TABD Trans Atlantic Business Dialogue
Annual European Union Parliament, U.S. congress, and some 100 American and European CEOs and business leaders meeting to talk about issues that impact transatlantic trade and develop recommendations on how to best boost global trade and investment, established 1995/96.
read: Die Gründung des TABD
TBTs Technical Barriers to Trade
Provisions of the WTO, the rules that state a nation must be prepared to prove, if challenged, that its environmental and safety standards are both "necessary" and the "least trade restrictive" way to achieve the desired conservation goals, food safety or health standard.
TEP Transatlantic Economic Partnership
successor of the NTM
TNC transnational corporation
big business in the age of globalization. you are not longer bounded to your mother country. you may transact your profits to anywhere you like. you may invest with conditions you can give by yourself. labour and environmental standards are no obstacles for you, you can disregard them within a "legal" frame, sized by WTO, IMF and World Bank.
The total income of the 10 largest TNCs is now greater than that of the world's poorest 100 countries, and many TNCs have greater sales than the GDP of some developed countries (UNDP, 1997). For example, General Motors is more powerful in pure economic terms than Denmark (UNDP, 1997). Such economic power is being increased through mergers - a recent example being the deal between BP and Amoco resulting in the largest company in Britain and "...one of the strongest... international energy and petrochemicals groups in the world." (BP, 1998). About two-thirds of world trade is now accounted for by just 500 companies, and 40% of world trade occurs within these companies (UNDP, 1997).
Trilateral Commission
elite think-tank of leading figures from the EU, Japan and the US
TRIMs Trade-Related Investment Measures
WTO agreement on investment. Due to the resistance of developing countries during the Uruguay Round the TRIMs Agreement did not become as farreaching as the Quad wanted it to be, namely a comprehensive investment agreement (like the MAI). However, it refers to and reinforce existing provisions under the GATT, which prohibit policies which favour local products. The TRIMs Agreement thus constitutes an additional restriction on development strategies of the type used in the past by rich countries themselves, but which now have been outlawed for developing countries.
TRIPs Trade-Related aspects of Intellectual Property rights
WTO agreement to guaranty Intellectual Property rights for corporations. In africa for example 80% of the TRIPs are in the hands of western corporations. One of the most desastrous use of the TRIPs is to protect rirgts on GMOs within the agrarian sector. The TRIPs is a significant barrier to encouraging less intensive agriculture in the developing world and securing technology transfer for the development of Southern farming or industry.
Tute Bianche (= Disobbedienti)
Founded in Italy, the "white overalls", named after the boiler suits they wear, claim to represent the invisible victims of global capitalism. Ya Basta! (enough already) is their extreme international arm.
disobbedienti - tute bianche