Stuart Trew, Emma Lui, Published: Monday, 03/03/2014

What has become of the Canada-European Union free trade deal? The Harper government announced an “agreement in principle” with the EU in late October. And yet talks continue in a number of areas, notably on a controversial NAFTA-like investment protection chapter that is giving Europeans second thoughts.

Feb 27 (Reuters) - Canada has no plans to further ease rules for foreign investment in uranium mines after Ottawa moved to give European Union firms more leeway, a senior official said on Thursday.

As part of a Canada-European Union free trade deal that was announced in principle last year, Ottawa waived a longstanding requirement that EU buyers take on a Canadian partner in uranium mines.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver said Canada did not intend to make the same offer to non-European companies such as Australia's Rio Tinto Ltd, which has uranium deposits in northern Saskatchewan.

"There are no current plans to do that," he told reporters, saying the easing of rules for European firms was a major step.

Feb 25th 2014, The Economist

THE trade agreement the 12 members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) hope to reach is to be “ambitious”, “comprehensive”, “high-standard” and “21st-century”. I know this, because every one of the 12 trade ministers who spoke at a press conference at the end of four days of talks in Singapore on February 25th, used at least one, and usually all four, of the terms. The talks had made great progress, they all also agreed. But “significant gaps” remain, no date or place has been chosen for their next meeting, and it was hard to avoid the conclusion that any agreement is months or years away.

by Serge Halimi

You can safely bet that the (TPA) will not feature as much in the forthcoming European elections as the extradition of illegal immigrants or the (alleged) teaching of "gender theory" in French schools. The TPA will affect 800 million affluent people and almost half the world's wealth (1). The European Commission is negotiating this free trade agreement with Washington on behalf of the EU's 28 member states, and the European parliament elected this May will be expected to ratify it. Nothing is settled as yet, but on 11 February the French president François Hollande, during his state visit to Washington, proposed to speed things up, saying: "We have everything to gain by moving quickly. Otherwise, as we know all too well, there will be a build-up of fears, threats and tensions."

Posted: 25 Feb 2014 06:53 AM PST
Another high-level Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) meeting has fizzled with no deal. The talks have missed a
succession of deadlines due to opposition from negotiating countries to corporate-backed U.S. demands that would
increase the cost of medicines, restrict financial stability measures, and empower corporations to challenge health
and environmental safeguards. Back at home, the administration's attempt to Fast Track the TPP through Congress
suffers from overwhelming congressional and public opposition.
Facing international and domestic resistance, and having already missed deadlines to seal a deal last October and
December, TPP trade ministers refrained from naming another deadline after finishing negotiations in Singapore
today, stating only that they hope for a deal "as soon as possible."

By: Marilyn Reid | February 17, 2014. Newfoundland and Labrador, The Independent

In the first of this 5-part series: What the North American Free Trade Agreement has taught us, and the implications of another treaty based on the neoliberal “free trade” ideology

by Dana Gabriel, January 28, 2014  In preparation for the upcoming North American Leaders Summit which will be held in Toluca, Mexico on February 19, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently held a meeting with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts. Over the last number of years, not as much attention has been given to the trilateral relationship. Instead, the U.S. has essentially pursued a dual-bilateral approach with both Canada and Mexico on key issues including border and continental perimeter security, as well as regulatory and energy cooperation. On the heels of its 20th anniversary, there once again appears to be renewed interest in broadening and deepening the NAFTA partnership as part of the next phase of North American integration.