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Europe: support for change carries agendas
22-Jan-2005 Trinidad & Tobago Express
As 2005 proceeds, some Caribbean nations may find themselves faced with an unusually specific strategic choice: Europe may suggest the need to consider the relative weight they intend to give to the development of sectors such as tourism in preference to the role presently afforded to traditional agriculture.
FTA: Facing The Apocalypse?
12-Jan-2005
The graffiti on the walls in Quito ask if the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that the US is pushing on Colombia, Peru and Ecuador means that our days are numbered.
Big changes ahead in world trade
7-Jan-2005 The Nation
In Thailand, FTA-mania under the administration of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is likely to continue in 2005.
Agriculture hindering S. Korea-Japan FTA talks: official
28-Dec-2004 Yonhap
Agriculture issues are holding up progress in free trade agreement (FTA) talks between South Korea and Japan, a Korean government official said Monday.
Pakistan, China to set up free trade area
26-Dec-2004 ANN
China and Pakistan are poised to widen the silk road between them by building a free trade area (FTA). For Pakistanis, it is mainly a "cotton road."
Malaysia, Japan one step closer to FTA
25-Dec-2004 Asahi Shimbun
Japan and Malaysia on Friday took a step closer to reaching a free trade agreement, clearing a key hurdle related to the agricultural, forestry and fisheries sector, government sources said.
Critique of the proposed Chile-New Zealand Closer Economic Partnership (P3 with Singapore)
21-Dec-2004 ARENA
The New Zealand, Chile and Singapore governments are promoting a P-3 whose primary - and arguably only - beneficiaries are the transnational companies that straddle two of the three countries, including opportunists who locate there to take advantage of the deal. The greatest potential beneficiaries are the agribusiness interests of Fonterra and Nestle as they promote their shared strategy to dominate Latin America’s dairy industry.
Arena launches sign-on letter to oppose the P-3
21-Dec-2004 Scoop
ARENA today stepped up its campaign against the proposed Chile/New Zealand free trade agreement, which forms part of the Pacific 3 (P-3) with Singapore, by launching a sign-on letter to the Prime Minister calling on her to end the negotiations.
Agriculture: Arab trade agreement may be fatal for Lebanon’s farmers
16-Dec-2004 Daily Star
Lebanese farmers say the Greater Arab Free Trade Agreement (Gafta) could wipe them out when it goes into effect Jan. 1. If that happens, they promise to take to the streets in protest.
Third round of Thai-US FTA talks postponed until after election
14-Dec-2004
The third round of free trade talks between the United States and Thailand has been postponed until after the latter’s general election in February 2005, local press reported on Monday.
Agriculture reforms go against Korea’s grain
10-Dec-2004 Asia Times
In excluding agriculture from FTA negotiations, the South Korean government is setting itself up for even greater domestic backlash when multilateral negotiations pry open a sector insulated from any form of competition.
Driving a hard bargain: Trade agreements easier said than done
24-Nov-2004 Asahi
Japan is proving a tough negotiator for countries with their hopes pinned on FTAs.
Agriculture: Thais urged to reject political parties which support bilateral FTAs and GM crops
24-Nov-2004 MCOT
Thailand’s leading agricultural activist network has urged Thais not to vote for political parties which back free trade agreements and genetically modified (GM) crops research at next February’s general election.
Bush plan that critics call ’NAFTA on steroids’ stalls
22-Nov-2004 LA Times
President Bush’s goal for a free-trade zone encompassing the entire Western Hemisphere faces growing opposition in the United States and abroad.
Dominican Republic excluded from CAFTA
19-Nov-2004 DTN
The Bush administration has decided to exclude the Dominican Republic from the Central American Free Trade Agreement because the Dominican Republic has adopted a tax on products containing high fructose corn syrup, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley said.
Milking Thailand: The Thai-Australia Free Trade Agreement
18-Nov-2004 Focus on the Global South
In Thailand, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) debates were heated. Farmers and critics claim that Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s government sold out small farmers to their own big business interests. They took to the streets in protest while Thaksin lambasted them and obscured negotiation details.
Thailand: Academics call for temporary suspension of FTA talks with US
13-Nov-2004 MCOT
Thai academics called on the government on Friday to temporarily suspend ongoing free trade area (FTA) negotiations with the United States, and suggested it to identify impacts on the country’s intellectual property rights and agricultural products.
The Thai dairy sector under liberalised trade conditions
11-Nov-2004 FTAmonitoring.org
Special report by Rabobank - PDF file
Japan, Thailand edge toward free-trade deal, without rice
11-Nov-2004 Kyodo
Trade negotiators from Japan and Thailand resumed free-trade talks Monday after Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra decided to withdraw rice from the negotiating table.
Free trade talks : Japanese protesters cry fowl
11-Nov-2004 The Nation
Chicken farmers from Japan have descended on Bangkok this week to lobby for the withdrawal of poultry products from free-trade talks, following the success of Japanese farmers in getting Thailand to drop rice.