4 August, 2023: India is currently negotiating Trade Agreements (FTAs) with the UK and EU, among other countries, which include demands for stricter intellectual property rules, threatening India’s production of generic medicines and role as “pharmacy of the world.”
May 8, 2023: The Implementation Agenda for the Strategic Economic Cooperation Arrangement (SECA) between Australia and Thailand (SECA) will sit alongside the existing Thai - Australia FTA agreed in 2005, which is not being reviewed. Instead the strategy will develop new areas of cooperation for expanding trade and investment.
April 7, 2020: The ABC TV 4-Corners program on April 6, 2020, Amazon: What They Know About Us focused on the impact of Amazon Marketplace and the use of data to create a powerful global monopoly.
4-Corners was re-broadcasting a BBC Panorama program screened in the UK on February 17, 2020.
June 23, 2017: On May 16, 2017, President Correa of Ecuador terminated 16 Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). This action followed the recommendation of the Ecuadorian Commission that audited the country's Investment Protection Treaties, and found they were not in the national interest.
August 5, 2016: The discovery of deadly asbestos from imported materials used in a new Perth hospital has sparked a debate about inspection of increased numbers of imports resulting from the China FTA, already in force, and the proposed Indian FTA.
But rather than cracking down on dangerous imports of asbestos products immigration Minister Peter Dutton has launched an extraordinary attack on the construction union,, blaming the union for "driving Australian companies to ‘cut corners’ by importing cheap Chinese materials that may contain deadly asbestos,” according to a report in The Australian.
The impasse at the World Trade Organisation has seen many countries respond by exploring bilateral and regional trade agreements.
The proliferation of bilateral agreements is characterised by imbalances in trading power, lack of adequate impacts assessment, and often more regulatory restrictions for governments than under the WTO.