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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

After NAFTA - CAFTA and AFTA
25-Sep-2005     Tehran Times
Instead of heeding the wave of social opposition, the United States has dug into its trenches, and in economic policy those trenches are the bilateral trade agreements.
TWN seminar warns about WTO-plus issues and rules in bilateral and regional FTAs
22-Sep-2005    
The Third World Network held a regional Asian workshop on bilateral and regional FTAs on 26-29 August in Kuala Lumpur. Many speakers and participants voiced concerns about how the developed countries are making use of such FTAs to get developing countries to accept issues.
Bilateral/regional free trade agreements: An outline of elements, nature and development implications
22-Sep-2005    
Several Asian countries and Asean as a bloc are now pursuing trade and economic frameworks and agreements with non-Asean countries.
US mulling free-trade deals with Egypt, South Korea, Malaysia
9-Sep-2005     Bloomberg
The Bush administration said it's considering separate entreaties from Egypt, Malaysia, South Korea and Switzerland to negotiate free-trade agreements with them.
Roh wants APEC to become bloc
7-Sep-2005     Korea Times
Korean President Roh Moo-hyun Tuesday stressed the need for Asian and Pacific Rim countries to pursue economic integration like that of the European Union (EU) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He said it would be more effective on a long-term basis to build a regional economic bloc, rather than to continue signing bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs).
Myths about bilateral free trade
31-Aug-2005     Dawn
Of late, there has been an outbreak of activism in the realm of bilateral free trade and investment agreements across the world. Many developing countries have found themselves swept off by the wave of bilateralism, not realizing it only weakens the cause of multilateralism.
Benefits and costs of FTAs
30-Aug-2005     The Star
Negotiations on bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) are going on at a blazing speed worldwide. Not much is known on how these talks are going. But they have a lot of effects on local industries and farms, on medicine prices and on what can be included in future development strategies.
Academic: China to be free trade driver
24-Aug-2005     China Daily
China is likely to eclipse the World Trade Organization and regional market-opening pacts to become the main driver of freer global trade in the 21st century, a prominent trade academic said on Tuesday, Reuters reported.
United Nations children's committee warns about FTA threats
7-Jun-2005     IP-health
The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child in recommendations made public this week warned that Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) may negatively affect access to affordable medicines and social services for the poor.
Declaración de Dili: 10 años de OMC son suficientes! Por la defensa de la soberanía y la expulsión de la OMC
2-Jun-2005    
Estamos afrontando varios impactos negativos tanto de la OMC como de los TLC. Por ejemplo, Tailandia, conocida como el país con mayor exportación de arroz; sus campesinos están sufriendo muchísimo y están perdiendo la tierra así como las semillas locales.