:: 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

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?

Infected by the bilateral bug

26-Aug-2004

On the long trek to a fairer world for New Zealand exporters, 2003 was a year of one step forward, two steps back.

Now I know my F-T-A-s

24-Aug-2004 Now I know my F-T-A-s

The Free Trade Agreement between Australia and the United States - AUSFTA - may be all the rage for us, but for Americans (that is, those citizens residing in the American hemisphere as a whole, not just the USA) they have been getting used to all sorts of free trade agreements.

US free trade initiatives & their implications for the multilateral trading system

5-Aug-2004 US Free Trade Initiatives and their implications for the multilateral trading system

The rationale for regional integration between two or more countries would suggest that such agreements would need to be based on substantial trading interests.

'Free' trade beyond the WTO

2-Aug-2004 Free trade beyond the WTO

Welcome to the brave new world of “Free” Trade. This is a world that extends beyond the World Trade Organisation. This may be difficult to comprehend, but the fact of the matter is that global capital, led by the US government, seeks more and more to tread where even the WTO did not.

Bilateral Treaties Undermine Rights

25-Jul-2004 Bilateral Treaties Undermine Rights

Bilateral trade treaties have hit stormy waters in recent weeks, drawing criticism from French President Jacques Chirac, a leading world economist and human rights groups alike.

The disease of the day: Acute treatyitis

20-Jul-2004 The disease of the day: Acute treatyitis

The efforts to establish global and regional ‘free trade' agreements have met with considerable resistance. People around the world suffering the effects of so-called free trade have steadily built a movement to reject the dominant economic model.

:: 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