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Asia


UK starts new trade ties with Asia post-Brexit
Britain hopes Singapore and Vietnam deals will bring it closer to joining Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Indo-Pacific guidelines: Germany’s new China plan
Berlin wants to diversify its relations, position itself more broadly, conclude further free trade agreements – also in order to no longer be so dependent on Beijing.
Silent expansion
Many countries, particularly in the global south, are in the process of joining the Energy Charter Treaty despite the sweeping powers it grants to foreign investors.
US urges Australia to expand Pacific push to South-East Asia to counter China’s expansion
The Trump Administration has called on the Morrison Government to extend its "step-up" strategy in the Pacific to South-East Asia, as Washington grapples with China’s rising regional influence.
US energy secretary hopes Mexico, Canada will help export American coal
Canada and Mexico could help export US coal to Asia via USMCA to get around the blocking of shipments by West Coast states, US Energy Secretary said.
UK faces long road in ’ambitious’ post-Brexit trade push into Asia
The U.K.’s foreign secretary landed in Australia on Thursday as part of a four-nation swing through the Asia-Pacific region to push for "ambitious" trade deals, but translating the government’s post-Brexit swagger into concrete deals may be a long and bumpy process.
As the Eurasian Union looks east, its deals do not benefit all members equally
The EAEU is shopping for partners in Asia. Middle finger to the West or sound trade policy?
Trade in trouble: how Asia can lead
The US - China trade dispute has disrupted trade and investment flows, stifling global and regional trade growth.
The EU’s human rights and free trade conundrum
Today the EU looks to be perfectly happy to expand trade with authoritarian regimes with appalling human rights records when the economic gains are sufficiently large.
Corporate sector in China’s Belt & Road: Impact on people’s access to land and water
China has been receiving flak for its conditional investments and loans that are resulting in land and resource grabbing in Asia and Africa.
ISDS reforms shove human rights under corporate red carpet
“We call on our governments to either address the real reasons why ISDS is fundamentally flawed or to abandon its ‘reform’ agenda that is designed to reinforce and re-legitimise a self-serving investment dispute system.”
Briefer: Mega-FTAs and its implications on Asian Workers
Cross-regional mega-FTAs are now being preferred over bilateral and plurilateral trade agreements as imperialist powers compete for cheap labor, sources of raw materials, and markets.
Cambodia and EAEU fortify ties, consider FTA
Cambodian officials pleaded last week with representatives of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) to include more Cambodian products into the bloc’s joint tariff scheme during a high level diplomatic meeting in Moscow.
TPP’s regulatory capitalism and China’s Belt and Road challenges
The revived TPP 11 operates as a significant alternative to China’s approach, embodied in the Belt and Road Initiative.
To counter China’s BRI, India joins US, Japan to boost connectivity in Indo-Pacific
India has joined hands with Japan and United States to build infrastructure for promoting connectivity in Indo-Pacific region, ostensibly to counter the Belt and Road initiative of China.
UK vies for post-Brexit Asia trade as EU lines up FTAs
Indonesia set to be crucial battleground for negotiations
Shifting trade winds: US bilateralism & Asia-Pacific economic integration
Certain long-standing provisions of trade agreements, specifically ISDS, are worthy of reconsideration.
In the economic power struggle for Asia, Trump and Xi Jinping are switching policies
Donald Trump is flexing the United States’ economic muscle in East Asia by introducing a web of new-generation bilateral trade deals to contain China’s challenge. But Beijing is fighting back by political means.
Taiwan eyes ’important role’ in alternative Asian sphere of influence
Mainland affairs minister intrigued by Trump references to ’Indo-Pacific’.