Negotiating and closing contracts

Rien n’est décidé tant que l’accord global n’est pas accepté is a sentence about one negotiating table, not about the planet. The French adjective global is built on le globe and means belonging to the whole, taken in one lump. So l’accord global is the package deal — every clause standing or falling with the others, which is exactly why nothing is settled until it is accepted. In the same register you will meet le montant global, the total sum, une vision globale, an overall view, and globalement, meaning on the whole, one of the commonest adverbs in a French meeting. For the sense « worldwide » the language has a different word altogether, mondial: le marché mondial, une entreprise mondiale, la mondialisation. The trap runs both ways. Read un accord global as a global agreement and a deal between two firms starts to sound like a treaty; write un contrat global meaning a worldwide contract and you have written a contract that covers everything instead. Take global as « overall » and both misreadings go away.