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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

House could delay major trade votes
14-Jun-2006     Reuters
A group of US lawmakers pushed on Tuesday for a new trade deal with Vietnam, but a senior Republican said Congress may not vote on trade legislation until after November's congressional election.
Bush trade strategy backfires as chances of global pact recede
17-May-2006     Bloomberg
President George W Bush's strategy of using individual accords as stepping stones to a unified, global system of trade may be backfiring.
OWINFS call to action: Stop the WTO's Doha "development" round and other "free trade" negotiations
4-May-2006     OWINFS
We call upon civil society organizations and social movements from around the world to join with us in showing their strong, united and unequivocal opposition to the completion of the World Trade Organization's trade ‘round', and other bilateral and regional Free Trade Agreements being forced on people by governments.
Doha Round faces collapse as talks are suspended
2-May-2006     AllAfrica.com
Most trade experts believe that if a tentative deal cannot be agreed in the next few months, there will not be time to complete the details and gain approval in the US. If this happens, it would be the first time that the world trade talks have stalled, and may lead to a world which is increasingly divided into protectionist trade blocs.
Opening up to worries
13-Apr-2006     Sun2Surf
An interview with Chee Yoke Ling of Third World Network on globalisation, WTO and FTAs
Pitfalls aplenty on the fast track to trade
11-Apr-2006     New Straits Times
The distorting aspects of bilateral free trade agreements can be avoided by adopting a multilateral approach, argues Mohamed Ariff.
USTR 2006 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers
7-Apr-2006     USTR
USTR has recently released its latest annual country-by-country assessment of barriers to US trade around the world, Washington's basis for unilateral trade sanctions.
Reasons to worry about bilateral trade pacts
6-Apr-2006     The Nation
An examination of the globalised approach by both EU countries and the US to bilateral FTAs shows that acceleration has occurred as the WTO has lost its effect. While it is easy to rationalise that the global north is acting independently because the WTO is failing, it is more fun to speculate that the global north is acting to stall the WTO since they get much better terms on a one-to-one basis in their agreements with developing countries.
US 'always in the driving seat in FTA talks'
3-Apr-2006     The Nation
The economic strength of the United States makes it "virtually impossible" for developing nations to negotiate a fair bilateral free-trade agreement, according to Argentina's new ambassador to Thailand.
Free trade pacts are bad for business
25-Mar-2006     Forbes
The WTO on March 22 issued a report criticizing the US pursuit of free trade agreements. The report claims that US free trade agreements create political interests in other countries, which complicate the multilateral process.

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...