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  1. Negotiations

:: 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

Primer on RCEP and TPPA
28-Oct-2016     People Over Profit
FTAs operate as extensions of the WTO resulting in decentralized and yet intensifying attacks against workers and peasants across the different global regions.
What do trade agreements do for open access—and what don't they do?
27-Oct-2016     Electronic Frontier Foundation
The absence of support for open access in trade agreements comes as no surprise when considering that there are no representatives from the education sector, nor any library or archive representatives, in the relevant closed-door trade advisory committees
Do free trade deals pose a threat to higher education?
26-Oct-2016     University World News
The awareness of the threat posed to the public realm by international ‘free trade’ agreements has been heightened by the publication of new leaks and criticism from leading intellectuals.
Trade for the people, not for corporate elites!
6-Oct-2016     People Over Profit
People Over Profit is a new global network of people’s movements and NGOs campaigning against FTAs and corporate plunder. Sign the call and join the action.
40 years ago, this Chilean exile warned us about the shock doctrine. Then he was assassinated.
27-Sep-2016     The Nation
There are connections between the imposition of brutal austerity and corporate-friendly trade deals and the frightening rise of far-right parties.
The new rules of the road: a progressive approach to globalization
22-Sep-2016     American Prospect
The new president needs a fresh approach to trade.
Regulatory harmonization in international trade: A categorical or conditional imperative?
26-Aug-2016     Global Policy Journal
The idea that regulatory convergence leads to "more trade" stands on weak empirical grounds.
Free people from ‘dictatorship’ of 0.01%
10-Aug-2016     Deccan Chronicle
Through RCEP, Asian countries may be dragged into the TPP under pressure of harmonisation, especially on issues related to seed, warns Vandana Shiva
Americanization of the BIT universe
9-Jun-2016     SSRN
Friendship, Commerce and Navigation (FCN) treaties are more than a historical precursor to international investment agreements (IIA) and continue to influence and inspire modern investment treaty design.
UN Treaty on transnational corporations, other business enterprises & human rights: Options for justice
31-May-2016     S2B
This report discusses options for the following aspects of the treaty: access to remedy; enforcement mechanisms; and its relationship with the trade and investment regime.