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FTAA (11) Cotonou (5) NAFTA (13)

US-DR-CAFTA (6) PACER (7)

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Who wins if we get a free trade deal with the U.S?

Bill Rosenburg outlines the potential dangers of a NZ-US Free Trade Agreement including: "free for all" land and fishing quota purchases, higher costs of medicine, pressure to allow GE and weakened phytosanitation.

http://nznotforsale.wordpress.com/who-wins-if-we-get-a-free-trade-with-the-us/

(Added: 2008-10-01   Hits: 7)

Making Waves: Opportunities for Reclaiming Development in the Pacific (Informing civil society responses to the free trade agenda) [pdf]

This paper provides an up-to-date analysis of the FTA negotiations currently facing the Pacific region, and potential implications for the region if our governments choose to sign new FTAs. It also offers a critical analysis of the approach Pacific governments have taken to engaging new trade negotiations, and considers the role of trade unions and civil society in engaging the trade talks (PANG, August 2008).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/PANG_MAKING_WAVES.pdf

(Added: 2008-08-22   Hits: 53)

Partnership or Power Play?: How Europe should bring development into its trade deals with African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries [pdf]

Europe is negotiating new trade deals with African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) countries. A true partnership in trade could radically transform the lives of one-third of all people living in poverty, providing farmers and small businesses with sustainable incomes and workers with decent jobs. But Europe is choosing power politics over partnership. The deals currently on the table will strip ACP countries of important policy tools they need in order to develop. They will fracture regional integration, exacerbate poverty and make it harder for countries to break away from commodity dependence. Despite massive pressure, many ACP countries are holding out for a fair deal. Europe needs to rethink, and agree to change course. Ultimately, it is in its own interests to do so (Oxfam, 21 April 2008).

http://publications.oxfam.org.uk/oxfam/display.asp?K=e2008042116350283

(Added: 2008-05-01   Modified: 2008-05-02   Hits: 73)

Agriculture and the WTO in Africa: Understand to Act

The purpose of this book is to provide guidance in understanding how international trade institutions and agreements operate. Its aim is to provide those in charge of civil society organisations in sub-Saharan Africa with tools and references to better understand the stakes behind, and means for, their participation in world trade. Organised around descriptive and factual texts, this work contains many definitions and is illustrated by concrete experiences that facilitate reading (Marie-Christine Lebret and Arlène Alpha, GRET, 2007).

http://www.gret.org/publications/ouvrages/infoomc/index_en.html

(Added: 2008-04-18   Hits: 105)

Growth, trade, integration and policy space

This paper by Duncan Green, head of research at Oxfam Great Britain argues that a review of the impact of bilateral, regional and global trade and investment agreements is urgently required to begin to tackle the current inequities in the current global trading system against some developing economies.

http://www.progressive-governance.net/publications/publications.aspx?id=2228

(Added: 2008-04-11   Hits: 110)

EU Free Trade Agreements Manual

Eight briefings on the European Union's approach to Free Trade Agreements These briefings aim to explain EU policies, procedures and practices to those interested in supporting developing countries.They are not intended to endorse any particular policy or position, rather to inform decisions and provide the means to better defend them (ActionAid, Christian Aid, and Oxfam, March 2008.

http://www.oxfam.org.uk/resources/policy/trade/euftamanuals.html

(Added: 2008-04-09   Hits: 91)

Exploitation of RP nurses in New Zealand justifies Jpepa rejection - PNA

Fidel Jimenez, GMANews. The reported exploitation of Filipino nurses in New Zealand gives a reason for the Senate to reject the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement, according to the Philippine Nurses Association.

http://www.gmanews.tv/story/84505/

(Added: 2008-03-14   Hits: 73)

Proposed Malaysia-United States Free Trade agreement (MUFTA): Implications for Malaysian Economic and Social Development

This paper deals with the FTA that is being negotiated between Malaysia and the United States or MUFTA (Malaysia-US FTA). It begins with some general aspects of bilateral FTAs. It then briefly states the architecture of issues in the MUFTA and does a description and analysis of each issue or chapter (Third World Network, February 2007).

