[Green-Activist] global trade watch - Rio Tinto

[Anne Goddard]

Hiya Michael and members of lists...

i wish you and your family all year round peace and happiness. 
:-)
i have attached and pasted below, an old document on Rio Tinto, it may be of interest to global trade watch members.

Cheers
Anne


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Global Trade Watch 
To: Anne Goddard 
Sent: Tuesday, December 19, 2006 10:23 AM
Subject: Re: request for latest newsletter


Hi Anne,
I've pasted e-news #45 below, and you can access previous editions of the newsletter here: www.tradewatchoz.org/enews

That would be great if you'd like to spread the word!

Have a great Christmas,
-----------------------------------
Michael Cebon
Coordinator
Global Trade Watch
PO Box 6014, Collingwood North, VIC 3066
Email: info at tradewatchoz.org
Website: www.tradewatchoz.org
ABN: 64 661 487 287

Global Trade Watch E-Newsletter #45 - New Corporate-Watch Project, Last Copies of People & Planet Diary, New Guide to Aussie Farmers’ Markets - Win a Free Copy!

** AVAILABLE ONLINE AT http://www.tradewatchoz.org/enews/45.html **

Contents:

1) News from Global Trade Watch
2) Good News for (a) Change
3) Upcoming Events
4) Take Action!
5) Global Trade News

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1) NEWS FROM GLOBAL TRADE WATCH

* Editorial: Monitoring Australia’s Corporations - New GTW Project


When it comes to corporations and their impact on our lives and planet, everyone has their favourite facts and figures. 52 of the world's biggest economies are corporations. A child can recognise 200 corporate logos by the time they are 5. Corporations control over two thirds of global trade. Private military contractors are the second biggest contributor to coalition forces in Iraq. There’s nothing you can do in the modern world that isn't shaped in some way by the modern corporation.

Many argue that this proliferation isn't a problem – it's efficient they say, and sometimes it is. However, due to breadth and reach of the modern corporation, they wield a massive influence. Even if our governments were not as sympathetic to them as they are, corporations would still be ubiquitous, and herein lies the problem. Corporations have no democratic mandate but enjoy as much, if not more, power than our democratically elected representatives. And as privatisation and deregulation proceed apace, corporations are governed less and less by our laws and are monitored by fewer and fewer agencies.

Corporations are not legally required act responsibly. The law requires them to make decisions based on little more than shareholder return. So corporations are, legally speaking, only accountable to their shareholders and as many a frustrated shareholder will tell you, corporations often fail to meet this requirement.

In response to the growing challenges of corporate influence over and control of so many aspects of our lives, Global Trade Watch is starting a project to monitor Australian corporations here and overseas. We’ve set up a new website called Corporate Watch Australia - www.corporatewatch.org.au - which will do three key things. It will generate original research into the activities of Australian corporations both here and around the world as well as monitoring overseas corporations operating in Australia. Secondly it will act as a clearing house for other organisations’ research into corporate activity. Finally it will advocate for greater regulation of corporations and a higher level of transparency in their dealings.

The site will be formally launched in 2007. What we need to do in the meantime is fill the site with content - and we’d love your help with this! If you like doing research or writing, you can help up by becoming part of the Corporate Watch Australia research team and conduct research into a corporation or industry that interests you. We'll provide you with as much support as we can and put you in touch with other researchers. You don't need a university degree, just a passion for corporate accountability and a bit of spare time. Or if you’ve already produced some research into a corporation or industry for another organisation, then please let us know about it so we can add it to our list of research and allow us to act as a clearing house for this sort of information.

Finally, we’re in the process of starting up a separate Corporate Watch email list. If you'd like to subscribe to the new email list or would like to contribute in either of the ways above, please contact Hammy Goonan, GTW’s new Corporate Watch project coordinator at info at corporatewatch.org.au

* Last copies of “People & Planet” 2007 Diary left - get in fast for a copy!

In October, Global Trade Watch published “People & Planet - A Social Justice & Environment Diary”, an exciting new diary featuring 55 striking and inspiring full-colour photos of people and places around the world, a ready for the 2007 year.

People & Planet is published by Global Trade Watch in partnership with 32 other Australian social justice and environment organisations, and all proceeds go towards funding our campaigns for fair and sustainable trading systems. The diary features one week per page, is printed on recycled and plantation-sourced paper, spiral bound, and is slightly larger than A5 in size. See a sample page here: http://www.tradewatchoz.org/diary/sample.pdf

People & Planet has been hugely popular, and we now only have about 150 copies of the diary left! So if you’ve been meaning to buy a copy for yourself or as a Christmas gift, please order now to avoid disappointment. (We also won’t be able to process any orders after December 20).

