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geopolitics

ISDS clause: a gateway to future trade deals
9-Dec-2014 EurActiv
Trade officials negotiating the ISDS arbitration clause within the EU-US trade agreement have half an eye on their next deals, since the wording is likely to shape other key trade treaties on the table.
Beijing, Washington locked in FTA race
6-Nov-2014 China Daily
There appears to be a race between the United States and China to dominate the rules-setting game for trade by being the first to announce plans of realising a Free Trade Agreement for the Asia-Pacific — with billions of dollars in trade at stake.
Departing from TTIP and going plurilateral
17-Oct-2014 Madariaga - College of Europe
European think-tank piece on how TTIP is designed to create a "transatlantic internal market" without the democracy.
European Union drops plan to label oilsands crude ’dirty’
7-Oct-2014 CBC
The European Union has backed off a plan to label oil from Alberta’s oilsands as dirtier than other oils and to make it harder to import.​
Can China and Russia squeeze Washington out of Eurasia?
7-Oct-2014 The Nation
There could soon be a trade alliance between Beijing, Moscow and Berlin—but you wouldn’t know it from the triumphal tone in Washington.
Euro-African trade signifies changing relations
6-Aug-2014 London Economic
From a geopolitical perspective, Europe arguably needs the EPA trade deals with Africa more than Africa does.
China’s surging investment in US heralds new multinational era
4-Aug-2014 SCMP
Chinese investments in the United States now exceed American investments in China in an historic shift that may see the emergence of joint Sino-US multinationals, but one that is also fraught with geopolitical risks, said analysts.
The Japan-Mongolia FTA is about cars, minerals and abductees
23-Jul-2014 The Diplomat
Mining is expected to become a much larger portion of their overall trade, with an investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clause instituted to protect companies and allow them to seek compensation if government policy negatively impacts their investments.
Russia to terminate free trade agreement with Ukraine following EU association pact
4-Jul-2014 Voice of Russia
Russia is ready to suspend the free trade zone agreement with Ukraine after the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement comes into effect, Tatyana Golendeyeva, deputy chief of the Russian Federal Customs Service said.
Ukraine signs trade agreement with EU, draws Russian threat
27-Jun-2014 Reuters
Ukraine signed on Friday an historic free-trade agreement with the European Union that has been at the heart of months of violence and upheaval in the country, drawing an immediate threat of "grave consequences" from Russia.
The geopolitics of the Eurasian Economic Union
3-Jun-2014 Counterpunch
The deal signed last week by Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan to create a Eurasian Economic Union is yet another countermeasure against US and European attempts to isolate Russia.
Afraid of free trade
25-Apr-2014
Diplomacy in South Asia is given over to give-no-quarter bureaucrats, who cleave to a nationalism that continues to trump economics.
Pas d’accord commercial USA-Japon, mais un soutien réaffirmé
25-Apr-2014 Reuters
La visite de Barack Obama au Japon, qui s’achevait vendredi, n’a pas permis d’aboutir à la conclusion d’un accord commercial entre Washington et Tokyo mais a été marquée par la réaffirmation du soutien américain face aux ambitions chinoises.
Ukrainian leftist: ’The enemy is within – whether in Russia, Ukraine or the West’
31-Mar-2014 Links
What will happen next in Ukraine? The coordinated plundering of the country by both sides (the West and Russia), says Kolesnik Dmitry.
Russia FTA could be delayed - Key
3-Mar-2014 3 News
New Zealand Prime Minister John Key says a free-trade agreement with Russia could be delayed because of the escalating situation between the superpower and Ukraine.
Interview: Dutch expert says TTIP might be game changer for geopolitics
31-Jan-2014 Xinhua
Peter van Ham, senior research fellow at the Dutch Clingendael Institute, thinks that TTIP could have an overwhelming standard-setting power for other countries.
US drafts Ukraine sanctions, as EU mulls new talks
10-Jan-2014 EU Observer
The US state department has been remodelled to fit the EU’s so-called Eastern Partnership policy on pulling former Soviet republics closer to the West amid Russia’s new assertiveness in the region
EU halts work on Ukraine trade deal
15-Dec-2013 BBC
The European Union has suspended work on a trade and association agreement with Ukraine after failing to get a "clear commitment" from President Viktor Yanukovych to sign it.
Leaks confirm fears about Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement
5-Dec-2013 Redeye
In mid-November, Wikileaks released the secret draft text for the Intellectual Property Rights Chapter of the TPP. Stuart Trew talks about what this leak tells us about the agreement as a whole.
Turkey: Not making eyes at the Eurasian Union — for now
25-Nov-2013 Eurasianet
After 26 years of frustration over its start-and-stop bid to join the European Union, would Turkey ever consider joining a rival regional bloc led by the Kremlin? Few observers believe it likely, but it’s not completely out of the question.