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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

'Free trade' and the death of democracy
18-Dec-2013     Al Jazeera
If these deals come into effect, multinational corporations will be empowered to regulate democratic states, rather than the other way around.
US Congress could OK trade promotion bill in early 2014, lawmaker says
11-Dec-2013     Reuters
he Obama administration could secure "fast-track" trade promotion authority from Congress early next year, a leading lawmaker said on Tuesday, handing it the means to secure two big new trade deals.
Vatican criticises TTP and TTIP
5-Dec-2013     KEI
At the WTO 9th Ministerial in Bali, Archbishop Silvano M. Tomasi delivered a withering critique of the Trans Pacific Partnership and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
The alternative trade mandate
26-Nov-2013     TNI
The Alternative Trade Mandate has been developed in extensive civil society consultations all over Europe.
Developing countries are right to resist restrictive trade agreements
13-Nov-2013     The Guardian
International investment agreements are once again in the news. The United States is trying to impose a strong investment pact within the two big so-called "partnership" agreements, one bridging the Atlantic, the other the Pacific, that are now being negotiated. But there is growing opposition to such moves, writes Joseph Stiglitz.
Call to end the WTO and stop the new wave of Free Trade Agreements
23-Oct-2013    
More than 90 organizations and social movements are part of the Call to End the WTO and Stop the new wave of Free Trade Agreements. Join us in the EndWTO Bali Week of Action! Sign the call and register.
Does TTIP top TPP free-trade negotiations?
23-Sep-2013     Business Mirror
The transatlantic trade deal, if it does come about, seems potentially more far-reaching, even for Asia.
Fast-track: Enabler of the “free trade” agenda
28-Aug-2013     New American
“I have heard the argument that transparency would undermine the administration’s policy to complete the trade agreement because public opposition would be significant,” a US senator wrote. “This argument is exactly backwards. If transparency would lead to widespread opposition to a trade agreement, then that trade agreement should not be the policy of the United States.”
TPP, TTIP, and Congress: the elephant in the room
9-Aug-2013     Lexology
Even assuming agreements can be reached and all foreign partners can deliver, there is an elephant roaming in these negotiating rooms: US Congress.
FTA with European Union kicks in
2-Aug-2013     Newsroom Panama
Free trade agreements signed by the European Union with Panama, Colombia, Honduras and Nicaragua came into force on Thursday August 1.