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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

Bilateral and regional free trade agreements: Some critical elements and development implications
10-Dec-2008    
This book argues that the comprehensive and strict obligations these FTAs impose will seriously constrain the developing-country party's policy-making capacity to pursue national socioeconomic and development goals.
Trade Deals Will Face More Critics in Congress
29-Nov-2008    
Free-trade critics picked up more than two dozen House seats and at least six Senate seats in the Nov. 4 election, a shift that could further endanger proposed free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
After APEC, free trade orthodoxy questioned
26-Nov-2008     AP
Leaders of 21 nations that represent half the global economy fear a raft of new protectionist barriers will strangle commerce as the world slides into a frightening recession. There are growing signs that developing countries will erect protectionist barriers to weather the crisis, partly because they have seen that time after time, "free trade" agreements have focused chiefly on beating rivals to market.
Biz groups press Obama on his FTA opposition
7-Nov-2008    
US business leaders are urging President-elect Barack Obama to withdraw his opposition to free trade agreements. Obama has opposed bilateral FTAs without market protection measures and has asked for improvements in the labor practices of partner countries.
Trade protectionism under Obama a concern
6-Nov-2008    
Asian countries should be prepared for intensified trade protectionism under US president-elect Barack Obama as he seeks to revive the world's largest economy, according to economists.
Little scope for Europe-Asia FTAs
8-Oct-2008     IPS
Plans to conclude free trade agreements (FTAs) between the European Union and several Asian economies are unlikely to be realised in the near future, a senior Brussels official has conceded.
Republicans prod Pelosi for action on trade deals
11-Sep-2008     Reuters
The Bush administration, Republican lawmakers and business groups pressed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday to allow votes on free trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea by the end of the year.
Trade battler tries to avoid a big crash
9-Sep-2008     IHT
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.
The Doha deal breaker
5-Sep-2008     Gulf Times
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).
Bilateral trade-off
5-Sep-2008     WSJ
The latest sign that the postwar era of "multilateral" trade liberalization has ended came last week in Singapore.