Copies of People & Planet can be ordered for just $18 each (+p&h), or get a free copy when you support us by becoming a GTW member ($49). You can order:

- Online using your credit card: http://www.tradewatchoz.org/diary/order.html

- By post - Download an order form and post it to us with a cheque or money order: http://www.tradewatchoz.org/diary/diary.pdf

- By email & direct transfer - Just reply to this email with your postal address and how many diaries you'd like to purchase, and we'll email you our bank details for a direct transfer.


* Guide to Australian & NZ Farmers’ Markets Launched - Join GTW for a chance to win one of 10 free copies!

GTW has long supported growing local alternatives to the corporate-dominated global food trade. Alternatives like farmers’ markets, where people can buy fresh food directly from the people who grow it, avoiding reliance on imported, processed, packaged or chemical-laden food sold by the big corporate supermarket giants.

>From a small beginning in 1999, about 100 Australian farmers’ markets today deliver an estimated annual turnover of $40 million with a factored economic impact of $80 million. In addition to the economic advantages, farmers’ markets offer countless social and environmental benefits. Members of the community work together to run markets, providing a regular social platform for growers and shoppers, leading to a greater appreciation of fresh produce, how it’s grown, where it comes from and healthier eating for all.

Now R.M.Williams Classic Publications has published the Guide to Farmers’ Markets in Australia and New Zealand, highlighting all regular farmers’ markets. The 460-page guidebook devotes four pages to each farmers’ market. It contains details of when each market is held, its location, produce highlights, a profile of a market “hero” who has played a major role in the market’s success, and a sample recipe from produce available at the market.

You can now buy the Guide in bookstores, newsagents and at markets themselves for just $19.95. You can also buy them direct from R.M.Williams Classics - phone (02) 9969 8866 fax (02) 9969 8566 or email tanyabuchanan at rmwclassics.com.au

But if you’d like a FREE copy of the Guide, GTW has 10 copies to give away to our members, thanks to R.M.Williams Classics!! Just send us a membership application before December 12 to be in the running to win one of the 10 free copies. Every new member will also get a free copy of our gorgeous People & Planet 2007 Diary! You can download a membership application here: http://www.tradewatchoz.org/membership.pdf


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2) GOOD NEWS FOR (A) CHANGE

* IDB writes-off US$2.1bn for five Latin American nations.

On 17 November 2006, Governors to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) - a regional version of the World Bank - agreed to cancel US$2.1bn in debt out of US$3.5bn owed by the five Latin American countries to the IDB (Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua). The IDB is the biggest lender in Latin America and these nations owe on average one third of their overall debt stocks to the institution.

IDB staff had admitted, in a recent leaked document, that cancelling this debt would seriously improve these countries' debt sustainability outlooks and help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The deal will see US$380m written-off for Bolivia; US$249m for Guyana; US$333m for Haiti; US$717m for Honduras and US$505m for Nicaragua with a cut-off date of end-2003.

But while the deal will come into effect immediately after the details are agreed for Bolivia, Guyana, Honduras and Nicaragua, Haiti will however first have to go through the "Heavily Indebted Poor Countries" initiative, with all the damaging and undemocratic conditions it includes. Campaigners are arguing for Haiti - and all other countries with illegitimate and unpayable debts - to get debt cancellation now, without externally-imposed conditions.

More: http://www.eurodad.org/articles/default.aspx?id=744 & http://www.jubileedebtcampaign.org.uk/?lid=2724


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3) UPCOMING EVENTS

VICTORIA

* Dec 12, 12pm - Public Lecture: "Labour Market Flexibility and Economic Insecurity: An Egalitarian Perspective" - Presented by Professor Guy Standing, the presentation will provide an overview of Professor Standing's work over the past few years, and will draw on a global database on work practices in 132 countries that he built while with the International Labour Organisation and that will constitute a fundamental tool for researchers in Australia. He will present a global picture of the growth of various forms of labour insecurity in the globalisation era, indicate where Australia seems to fit in that picture, and outline a policy agenda that would strengthen economic rights. WHERE: Building H, lecture theatre 2.35 at the Caulfield Campus of Monash University.

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4) TAKE ACTION!

