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agriculture | farmers | food

Canada seeks wider agricultural access in FTA talks
28-Nov-2006 Korea Herald
Canada has pushed for wider access to Korea’s agriculture market during the eighth round of talks for a bilateral free trade agreement last week.
Furor over JPEPA: Will Davao’s banana workers benefit from it?
27-Nov-2006 Davao Today
Most of the bananas from Davao are exported to Japan by Japanese companies such as Sumitomo. These companies and their contract growers or affiliates in Mindanao will benefit from any lowered tariff under JPEPA, not the farmers and plantation workers.
Thailand asks Korea to liberalise agricultural trade terms
23-Nov-2006 MCOT
Commerce Minister Krirkkrai Jirapaet on Wednesday reiterated that Thailand would not sign an ASEAN-Korea free trade area (FTA) agreement unless Korea agrees to liberalise its policies on agricultural products, especially rice.
All foods on the table in trade talks with Japan
15-Nov-2006 The Australian
Free access for all Australian farm products to the Japanese market will be on the table when free trade agreement negotiations start, but some won’t be there at the finish.
Panelists want eight more FTAs, no farm snags
4-Nov-2006 Japan Times
Four private-sector members of Japan’s key governmental economic panel insist that Tokyo should triple the number of its FTA partners in two years.
PM has suggested agriculturists to study FTA and plan for long-term
1-Nov-2006 Thais News
Thailand’s Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has advised farmers to study the impacts of the China-ASEAN free trade area (FTA) and find ways to handle them.
Farmers picket Japanese embassy over economic pact
28-Oct-2006 INQ7.net
About 20 Filipino farmers picketed outside the Japanese embassy Friday to protest the Japanese-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
“Stop ROK-US FTA - making consumers exposed to serious food danger"
28-Oct-2006 VOP
While the 4th US-Kore FTA were in progress in Jeju Island, 101 scholars related to sociology issued a statement, urging the suspension of the negotiations. They noted that “the ROK-US FTA are highly universal problems directly related to the food safety and sovereignty of all people.”
About 10,000 farmers protest over US-S Korea trade talks
24-Oct-2006 All Headline News
In the wake of protests from thousands of farm activists and unionists, South Korean and U.S. negotiators resumed controversial free-trade talks on Monday, on the resort island of Cheju.
S Korean island urges US negotiators to remove oranges from FTA
24-Oct-2006 Asia Pulse
As the host of ongoing free trade talks with the United States, the South Korean island of Jeju appealed on Monday for Washington’s negotiators to exclude oranges from a bilateral trade pact that is being planned.
Dole Fresh Flowers’ cuts hit small Ecuadorean town hard
19-Oct-2006 Miami Herald
In many ways, the flower industry in Ecuador put this small town on the map. Now, just as quickly, it may be erasing it.
Sugar quotas scupper Salvadoran FTA
19-Oct-2006 Taipei Times
Failure to agree on sugar quotas yesterday prompted Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian to delay the signing of a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with El Salvador, saying that the two countries must first iron out their differences.
S. Korean farmers, activists plan anti-FTA protests next week
16-Oct-2006 Asia Pulse
More than 3,000 South Korean farmers and activists plan to hold peaceful demonstrations next week to protest against a fourth round of free trade talks with the United States, organizers said Monday.
El Salvador-US: Free trade deal a menace to local producers
13-Oct-2006 IPS
Seven months after the Central American free trade treaty with the United States came into effect, small-scale producers and economists in El Salvador say that it only benefits a few sectors of society, to the detriment of most national production and thousands of jobs.
Rice could doom US-Korea trade deal: source
8-Oct-2006 Reuters
A proposed free-trade deal between the United States and South Korea would probably be doomed if Washington succeeds in putting rice on the negotiating table, according to a source familiar with the subject.
US and Panama making progress on trade deal: USTR
7-Oct-2006
The United States and Panama are making "good" progress toward a bilateral trade deal, Washington’s chief agricultural negotiator said on Thursday.
Playing our own game
4-Oct-2006
Sripai Noonsee was in despair after her latest attempt to find a job at an electronics factory at Bang Kadee Industrial Estate ended in failure like so many others. She has been jobless for many months.
US beef to be on sale after Chusok
4-Oct-2006
US beef will likely be distributed in Korea’s domestic market soon after the Chusok holidays following the government’s decision to resume imports early September.
Korea seeks to exempt 240 agro products from Canada FTA
3-Oct-2006
Korea is seeking to exclude 240 agricultural products out of a total of 1,452 from the tariff cut proposals exchanged with Canada during the seventh round of free trade agreement talks, the government said yesterday.
Beijing nears the barriers in FTA race
2-Oct-2006
For many farmers in both China and Australia, whose agricultural trade experts were attending a conference last Wednesday, rain is a rarity, so longing looks were cast at the muddy streets and umbrellas outside. The conference, focused on the agricultural issues involved in negotiating a Free Trade Agreement, was held in Xian, the ancient capital of 13 Chinese dynasties and the heartland of Chinese agriculture.