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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

BRICS: la création d’une zone de libre-échange peu probable (expert)
30-Oct-2014     RIA Novosti
La mise en place d’une zone de libre-échange au sein du BRICS étant peu probable, les pays membres doivent plutôt renforcer leurs échanges bilatéraux, annonce le gouvernement brésilien
European action day: citizens in 22 countries demand "Stop TTIP, CETA and TiSA"
11-Oct-2014     11 October Stop-TTIP-CETA-TiSA Alliance
On a European day of action against the free trade agreements TTIP, CETA and TiSA, thousands of citizens took to the streets with more than 1100 public activities in 22 European countries.
Teamsters make case against bad trade deals to top Democratic senators
19-Sep-2014     Teamsters
The Teamsters labour union told key US senators that secret 'trade' deals like TPP and TISA threaten government workers' jobs by opening them up to irreversible privatization by multinationals.
Economist Jeffrey Sachs says NO to TPP and TAFTA trade deals
16-Sep-2014     Huffington Post
Jeffrey Sachs, world-renowned professor of economics, lays out five reasons why the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement should not be passed or ratified.
ISDS: The devil in the trade deal
14-Sep-2014     ABC
A common provision allowing foreign investors to sue host governments has become a ticking time bomb inside trade agreements. Some countries are now refusing to agree to the provision and are questioning its legal legitimacy. Jess Hill investigates.
550+ US groups reject fast-track trade promotion authority
11-Sep-2014     Sierra Club
Nearly 600 US organizations led by the Sierra Club, AFL-CIO, the Communications Workers of America, the Citizens Trade Campaign, and Public Citizen sent a letter to Senate Finance Chairman Ron Wyden (D-OR) firmly rejecting fast-track trade promotion authority and calling for a new system for negotiating and implementing trade agreements.
Small countries no say on trade pact
1-Sep-2014     Brunei Times
A recent report shows that small countries eager to join mega-regionals trade deals like the TPP could dock into the agreement but they would not have much say.
Plundering the planet: Rigged corporate “free trade partnerships” and “climate change agreements”
27-Aug-2014     Global Research
What do rigged corporate trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Paris Treaty, an international climate agreement to be signed in 2015, have in common?
The corporate free trade project reloaded
27-Aug-2014     TeleSur
Twenty years after NAFTA, the US and EU are making a renewed push for global free trade. But today the South is better able to resist such a project.
War of the FTAs
20-Aug-2014     Business World
As an exhausted World Trade Organisation struggles, expect a war of FTAs as rich countries hit back with new trade regimes under TPP and TTIP while emerging markets build the RCEP