* Tell Starbucks to Give Ethiopian Farmers Their Fair Share

Each year, coffee companies make billions of dollars. Starbucks alone earned almost $5.8 billion in net revenues during the first three quarters of 2006. With as many as 15 million Ethiopians dependent on coffee, Ethiopia has decided to get its farmers more of what they deserve. The country's government has asked Starbucks to sign a licensing agreement that will allow Ethiopia to control the names of its coffees. That way, Ethiopia can help determine an export price that makes sure farmers see a larger share of the profits enabling them to feed their children, send them to school and get them better healthcare.

Civil society groups are asking Starbucks to sign this agreement, with control of the name brands though to be able to increase Ethiopia's coffee export income by more than 25 percent - or $88 million annually. This money could go a long way to help lift millions of Ethiopians out of poverty. So please, help us convince Starbucks to sign this agreement with Ethiopia. Poor farmers deserve a fair share of the profits.

Send a message to Starbucks: http://act.oxfamamerica.org/campaign/starbucks_mtf

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5) GLOBAL TRADE NEWS

* BILATERAL AND REGIONAL FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS NEWS *

* Free trade deal may fast track nanotech (Nov 28) - Australia may be forced to rush through inadequately tested and unsafe medical nanotherapies because of its free trade agreement with the US, a health technology regulation expert says. Dr Thomas Faunce, a senior lecturer at the ANU college of law and medical school, says Australia is obliged under the free trade agreement (FTA) to make innovative pharmaceutical products more readily available. More: http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2006/1799392.htm

* Australia eager to ink free trade agreement (Nov 13) - Australia is interested in negotiating a free trade pact with India, provided it is comprehensive and takes into account its interest in opening up trade in farm products. "We are keen to expand our suite of free trade agreements ... we are talking to China, Malaysia, studying the feasibility of one with Japan and also negotiating with the Gulf Cooperation Council," said Australian trade minister Warren Truss. More: http://www.telegraphindia.com/1061114/asp/business/story_6998910.asp

* Australia and Chile to develop FTA (Nov 10) - Australia and Chile have agreed to develop a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement. Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer and Trade Minister Warren Truss held separate meetings with Chilean Foreign Minister Alejandro Foxley in Canberra. More: http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Australia-and-Chile-to-develop-FTA/2006/11/10/1162661895213.html

* PICTA, PACER and the WTO: The emerging framework of neo-liberalism in the Pacific (Nov 2) - This article is an introduction or guide to PICTA, PACER and the WTO in the Pacific. The ’guide’ gives readers basic knowledge of both trade agreements and the stepping stone function they provide towards the WTO re-colonising the Pacific. More: http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=6370

* Bilateral biosafety bullies (Oct 2006) - This new briefing from GRAIN and the African Centre for Biosafety looks at how governments, the agribusiness sector and transnational companies are increasingly using bilateral trade agreements to prise open markets for genetically modified crops. More: http://www.grain.org/briefings/?id=199


* WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION NEWS *

* US-Russia bilateral/WTO deal pushes damaging new standards for IP protection (24 Nov) - In its bilateral negotiation with the United States in order to join the World Trade Organization, Russia appears to have agreed to intellectual property rights standards that push those of the WTO and US law to damaging new levels. More: http://www.ip-watch.org/weblog/index.php?p=467

* WTO agrees to resume part of stalled Doha talks (Nov 16) - The WTO agreed on Thursday to a limited resumption of stalled free trade talks, but warned that major powers had not yet shown the flexibility needed for a deal. The WTO's so-called Doha round was suspended in July because of deep differences, particularly over agriculture, but the 149-state body gave the go-ahead for discussions to start again within the various negotiating groups. More: http://www.ourworldisnotforsale.org/showarticle.asp?search=1837

* Rich countries 'blocking cheap drugs for developing world' (Nov 14) - Poor people are needlessly dying because drug companies and the governments of rich countries are blocking the developing world from obtaining affordable medicines, a report says today. Five years to the day after the Doha declaration - a groundbreaking deal to give poor countries access to cheap drugs - was signed at the World Trade Organisation, Oxfam says things are worse. More: http://society.guardian.co.uk/aid/story/0,,1947157,00.html


* WORLD BANK / IMF NEWS *

* IMF macroeconomic advice: ‘thanks, but no thanks’ (Nov 23) - The IMF’s ability to dictate economic policy to member states is fraying because of lost credibility in the wake of its failures in East Asia, Argentina and Russia (see Updates 8, 10, 28). Smaller developing countries are now joining the larger ones such as Brazil and Indonesia in rejecting the Fund’s interference in their economies. More: http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art.shtml?x=545866

