24-Nov-2007
Al Jazeera
The European Commission and four states in southern Africa — Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland and Lesotho — have reached a new trade deal. South Africa and Namibia "will determine their participation in the agreement in the coming days," the Commission said. Madan Murlidhar Dulloo, foreign minister of Mauritius, accused the EU of "divide and rule".
24-Nov-2007
Reuters
The European Union’s top negotiator in free trade talks with South Korea said Korea was proposing measures that would hurt European car exporters, possibly undermining the chances of a deal.
24-Nov-2007
The parliament of the European Union will oppose an EU-ASEAN free trade agreement as long as democracy is not restored in Myanmar.
24-Nov-2007
Ivory Coast’s banana and pineapple farmers are urging the government to sign a new trade deal with the European Union so they can compete once tariff free access to its market ends next month, officials said.
24-Nov-2007
India needs to improve its track record for enforcing intellectual property rights without which global small and medium enterprises will not invest in the country, an EU official said on Friday.
23-Nov-2007
Africa’s largest nations are trying to block the signing of the economic partnership agreements with the European Union, Peter Mandelson, EU trade commissioner has claimed.
23-Nov-2007
Strong support for extension of the negotiating deadline for a series of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between Europe and 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states has come from the Joint Assembly of the European Union and the ACP countries.
23-Nov-2007
The grey clouds of attrition are gathering over concluding negotiations with the European Union, which has suddenly adopted a determined mercantilist attitude at this late date. The negotiations with Cariforum (CF) are now foundering in a sea of uncertainty, reminiscent of the opening stanza of the famous Trinidadian calypso "Captain, this ship is sinking.".
23-Nov-2007
Vietnam will work hard for the development of the ASEAN-EU partnership, particularly their Free Trade Agreement that is now under negotiations, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Gia Khiem has promised.
23-Nov-2007
The European Union’s trade chief said on Thursday he was impatient with the lack of progress towards free trade deals in the global Doha round and between the EU and Southeast Asia.
The Doha round of talks, launched six years ago, has been deadlocked as the United States and European Union call on developing nations to open up their markets for manufacturers in return for cuts by rich countries to trade-distorting subsidies.
23-Nov-2007
The European parliament will oppose any free-trade deal between Europe and Southeast Asia unless Myanmar makes democratic reforms, visiting parliamentarians warned Friday.
22-Nov-2007
A group of civil society representatives in Uganda have warned the government against signing an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union arguing that it will stifle the growth of local industries and frustrate the effort of local farmers.
22-Nov-2007
A Senior Research Fellow at the Botswana Institution of Development Policy Analysis (BIDPA) Dr Joel Sentsho says he hopes current negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) will yield something positive for Botswana.
22-Nov-2007
South Korea has been urged to strengthen its intellectual property rules in order to sign a free trade agreement with the European Union.
22-Nov-2007
Union leaders who met in Palapye for a two-day economic workshop on trade and related issues on Friday likened trade agreements that Botswana and other African countries are entering into with Europe as a new form of colonisation.
21-Nov-2007
Free trade negotiations between South Korea and the European Union have hit a snag as both sides failed to make headway over auto-related technical standards, one of the stickiest issues in their trade talks.
20-Nov-2007
IPS
The news that the ministers of the East African Community (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi) are on the verge of signing an economic partnership agreement with the European Union has been received with mixed reactions by government officials from these very same countries.
20-Nov-2007
KBC
Civil Society Organizations now say that the East and Southern African negotiators and civil servants who attended the Economic Partnership Agreements meeting in Brussels, Belgium were bullied into a midnight deal with the European Union.
20-Nov-2007
Hankyoreh
South Korea’s chief negotiator in free trade talks with the European Union (EU) said on Monday that Seoul will redouble its efforts to make a breakthrough on some sticky issues, including a dispute over auto trade, and called for an "equal" effort from Brussels.
