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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

With the new House bill, even Obama might not want the Obama trade agreement
19-Jun-2015     Think Progress
The Republican-led US House of Representatives voted to give President Obama authority to negotiate trade agreements, passing the so-called fast-track bill with the assistance of just 28 House Democrats on Thursday. The Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) bill, which was decoupled from a labor program, will now go back to the Senate for approval.
US House may rescue trade deal
18-Jun-2015     VoA
The US House of Representatives may try again Thursday to advance President Barack Obama’s ambitious Asia-Pacific free trade agenda by separating fast-track negotiating authority from a measure -- aimed at helping American workers -- that was voted down Friday.
Key miscalculation forces Obama to weigh new path on trade
17-Jun-2015     Associated Press
President Barack Obama and his Republican allies on trade are thinking of restarting their legislative push in the Senate. It’s testament to a crucial miscalculation they made months ago.
EU Parliamentarians call on Congress to stop Fast Track
17-Jun-2015     Popular Resistance
42 members of the European Union Parliament delivered a letter to the United States Congress regarding the negotiation of bilateral trade agreements
US House plans Friday vote on ‘fast track’ trade authority
11-Jun-2015     Reuters
Republicans aimed for a vote on Friday to hand President Barack Obama the coveted “fast-track” trade negotiating authority he needs to complete his signature Pacific trade pact after concessions to Democrats appeared to smooth the way forward.
Days of mobilisation: Reclaiming peoples sovereignty against the corporate-led trade and investment architecture on the occasion of the EU-CELAC Summit
5-Jun-2015     Stop Corporate Impunity
In Brussels, 8-10 June 2015
Alternative summit offers ideas for trade agreements, G7, amid 40,000 protesters
5-Jun-2015     IP Watch
Just days before leaders of the Group of 7 (G7) industrialised countries gather in the well-guarded Bavarian Castle Elmau, a broad coalition of organisations invited free trade critics to an International Summit for Alternatives in Munich.
The hidden costs of trade treaties
29-May-2015     Zeit
The free trade treaties with Canada (CETA) and the United States (TTIP) are not threatening European standards, the negotiators in Brussels assure us. Yet environmental and food safety regulations have already been weakened.
US Senate poised to breathe new life into Obama's trade agenda
14-May-2015     Reuters
After blocking it Tuesday, enough Democrats are expected to support consideration of Obama's "fast-track" trade negotiating authority today, having won the scheduling of a separate vote on a bill punishing countries that unfairly manipulate their currencies to keep their exports cheap.
The embattled future of global trade policy
13-May-2015    
Should proposed US plurilateral trade agreements be welcomed? This is a big question, not least for those who consider the liberalisation of world trade to be a signal achievement. It is also highly controversial.