Trade
This section contains documents on Switzerland's bilateral trade policy and on the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
The business of suing for damages
If you are the head of a multinational corporation that invested in Libya, your assets have probably been damaged or destroyed during the civil war. If you were holding Greek Government securities and failed to divest them before creditors agreed on a haircut with the country, you have lost some of your money. What can you do about such hardships? ...>>
Questionable investment protection agreements
Alliance Sud has published a background paper in view of the parliamentary debate on a new investment protection agreement with Tunisia. It explains the problems associated with these agreements and makes proposals for reform. ...>>
Free trade endangers the biodiversity
Shalini Bhutani, an Indian lawyer and specialist in patent matters, does not think much of bilateral trade agreements as they are currently being negotiated with India by Switzerland and other countries, for they would undermine the right of farmers to use seeds freely and would promote the privatisation of natural resources. ...>>
Trade offensives
Immediately after the elections, Angela Merkel, David Cameron and other European Heads-of-State called on Barak Obama to press ahead with the Transatlantic Partnership, a kind of transatlantic economic community. An EU-US task force will table the first proposals at the beginning of 2013. The ambitions are high. The goal is not a standard trade agreement but a very comprehensive one with worldwide implications. ...>>
India – a challenging partner
India's positions in international negotiations often clash with those of the West. It wishes to review its investment policy and rejects additional patent protection provisions. Switzerland too is not unaffected by this. ...>>
