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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

Economist Jeffrey Sachs says NO to TPP and TAFTA trade deals
16-Sep-2014 Huffington Post
Jeffrey Sachs, world-renowned professor of economics, lays out five reasons why the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement should not be passed or ratified.
ISDS: The devil in the trade deal
14-Sep-2014 ABC
A common provision allowing foreign investors to sue host governments has become a ticking time bomb inside trade agreements. Some countries are now refusing to agree to the provision and are questioning its legal legitimacy. Jess Hill investigates.
550+ US groups reject fast-track trade promotion authority
11-Sep-2014 Sierra Club
Nearly 600 US organizations led by the Sierra Club, AFL-CIO, the Communications Workers of America, the Citizens Trade Campaign, and Public Citizen sent a letter to Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) firmly rejecting fast-track trade promotion authority and calling for a new system for negotiating and implementing trade agreements.
Small countries no say on trade pact
1-Sep-2014 Brunei Times
A recent report shows that small countries eager to join mega-regionals trade deals like the TPP could dock into the agreement but they would not have much say.
Plundering the planet: Rigged corporate “free trade partnerships” and “climate change agreements”
27-Aug-2014 Global Research
What do rigged corporate trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris Treaty, an international climate agreement to be signed in 2015, have in common?
The corporate free trade project reloaded
27-Aug-2014 TeleSur
Twenty years after NAFTA, the US and EU are making a renewed push for global free trade. But today the South is better able to resist such a project.
War of the FTAs
20-Aug-2014 Business World
As an exhausted World Trade Organisation struggles, expect a war of FTAs as rich countries hit back with new trade regimes under TPP and TTIP while emerging markets build the RCEP
New World Trade Order? Fighting TPP and TTIP/TAFTA
8-Aug-2014 Post Gobalisation Initiative
At the Left Forum 2014, one of the RLS-NYC panels discussed the trade agreements that are currently being negotiated: the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP, or TAFTA).
An urgent challenge for the BDS movement
5-Aug-2014 Socialist Worker
On July 10, the Palestinian BDS National Committee issued a call: "We urge people of conscience to intensify their pressure on governments to impose a military embargo on Israel and to suspend free trade and bilateral agreements with it until it fulfills its obligations under international law."
International trade partnerships: Deal or no deal?
3-Aug-2014 Oxford Analytica
Obstacles in several countries could delay the negotiations of TPP and TTIP — and possibly scupper the deals entirely, says Oxford Analytica. Infographic.

    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.