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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

EU to focus on bilateral deals, Doha, and beyond
11-Nov-2010     ICTSD
The European Commission on Tuesday set out a blueprint for an EU trade strategy that would help boost growth and job creation in Europe.
Thousands protest in Seoul before G20 summit
8-Nov-2010     Reuters
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Seoul on Sunday in a largely peaceful protest against this week's G20 summit as the city went on heightened alert for the meeting of world leaders.
FTA deal with Seoul to boost EU's trade offensive in Asia
14-Oct-2010     Europolitics
"The Korea deal is already triggering a domino effect. Japan, Taiwan and other countries are knocking on the door," a source from DG Trade told Europolitics.
MSF launches attack on European Commission for blocking cheap drugs
8-Oct-2010     The Guardian
The EC is seeking a trade agreement with India which will restrict its generic companies from making cheap copycat drugs for poor countries, says MSF, which launches a campaign to oppose this and other allegedly restrictive EC practices today
Anti-counterfeiting trade pact ‘99 percent’ complete
7-Oct-2010     ICTSD
Talks on a controversial “Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement” are very nearly complete, following what participating nations described as the “final” round of negotiations in Tokyo last week.
Destructive EU-Asia free trade deals should cease
5-Oct-2010    
Debating the far-reaching implications of EU trade policy in Asia in the context of the Asia-Europe Summit currently taking place in Brussels, GUE/NGL MEPs joined civil society organisations, NGOs and elected representatives from Asia and Europe to call for a halt to EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Asian countries.
EU-Asia summit boosts calls for free trade pacts
5-Oct-2010     Reuters
Europe hopes trade pacts with Asia will allow it to impose environmental and anti-counterfeiting rules to secure European dominance of technology sectors and guarantee intellectual property when European firms invest abroad.
The European Union’s free trade agreements threaten MDG progress
30-Sep-2010    
People living with HIV call out EU hypocrisy on Millennium Development Goals as it forces its trade agreements on developing countries, seizes generic drugs and negotiates ACTA
Cargill says South Korea, Colombia trade agreements would create US jobs
22-Sep-2010    
“Cargill absolutely supports the free-trade agreements,” Devry Boughner, director of international business relations for Cargill, said today in a telephone interview.
‘Call to action’ issued on trade accords
17-Sep-2010     WSJ
“There are 600 trade agreements being worked on right now around the world, and I think the US is focused on single digits–which gives you an idea of the market share we’re losing," says Jim McNerney, CEO of Boeing