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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

Global trade no longer hostage to US consumers
28-Sep-2006    
Europe, Japan and emerging economies are weaning themselves from dependence on the American consumer, and economists say it's just in time.
Africa's silk road: China and India's new economic frontier
19-Sep-2006     World Bank
Skyrocketing Asian trade and investment in Africa show the beginning of a change in world trade patterns, according to a new World Bank report. The report contains a chapter on trade and investment agreements between Asia and Africa.
Making or missing the links?
18-Sep-2006    
While much attention focuses on international trade negotiations, developing countries also introduce trade reforms nationally as part of World-Bank supported economic adjustment programmes.
The 'free trade' explosion
14-Sep-2006     India Together
With the World Trade talks in limbo, the focus remains on aggressively pushing on the bilateral front. What could not be achieved through a multilateral trade regime, is now being pursued by the US through bilateral and regional deals. Devinder Sharma connects the dots.
Bilateral trade pacts not in EU interest - presidency
9-Sep-2006    
Bilateral trade deals are not in the interests of anyone, EU President Finland said on Friday, in the first public criticism of European Commission plans to seek one-on-one pacts with Asian countries.
Political issues weigh on trade talks
9-Sep-2006    
At issue are commodities as varied as rice, apparel and automobiles, as well as lucrative new markets in banking and other financial services, with potentially billions of dollars in commerce at stake. But for several countries negotiating trade pacts with the US, the outcome may have less to do with economics than with American election-year politics.
UN trade official Supachai says yuan issue requires global readjustment
6-Sep-2006    
Imbalances related to China's foreign exchange policies cannot be addressed by China alone and require an international effort, Supachai Panitchpakdi, head of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said.
US: No plans to begin new trade talks
25-Aug-2006    
The United States has no plans to begin new bilateral free trade negotiations with other nations, and will focus on successfully concluding the four it is actively pursuing, Washington's top trade envoy said Friday.
Trade agreements work for America
25-Aug-2006     FAS
Gains to US trade from FTAs, as of July 2006.
Bi-Monthly Analysis of Regional Integration (BIMANORI) #1
23-Aug-2006    
Nature abhors a vacuum, and so when regional organisations go making ostensibly grandiose claims that they will create a single currency, seek economic convergence, or establish an army, it is easy to speculate that these are not articulated outside a context.