bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo

Articles by language

English
Tagalog
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."
Come clean on Malaysia’s trade with Israel, says PKR MP
5-Aug-2014 Malay Mail
A PKR lawmaker demanded today that Putrajaya reveal the trade relationship between pro-Palestine Malaysia and Israel amid the bloody conflict in Gaza.
Taiwan, China to restart talks on goods free-trade agreement
5-Aug-2014 Reuters
Representatives from China and Taiwan have reached an agreement to restart formal negotiations on a free-trade pact that would eliminate tax on the vast majority of goods flowing between the two, Taiwan officials said Tuesday.
Why developing host countries sign increasingly strict investment agreements
5-Aug-2014 Vox.eu
Despite the failure of the OECD’s MAI negotiations and the lack of agreement to put investment on the WTO’s negotiating agenda, the major source countries of FDI will eventually get close to their objective of a comprehensive web of investment agreements with increasingly stricter investment provisions with those developing countries that compete with each other as hosts of their FDI.
Germany seeks to limit investor protection to save trade deal
5-Aug-2014 FT
The German government expects the Canadian deal will be agreed at an EU-Canada summit in late September but believes that some changes could be ultimately needed in the final wording.
Latin America reacts to Israel’s massacre in Gaza
4-Aug-2014 Mint Press
Latin American countries are now moving to sever diplomatic ties with the settler-colonial state — as some have done in the past — and Chile has already suspended its existing free trade agreements.
China’s surging investment in US heralds new multinational era
4-Aug-2014 SCMP
Chinese investments in the United States now exceed American investments in China in an historic shift that may see the emergence of joint Sino-US multinationals, but one that is also fraught with geopolitical risks, said analysts.
US-Africa Summit - Are we up for a new deal?
4-Aug-2014 ECDPM
The US Trade Representative Michael Froman argues for comprehensive trade and investment strategy – read possibly in the future, negotiate reciprocal trade agreements, à la EU-Africa Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) but with more binding investment clauses to protect the interests of US businessmen.
Geist: How a 20-year-old patent application could upend Canada’s biggest trade deal
4-Aug-2014 The Star
From a Canadian perspective, the Eli Lilly case has provided a powerful reminder that the risks associated with ISDS may outweigh the benefits with legal cases that can take decades to resolve.
Abe talks up trade ties with Latin American alliance
4-Aug-2014 Kyodo
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed eagerness Saturday to bolster economic and trade ties with the four Latin American nations that make up the Pacific Alliance, after accelerating the conclusion of a free trade agreement with Colombia.
Foreign ministers rekindle interest in EU-ASEAN FTA
4-Aug-2014 ASEAN Briefing
It is expected that the EU FTAs currently under negotiation with Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand, and the deal already concluded with Singapore, will eventually be used as the basis for a rejuvenated region-to-region FTA.
TTIP: battle of the choirs
4-Aug-2014 War on Want
The battle over TTIP has moved into the cultural sphere with the Strawberry Thieves Socialist Choir versus the Yale Spizzwinks.
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.
South Korea farmers begin fresh protests against rice market liberalization
1-Aug-2014 Oryza.com
Farmers are demanding a Rice Tariff Law and also want the government to exclude rice from all future Free Trade Agreements (FTA).
US lawmakers warn Japan, Canada on Pacific trade deal talks
1-Aug-2014 Reuters
A bipartisan group of US lawmakers on Wednesday said Japan’s refusal to drop all barriers to farm imports under a Pacific trade deal was unacceptable and urged the US administration to cut Japan and Canada out of the talks if they did not give ground.
Obama’s TPP: Taking neo-liberalism to a new level
1-Aug-2014 ChinaWorker.Info
The sort of movement we need to successfully defeat the TPP has not yet emerged. In part trade union leaders bear responsibility for this: they have spoken up either in a tokenistic manner or not at all about what will be an absolute catastrophe for workers’ rights and living conditions in the region.
Canada to clinch trade deal with EU in September
1-Aug-2014 CBC
Canada and the European Union will release final details of their mammoth trade deal on Sept. 25 in Ottawa, ending a marathon 10 months of bargaining since Prime Minister Stephen Harper flew off to Brussels to sign the initial agreement in principle, according to CBC News.
Fiji fears force deal with EU to save sugar industry
1-Aug-2014 PINA
Fears of the collapse of Fiji’s multi-million dollar sugar industry prompted its government late last month to opt for an Interim Economic Partnership Agreement (IEPA) with the European Union. Islands Business magazine investigated.
The UK-Colombia Bilateral Investment Treaty
1-Aug-2014 ABColombia
The UK-Colombia Bilateral Investment Treaty that was ratified by the House of Commons on 10 July 2014 poses grave risks to the achievement of human rights and the successful implementation of agreements currently being made in the peace dialogues between the FARC guerrilla and the Colombian Government in Havana.
’Sharing is not a crime’: Why a Colombian student faces prison for posting research online
31-Jul-2014 TakePart.com
A South American biologist who found a five-year-old master’s degree thesis online, then shared it with fellow graduate students on a Web page, could spend the next eight years in prison for copyright infringement — thanks to the US-Colombia FTA.