:: 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

Vaile defends trade deals

18-Jan-2005

Trade Minister Mark Vaile today defended Australia's free trade deals with foreign countries after a new World Trade Organisation (WTO) report said such agreements could be discriminatory.

WTO hampered by 'spaghetti bowl' deals

18-Jan-2005 FT

The World Trade Organisation is being undermined by the intransigence and short-sightedness of its member countries, according to the report of a high-level commission released on Monday.

Bill Day: Bring back the multilateral pact

16-Jan-2005

Now that Trade Representative Robert Zoellick is moving to the State Department as Condoleezza Rice's deputy, U.S. trade policy may see a shift from small bilateral pacts back to big, sweeping multilateral trade agreements.

Zoellick plies a new trade

13-Jan-2005

Although not part of the new right's militarist and neo-conservative camps, Zoellick's personal arrogance, his unilateralism, and his loyalty to Bush and the Republican Party's new radical elite make him a perfect fit for Bush's new foreign policy team.

Global week of action on trade: 10-16 April 2005

12-Jan-2005 Global Week of Action on Trade

The main aims of the week are to challenge the free trade myth, put forward our alternatives, strengthen the already existing trade campaigns and show the strength of the global movement, campaigning in solidarity.

Stiglitz raps bilateral trade pacts

10-Jan-2005 Bangkok Post

Unilateralism, in which the largest economies, notably the United States, impose their will on smaller ones, is the main driver for the proliferation of bilateral trade agreements and represents a growing risk for the global economy, according to Joseph Stiglitz, the 2001 Nobel laureate for economics.

Tectonic trends in trade [Christian Science Monitor viewpoint]

13-Dec-2004

Two political tremors in recent days reveal that the global trading system may be creaking and groaning into isolated blocs of countries - without the United States.

Trade negotiating power likely to be extended, USTR says

10-Dec-2004 US Embassy Tokyo

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick predicts that Congress will allow a two-year extension of President Bush's trade negotiating authority to go forward, giving more time to conclude World Trade Organization negotiations as well as bilateral and regional negotiations.

A serendipitous exception in FTAs

26-Nov-2004

At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile last weekend, leaders discussed economic issues, especially trade. Singapore and Peru, for example, agreed to initiate talks for a free trade agreement.

New World Bank study on regional and bilateral trade agreements

18-Nov-2004 WB

This report addresses two questions: What are the characteristics of agreements that strongly promote-or hinder-development for member countries? Does the proliferation of agreements pose risks to the multilateral trading system, and how can those risks be managed?

:: Across the board ::

Referenced sites

21st Century Trade Agreements: Implications for Long-Run Development Policy

#A18DoA - Global day of action to defeat free trade and investment treaties

Alianza Social Continental

ICC

Movimientos.org

Pambazuka

People over profit

Peoples Global Action

Regional/Multilateral Integration Agreements

SOMO

South Centre

Stop fast track!

ISDS Case Map