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Costa Rica negotiates Free Trade Agreement with EU
19-Mar-2008 Costa Rica Pages
Representatives from Central America and the European Union met yesterday, March 17th, to negotiate new trade policy. One of the key elements being proposed by the Central American committee is the lowering of tariffs imposed on certain agricultural products to allow for more competitive trade.
The right to run their own economy: AIC policy paper on Palestinian trade
19-Mar-2008 AIC
Israel is not interested in the supposed “peace dividends” associated with free trade based on the sovereign economic policy of all parties. Israel evidently has other plans, most obvious of which are territorial expansionism and control of the population, both incompatible with Palestinian sovereignty.
Join the week of strategy planning and action against European Free Trade Agreements
18-Mar-2008
Over 40 people from movements and organisations from the South will visit Europe and join together with European organisations to sound the alarm on EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs)
EPAs: The latest (unspoken) facts
18-Mar-2008
According to the latest information received, the ACP countries should be under pressure again this year to sign and provisionally implement EPAs before notification to the WTO could take place in order to avoid a challenge by other developing countries — this despite a legal opinion by a renowned WTO legal expert, Dr Lorand Bartels, that initialled interim EPAs could be notified to the WTO.
Activists to protest over China deal
18-Mar-2008 NZTV
Human rights activists will take to the footpath outside Helen Clark’s Auckland office on Wednesday to protest against a free-trade deal with China.
Speak out: Trade deals
18-Mar-2008 Sun Star Cebu
We should use what we learned from the ZTE deal to analyze JPEPA. We should demand accountability and transparency in all the deals and contracts that our government enters into.
The problem of preferential trade with larger partners
17-Mar-2008 Scoop
Chinese repression of Tibetan dissidents has pushed the issue of the impending Free Trade Agreement between New Zealand and the Peoples Republic of China back into the news. In a diplomatic sidestep both Helen Clark and John Key claim that events in Tibet have nothing to do with free trade. Perhaps that is true, but there are other issues to consider.
The Colombia trap
17-Mar-2008 AlterNet
There have been a lot of surprising developments in recent days on the Colombia FTA, most recently with Dem leadership seeming to be suggesting that there could be a vote on the Colombia FTA if there is more trade adjustment assistance. (As we’ve argued before, it’s hard to get all worked up for TAA, because it is highly inadequate to the scope of the problem, but that’s for another time.)
Pressure on PM over China
17-Mar-2008 NZTV
Violent protests in Tibet have come at a very awkward time for the New Zealand government with Prime Minister Helen Clark about to sign a free trade deal with China. While other government’s around the world were quick to condemn China’s violent response to Tibetan protests, Clark was hesitant for most of Monday, saying she did not have enough information.
“Without corn, there is no country”
17-Mar-2008 Narco News
International Women’s Day marchers target NAFTA and free trade on the streets of San Cristóbal, Chiapas
Free trade talks with EU lose pace
16-Mar-2008 Telegraph
India and the European Union (EU) will have to give the December deadline for their free trade agreement a miss if differences persist over the negative list and non-tariff barriers to trade.
Locke says govt cannot sign FTA
16-Mar-2008 NewsTalk ZB
A Green MP says New Zealand cannot sign a free trade agreement with China while it continues to suppress Tibetan people.
Thailand-Myanmar investment protection agreement signed
15-Mar-2008 MCOT
Thailand and its neighbour Myanmar have signed an investment accord aimed at protecting Thai investors and boosting foreign stakes in the diplomatically-isolated country’s economy.
Switzerland to negotiate agriculture free trade agreement with EU
15-Mar-2008 Forbes
The Swiss government on Friday said it will negotiate a free-trade agreement on agricultural products and food with the European Union in a bid to increase competition in the sector.
Understanding the EPA - Most Favoured Nation concession a danger for the Caribbean
15-Mar-2008 Jamaica Gleaner
So concerned is Brazil about the Caribbean EPA that it sent, on February 5, a communication to the World Trade Organisation requesting a debate. Its concern is that the arrangement agreed with the European Commission may cause nations like India, China and others to cease to negotiate with nations like the Caribbean.
Korea-US FTA would put pressure on Aussie beef
15-Mar-2008
The expected quick resolution of the dispute now holding up a free trade deal between South Korea and the US will put Australian beef sales to our third largest export market under pressure.
"Investment barriers must go"
15-Mar-2008
The Third Ministerial meeting of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation Free Trade Agreement (SAPTA) hosted by India on March 3, 2008 in New Delhi, saw India pruning its "Negative List" from 744 items to around 500, for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) of the South Asian region such as Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Maldives. Budget 2008-09
Sri Lanka could gain more in next phase of trade liberalization: study
15-Mar-2008
A new study on a south Asian regional trade deal has said Sri Lanka will gain more in the next phase of liberalisation but the island’s private sector representatives have expressed scepticism about the outcome.
’It’s Ok to Belong to More Trade Blocs’
15-Mar-2008
The East African Community (EAC) in November 2007 signed interim agreements with the European Union (EU) after the December 31 expiry of the Cotonou arrangement that gave preferential treatment to Africa, Caribbean and Pacific countries accessing the EU market. Peter Kaujju, spoke to Chungu Mwila, the director for investment promotion and private sector development at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA).
Free trade agreements and international investments
14-Mar-2008 Ecoportal
Developed countries see free trade agreements as forming part of a two-pronged strategy: to use international law to lay down market rules; and to give the appearance of legality to a system that allows States and their people to be exploited, robbed of their resources and wealth by excluding them from the international community and then legitimizing this exclusion