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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

A backroom deal on trade?
26-Jun-2007 Socialist Worker
The crisis facing the US empire in the Middle East is also playing out in American efforts to maintain economic dominance in Asia and Latin America.
USTR, Congress settle on changes to trade deals
26-Jun-2007 ABC News
The Bush administration and U.S. lawmakers have agreed on a blueprint to strengthen labor and environmental protections in four pending free trade deals, trade officials said on Monday.
The changing landscape of regional trade agreements: 2006 update
17-Jun-2007
An update (to end 2006) of WTO’s discussion paper on RTAs/FTAs
’Free trade’ drives Mexicans north
24-May-2007 Seattle Post Intelligencer
While Democratic leaders and President Bush do the hard sell on bipartisan immigration reform, they are now pushing secret, anti-worker, anti-environment trade agreements that will only exacerbate US immigration problems.
’New trade policy for America’
11-May-2007 House and Ways Committee
The agreement announced today is a fundamental shift in US trade policy and clears the way for broad, bipartisan congressional support for the Peru and Panama FTAs.
US officials reach agreement on trade deals to open way for Peru, Panama, other pacts
11-May-2007 IHT
Congressional Democratic leaders say they have forged new trade policy guidelines with the Bush administration that will elevate labor and environmental rights to key components in future free trade agreements.
Sides get closer to a deal on trade
11-May-2007 Washington Post
The Bush administration and Democratic leaders have struck a compromise that would insert stricter labor rules into future trade treaties, potentially lending fresh momentum to the global effort to promote free trade, sources briefed on the talks said yesterday.
Global trade talks stall as free trade agreements grow in Asia
3-May-2007 VOA
As the latest World Trade Organization round of talks loses momentum, bilateral and regional free trade agreements are mushrooming in Asia.
Preferential, not free trade deals
23-Apr-2007
All multilateral trade rounds managed under the umbrella of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), now the World Trade Organisation (WTO), are in crisis until a deal is done. The headlines are familiar and predictable, no trade round has ever failed or failed to disappoint.
US trade pacts at risk over business-labor clash
20-Apr-2007 Reuters
Bush administration efforts to reach a deal with the US Congress on trade were thrown into doubt on Thursday as US business and labor groups clashed over the core issue in the talks.

    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.