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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

For George Bush, a fair deal means what American farmers demand
2-Aug-2006    
When the Doha round of global trade talks collapsed last Monday, suddenly and acrimoniously, after five long years, furious trade ministers seemed to agree about only one thing - they were throwing away the best hope in decades of helping poor countries trade their way out of poverty.
WTO is dead, long live free trade: globalisation and its new avatars
1-Aug-2006    
Bilateral and unilateral, initiatives are the new avatars of globalisation and free trade. And it is these avatars we must challenge to stop corporate rule, while WTO hangs between intensive care and the crematorium.
Uncle Sam faces a world trade backlash
31-Jul-2006    
America may blame the rest of the world for the breakdown of the world trade talks, but the rest of the world blames America. In fact, for emerging economies, the collapse is another reason to hate Uncle Sam - a dislike that could have deep ramifications for US Inc.
The legacy of Doha: spaghetti bowl trade
31-Jul-2006    
IN the end Doha died not with a bang but a whimper, with media coverage of its collapse being squeezed off the front pages by the escalating crisis in the Middle East.
Bilateral deals 'mock' Doha
31-Jul-2006    
The Doha round of world trade talks may have collapsed in Geneva last week -- denying the world's developing countries their promised access to global markets -- but leading trade expert Jagdish Bhagwati remains optimistic about the cause of multilateral trade liberalisation.
Regional trade pacts rise to the fore
26-Jul-2006    
Two weeks ago, members of the World Trade Organization agreed on rules that would make it easier to track bilateral and regional trade deals. Negotiators were concerned that the proliferation of such deals would detract from efforts, already faltering, to reach a global trade pact.
The death of the WTO's Doha talks
26-Jul-2006     BBC News
You don't have to declare multilateralism dead, just because this round of talks is over, but there are three particular, potential consequences of the collapse in the talks.
The death of Doha signals the demise of globalisation
13-Jul-2006     The Guardian
The failure to reach agreement on the Doha round suggests the era of multilateral trade agreements is coming to an end.
USTR to press Congress on Oman, Peru, Vietnam trade deals
12-Jul-2006     Dow Jones
US trade officials will concentrate on getting Congress to approve trade agreements with Oman, Peru and Vietnam in the run-up to mid-term elections this autumn, a US trade official said Tuesday.
On the road again: Four goals for the new US Trade Representative
20-Jun-2006    
Susan Schwab began work last week as US Trade Representative (USTR) at a difficult time for free trade.

Referenced sites

Third World Network

TWN's website is a good source of information and analysis about what's happening within the multilateral trade system (WTO, UNCTAD, G77, etc).

WorldTradeLaw.net

WorldTradeLaw.net offers a free library of current trade news and resources; a database of dispute settlement tables and statistics; and a user-friendly sear...