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bilateralism & multilateralism

Free trade pacts more dangerous than WTO - IBON
20-Aug-2006 IBON Foundation
In the wake of the collapse of the Doha talks in the World Trade Organization (WTO), negotiations for the Philippines to enter into an Asia-Pacific free trade agreement (FTA) have become more urgent for industrialized countries. But independent think-tank IBON Foundation warns that entering into an FTA could be even more dangerous than liberalization under the WTO.
When free trade sinks into the ’noodle bowl’
17-Aug-2006 IHT
FTAs are supposedly meant to substitute for lack of progress at the WTO. In practice they are mostly preferential arrangements that run counter to APEC’s principle of "open regionalism," which allows members to pursue liberalization at their own pace but on a nondiscriminatory basis.
Plan B for world trade
16-Aug-2006 Financial Times
The indefinite suspension of the Doha round of world trade talks creates big risks for the world economy. A new explosion of discriminatory bilateral and regional agreements is likely to substitute for global liberalisation, eroding the multilateral rules-based system of the World Trade Organisation.
Negotiate, negotiate and negotiate
16-Aug-2006 Gulf News
The EU has brought up new subjects that "hasn’t really made the GCC side too happy" in terms of delaying the EU-GCC FTA negotiations. "You saw the negotiations being filled with all kinds of issues that really shouldn’t have been a part of an FTA agreement: human rights, political reform and (anti-) terrorism strategies."
Goff: The current state of trade negotiations
16-Aug-2006 Scoop
New Zealand has never put all its eggs in one basket and has always maintained an active regional and bilateral agenda, parallel to the WTO. In current circumstances, that is likely to intensify.
Doha lull ‘gives SA time to finalise policy’
10-Aug-2006
The stalled Doha negotiations would give SA a valuable opportunity to strengthen technical consultation and tighten relations in the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) before the trade talks were resumed, SA’s chief trade negotiator, Xavier Carim, said yesterday.
WTO: Best left for dead?
9-Aug-2006 TomPaine.com
Confronting the bilateral FTAs will no doubt present fresh difficulties for activists. After all, bilateral negotiations were advancing with or without the multilateral body.
Putting world trade back together again
9-Aug-2006
The Irish poet WB Yeats wrote that when things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. The Doha round has finally fallen apart. What, if anything, can hold the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the multilateral trading system together?
Managing Globalization: A new trade bandwagon - Are rich-poor pacts fair?
9-Aug-2006
You might as well call it Newton’s Third Law of Trade Negotiations.
FTAs and RTAs: The political imperative
8-Aug-2006
Last week, Sanjaya Baru, the media advisor to the prime minister, and an economist in a previous avatar, published a book called The Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance. Amongst other things in it, he argues for more regional trading agreements.
US reviews duty-free access to market
8-Aug-2006 Washington Times
The Bush administration is considering ending trade concessions granted to India, Brazil and other fast-developing nations under a three-decade-old program meant to help poor countries. The administration’s review comes as some lawmakers look to punish governments that opposed US policies during World Trade Organization talks — especially a group of middle-income nations led by Brazil and India — by ending their preferences entirely.
Doha failure Beijing’s chance
7-Aug-2006 The Australian
Separate trade agreements will allow China to cherry-pick the deals it wants.
Vaile floats idea of Asian FTA
5-Aug-2006 The Age
Australia could join an Asia-wide free trade bloc or create its own deal with other free-trading nations across the globe. Trade Minister Mark Vaile has floated at least two options for Australia if the current round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations collapse.
A reality cheque
2-Aug-2006
An intensification of efforts for free trade agreements across countries is logical after the inconclusive Doha round. India is no laggard-with its renewed vigour on the ‘look east’ front, and with pragmatic moves for economic pacts with the US and EU.
For George Bush, a fair deal means what American farmers demand
2-Aug-2006
When the Doha round of global trade talks collapsed last Monday, suddenly and acrimoniously, after five long years, furious trade ministers seemed to agree about only one thing - they were throwing away the best hope in decades of helping poor countries trade their way out of poverty.
Japan faces rocky FTA road
2-Aug-2006
Now that the global trade talks under the World Trade Organization have collapsed, Japan will be forced to walk down what looks like a rocky road to seek bilateral free trade agreements, marking a departure from its trade policy based on both multilateral and bilateral approaches.
WTO is dead, long live free trade: globalisation and its new avatars
1-Aug-2006
Bilateral and unilateral, initiatives are the new avatars of globalisation and free trade. And it is these avatars we must challenge to stop corporate rule, while WTO hangs between intensive care and the crematorium.
A Korea-U.S. trade agreement: what is at stake?
31-Jul-2006 The Hankyoreh
This examines macro-economic issues, intellectual property and patent protections, the potential impact on pharmaceuticals, and other issues at stake in the U.S.-Korea FTA.
WTO collapse set to fuel Asia’s "noodle bowl" effect
31-Jul-2006
The breakdown of the WTO talks has dealt a blow to the trade prospects of Asia’s open economies and is likely to encourage a growing "noodle bowl" of bilateral pacts, analysts said.
Japan to focus on FTAs after collapse of WTO Talks
31-Jul-2006
Japan is expected to focus its trade policy more on bilateral free trade agreements after the World Trade Organization’s Doha round of global trade liberalization talks has effectively collapsed.