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bilateralism & multilateralism

Caribbean: Trade winds gusting as region faces WTO meet
18-Aug-2005 IPS
Recent developments in international trade highlight the difficulties facing the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) as it prepares for a key World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial meeting in Hong Kong this December.
Sri Lanka to focus on putting its trade basket in order this year, before venturing into new agreements
9-Aug-2005
Sri Lanka’s Commerce Department says all recently started trade negotiations will go on hold over the rest of the year, until priority commitments are sorted out.
Sticky situation for Japan’s rice policy
28-Jul-2005 Asia Times
As Japan moves to sign more bilateral Free Trade Agreements, agriculture remains a sticking point with other rice producing nations such as Australia, India and China.
APEC & free trade agreements in the Asia Pacific
22-Jul-2005
This conference provides a useful opportunity to reflect on the present and possible future role of APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation). In recent years, veteran APEC-watchers have rather complacently dismissed the grouping as irrelevant. But we may have under-estimated its contribution to the new matrix of economic alliances that are emerging within the region.
ASEAN in tariffs progress
21-Jul-2005
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations is said to be on track to achieve a zero-tariff regime by 2015, a key ingredient for its ambitious plan to create a single market and production base by 2020.
GCC-EU Free Trade Agreement: a political imperative
14-Jul-2005 Dubai Quality Group
The way to counter the momentum of the US bilateral push would be to quickly bring to conclusion the deal between the GCC and the EU and through such a mechanism reinvigorate the multilateral approach to regional relations.
The price of free trade
12-Jul-2005 Asia Times
As the struggle for regional economic dominance in Northeast Asia heats up, the battle for free trade agreements (FTAs) has reached a new level, which may not only see the weakening of the multilateral trade system, but also the cancerous growth of geopolitical influence in regional trade.
TRIPS, bilateralism, multilateralism & implications for developing countries: Jordan’s drug sector
30-Jun-2005
Looking at the experience of Jordan’s pharmaceutical sector, this paper shows that the expected benefits from bilateral agreements between developed and developing countries have been largely overestimated while the costs underestimated.
Bilateral Treaties to Promote and Protect Foreign Investment within the Americas: an alternative to the FTAA
29-Jun-2005 Argenpress
Sovereign states are the original right bearers. They have to denounce bilateral investment treaties or their most arbitrary clauses following the procedures provided, in accordance with the legal principles of democratic constitutions; to recover their legislative and jurisdictional powers, by retrieving their inherent jurisdiction which had been delegated to international foreign tribunals, allowing them to rule on the general regulatory or contractual policies of independent nations.
Current developments and trends in the field of intellectual property: implications for Arab countries
28-Jun-2005 ICTSD
Developments relating to protection of IP in Arab countries have, in general, received less attention from stakeholders, particularly civil society, than in other developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. In this connection, the aim of this paper is to stress the need for Arab countries to adopt a more development-oriented perspective on IP protection.
Investment regime takes shape
11-Jun-2005 Seeurope.net
Investment rules are not on the agenda of the current Doha Round of global trade talks. Instead, bilateral, regional and other level agreements are building a de facto international regime for investment.
Intellectual property in investment agreements: The TRIPS-plus implications for developing countries
2-Jun-2005 South Centre
In this analytical note, the South Centre examines the implication of the emerging approaches relating to the fair and equitable treatment and the national and most-favoured nation (MFN) treatment in investment agreements for the overall regimes for the protection and enforcement of IP in developing countries.
’Too many FTAs could hurt Asean’
30-May-2005 Bangkok Post
Too many bilateral free trade area (FTA) agreements between individual Asian countries and more powerful economies will erode Asean’s drive to create free trade among its 10 members, according to Dr Somkiat Tangkitvanich, research director of the Thailand Development Research Institute.
The changing landscape of regional trade agreements
19-May-2005 WTO
This new WTO discussion paper looks at main trends and characteristics of regional trade agreements, in force and under negotiation. It also examines their effects on third parties and on the multilateral trading system.
Feeding on fears
12-May-2005 News International
We need to guard against attempts by vested interests to discourage South-South trade and to divide the economic unity of South Asia.
Land of the rising FTA
12-May-2005 Asia Times
With negotiations of an ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA and a China-Australia FTA already under way, building an FTA relationship with Australia is essential if Japan is to maintain its role as a leader in developing an FTA structure in the Asia-Pacific region.
’High time we signed RTAs’
11-May-2005 Financial Express
Commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath has said that India is specifically looking at regional trading agreements (RTA) to boost its trade. "Without such agreements India faces the risk of being isolated globally. India must engage in trade on a regional basis", he said.
It’s make or break time for free trade, says Supachai
6-May-2005
World Trade Organisation chief Supachai Panitchpakdi has described this month as a crucial period that could make or break the highly-anticipated WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December.
FTAs protectionism in disguise: Garnaut
5-May-2005
This week, to the fanfare of headlines trumpeting talk of a $24 billion bonanza, Australia and China announced the start of formal negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA). However, the Federal Government’s pursuit of FTAs all over the globe has its detractors who argue that they are a sort of Trojan horse for protectionism and they also damage relations with countries that we don’t have deals with.
Priorities for Indian trade policy
5-May-2005
Recent writings on trade policy have focused excessively on free trade agreements/regional trade agreements (FTAs/RTAs) and their usefulness to India. The importance attached to this topic, at the expense of serious discussions on second-generation trade reforms, is frightening.