* Split Highlights Growing Call to Rethink Conditionality (Nov 23) - There is increasing pressure on the World Bank to change the way it imposes economic policy conditions on poor countries receiving loans or grants from the Bank. In September the British government decided to withhold 50 million pounds worth of funding to the Bank until it made "satisfactory progress" in improving its use of conditions. The Bank's own November 2006 progress report concludes that such progress has been achieved. More: http://www.brettonwoodsproject.org/art.shtml?x=545899


* OTHER TRADE & GLOBAL JUSTICE NEWS *

* Hurricane Milton (Nov 30) - While economists laud the recently deceased Milton Friedman for being “a champion of freedom whose work transformed economics and changed the world”, people in the South will remember the University of Chicago professor as the eye of a human hurricane that cut a swath of destruction through their economies. For them, Friedman will long be associated with two things: free-market reform in Chile and “structural adjustment” in the developing world. More: http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/3745

* The End of So-Called "Free Trade" Has Arrived (8 Nov) - Yes, it was the Iraq War, stupid. But, one of the other issues I kept hearing US voters talk about repeatedly for the past several months was the idiocy of so-called "free trade." And, thankfully, perhaps we can finally declare so-called "free trade" dead. More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-tasini/the-end-of-socalled-fre_b_33652.html

* The UN Human Rights Norms for Corporations: The Private Implications of Public International Law (28 Oct) - In this article, the authors explore the history of the UN Norms on business & human right and the form and content of the debate that surrounds them, in their attempt to disentangle the legal from the rest. The article also focuses on the real politicking of the circumstances in which the Norms now find themselves and it seeks to offer some guidance as to where the Norms--or at least their substance, if not their form--might go from here. More: http://hrlr.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/rapidpdf/ngl020v1.pdf

* U.N. Passes Arms Trade Treaty Over U.S. Opposition (Oct 26) - U.N. member states have voted to create an international treaty to curb the illicit trade in guns and other light weapons, despite strong opposition from the United States and other big powers. More: http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35262


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-----------------------------------
Global Trade Watch
PO Box 6014, Collingwood North, VIC 3066
Email: info at tradewatchoz.org
Website: www.tradewatchoz.org
ABN: 64 661 487 287 

Rio Tinto .... back door for TOO LONG!!!!

Message: 16        
   Date: Fri, 06 Aug 2004 11:54:08 -0000
   From: "Ian Latto" <ilatto at hotmail.com>
Subject: Senate: Chief Scientist in pocket of Rio Tinto

COMMITTEES
Employment, Workplace Relations and Education
References Committee

Report

Senator CROSSIN (Northern Territory) (3.42
p.m.)-On behalf of the Chair of the Employment,
Workplace Relations and Education References Committee,
Senator Carr, I present the report of the committee
on the Office of the Chief Scientist, together
with the Hansard record of proceedings and documents
presented to the committee.

Ordered that the report be printed.

...

Senator BROWN (Tasmania) (3.57 p.m.)-The
committee has found that there is a clear conflict of
public and private duties arising from the dual parttime
roles performed by Dr Batterham. His circumstances
fall squarely within any mainstream definition
of conflict of interest. The follow-on from that is that
clearly the Chief Scientist should relinquish one of his
jobs. It is not tenable for the Chief Scientist to maintain
both the jobs of Chief Scientist of this nation and chief
technologist for the major coal company, Rio Tinto.

(My note: and uranium miner/exporter)

There is a clear conflict of duty and interest as seen
from the public's point of view. The committee's findings
speak volumes of that, but they speak also of the
need for there to be an improvement in the way in
which the government applies Public Service rules to
all posts to ensure that this sort of conflict does not
apply in the future.

I want to point to the some of the background as to
why the Chief Scientist has been found to be in an invidious
position from the point of view of public perception.
Rio Tinto is a big corporation. We are in an
age where there is enormous concern about global
warming. We are in an age where government has a big
role in stimulating technology and research about ways
forward that get us off the global warming treadmill
and the position of the world's worst per capita polluter
amongst industrialised nations.

The government has been very tardy about that.
There has been not only limited but also dwindling
government input into renewable energy and energy
efficiency businesses, which are hugely job prospective
and hugely export oriented for the future of this country.

I want to point out here that 12 or 13 years ago we
outcompeted Japan in the production of solar panels.
Now Japan produces 50 per cent of the world's output
and Australia produces less than one per cent. This is
the sunshine country. Japan is technology oriented and

Thursday, 5 August 2004 SENATE 25627
CHAMBER

looks much more at the future. It has streeted the field
while this government has pulled the purse strings.
But the government has not pulled the purse strings
everywhere. When we look at Rio Tinto, the company
for which the Chief Scientist has been chief technologist
since his appointment in 1999, we find that some
$340 million in direct, indirect or enhancing grants has
gone to that corporation. In October 2001, $35 million
went, in the form of a 24-year interest free loan, to the
Rio Tinto Foundation for a Sustainable Minerals Industry.

