21-Jun-2008
Radio Australia
Japan’s Parliament, the Diet has endorsed a free trade agreement with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The agreement will come into force on the first day of the second month after Japan and at least one of the 10 ASEAN member complete domestic procedures, such as parliamentary endorsement.
21-Jun-2008
Workers World
South Korea has been seeing nightly mass demonstrations for over a month, a candlelight march of 1 million people on June 10 and a strike wave of key industrial unions. All are connected to a trade agreement between Washington and the current government of President Lee Myung-bak that would allow US beef into the country.
18-Jun-2008
Manila Standard
Japan is willing to sign a side agreement with the Philippines to quiet concerns about provisions in a free-trade treaty deemed inconsistent with or violate the Philippine Constitution, an official said yesterday.
18-Jun-2008
AllAfrica.com
Some of the 35 African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states that have initialled interim economic partnership agreements (EPAs) may still withdraw from the process — apart from the 44 states that have so far refused to sign EPAs with the European Union — according to researchers studying the fraught trade negotiating process.