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Japan tries to exclude agriculture in free trade talks
25-Jul-2008 FarmOnline
Japan has moved to exclude key agricultural products from the next round of free-trade negotiations with Australia, due to be held in Tokyo next week.
Robert Gates joins PR offensive for Colombia FTA
24-Jul-2008 WW4 Report
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates and his Colombian counterpart Juan Manuel Santos share a joint op-ed in the New York Times shamelessly trading off the apparent hostage rescue operation to shill for the pending US-Colombia free trade agreement.
9th round of Malaysia-US FTA talks in November, says Muhyiddin
24-Jul-2008 Bernama
The Malaysia-US Free Trade Agreement talks are set to advance into the ninth round in November, International Trade and Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said. Government procurement, competition policy, environment, labour, financial services and other sensitive areas could only be discussed but stay non-negotiable and non-binding, he added.
China FTA bill passes final reading
24-Jul-2008 Scoop
Trade Minister Phil Goff says the passing in Parliament today of the New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill will bring the FTA into force on 1 October and represents an historic advance in New Zealand’s trading relationships.
India, S’pore set to sign agreement in services
24-Jul-2008 Zee News
India and Singapore are set to sign an agreement on services shortly under a comprehensive economic treaty between the two, enabling architects, nurses, dentists and chartered accountants to practice in each other’s country. This will be the first services agreement that India signs with any country.
The structure and trends of economic relationship between Thailand and the EU
23-Jul-2008 FTA Watch
A review of the potential direction and impacts of an EU-ASEAN FTA, particularly on Thailand, commissioned by FTA Watch
US-SACU TIDCA (2008)
23-Jul-2008 SACU
Pakistan and Japan FTA study by November end
23-Jul-2008 Pakistan Daily
A Joint Study Group of Pakistan and Japan considering the feasibility of Free Trade Agreement between Islamabad and Tokyo would submit its draft report to the two governments by the end of November 2008.
EPA or development? Your choice
23-Jul-2008 Afrique Echos
The EPA will be disastrous for Africa. Its acceptance would amount to locking the continent into some kind of economic vacuum where its manouevring space would be drastically limited because of the exclusivity of such a deal, especially since the evidence shows that no country in the world has taken off with such bogus and demeaning arrangements.
Intellectual property in the EPA: broad scope, huge impact - Part III
23-Jul-2008 Jamaica Observer
Article 149 requires the EC Party and the Signatory CARIFORUM states to provide for the protection of plant varieties in accordance with the TRIPS Agreement and to consider, in this connection, accession to UPOV, 1991.
East Asia Summit explores free trade area prospects
23-Jul-2008 The Hindu
The East Asia Summit, a “leaders-driven forum” with India, as also China and Japan in its fold, “is studying the feasibility of a free trade area among its 16 countries.”
New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill
23-Jul-2008 Scoop
How is it that in a land with such a shameful history of exclusion and institutional racism against the Chinese, the NZ Government is suddenly bending over backwards to become party to a free trade agreement with China?, the Maori Party asks
Guyana accuses Europe of trade bullying
23-Jul-2008 FT
The Caribbean could suffer economically if a proposed free trade agreement between several regional countries and the European Union is signed because of damaging flaws in the deal, according to Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s president. “Europe negotiated in bad faith. We were bullied into this.”
SC ruling on JPEPA: Shackled by ‘entropy of the old tradition of secrecy’
22-Jul-2008 PCIJ
“WE must overcome the entropy of the old tradition of secrecy,” counseled Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno in his lengthy argument on the petition to have the government disclose details of the negotiations between the Philippines and Japan in relation to the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Obviously, it was an advice that went largely unheeded as majority of his colleagues upheld for a second time the Arroyo government’s invocation of executive privilege.
Costa Rica targets trends for greater food exports
22-Jul-2008 foodnavigator.com
Costa Rican food companies are focusing on major trends like organics and social values to build their export platform, as an association agreement between the EU and Central America is expected to be reached in 2009.
US adopts pragmatic approach in FTA talks: MIER
22-Jul-2008 Borneo Post
“I don’t think they are going to adopt a very hardline approach with respect to us. I think they look at Malaysia as a modern Muslim country and want to have successful trade negotiations,” the director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research told Bernama. The problem is that the US is not confining the negotiations to purely trade matters.
SKorea health workers threaten strike over US beef, wages
21-Jul-2008 AFP
South Korean hospital workers on Monday threatened to strike this week to press demands including a ban on the use of US beef for patients’ meals.
SC JPEPA decision turns Filipino people into beggars of information on critical national issues
21-Jul-2008 SC JPEPA decision turns Filipino people into beggars of information on critical national issues
The Fair Trade Alliance (FairTrade), whose affiliates are among the petitioners on the lack of government transparency in trade negotiations, denounces the cowardly decision of the Supreme Court on the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Said decision upholds the secrecy of executive treaty-making exercise even if such treaty puts Philippine jobs and industries at risk.
Pak-US trade and investment framework agreement has yet to get off the ground
21-Jul-2008 Jang
Back in June 2003, then Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz, who had signed the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement on Pakistan’s behalf, said that Pakistan hoped the TIFA would eventually lead to a Free Trade Agreement between the two countries. But neither at that time nor in all the years since then has there been any promise from the US side to follow-up on a Free Trade Agreement.
Progress made at eighth round of Malaysia-US FTA talks
21-Jul-2008 Bernama
Malaysia and the United States have achieved progress at the eighth round of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with both sides showing willingness to resolve outstanding issues.