TTIP: The Rise of Regional Trade Agreements and their Potential Implications for the Global South

This article intervenes in the gronuing academic discussion about the potential impact of currently negotiated trade and investment agreements such as the TTIP, the CETA, and the TPP. To do so, our contribution focuses on the rarely asked question of how these agreements 11l impact the Global South. After shomung that there is no stable and clear international legal definition of a 'developing' state, this contribution argues that the EU alreadp has a number of legal obkgations towards the Global South (for example, the Cotonou Agreement) that need to inform the debate about the objectives and potential impact of the TIP. Further, our argument emanates from the position that it was the failure of the Doha Development Round of negotiations in the W'TO that paved way for what we understand to be a 'strategic bilateraksm' of the Global North. The second part of this article attempts to evaluate the potential impact of this strategic bilaterasm on three distinct fields, first, on the relations between the West and emerging perjheral powers, such as China or Brazil second, on the economic stabidy and viabidy of the Least Developed Countries; and third, on the most marginadsed and vulnerable sections of the society regardless of their nationa�ty. Our tentative conclusion is that given the potential adverse impact on all these three fronts, it is essentialfor the E U to re-evaluate its strategy.