Germany
President Lee Myung-bak Tuesday urged major German companies to expand their investments in Korea, stressing that his country’s free-trade network will help European firms’ business in other foreign markets.
Chancellor Angela Merkel says Germany wants the European Union to negotiate a free-trade agreement with Japan following a similar deal with South Korea.
The International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington DC has vacated or voided its ruling made on Aug. 16, 2007, finding no cause in the complaint of Fraport, a German company, that the Philippine government violated a bilateral treaty with Germany when it voided Fraport’s contract to build and operate Terminal 3 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.
Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo advised President Aquino against deciding hastily on the case involving the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3), warning the government could be at a disadvantage.
A dispute initiated by Deutsche Bank against the government of Sri Lanka will be a test case on whether derivatives contracts should be considered ’investments’ under bilateral investment treaties
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has, in a landmark ruling, granted an award in favour of Ghana over an arbitration dispute instituted against her on September 24, 2007 by a German investment company, Gustav F. W. Hamester.
German investor Reinhard Unglaube, a resident of Costa Rica, has commenced arbitration against his host country over the latter’s refusal to grant the appropriate permits to extend his eco-tourist hotel complex in Playa Grande, Costa Rica.
Under the bilateral treaty, the German government would provide insurance guarantees to investments by its companies in Pakistan and cover their political and security risks.
Addressing the Fifty Years of Bilateral Investment Treaties Conference in Germany, Pakistani PM Yousuf Raza Gilani said: “We are looking forward to early commencement of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement.”
Pakistan will co-host with Germany world’s first-ever International Conference on Investment Treaties in Frankfurt from December 1-3, aimed at examining the policy issues that will shape international investment laws in the years to come.
Pakistan and Germany will sign the enhanced version of “bilateral investment treaty” during the visit of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani to Germany early next month.
Germany this week urged Namibia to sign the contentious Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EPA) as the deadline for the controversial trade agreement draws closer.
Bahrain yesterday exuded confidence that its current talks with Germany would expedite the signing of the much-delayed Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the six-nation Gulf Cooperation nations and the 27-nation European Union that has eluded them for close to 20 years.
Until the Philippine government and Fraport AG (Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide) have resolved all the legal issues and Fraport fairly compensated, the NAIA Terminal 3 is unlikely to attract long term locators, according to German ambassador to the Philippines Christian Ludwig Weber-Lortsch.
The German government on Wednesday approved a law that would allow it to block moves by foreign investors to take large stakes in German companies, if it concludes that they endanger the country’s interests.
Germany’s decision to introduce controls on investments from the South in strategic domestic sectors is yet another indicator of growing protectionism in European and other industrialised countries against the neo-liberal globalisation they once masterminded.
The economic partnership agreements (EPAs), proposed by the European Union (EU) to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, constitute a "neo-colonial instrument" which will destroy the economic and social basis in African states, according to some German non-governmental organisations.
Protesters held signs reading "No to settlement products" and "Stop the Israel-EU Association Agreement."
The World Bank has dismissed the claim for compensation from the Philippine government over the Naia Terminal 3 project of Germany’s Frankfurt Airport Services Worldwide (Fraport)
Federal Minister for Commerce, Humayun Akhtar Khan met with Dr Bernd Pfaffenbach, State Secretary of German Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology here today. During the meeting they exchanged views on bilateral trade and issues related to free trade agreement.
