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bilateralism & multilateralism

USTR 2005 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers
31-Mar-2005 USTR
Office of the US Trade Representative has released its 2005 report on country-by-country barriers to US global trade interests.
Bush’s pointsman has his job cut out
21-Mar-2005
After weeks of uncertainty, President George W Bush has nominated as US Trade Representative Rob Portman, a Republican Congressman from Ohio, better known for his loyalty to the President than for any experience in international trade negotiations.
Updates on developments in the Pacific
16-Mar-2005 Scoop
Governments within the Asia/Pacific region that are rabid free traders have embarked on a rescue mission for the WTO and APEC through regional and bilateral agreements that are also designed to be WTO-plus.
An FTA with the US, what are we really in for?
1-Mar-2005
Regional and bilateral trade agreements have been around since the 1950’s. In the last decade however, there has been an increasing spurt of trade pacts being signed all over the world that pose challenges to the multilateral trading system.
Draft TIFA between USA and Bangladesh leaked: A quick analysis
25-Feb-2005
USA is forcing Bangladesh to sign a Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), that will bind Bangladesh to work with USA on the successful completion of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and will provide extra facilities to USA "without prejudice to each party’s rights and obligations" under the WTO.
Trade links can fight terrorists
24-Feb-2005 AFP
More open trade links between Australia and the Asia-Pacific can play a major role in fighting terrorism throughout the region, Treasurer Peter Costello said today.
Gloomy trade outlook
24-Feb-2005 UPI
Economic considerations are well down the list of reasons why bilateral trade agreements get negotiated
Japan to sign FTA with Switzerland
22-Feb-2005 New Kerala
An FTA with Switzerland, to be reached by April, would allow Japan to strengthen its position to fight back pressure to open up its agricultural market.
Peter Mandelson speech on ’Strengthening the Lisbon Strategy’
16-Feb-2005 European Commission
"The hoped-for success of Doha should be complemented by bilateral or regional initiatives, such as Regional Trade Agreements with Mercosur and the Gulf Cooperation Council, which allow the pursuit of a wider agenda."
WTO wrong to abandon core values
15-Feb-2005
Free trade agreements are popping up everywhere. In its first term the Bush administration pushed four through Congress and started another three. China is negotiating FTAs with Chile and New Zealand. And Australia has negotiated three with Washington, Singapore and Thailand, and is in the process of dealing with Beijing. Not everyone thinks they are good.
Pakistan, Sri Lanka sign free trade pact
10-Feb-2005 Dawn
Pakistan and Sri Lanka have exchanged diplomatic notes to formalize the annextures in bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with a view to its operationalization between the two countries.
The rush to regionalism
3-Feb-2005 IISD
This paper aims to set out the issues of importance in addressing the links between sustainable development and the rush to regionalism (FTAs).
Stop the mad pursuit of bilateral free trade and economic partnership agreements!
26-Jan-2005 IMC QC
We - farmers, fisherfolks, rural women, workers from the formal and informal sectors, and NGOs belonging to the Stop the New Round! Coalition - express our strong opposition to the Philippines government’s mad pursuit of bilateral free trade agreements particularly with Japan, China and the USA.
Europe: support for change carries agendas
22-Jan-2005 Trinidad & Tobago Express
As 2005 proceeds, some Caribbean nations may find themselves faced with an unusually specific strategic choice: Europe may suggest the need to consider the relative weight they intend to give to the development of sectors such as tourism in preference to the role presently afforded to traditional agriculture.
Divide and conquer: The FTAA, US trade strategy and public services in the Americas
20-Jan-2005 PSI
Documents the progress of “competitive liberalization,” a strategy advanced by the United States Trade Representative to establish a network of bilateral international trade agreements as steps toward the multilateral GATS agreement.
Tokyo tries dual trade diplomacy
20-Jan-2005 Asahi Shumbun
The government wants to have it both ways with its trade diplomacy this year, focusing on bilateral free trade agreements in the first half and multilateral negotiations at the World Trade Organization in the second.
Regional, bilateral deals seen as impeding trade
18-Jan-2005
Far from being a stepping stone to freer trade, the NAFTA and other regional and bilateral trade deals have created a conflicting web of preferential arrangements that may be impeding rather than spurring trade, the authors of a report commissioned by the World Trade Organization have concluded.
Vaile defends trade deals
18-Jan-2005
Trade Minister Mark Vaile today defended Australia’s free trade deals with foreign countries after a new World Trade Organisation (WTO) report said such agreements could be discriminatory.
WTO hampered by ’spaghetti bowl’ deals
18-Jan-2005 FT
The World Trade Organisation is being undermined by the intransigence and short-sightedness of its member countries, according to the report of a high-level commission released on Monday.
Bill Day: Bring back the multilateral pact
16-Jan-2005
Now that Trade Representative Robert Zoellick is moving to the State Department as Condoleezza Rice’s deputy, U.S. trade policy may see a shift from small bilateral pacts back to big, sweeping multilateral trade agreements.