ISDS Case Map
bilateralism & multilateralism
how bilateral, multilateral, regional, unilateral and plurilateral approaches relate (e.g. FTAs vis-à-vis WTO)
Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said the bank would help promote regional trade liberalization as part of the institution's mid- and long-term strategies.
With instances of more than one trade pact being inked with a single country under the Government's bilateral and regional trade agreements policy, Indian industry is apprehending confusion in import clearances arising from multiplicity of `rules of origin' norms and `negative lists' applicable on imports from the same country under the numerous agreements signed with it.
An interview with Chee Yoke Ling of Third World Network on globalisation, WTO and FTAs
The proposed review of India's Free Trade Agreements points to a much deeper malaise in the process of formulating trade policy. Too often, a fondness for a general principle is allowed to completely overwhelm the specific concerns of each case.
The distorting aspects of bilateral free trade agreements can be avoided by adopting a multilateral approach, argues Mohamed Ariff.
USTR has recently released its latest annual country-by-country assessment of barriers to US trade around the world, Washington's basis for unilateral trade sanctions.
An examination of the globalised approach by both EU countries and the US to bilateral FTAs shows that acceleration has occurred as the WTO has lost its effect. While it is easy to rationalise that the global north is acting independently because the WTO is failing, it is more fun to speculate that the global north is acting to stall the WTO since they get much better terms on a one-to-one basis in their agreements with developing countries.
We are living in a post-TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) world. Almost every member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has had to reform their intellectual property laws in order to meet the minimum standards of protection that TRIPS prescribes .
The Great Arab Free Trade Area Agreement (GAFTA) was enforced in January 2005 after a 7-year preparatory transition period. This is the first joint Arab economic action likely to help the Arab countries gain huge profits in line with the regulations of the WTO, the venue absorbing regional economic blocs. Most probably, the results in the first experimental year were not up to the expectations.
The economic strength of the United States makes it "virtually impossible" for developing nations to negotiate a fair bilateral free-trade agreement, according to Argentina's new ambassador to Thailand.
