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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

TISA and TPP: trade unions and social movements resist unfair trade deals
29-Sep-2015     Karibu Foundation: Voices from the South
Governments around the globe are currently engaged in the biggest burst of trade and investment treaty negotiations since the 1990s. This new wave of trade deals is primarily being negotiated by governments and corporations in complete secrecy.
Trade agreements: EU grows bilateral and regional FTAs
3-Sep-2015     Just Style
Free trade agreements (FTAs) between the European Union (EU) and its trading partners worldwide have mushroomed in recent years and more are in the pipeline.
Groups demand rejection of anti-climate provision in Customs Bill
29-Jul-2015     Center for International Environmental Law
A coalition of environmental and fair trade organizations are protesting the inclusion of language in the “Customs bill” in the US Congress that would explicitly prevent the United States Trade Representative from seeking to address climate change in trade agreements.
Anonymous hacks US Census Bureau over TTIP agreement, leaking employee details online
23-Jul-2015     Intenational Business Times
Anonymous claims responsibility for a cyber-attack conducted against a US government website because of TTIP and TPP talks
IBON primer on 21st Century free trade agreements
13-Jul-2015     IBON
New free trade deals across regions such as the TPPA, TTIP and TiSA, among many others are being negotiated that will have far-reaching implications for peoples in both the global North and South and for the future of the world economy. But these deals will neither benefit the democratic majority nor rescue the world economy in crisis.
Protestors slam controversial trade talks in Geneva
9-Jul-2015     swissinfo
In Geneva, members of the STOP TISA movement, unions, left-wing activists and social movements protested in front of the headquarters of the United Nations and the World Trade Organization on Wednesday evening denouncing the trade deal.
Obama signs trade, worker assistance bills into law
30-Jun-2015     Associated Press
President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law two hard-fought bills giving him greater authority to negotiate international trade deals and providing aid to workers whose jobs are displaced by such pacts.
[Planet Money] Trade deal confidential
29-Jun-2015     National Public Radio
Right now hundreds of trade negotiators are preparing for battle over the details of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP. The text of that agreement is locked in a top-secret room in the basement of the Capitol and won't be released to the public until the deal is done.
US Congress passes anti-BDS legislation, key trade bill
25-Jun-2015     i24News
The so-called trade promotion authority bill passed by Congress requires US negotiators to make the rejection of the BDS campaign a principal trade objective in negotiations with the European Union.
US Senate approves 'fast-track' trade bill
25-Jun-2015     SME Times
The US Senate on Wednesday approved a so-called fast-track trade bill that empowers the president to negotiate trade deals, media reported on Thursday.