ISDS Case Map
bilateralism & multilateralism
how bilateral, multilateral, regional, unilateral and plurilateral approaches relate (e.g. FTAs vis-à-vis WTO)
A national coalition of 14 fisher federations in the Philippines warned against mandatory "sectoral" talks in the World Trade Organization, saying that it would only benefit rich countries that wanted more market access for their products. On Friday, which was World Fishers Day, about 200 members of Kilusang Mangingisda also picketed the offices of the Department of Trade and Industry, Department of Agriculture and Asian Development Bank to protest against policies promoting fisheries trade liberalization.
When Cambodia negotiates an FTA with a hegemonic power, it must use a template which confines the negotiations to trade matters only, says Jagdish Bhagwati
The free trade agreements that the US and the European Union “propose” to Latin America and the Caribbean include waiving sovereign control on food flows. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization admits that although food production increased in the region, the number of people suffering hunger also did.
Refusing to give up on convincing the European Union to take another look at its Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the Caribbean, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo has taken his case to the United Nations.
Peter Mandelson once said he would be the last man standing in the marathon push for a global trade deal, but as his time as Europe's trade chief ticks away, he may have to settle for smaller prizes.
In our free trade gone-wild world, property rights are being applied in areas where they have never before existed and may not pertain (such as intellectual products, services, biodiversity, genetics), and governments have not learned to use their sovereignty to advance multilateralism for both their individual interests and the global common good. There must be a new starting point, based on the recognition of an added dimension in world trade -- the realisation that some goods are private (commercial), some are public (governmental), and others are common (for the benefit of people everywhere).
The latest sign that the postwar era of "multilateral" trade liberalization has ended came last week in Singapore.
Pacific NGOs, churches and trade unions working on trade justice issues are concerned about the push for free trade agreements in the Pacific and the grave risk that these agreements pose for our people.
"Farmers don't export. Archer Daniels Midland and Cargill do. The corporate commodity groups are continuing to push for bilateral FTAs with South Korea, Colombia and pushed for the recent Peru FTA. Meanwhile they also scheme to keep in place a broken US subsidy system that allows US farmers to be paid below cost of production and agribusiness to dump cheap commodities into overseas markets, displacing farmers from Mexico to Indonesia to Ghana to Haiti, with no benefit to US farmers."
Kevin Rudd has vowed to "vigorously pursue" bilateral trade agreements on his latest swing through Asia following the collapse of the world free trade talks in Geneva.