The foundation is not a legal entity; it is an advisory
group to Rio Tinto. Also in October 2001, $102
million went to a strategic investment incentive for
energy generation to support the Comalco alumina refinery
at Gladstone. In May 2002, another $125 million
went to a strategic investment incentive for the HIsmelt
iron smelter. More funding has gone to cooperative
research centres in which Rio Tinto has core participation.

In December 2000, $14.5 million went to the
CRC for Coal in Sustainable Development. In December
2002, $21.8 million went to the CRC for Greenhouse
Gas Technologies. In December 2002, $18.8
million went to a sustainable resource processing investigation.

In August 2003, $23.4 million in additional
funding was allocated to the CRC for Greenhouse Gas
Technologies with in-kind contributions from Geoscience
Australia, the CSIRO and the Australian
Greenhouse Office.

When you look at the other side of the ledger, Mr
Acting Deputy President, you find that the well of
funding for the sunrise industries for environmental
technology-which are based on renewable energy
serving the whole of Australia and on energy efficiency-
is basically dry. We have seen this extraordinary
conjunction of the billowing of government largesse
directly and indirectly to a huge company like
Rio Tinto, whose chief technologist is Dr Batterham, at
the same time as Dr Batterham has been the Chief Scientist
for the government-whose role is to advise the
government on the way forward. This gives the appearance
of a conflict of interest.

We heard a lot in the committee process about how
the Chief Scientist absents himself from decisions
which involve Rio Tinto, about how he is not there
when the vote is taken and about how-when it comes
to CRCs and applications for other funding from Rio
Tinto-a firewall is set up in Rio Tinto so that the
Chief Scientist is not involved. But the committee
could not get, and did not get, any indication from Rio
Tinto of what that firewall was-nor did anybody in
the government have any idea of what the firewall was.
Nobody could tell us. Any fair observer from the outside
would be led to believe that this firewall is a fiction-
insofar as anybody could believe that there are
tight, laid-down and publicly examinable rules which
are, in effect, a firewall. We all know that it is not
about the words you say and it is not about the contacts
you make; it is about the influence you have that can
work enormously to favour your point of view in working
with posts, such as the post of Chief Scientist.

The committee also found that, on one occasion, Dr
Batterham did use unpublished and unverified data,
which was supplied by Rio Tinto, in a meeting of
Commonwealth and state energy ministers and failed
to declare the source of that information. That created
the appearance of a real conflict of interest. The report
went on to say:

The same data subsequently appeared in a high profile report
prepared by a PMSEIC working group. It appears that the
working group was not aware Rio Tinto had commissioned
information attributed to a private company, Roam Consulting.
37 However, the committee finds that the Chief Scientist
is not responsible for this oversight because he was not directly
involved in preparing the presentation to PMSEIC and
did not present it to the working group. The committee concludes
that this case has contributed to a perception of conflict
of interest which risks eroding public confidence in the
independence of advice provided to Government by the
Chief Scientist.

This is no small matter here, because the figures that
went through to the Prime Minister's scientific advisory
group were extraordinarily influential in terms of
the outcomes for this nation. They presented a very
low-cost option for geosequestration. They actually
came from Rio Tinto and its consulting company. That
ought to have been acknowledged, but it was not. If
you are going to have the presentation of verifiable
information to such extraordinarily influential advisory
organisations as the Prime Minister's scientific advisory
group then they need to know the source of that
information. The committee was unable to find anybody
else on the planet who had such low costings for
the potential of geosequestration. Nobody else was
able to present such low costings, and therefore present
such a favourable view of the potential for unproven
technology to take carbon dioxide out of the exudates
from coal-fired power stations and put them underground.

This is unproven technology. It was presented
as the lowest cost option without the information being
identified as coming at the behest of the coal company
for whom the Chief Scientist is the chief technologist-
that is, Rio Tinto.

Of course, this has the mark of a conflict of public
interest written all over it. Such a circumstance should
not be allowed to recur. Those who are competing for
government moneys, those who are promoting solar
power, wind power, biofuels, energy efficiency, wave
power and geothermal power all have a right to feel
aggrieved that such an important committee as that
advising the Prime Minister could use figures which
were not corroborated by other scientific sources but
which came from the company itself. I seek leave to
continue my remarks later.
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