bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo
  1. Key issues

Corporate interests

Behind every free trade and investment agreement lies a set of corporate interests. Just as they have greatly influenced the shape, scope and contents of World Trade Organization (WTO) agreements, so too are transnational corporations (TNCs), sectoral industry coalitions and lobby groups mobilizing around specific bilateral trade and investment negotiations, to push even further than they were able to get at the WTO.

“Bilateral and regional FTAs …are formalized manifestations of where our respective private sectors have taken us…it is really business and government moving in tandem,” explained Susan Schwab, former US Trade Representative in 2006.

TNCs, whether acting individually or as part of industry coalitions such as the US Council on International Business (USCIB), the Emergency Committee for International Trade, the Coalition of Service Industries (US), BusinessEurope, the European Services Forum (EU) or Nippon Keidanren (Japan), are organized, aggressive and influential in their demands for specific FTAs. The comprehensiveness of most free trade and investment agreements means that there are many cross-cutting issues as well as separate chapters and provisions in these agreements which serve to shape policy regimes in the interests of TNCs.

last update: May 2012
photo: Mehr Demokratie e.V.

US pork exports surging despite challenges
6-Dec-2021 National Hog Farmer
The biggest reason our exports have continued growing is trade deals, whether free trade agreements, trade and investment framework agreements or one-off market access deals.
Lobbying for globalization: How the winners dominate the politics of trade agreements
5-May-2021 Pro Market
Analysis shows that lobbying on FTAs has been dominated by a few very large firms, which experience large gains as a result of the entry into force of these agreements.
Cross-border data exchange: Regulatory options in international collaboration
15-Jan-2021 Federation of German Industries
German industry group BDI wants the EU to ban localization requirements and other limits to the free flow of data across borders.
Justice and reparation: the struggle of Chevron-affected communities in COVID-19 times
27-May-2020 Stop Corporate Impunity
Indigenous communities call for international solidarity to support for the vindication of rights of the comunities and peoples affected by corporate impunity and their struggle for a dignified life.
Tobacco as an ‘offensive interest’ in trade talks? The role of rules of origin
3-Jun-2019 EPHA
Beyond ISDS, another potential trade policy issue lurks in the background and which has not yet captured the attention of the health policy community: rules of origin in trade agreements.
Tobacco and trade: an unhealthy and harmful marriage
3-Jun-2019 EPHA
The tobacco industry has a long history of using international trade deals to force their products into new markets.
New report: Secret regulatory talks threaten public protections
22-May-2019 IATP
Regulatory cooperation has provided a forum for multinational business interests to influence government regulators in secretive committees that largely exclude consumer, environmental and other civil society representatives.
NZ red meat sector reacts to CPTPP ratification
25-Oct-2018 Global Meat News
The New Zealand red meat sector is urging other member countries of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to complete their ratifications so the treaty can come into force.
Trade Compass: Web-based service to utilize FTAs
20-Mar-2018 Deloitte
Trade Compass is a commercial web-based service with various analytical functions that aims to optimize the utilization of FTAs.
The corporate attack on the movement for trade justice
7-Sep-2017 CEO
Corporate lobbies and think tanks have gone on what appears to be a concerted attack against NGOs and other groups opposing new free trade and investment deals. A new report from Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl exposes how big business interests with the most to gain from the trade agreements have been trying to undermine and discredit civil society groups.