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/MUFTA.doc

(Added: 2007-12-21   Hits: 99)

Debunking Five Myths About the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA)

In February 2006, the United States and South Korea governments announced their intention to negotiate a free trade agreement. This fact sheet refutes five myths often used by free trade advocates and cites ways that the Korus FTA will further concentrate power of multinational corporations and erode the rights of governments to protect the rights of workers, farmers, and the environment (Christine Ahn, Oakland Institute, March 2007).

http://oaklandinstitute.org/pdfs/Korus_Fact_Sheet.pdf

(Added: 2007-08-29   Hits: 186)

Water and GATS : Mapping the trade - development interface

Trade and development were identified as twin goals by the leaders of the G8 nations at the Gleneagles Summit in July 2005. The G8 communique looked forward to successful conclusion of the Doha Round of international trade negotiations led by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) as a key vehicle for promoting economic growth and development - including expansion of trade in services under the GATS-General Agreement on Trade in Services. Yet, in international debates on water policy, liberalisation of services trade, as a means of achieving the water supply and sanitation (WSS) targets under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), is contested. Concern is expressed that GATS negotiations may put developing countries under pressure to create markets in water services and open them to foreign operators in conditions and at a pace which will have negative impacts on development, particularly in poorer areas. (Overseas Development Institute, October 2005)

http://www.odi.org.uk/wpp/publications_pdfs/BP_Water_GATS.pdf

(Added: 2007-06-01   Hits: 132)

Signing away the future - how trade and investment agreements between rich and poor countries undermine development (PDF 302.6 KB)

Oxfam International, March 2007. The quiet advance of trade and investment agreements between rich and poor countries threatens to deny developing countries a favourable foothold in the global economy. Driven by the USA and the European Union, these agreements impose far-reaching rules that place severe restrictions on the very policies developing countries need in order to fight poverty. This Oxfam briefing paper Oxfam believes that trade rules, whether multilateral, regional, or bilateral, should recognize the special and differential treatment that developing countries require in order to move up the development ladder as well as ensuring mechanisms for extensive participation of all stakeholders in the negotiating process, with full disclosure of information to the public, including the findings of independent impact assessments.

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/publications/briefing_papers/signing-away-the-future

(Added: 2007-04-10   Modified: 2008-10-01   Hits: 150)

Alternative (to) EPAs: Possible scenarios for the future ACP trade relations with the EU

Since 1996, when regional, reciprocal free-trade agreements were suggested to replace the Lomé regime on non-reciprocal trade preferences granted by the European Union (EU) to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States, the possibility of alternative trading arrangements to these economic partnership agreements (EPAs) has been considered.The Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA),which defines the new framework for the relationship between the EU and the ACP over the period 2000-2020, explicitly provides for the negotiation of EPAs, due to enter into force by 2008, as well as for the consideration, if necessary, of alternatives arrangements. (Oxfam, February 2006)

http://www.oxfam.org.nz/imgs/pdf/alternatives%20to%20epas.pdf

(Added: 2007-03-13   Hits: 174)

Analysis of the Draft Pacific EPA text

Key Issues in Pacific Trade Negotiations with the EU:Analysis of the Negotiating Draft submitted by the Pacific in June 2006 Preparations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and fourteen Pacific Island Countries are coming to the crucial stage. The proposals have been submitted and real negotiations are about to start. The EU is pushing the Pacific to accept rapid trade liberalisation across a huge range of goods, services and investment rules, while the Pacific is responding with proposals that would make the agreement more developmentally friendly.(Oxfam, October 2006)

http://www.oxfam.org.nz/imgs/pdf/state%20of%20play%20in%20pacp%20negotiations%20oct%202006.pdf

(Added: 2007-03-13   Hits: 158)

Unequal Partners: How EU-ACP Economic Partneship Agreements (EPAs) could harm the development prospects of many of the worlds poorest countries

