Overview Of Bilateral Free Trade And Investment Agreements
Background paper prepared for the "Fighting FTAs" international strategy workshop organised by FTA Watch in cooperation
with bilaterals.org, GRAIN and MSF in Bangkok on 27-29 July 2006
Revised for public release as of 1 October 2006
This 22-page document gives a general overview of free trade agreements (FTAs) and bilateral investment treaties (BITs)
that have been signed or are being negotiated all over the world. Organised by region, it provides a snapshot of the
many processes currently under way, some of the controversies they raise and opposition movements against these
agreements.
This document was originally prepared as a resource paper for the "Fighting FTAs" strategy workshop organised by FTA
Watch with the collaboration of bilaterals.org, GRAIN and Médecins Sans Frontières in Thailand at the end of July 2006.
It was then revised at the end of September, with the input of the workshop participants for sharing as a public
document.
In the fast moving world of FTAs and BITs, it is easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer number of deals being negotiated,
signed or put into effect. This paper aims to help people get a basic handle on what is going on. Bilateral trade and
investment agreements are literally exploding right now, as governments around the world compete individually for market
access favours and closer geopolitical ties in the breakdown of multilateral fora such as the World Trade Organisation
(WTO). In many cases they go much further than WTO commitments. These agreements are about much more than trade,
however, and present huge challenges for social movements.
Available online at: http://www.bilaterals.org/article.php3?id_article=6206
For more information:
FTA Watch: http://www.ftawatch.org bilaterals.org: http://www.bilaterals.org GRAIN: http://www.grain.org MSF: http://www.accessmed-msf.org
bilaterals.org is a collaborative 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
bilaterals.org is an open publishing website where researchers, activists, ngos and others can share news, analysis and
strategy discussions about free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties worldwide
bilaterals.org weekly is an electronic mailout of the latest additions to the site, released each friday
more information about bilaterals.org and how to get involved is available at http://www.bilaterals.org
ENDS