geopolitics
Agreement of strategic importance to counter Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean.
A new split East Asian order is emerging led by China through the RCEP negotiations and Belt and Road Initiative.
China has shown no hesitation in disregarding its obligations under the free trade agreement with South Korea to take retaliatory measures against the deployment of a US missile defense system in the peninsula, say Korean media
Sri Lanka has signed a $1.1bn (£837m) deal with China for the control and development of the southern deep-sea port of Hambantota.
The EU now has much of Asia and Latin America in its sights for trade treaties, while a far-reaching pact with Canada will already enter force in September.
Several Nigerian lobby groups, including an organization of retired ambassadors, are putting pressure on the Nigerian government to reject the application because of the decades-old dispute over Western Sahara and Morocco’s geographical distance.
Two weeks ago the worst fear of Canadian opponents of neoliberal ‘free trade’ agreements came true. Surprisingly, there has been almost no reaction from the political parties, unions, and other organizations that warned these agreements would be used to undermine Canadian law, even though this is exactly what happened.
RCEP is aimed at saving China’s own economy via the Belt and Road
The United States has largely used BITs as a foreign policy tool to improve relationships with strategically important countries in the developing world.
The European Union is eyeing to exclude the UK from trade talks with Australia amid concerns that “sensitive information” may be used by an almost ex-member, reports European Sting.
At the bilateral level, Moscow and New Delhi are poised to make a trajectory shift, especially in the realms of two-way mutually beneficial economic linkages.
European Union leaders expressed confidence that they would clinch an agreement that addresses Dutch concerns over a deal establishing closer ties with Ukraine, mindful that any failure to do so would hand a victory to Russia.
A new era of corporate ’free trade’ colonialism looms, spearheaded by aid spending, with ramped-up arms exports to the world’s most corrupt and repressive regimes
Taiwan will seek the support of the United States for signing bilateral and multilateral investment and free trade agreements, the Taiwanese President has said.
From this winter on, Swiss supermarkets will probably, for the first time, no longer sell tomatoes from occupied Western Sahara.
Vietnam’s decision to hold off ratifying the Trans-Pacific Partnership is a further blow to the beleaguered trade pact and a setback for American economic ambitions in Asia.
Given new attempts by the U.S. to create economic integration structures that will restrain Chinese dominance in the region, Beijing is working on building deeper economic cooperation with other Asia-Pacific countries – including Russia.
Thailand and other Asean nations should review their stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and rather refocus on materialising the Regional Cooperation on Economic Partnership, said former WTO chief.
The establishment of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) in January 2015 congealed EU-Russia relations in terms of geopolitics and trade policy.
Lauge Poulsen is a Lecturer in International Political Economy at University College London. His recent book explains why and how developing countries signed up to investment treaties.
