- Negotiations
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
6-Nov-2008
Asian countries should be prepared for intensified trade protectionism under US president-elect Barack Obama as he seeks to revive the world’s largest economy, according to economists.
8-Oct-2008
IPS
Plans to conclude free trade agreements (FTAs) between the European Union and several Asian economies are unlikely to be realised in the near future, a senior Brussels official has conceded.
11-Sep-2008
Reuters
The Bush administration, Republican lawmakers and business groups pressed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday to allow votes on free trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea by the end of the year.
9-Sep-2008
IHT
Peter Mandelson once said he would be the last man standing in the marathon push for a global trade deal, but as his time as Europe’s trade chief ticks away, he may have to settle for smaller prizes.
5-Sep-2008
Gulf Times
In our free trade gone-wild world, property rights are being applied in areas where they have never before existed and may not pertain (such as intellectual products, services, biodiversity, genetics), and governments have not learned to use their sovereignty to advance multilateralism for both their individual interests and the global common good. There must be a new starting point, based on the recognition of an added dimension in world trade — the realisation that some goods are private (commercial), some are public (governmental), and others are common (for the benefit of people everywhere).
5-Sep-2008
WSJ
The latest sign that the postwar era of "multilateral" trade liberalization has ended came last week in Singapore.
6-Aug-2008
Interview with Aziz Choudry on the collapse of WTO talks in Geneva, and what’s happening with FTAs, aired on CKUT Radio’s Off the Hour, Tuesday edition, 5 August 2008.
5-Aug-2008
WWD
Four former architects of US trade policy, sharing nearly 20 years of negotiating experience between them and spanning three administrations, laid out to Congress last week their blueprints for a future agenda.
29-Jul-2008
Swazi Observer
The ongoing Doha round of World Trade Organisation talks is seen to be undermining regional integration and economic development efforts by African countries, analysts have noted.
28-Jul-2008
TWN
The special safeguard mechanism currently being proposed for agriculture at the WTO mini-ministerial requires large increases in imports before it can be used, does not allow tariffs to be raised sufficiently and cannot be used to protect developing country farmers from import surges due to free trade agreements.
Links
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Website for the global day of action to defeat free trade and investment treaties #A18DoA
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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.
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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
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International Chamber of Commerce
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A multilingual (English, Spanish, Portuguese) website focusing on social movements and their campaigns, including those against bilateral and regional FTAs.
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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...
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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.
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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).
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Selected research papers on regional trade agreements, from internationaleconomics.net
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SOMO links the negotiations and rules on international trade and investment with the actual conduct of corporations within these rules and agreements.
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An intergovernmental organisation of developing countries
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10 days to stop fast track in the United States: Jan 22 - 31 2014
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TWN’s website is a good source of information and analysis about what’s happening within the multilateral trade system (WTO, UNCTAD, G77, etc).
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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.
