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  1. Negotiations

:: Across the board ::

This section contains news and analysis of sweeping developments that affect the overall push and pull towards FTAs and bilateral investment treaties. This means major trends relating to bilateralism, often with global consequences, and other cross-cutting issues. New developments arising from US politics, the WTO or South-South alliance-building, for instance, are often reported here as they tend to have systemic impacts.

last update: May 2012

Human rights, environment and climate protection before profits
25-Nov-2020 S2B Network
Three principles to reshape trade and investment to overcome the crisis.
Martin Khor – a life spent fighting for a just global economy
5-Oct-2020
Economist and journalist Martin Khor, whose life was cut short by cancer on 1 April 2020, was a standout figure in the struggle for a radical transformation of global economic relations.
Corporate trade deals: A history of resistance
24-Sep-2020 The World Transformed
From the Seattle protests against the WTO, to the defeat of TTIP and the Free Trade Area of the Americas, the attempt to impose corporate trade deals has often created moments of crisis for the system.
Indo-Pacific guidelines: Germany’s new China plan
3-Sep-2020 Pledge Times
Berlin wants to diversify its relations, position itself more broadly, conclude further free trade agreements – also in order to no longer be so dependent on Beijing.
Creating a feminist alliance for trade justice
14-Jul-2020 Open Global Rights
Trade liberalisation is incompatible with women’s human rights and gender equality when corporations exploit women’s cheap labour as a source of comparative advantage.
USTR Lighthizer says bilateral trade pacts conflict with multilateral trading system
10-Jul-2020 Reuters
US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said the world needed either a multilateral system to govern global trade or a series of bilateral agreements, but the two were in conflict with each other.
Trade development agreement between Venezuela and Turkey becomes effective August 21
8-Jul-2020 MercoPress
A new trade deal between Turkey and Venezuela, officially titled “Trade Development Agreement,” will enter into force on August 21.
How capitalism and other viruses are ravaging the Global South
19-May-2020 Jacobin
The economic hegemony exerted by the trade regime — and related financial structures — mirrors and extends old colonial patterns of exploitation and dispossession. Its policies represent our “normal.”
What global trade deals are really about (hint: it’s not trade)
11-May-2020 TEDx Talks
Haley Edwards breaks down the history of trade and explains how the idea of global trade has transformed in the past decades.
Stop all trade and investment treaty negotiations during COVID-19 crisis and focus on access to medical supplies and saving lives
22-Apr-2020 Friends of the Earth International
An open letter to Trade Ministries and the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

    Links

  • #A18DoA - Global day of action to defeat free trade and investment treaties
    Website for the global day of action to defeat free trade and investment treaties #A18DoA
  • 21st Century Trade Agreements: Implications for Long-Run Development Policy
    A publication of the Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. The paper examines the policy space available under various free trade regimes for countries pursuing industrial policies for development.
  • Alianza Social Continental
    La Alianza Social Continental es un foro de organizaciones y movimientos sociales progresistas de las Américas, creado para intercambiar información, definir estrategias y promover acciones conjuntas, todo ello encaminado a la búsqueda de un modelo de desarrollo alternativo y democrático, que beneficie a nuestros pueblos
  • ICC
    International Chamber of Commerce
  • Movimientos.org
    A multilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese) website focusing on social movements and their campaigns, including those against bilateral and regional FTAs.
  • Pambazuka
    In this week’s edition of the Emerging Powers News Round-Up, read a comprehensive list of news stories and opinion pieces related to China, India and other emerging powers...
  • People over profit
    People Over Profit is a campaign network that unites peoples movements and NGOs across the globe to stop free trade agreements (FTAs) and corporate plunder, launched in October 2016.
  • Peoples Global Action
    In February 1998, movements from all continents met in Geneva to launch a worldwide coordination of resistances to the global market, a new alliance of struggle and mutual support called Peoples’ Global Action against "Free" Trade and the World Trade Organisation (PGA).
  • Regional/Multilateral Integration Agreements
    Selected research papers on regional trade agreements, from internationaleconomics.net
  • SOMO
    SOMO links the negotiations and rules on international trade and investment with the actual conduct of corporations within these rules and agreements.
  • South Centre
    An intergovernmental organisation of developing countries
  • Stop fast track!
    10 days to stop fast track in the United States: Jan 22 - 31 2014
  • Third World Network
    TWN’s website is a good source of information and analysis about what’s happening within the multilateral trade system (WTO, UNCTAD, G77, etc).
  • WorldTradeLaw.net
    WorldTradeLaw.net offers a free library of current trade news and resources; a database of dispute settlement tables and statistics; and a user-friendly search tool for legal texts, and other documents.