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geopolitics

Lessons from Morocco
16-Nov-2007 Middle East Times
Bilateral trade accords are driven by politics more than economics, and the US-Morocco free trade agreement, or FTA, is no exception.
Trade deal would be reward for Jordan’s moderate stance
14-Nov-2007 Embassy Magazine
Jordan’s Ambassador to Canada says free trade talks are a reward for his country’s moderation and peace efforts, but critics worry the government isn’t genuine in its trade relations.
Israel boycott office ’must be reopened’
5-Nov-2007 Gulfnews
A parliamentarian committee in Bahrain has called for the reopening of the Israel boycott office. Manama shut down the office in 2005 as part of the requirements by the US Congress before it ratified a free trade agreement with Bahrain
EU shuns discussion on NKorea enclave at trade talks
17-Oct-2007 EU Business
The European Union has shunned discussions on South Korea’s proposal to include a North Korean industrial park in their proposed free trade agreement (FTA), officials said. Meanwhile, European businesses have warned their leaders not to play politics with trade and exclude the park from any trade agreement with Seoul.
Envoy hints at free-trade deal for Israel’s 60th
24-Sep-2007 AJN
Israeli Ambassador Yuval Rotem has hinted that a free-trade agreement between Israel and Australia could be finalised in time for the Jewish State’s 60th anniversary next year.
Negroponte fears that Chávez would win if FTA fails at US Congress
19-Sep-2007 El Universal
US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte warned Tuesday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez would win and Latin American democracies would lose if the US Congress does not pass the Free Trade Agreements with Peru, Panama and "especially with Colombia."
Free trade is a prison
19-Aug-2007 East African
As the world prepares to celebrate the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition on August 23, a new book on the lessons learnt from that trade and how its “successor,” free trade is undermining democracy and justice in Africa has just been published.
Vying for leadership, Lula heads north, Chávez south
10-Aug-2007 IPS
Political and economic alliances with a view to strengthening Latin American integration are subtly shifting with a growing distance between Chávez and Lula
Research institute recommends inter-Korean trade agreement
9-Aug-2007 Hankyoreh
A private think-tank claims that South and North Korea should work on signing a free trade pact to prompt changes in the communist country and eventually achieve consolidation of the two divided Koreas.
FTA push moves to top of Bush agenda
18-Jul-2007 The Gate
With the president’s top domestic priority — immigration overhaul — in tatters, the Bush administration is intensifying efforts to move its trade agenda on Capitol Hill, using national security as an argument for four free-trade deals it wants Congress to pass as quickly as possible.
Toni Solo: Americanism v. ALBA
14-Jul-2007 Scoop
It has taken a while for the US to work out an effective strategy to counteract ALBA.
A backroom deal on trade?
26-Jun-2007 Socialist Worker
The crisis facing the US empire in the Middle East is also playing out in American efforts to maintain economic dominance in Asia and Latin America.
US, Vietnam: Trade ties and a China buffer
22-Jun-2007
The United States and Vietnam signed a trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA) June 21 ahead of a June 22 meeting between Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet and U.S. President George W Bush. By warming up its trade relationship with Vietnam, the United States is facilitating an alternative for US investors and businesses that want to set up production operations outside China.
Gaesong inclusion like “handing out cash to the North”
15-Jun-2007
On April 2, the first US congressional hearing after the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement was concluded and was a complaint-filled affair.
US Congressman: Bush wants FTA with Colombia to curb Chávez
15-Jun-2007 El Universal
Charles Rangel, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives, accused Thursday the government of US President George W. Bush of pressing the Congress to pass a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Colombia in order to counter Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.
Minority opinion
30-May-2007
It remains unclear to me what the advantages of being part of the Saarc grouping are over entering into bilateral relations with each individual Saarc country instead. I have always like the concept of Bimstec instead.
The politics of Asia’s big deals
26-May-2007 Newsweek
The US-South Korea free trade agreement comes at precisely the moment when America’s military presence on the Korean Peninsula is rapidly diminishing, anti-US nationalism in South Korea is growing and China is playing an ever more important leadership role in the region. "This FTA is about countering China," says Yang Sung Chul, a former US ambassador to South Korea, now professor at Korea University in Seoul. "It’s much more significant in strategic than economic terms."
US and China tug at ASEAN unity
8-May-2007 Asia Times
ASEAN is being fragmented by intensifying US-China competition for regional influence, which is putting a premium on bilateralism with the big powers at the expense of ASEAN’s ambition toward more regional multilateralism.
Global trade talks stall as free trade agreements grow in Asia
3-May-2007 VOA
As the latest World Trade Organization round of talks loses momentum, bilateral and regional free trade agreements are mushrooming in Asia.
Israeli industrialists’ strategy in the global supply chain
27-Apr-2007
The aim of this paper is to try to understand the Israeli industrialists’ strategy in the globalization process in the course of the recent years. The new strategy was implemented in the days of the first Intifada (the Palestinian uprising) in the late 80s. At that time voices were heard in the Association of Israeli Industrialists, the strongest organization of Israeli employers, advocating an agreement with the Palestinians which would not oppose the establishment of an independent Palestinian State, as long as the Palestinian economic dependence on Israel is preserved.