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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

Watch out beyond the WTO: The EU's aggressive multi-level trade agenda
5-Oct-2004     WEED
Is it really just the US which pushes its economic interests in fora outside the WTO? No! The European Commission as the power centre of EU trade policy is pursuing its own neo-liberal liberalisation and deregulation scheme multilaterally within the WTO and at the same time in regional and bilateral processes!
Two-way deals fill free trade gap
3-Oct-2004     IHT
It may seem as though a deal is a deal, but experts in the field differ on the relative merits of bilateral and regional agreements, with each having its friends and foes.
Coalition forces advance
23-Sep-2004     IRC
The Bush foreign policy team is looking a bit down in the mouth lately. The much-heralded “coalition of the willing” proved, like the alleged weapons of mass destruction, to be a myth of the Iraq war. But another coalition pieced together by the Bush administration--“the coalition of the liberalizers”--is advancing.
Global trade: Creating a new mindset with FTAs
20-Sep-2004     STI
Although FTAs have both trade-creating and -diverting effects, overall they serve the objective of multilateral trade liberalisation.
USCSI: Statement on the US draft model Bilateral Investment Treaty
16-Sep-2004    
In the course of consultations with services industries on the Model BIT, a number of serious concerns have been raised. These relate to (1) the prospective nature of the Model BIT; (2) the breadth of the BIT's prudential carve-out; (3) the limitations on recourse to investor-state dispute settlement mechanisms in certain cases; and, (4) the dispute settlement process itself.
'Singapore issues' part of EU's trade agenda: Lamy
11-Sep-2004     Jakarta Post
Investment, competition policies, and transparency in government procurement emerged during a recent meeting between trade ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the European Union aimed at seeking ways to boost trade and economic cooperation between the two regions.
Kerry would shift US trade focus towards WTO
3-Sep-2004     New Zealand Herald
Democrat John Kerry probably would put more time and energy into world trade talks and enforcing existing agreements than pursuing bilateral deals like the Bush administration has, a campaign adviser said.
FTA Attraction
2-Sep-2004     FTA attraction
Given the apparently easy way in which FTA rules can be bent and misinterpreted, wouldn't it be better to dispense with them altogether? Moreover, now that the Doha Round of the WTO has been given another lease of life, why not simply wait for global, multilateral tariff reduction?
Patchwork of FTAs won't do - Doha Round crucial
2-Sep-2004    
World Trade Organisation (WTO) members have finally established a framework for negotiations to conclude the Doha Round. This is good news. Failure would have crippled or even killed the round, and marginalised the WTO as a negotiating forum.
TWN: Call to review bilateral trade deals
1-Sep-2004     Call to review bilateral trade deals
With a deal being struck at the World Trade Organisation on 31 July to revive negotiations, will the move towards bilateral trade agreements slow down?