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bilateralism & multilateralism


WTO: Best left for dead?
Confronting the bilateral FTAs will no doubt present fresh difficulties for activists. After all, bilateral negotiations were advancing with or without the multilateral body.
Putting world trade back together again
The Irish poet WB Yeats wrote that when things fall apart, the centre cannot hold. The Doha round has finally fallen apart. What, if anything, can hold the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the multilateral trading system together?
Managing Globalization: A new trade bandwagon - Are rich-poor pacts fair?
You might as well call it Newton’s Third Law of Trade Negotiations.
FTAs and RTAs: The political imperative
Last week, Sanjaya Baru, the media advisor to the prime minister, and an economist in a previous avatar, published a book called The Strategic Consequences of India’s Economic Performance. Amongst other things in it, he argues for more regional trading agreements.
US reviews duty-free access to market
The Bush administration is considering ending trade concessions granted to India, Brazil and other fast-developing nations under a three-decade-old program meant to help poor countries. The administration’s review comes as some lawmakers look to punish governments that opposed US policies during World Trade Organization talks — especially a group of middle-income nations led by Brazil and India — by ending their preferences entirely.
Doha failure Beijing’s chance
Separate trade agreements will allow China to cherry-pick the deals it wants.
Vaile floats idea of Asian FTA
Australia could join an Asia-wide free trade bloc or create its own deal with other free-trading nations across the globe. Trade Minister Mark Vaile has floated at least two options for Australia if the current round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) negotiations collapse.
A reality cheque
An intensification of efforts for free trade agreements across countries is logical after the inconclusive Doha round. India is no laggard-with its renewed vigour on the ‘look east’ front, and with pragmatic moves for economic pacts with the US and EU.
For George Bush, a fair deal means what American farmers demand
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.
Japan faces rocky FTA road
Now that the global trade talks under the World Trade Organization have collapsed, Japan will be forced to walk down what looks like a rocky road to seek bilateral free trade agreements, marking a departure from its trade policy based on both multilateral and bilateral approaches.
WTO is dead, long live free trade: globalisation and its new avatars
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.
A Korea-U.S. trade agreement: what is at stake?
This examines macro-economic issues, intellectual property and patent protections, the potential impact on pharmaceuticals, and other issues at stake in the U.S.-Korea FTA.
WTO collapse set to fuel Asia’s "noodle bowl" effect
The breakdown of the WTO talks has dealt a blow to the trade prospects of Asia’s open economies and is likely to encourage a growing "noodle bowl" of bilateral pacts, analysts said.
Japan to focus on FTAs after collapse of WTO Talks
Japan is expected to focus its trade policy more on bilateral free trade agreements after the World Trade Organization’s Doha round of global trade liberalization talks has effectively collapsed.
Uncle Sam faces a world trade backlash
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
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
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.
ANALYSIS: WTO collapse forces Japan down rocky FTA road
Now that the global trade talks under the World Trade Organization have collapsed, Japan will be forced to walk down what looks like a rocky road to seek bilateral free trade agreements, marking a departure from its trade policy based on both multilateral and bilateral approaches.
Regional trade pacts rise to the fore
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
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.