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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

Biggest US free trade legislation since 1994 eases protectionist concern
13-Oct-2011 Bloomberg
The U.S. Congress approved free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, bringing an end to years of stalemate and offering what supporters said was the biggest opportunity for exporters in decades.
Senate Committee trade vote interrupted by protests
12-Oct-2011 WSJ
Protesters on Tuesday interrupted a U.S. Senate Finance Committee vote on free-trade agreements with Colombia, South Korea and Panama, forcing the committee to briefly delay the committee meeting.
Trade pacts set for heated fight
4-Oct-2011 WSJ
The AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, opposes all three agreements and will hold a Capitol Hill demonstration Tuesday to protest them. But the short timeline mapped out for passage gives opponents little time to block the deals.
"Trade deals hurt the middle class"
3-Oct-2011 Politico
"We strongly oppose the proposed trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama. They will not help put Americans back to work, only further hasten the decline of our middle class," declares Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO
Obama urged to seek power for free-trade deals by ally Daschle
19-Sep-2011 Bloomberg
President Barack Obama should seek more power from Congress to negotiate free-trade agreements, according to a panel that included former Senator Tom Daschle, an adviser to Obama’s 2008 campaign.
A critical look at pending free trade agreements
9-Sep-2011 WBEZ
We sift through the facts and myths of free trade agreements with Laura Carlsen, director of the Americas Program of the Center for International Policy and a columnist for Foreign Policy in Focus.
Africa still the odd one out
8-Sep-2011 IPS
While globally trade agreements are more and more about linking production chains between countries and continents, Africa remains locked in a struggle to overcome the colonial legacy of fragmentation, trade experts say.
Some see trade deals as threatening state laws
22-Aug-2011 AP
In Vermont, Maine and other states, there’s growing concern that free trade agreements could undermine states’ authority in a host of areas, ranging from the regulation of groundwater extraction by bottled water companies, to negotiating lower prices for prescription drugs, to issuance of state approval for a takeover of an electric utility by a foreign-owned company.
US may ratchet up FTA drive amid economic woes: experts
10-Aug-2011 Yonhap
"The US has no viable options at the moment to prevent a further slowdown in the economy," said Kim Han-seong, a researcher at the state-run Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP). "The only answer is free trade deals, and the US is now forced to seek free trade deals aggressively."
Free trade agreements: The dangerous new frontier
5-Aug-2011 People’s Democracy
FTAs are worse than the WTO because they demand much more, writes Amit Sengupta

    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.