Asia
Britain hopes Singapore and Vietnam deals will bring it closer to joining Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Berlin wants to diversify its relations, position itself more broadly, conclude further free trade agreements – also in order to no longer be so dependent on Beijing.
Many countries, particularly in the global south, are in the process of joining the Energy Charter Treaty despite the sweeping powers it grants to foreign investors.
The Trump Administration has called on the Morrison Government to extend its "step-up" strategy in the Pacific to South-East Asia, as Washington grapples with China’s rising regional influence.
Canada and Mexico could help export US coal to Asia via USMCA to get around the blocking of shipments by West Coast states, US Energy Secretary said.
The U.K.’s foreign secretary landed in Australia on Thursday as part of a four-nation swing through the Asia-Pacific region to push for "ambitious" trade deals, but translating the government’s post-Brexit swagger into concrete deals may be a long and bumpy process.
The EAEU is shopping for partners in Asia. Middle finger to the West or sound trade policy?
The US - China trade dispute has disrupted trade and investment flows, stifling global and regional trade growth.
Today the EU looks to be perfectly happy to expand trade with authoritarian regimes with appalling human rights records when the economic gains are sufficiently large.
China has been receiving flak for its conditional investments and loans that are resulting in land and resource grabbing in Asia and Africa.
“We call on our governments to either address the real reasons why ISDS is fundamentally flawed or to abandon its ‘reform’ agenda that is designed to reinforce and re-legitimise a self-serving investment dispute system.”
Cross-regional mega-FTAs are now being preferred over bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements as imperialist powers compete for cheap labor, sources of raw materials, and markets.
Cambodian officials pleaded last week with representatives of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to include more Cambodian products into the bloc’s joint tariff scheme during a high level diplomatic meeting in Moscow.
The revived TPP 11 operates as a significant alternative to China’s approach, embodied in the Belt and Road Initiative.
India has joined hands with Japan and United States to build infrastructure for promoting connectivity in Indo-Pacific region, ostensibly to counter the Belt and Road initiative of China.
Indonesia set to be crucial battleground for negotiations
Certain long-standing provisions of trade agreements, specifically ISDS, are worthy of reconsideration.
Donald Trump is flexing the United States’ economic muscle in East Asia by introducing a web of new-generation bilateral trade deals to contain China’s challenge. But Beijing is fighting back by political means.
Mainland affairs minister intrigued by Trump references to ’Indo-Pacific’.
bilaterals.org team, Jan 2021