Morocco’s communication minister, Nabil Benabdellah, deplored on Thursday the "false ideas being circulated" about the free-trade agreement (FTA) that Morocco is currently negotiating with the USA.
A large Thai delegation led by Commerce Minister Watana Muangsook yesterday opened crucial preliminary talks in Washington aimed at reaching a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States by the end of the year.
This Sunday, trade representatives from member states of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) will meet their counterparts from the United States in Walvis Bay, to resume negotiations for a bilateral Free Trade Agreement, expected to be concluded by the end of this year.
You’ve got to wonder at the nerve of New Zealand trade officials. During the furtive Multilateral Agreement on Investment negotiations and the subsequent international waves of opposition they were quietly hatching binding bilateral investment deals containing provisions resembling some of the most controversial elements of the MAI.
The recent explosion of bilateral investment and trade agreements and investor-state disputes is of growing concern. Many mobilisations against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) aim to stop attempts by industrialised countries to kickstart talks on a multilateral investment agreement at September’s Cancun Ministerial meeting.
Writing in the Financial Times (Sept. 22, 2003) after the collapse of the fifth WTO Ministerial Conference, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick lamented the “broader culture of protest” that characterized negotiations at Cancun, correctly (if sarcastically) noting that “countries that feel victimized are unlikely to agree to anything.”
bilaterals.org has launched the "bilaterals.org podcast". It is a brief monthly recap of top news from the world of free trade agreements, who is pushing what, the impacts and social movement resistance against them all over the world. Produced in English for now (video with subtitles) - let us know what you think!