The Doha 'Development' Round of trade talks has stalled, but the world's poorest countries remain under pressure to open up their markets with potentially disastrous consequences. These negotiations were meant to 'make trade fair', but they were blocked by the USA and EU, unwilling to address the rigged rules and double standards from which they benefit. The EU wants to forge new free trade agreements with 75 of its former colonies in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific (ACP). These imbalanced negotiations of 'Economic Partnership Agreements' between the two regions, pit some of the world's most advanced industrial economies against some of the poorest nations on earth. In addition, the ACP countries are split into six small groups for the negotiations; the smallest group, the Pacific Islands, is negotiating a trade agreement with an economic giant more than 1400 times its size. (Oxfam, September 2006)

http://www.oxfam.org.nz/imgs/whatwedo/mtf/unequal%20partners.pdf

(Added: 2007-03-13   Hits: 271)

Corporate conquest, global geopolitics: Intellectual property rights and bilateral investment treaties

This article examines how bilateral investment treaties and free trade agreements which contain specific investment provisions reflect geopolitical concerns and redefine rights and privileges for transnational corporations, including with respect to commercial control over biodiversity through intellectual property rights. (Aziz Choudry, Seedling, January 2005)

http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=1464

(Added: 2006-11-15   Modified: 0000-00-00   Hits: 259)

New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement

This is a regularly updated dossier of articles on this comprehensive bilateral free trade agreement, which the governments aim to conclude by 2007 or 2008. (Bilaterals.org)

http://www.bilaterals.org/rubrique.php3?id_rubrique=100

(Added: 2006-11-15   Hits: 229)

Trade in Health Services: Global, Regional and Country Perspectives

This publication explores issues related to Trade and Health services and WTO's GATS Agreement. Papers were presented at the Inter-Regional Meeting on Health and Trade: Towards a Millennium Round, and the book includes general conclusions and recommendations from the meeting. (Susan Pasquariella, Pan American Health Organization, September 2003)

http://www.paho.org/English/HDP/HDD/trade.htm

(Added: 2006-10-19   Modified: 0000-00-00   Hits: 119)

Overview of bilateral free trade and investment agreements

This is a background paper prepared for the "Fighting FTAs" international strategy workshop. It looks at key bilateral negotiations, US TIFAs and BITs, and significant regional/subregional deals in Africa and the Middle East, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and the Caribbean. (FTA Watch, bilaterals.org, GRAIN and MSF, 1 October 2006)

http://www.bilaterals.org/IMG/pdf/Overview.pdf

(Added: 2006-10-16   Hits: 176)

U.S. Union, Business Group Slam Jordan Sweatshops

A leading U.S. labour coalition and an industry group have filed a complaint with the U.S. Trade Representative asking that it formally sanction the government of Jordan for "gross workers' rights violations" under a controversial free trade agreement with the United States and Israel. (Emad Mekay, IPS News, 27 September 2006)

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34904

(Added: 2006-10-05   Modified: 2007-01-18   Hits: 226)

Corporate Conquest: Why the UK and its EU partners must stop forcing EPAs upon developing countries

The European Union is currently negotiating unfair trade deals with 77 developing countries from the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific region (ACP) behind closed doors. If these Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) are ratified, they will have a devastating impact on poor communities and their natural resources. By forcing poor countries' farmers and industries into unfair competition with rich countries, infant industries are set to be destroyed and small farmers driven off their land. In addition, the EU is attempting to include an investment deal that would give European corporations greater rights over poor countries, despite the fact that developing countries have already rejected such a deal at world trade talks. This would pave the way for corporations to exploit natural resources with minimal regulation. (Friends of the Earth, September 2006)

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/corporate_conquest.pdf

(Added: 2006-09-29   Hits: 231)

International Regulation of Official Trade Finance: Competition and Collusion in Export Credits and Foreign Aid (Abstract)

(From ECA Watch) Abstract for Peter C. Evans's recently completed PhD dissertation at (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) on the international rules that govern official trade finance. International Regulation of Official Trade Finance: Competition and Collusion in Export Credit and Foreign Aid is the result of five years of research, including field research in France, Germany, Japan, Canada, China and the United States. Among the questions answered in this dissertation are: Why did the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) emerge as the forum of choice for regulating export credits? Why is membership in this regime so selective? Why are the proceedings so secretive? Why are the rules governing official trade finance strong and strictly enforced in some areas but weak or nonexistent in others?

