The European Union has distanced from the idea of renewing its large-scale Free Trade Agreement with the United States as part of Brussels’s efforts to secure a permanent exclusion from the aluminum and steel import duties.
The United States under the new administration may discard the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) just like it did with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), to pave the way for new trade policy, focused on local economies and sustainable jobs, experts told Sputnik.
These kinds of policies contributed to mass unemployment, the rise of fascism and the Second World War – the whole world will be the poorer for what President Trump has done
The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) has been signed but not ratified and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) negotiations are in train. The former faces challenges in securing legislative ratification in the US and some other member states, buts its progress faces widespread, and growing, resistance in key European countries, with opposition coming from both within national bodies politic and wider civil societies. The success of both projects hangs in the balance. This short paper looks at the cases for and against both projects and analyses the political dynamics at play.
Last week, there was a bit of good news on the trade front: on July 8, tobacco giant Philip Morris lost its ridiculous case against Uruguay’s cigarette labeling laws. ISDS empowers companies to sue governments in private tribunals over measures that undermine their expected profits. It has become a lightning rod for controversy in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
Waiting in the wings, and still being negotiated largely in secret is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP). The agreement, between the U.S. and the 28-nation European Union, has been formally discussed through 12 rounds of negotiations, with another round scheduled for some time this month. Both sides would like to conclude this treaty by the end of 2016.
The number of regional trade agreements has increased from 70 in 1990 to more than 270 today. In a new blog, Witney Schneidman argues that in certain respects, Africa is well positioned in this new era regional trade relations.
Did you know that two looming trade deals, if passed by Congress, would newly empower 45 of the world’s 50 largest corporate climate polluters to “sue” governments in private tribunals over policies that keep fossil fuels in the ground?
Clinching an ambitious bilateral trade and investment pact in the near term remains a key strategic and economic priority, said the US’ and EU’s top trade officials last week, while acknowledging the ongoing uncertainty that surrounds such efforts given the American presidential election debate on the merits of trade deals and the impending “Brexit” referendum in the UK.
That the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been in the grip of a systemic crisis since 2008 is well known. Notwithstanding relatively minor successes at the Bali Ministerial in December 2013, the WTO's negotiating function remains effectively stalled. The Nairobi Ministerial, set to take place in December 2015, is not likely to yield systemic solutions, notably to break the Doha Round impasse. The longer this negotiating stalemate endures, the more the WTO's foundations will crumble, particularly the much-prized jewel in its crown: the Dispute Settlement System.
With global trade negotiations deadlocked for years, regional agreements – long a dormant route to trade liberalization – are back with a vengeance. The United States is at the center of two mega-deals that could shape the future path of world trade.
Thursday 16 October 2014, WikiLeaks released a second updated version of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the world's largest economic trade agreement that will, if it comes into force, encompass more than 40 per cent of the world's GDP. The IP Chapter covers topics from pharmaceuticals, patent registrations and copyright issues to digital rights. Experts say it will affect freedom of information, civil liberties and access to medicines globally.