Group on trade policy and business groups have also called on USTR to publicly release the agreements.

An earlier FOIA request by FoE and other groups requested that USTR release negotiating texts for the US-Chile negotiations. In a groundbreaking ruling Dec. 19, a U.S. District Court ordered the Bush administration to give the public access to the texts. However, this ruling only applied to texts from early in the negotiations and not the actual agreements. USTR chose not to appeal the Dec.19 decision.

For more information, contact David Waskow at (202) 783-7400 Ext. 108 or dwaskow@foe.org.

The World Bank’s Private Lending Arm To Finance Project in Protected Habitats

On Feb. 13, the World Bank's private lending arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), approved an investment in Kalahari Diamonds Ltd., a company created to locate and develop diamond deposits across vast areas of Botswana. These areas include the Central Kalahari and Khutse Game Reserves - home to several endangered species and the ancestral lands of the San Bushmen.

Designated as protected areas by the United Nations Environment Programme, IFC investment in the Central Kalahari and Khutse Game Reserves would violate its own safeguard policies on critical natural habitats. The proposed project also fails to adequately consider the potential impacts on the San Bushmen, which have been forcibly removed from the game reserve by the Botswanan government. The United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Indigenous Peoples recently concluded that the assimilationist policies of the Botswanan government endanger the San Bushmen's survival as a distinct people. The San have sued the government, claiming that their eviction was unconstitutional.

For more information, contact Steve Herz at (202) 783-7400 Ext. 122 or sherz@foe.org

Groups Call on Private Banks to Commit to Sustainability

In January, over one hundred international advocacy groups and other non-governmental organizations released the “Collevecchio Declaration on Financial Institutions” – a public statement calling private banks to task for their responsibility for the environmentally and socially harmful impacts of their activities.

Until now, the private banks have been spared widespread criticism by proponents of environmental sustainability and social justice. The main targets have been multinational corporations and major international finance institutions like the World Bank.

The declaration brings to light private banks’ involvement in backing egregious projects and exacerbating the developing country debt crisis. The Collevecchio Declaration calls on the financial sector to embrace six principles: a commitment to sustainability, to "do no harm," to responsibility, to accountability, to transparency and to sustainable markets and governance. An accompanying implementation document outlines immediate steps private financial institutions can take, such as the adoption of internationally recognized industry standards for credit, investing and underwriting transactions

A complimentary FoE public policy paper entitled, “Sustainability and Accountability in the Financial Services Sector: Regulatory and Public Policy Recommendations,” outlines steps governments can take to help financiers integrate environmental and social objectives into their financial objectives.

For more information, contact Michelle Chan-Fishel at (510) 848-1155 x 315 or mchan@foe.org.

To view the Collevecchio Declaration, go to: http://www.foe.org/camps/intl/declaration.html

To view the public policy recommendations, go to: http://www.foe.org/camps/intl/financialregs.html