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/ECA_DissertationAbstract.pdf

(Added: 2005-09-14   Modified: 2006-08-15   Hits: 274)

Stop EPA campaign

Welcome to the website of www.stopepa.org. This website aims to facilitate a large coalition of ACP and EU civil society organisations aiming at stopping the EU's current approach in negotiating free trade agreements with the countries of the ACP. This coalition draws its support ACP and EU wide and follows the initiative of the Africa Trade Network to start a 'No-to-EPA-campaign'. Support this struggle by signing our statement.

http://www.stopepa.org/

(Added: 2005-02-02   Modified: 2006-08-15   Hits: 236)

bilaterals.org

bilaterals.org is a collective effort to share information and stimulate cooperation against bilateral trade and investment agreements that are opening countries to the deepest forms of penetration by transnational corporations.

http://www.bilaterals.org/

(Added: 2004-09-09   Modified: 2006-08-15   Hits: 307)

Bibliography on Official Export Credits (Word 56.0KB)

The following list covers the policy, legal and economic literature on officially supported export credits, credit guarantees, and export insurance. It includes books, journal articles, papers, monographs, and policy notes written over the past 40 years. It is a comprehensive, though not exhaustive, list intended to help those who are doing research on export credit agencies and other aspects of state supported export finance.

http://www.dev-zone.org/downloads/ExportFinanceBiblio.pdf

(Added: 2004-03-17   Modified: 2006-08-15   Hits: 424)

Lula Raises the Stakes

By William Greider and in Kenneth Rapoza The Nation, November 13, 2003. The bearded political leader they call Lula is the new phenomenon of globalization, a man with audacious ambitions to alter the balance of power among nations. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the new left-wing president of Brazil, envisions a united South America that gains economic strength by drawing closer together in trade and bargaining collectively, much as the European Union does. He wants to create a global coalition speaking for the not-rich countries--reminiscent of the "nonaligned nations" that decades ago tried to stand between the cold war's two superpowers. And he wants to push the IMF, the World Bank and the United Nations to become more democratic.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20031201&s=greider

(Added: 2003-11-20   Modified: 0000-00-00   Hits: 427)

Global Trade Watch (GTW)

Global Trade Watch (GTW) promotes democracy by challenging corporate globalization, arguing that the current globalization model is neither a random inevitability nor "free trade." Our work seeks to make the measurable outcomes of this model accessible to the public, press, and policy-makers, while emphasizing that if the results are not acceptable, then the model can and must be changed or replaced. GTW works on an array of globalization issues, including health and safety, environmental protection, economic justice, and democratic, accountable governance.

http://www.citizen.org/trade/

(Added: 2003-09-11   Modified: 2008-09-19   Hits: 422)

India, Pakistan explore peace through trade

By Indrajit Basu, Asia Times Online, Jul 12, 2003. KOLKATA -One of the fastest-selling whisky brands in Pakistan is an Indian brand called Aristocrat. Another best-selling item is an Indian automotive tire brand called Apollo. Moreover, Pakistan's most-watched movies are produced in Bollywood and movie stars who enjoy iconic Pakistani status are mostly Indian stars and starlets. All of these products are on a list of "banned imports from India" that are smuggled daily into Pakistan through the porous border of Punjab, the Pakistani state that borders India. Ordinarily, given that the two countries are next-door neighbors, this kind of cross-border trade shouldn't come as a surprise. But with decades of recurring bilateral tensions, officially-recorded trade between the two is abysmally low.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EG12Df01.html

(Added: 2003-07-14   Modified: 2006-08-15   Hits: 368)

ECA-Watch

Citizens worldwide are increasingly aware of global institutions (like the WTO and the World Bank) and their impacts on the environment and human rights. But other secretive government bodies, export credit agencies, have as big, if not bigger, impacts on the process of globalization. ECA Watch is an organizing and outreach feature of the larger international campaign to reform Export Credit, Finance and Insurance Agencies (ECAs). Participants in the campaign include environment, development, human rights, community, labor, anti-corruption and other non-governmental organizations and bodies. Targets of the ECA campaign include specific ECA-backed projects and ECA policy reforms taking place at national and multilateral levels.

http://www.eca-watch.org/

(Added: 2003-04-22   Modified: 2006-08-15   Hits: 367)