Skip to main content
Gifts from The Morning Star
How to ensure trade justice in Scotland?
Post-Brexit trade deals need proper scrutiny before being passed, writes VINCE MILLS

THERE is an important motion currently before the Scottish Parliament which enjoys the support of Green, SNP and Labour MSPs, including leading left MSPs like Labour leader Richard Leonard, Neil Findlay and Elaine Smith.

It also has the backing of Trade Justice Scotland — a coalition of 27 trade unions, organisations and local activist groups campaigning against unjust trade deals. 

The motion demands, among other (good) things that “trade deals should not allow courts outside of the domestic legal system to grant special legal rights to corporations … and that public services should always be excluded from trade deals.”

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
More from this author
21st Century Poetry / 1 October 2025
1 October 2025

by Vince Mills

Prime Minister Keir Starmer (left) and Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham, during a meeting with English regional mayors, at No 10 Downing Street in Westminster, central London, July 9, 2024
Features / 15 September 2025
15 September 2025

Lucy Powell may not exactly be the left’s choice, but her bid for the deputy leadership is certainly not the Labour right’s choice — and if she wins, that could mean the ascendancy of Andy Burnham and the end of Keir Starmer, writes VINCE MILLS

Prime Minister Keir Starmer attends the national Service of Remembrance to mark the 80th Anniversary of VJ Day at the National Memorial Arboretum in Alrewas, Staffordshire, August 15, 2025
Features / 26 August 2025
26 August 2025

VINCE MILLS charts the disintegration of the Starmer faction’s platform and the gulf between it and Labour members

Prime Minister Keir Starmer with Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar (left) after delivering his keynote speech during the Scottish Labour Party conference at the Scottish Exhibition Centre (SEC) in Glasgow, February 23, 2025
Features / 29 July 2025
29 July 2025

VINCE MILLS says Scottish Labour has adopted better positions than its Westminster counterpart — but unless it starts to fight for them that will count for nothing

Similar stories
Guillaume Périgois
Politics / 14 August 2025
14 August 2025

Starmer sabotaged Labour with his second referendum campaign, mobilising a liberal backlash that sincerely felt progressive ideals were at stake — but the EU was then and is now an entity Britain should have nothing to do with, explains NICK WRIGHT

United States Vice-President JD Vance, right, shakes hands w
Features / 12 February 2025
12 February 2025
The EU and Nato are umbilically tied – but what will the new Trump era and a reconfiguration of US interests mean for the war in Ukraine, asks VINCE MILLS
A rally demanding changes to the Trump administration’s re
Features / 13 December 2024
13 December 2024
Global South governments’ sovereignty and ability to decide future economic policy are severely compromised by signing free trade agreements, whose terms are heavily weighted in favour of the already wealthy countries of the global North, writes BERT SCHOUWENBURG
Chinese-made BYD passenger battery electric vehicles and plu
Features / 12 November 2024
12 November 2024
New tariffs on Chinese electric cars protect European capitalists at European consumers’ and workers’ expense, writes BHABANI SHANKAR NAYAK, showing a continuation of neocolonial trade practices