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Asia

US seeks trade insurance with bilateral pacts
22-Mar-2006 FT
It’s always wise to have a Plan B. As the US urges progress in the “Doha round” of trade talks, it is also chasing bilateral trade deals across east Asia.
Time is right for trade deals with Asia-Pacific
17-Mar-2006 Financial Post
With the world’s two big multi-country trade liberalization talks stumbling or moribund, Canada’s new government should fire up action on bilateral and smaller regional free-trade deals.
Ways and Means chair says US should drop lagging FTA partners
21-Feb-2006 Resource Center of the Americas
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA) this week said the U.S. should drop partners in free trade agreement negotiations if talks on those agreements are not progressing.
Asia risks spaghetti bowl trade deal mess: ADB
9-Feb-2006
A proliferation of bilateral free trade deals in Asia risks creating a "spaghetti bowl" of overlapping measures that could actually harm companies, the head of the Asia Development Bank (ADB) said today.
FTA vital for East Asia says ADB
9-Feb-2006 Gulf Daily News
East Asia should set up a unified region-wide free trade pact to help boost trade and investment and further promote regional economic integration, the president of the Asian Development Bank said yesterday.
The great maze: Regional and bilateral free trade agreements in Asia
30-Dec-2005 UNDP
This UNDP paper is divided into four main parts. Parts I, II and III examine the phenomenon of FTA proliferation and the underlying forces and motivations of key players at work. Part IV builds on the analysis to address the impact of the FTA explosion on human development policy choices in key areas such as agriculture, textiles, rules of origin, intellectual property, trade in services, and investment.
Bilateral trade deals not good for developing Asia: UNESCAP
14-Dec-2005
The proliferation of bilateral trade deals among Asian countries is an undesirable fallout of the slow progress in global trade talks and against the interests of the poorest countries in the region, according to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP).
EU group sees regional deals’ potential
17-Nov-2005
European Union (EU) trade organisations have called for regional free trade agreements to complement World Trade Organisation negotiations for a global open market.
East Asia Summit to discuss FTA between Asian nations: SM Goh
4-Nov-2005 Channel News Asia
Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said the East Asia Summit next month would discuss the possibility of a Free Trade Agreement between East Asian countries.
Trade deals mushroom, with or without WTO
31-Oct-2005 DowJones News
A World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December is looming as key to the shape of free trade in Asia in the 21st century as countries within the region intensify their interest in integrating their markets.
Specter of failure haunts WTO trade talks
10-Oct-2005 Taipei Times
"The consequences of failure would be an even further switch to [bi-lateral] Free Trade Agreements [FTAs] and long-term weakness for multilateral trade. Trade would become more discriminatory," said Razeen Sally, visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
TWN seminar warns about WTO-plus issues and rules in bilateral and regional FTAs
22-Sep-2005
The Third World Network held a regional Asian workshop on bilateral and regional FTAs on 26-29 August in Kuala Lumpur. Many speakers and participants voiced concerns about how the developed countries are making use of such FTAs to get developing countries to accept issues.
Asian regional workshop on bilateral free trade agreements
22-Sep-2005
The Asian Regional Workshop on Bilateral Free Trade Agreements was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26-28 August 2005. It was organized by the Third World Network and attended by about 120 participants from many Asian countries.
Bilateral/regional free trade agreements: An outline of elements, nature and development implications
22-Sep-2005
Several Asian countries and Asean as a bloc are now pursuing trade and economic frameworks and agreements with non-Asean countries.
Preferential trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific region
1-Sep-2005
This IMF working paper of July 2005 describes the proliferation of PTAs in the Asia-Pacific region, discusses their characteristics and implementation, and assesses their potential effects.
Declaración de Dili: 10 años de OMC son suficientes! Por la defensa de la soberanía y la expulsión de la OMC
2-Jun-2005
Estamos afrontando varios impactos negativos tanto de la OMC como de los TLC. Por ejemplo, Tailandia, conocida como el país con mayor exportación de arroz; sus campesinos están sufriendo muchísimo y están perdiendo la tierra así como las semillas locales.
Dili Declaration: Ten years of WTO is enough! Defense sovereignty and expelling WTO
2-Jun-2005
We are facing severe negative impact of both WTO and FTA. For instance, Thailand known as the biggest rice exporting country but Thai peasant has been suffering in huge amount of debt and losing the land as well as the local seeds.
Trade fever hits Asia-Pacific region
21-Apr-2005 IHT
The enthusiasm for bilateral free trade agreements, or FTAs, and regional trade agreements, or RTAs, around Asia-Pacific reflects frustration over the slow pace of multilateral trade reform, once seen as the great hope for regional trade.
Summit indicates no plan to move toward FTA
6-Apr-2005 Jakarta Post
The upcoming Asian-African Summit will focus on establishing a new strategic partnership, and would not as yet move toward ideas of linking the two continents via a free trade agreement. "However, we have identified that (a FTA) is one form of cooperation that we can pursue in the long term," Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs secretary-general Sudjadnan Parnohadiningrat said.
Singapore and Thailand top lists of completed FTAs
7-Dec-2004 ANN
Singapore and Thailand have emerged as the two Asian countries with the highest number of completed free trade agreements (FTA), according to Asia News Network reports.