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Anti-FTA protests end - for now
11-Jan-2006
Protesters from 11 civil society groups opposing the proposed Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement talks between Thailand and the United States forced negotiators to move out of town Wednesday. Then they called off their three-day protest.
New year sees delay in CAFTA implementation
11-Jan-2006 IRC Americas Program
A key argument used by US transnationals and the Bush administration to pass the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA)—that Central American countries themselves needed and wanted the agreement—has broken down on the eve of implementation of the controversial pact. This is a summary of the status of CAFTA implementation in each country.
Photos of demonstrations against US-Thai FTA (Chiang Mai, 10 January 2006)
11-Jan-2006 CPTech
Today, around 8000 people were demonstrating in Chiang Mai. A couple of people trying to enter the hotel where the US and Thai negotiating teams were meeting were beaten by the police. 30 people tried to swim across the river to reach the hotel and were beaten too.
Protests force brief halt to trade talks
11-Jan-2006 Bangkok Post
Negotiations on the Thai-US free trade area (FTA) pact were forced to halt briefly yesterday as protesters used any means they could to disrupt the talks.
Government to consider proposed points of opponents of Thai-US FTA
10-Jan-2006
The Thai government will go ahead with its move to negotiate and conclude a bilateral free trade area (FTA) agreement with the United States, but will take proposed points raised by opponents of the planned Thai-US FTA into consideration, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Tuesday.
FTA talks: Protesters storm trade negotations
10-Jan-2006
Nearly 10,000 protesters yesterday broke through police barricades surrounding the Sheraton Hotel, where Thai and US negotiators were engaged in free-trade talks.
FTA talks advance; Kraisak may sue
10-Jan-2006
Thai and US negotiators working on the two countries’ bilateral Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement have reached a tentative agreement on tariff cuts for over 204 categories of industrial goods, a senior Thai official announced here on Tuesday.
Protesters break through police barricade at Thai-US trade talks
10-Jan-2006
Some 6,000 protesters on Tuesday broke through a barricade around the hotel where Thai and US negotiators are holding free trade talks, police said.
Interview with Mohamed Benayad: «We do not sign free trade agreements with enemy states»
10-Jan-2006 Libération
Interview with Mohamed Benayad, Secretary General of the National Council for Foreign Trade, claims to be an advocate of the free trade agreement between Morocco and the United States.
Sri Lanka, US Free Trade Pact Uncertain - Ambassador
10-Jan-2006
A free trade agreement between Sri Lanka and the U.S. isn’t a certainty and even if it does happen, it isn’t guaranteed to solve the country’s trade difficulties, the U.S. ambassador to Sri Lanka said Tuesday.
Anti-trade feelings delay CAFTA
10-Jan-2006
Growing anti-trade sentiment in several Central American countries has held up a trade agreement with the United States that was slated to launch Jan. 1.
Clashes briefly interrupt Thai-U.S. FTA talks in Chiang Mai
10-Jan-2006
Small clashes between Thai police and demonstrators on Tuesday briefly interrupted the sixth round of negotiations on the proposed Free Trade Area (FTA) agreement between Thailand and the United States which ran into the second day in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand, reported the Thai News Agency.
Activists want Bush to halt FTA
10-Jan-2006
Pro-democracy groups will urge US President George W Bush to halt free-trade agreement talks with Thailand because Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has violated the Constitution by refusing to seek parliamentary approval for the deal, group leaders said yesterday.
Thousands resist pact with US
10-Jan-2006 Bangkok Post
Over 8,000 protesters from an alliance of 11 groups opposing the Thai-US free trade area (FTA) agreement took to the streets of this northern city yesterday to demand what they termed unfair trade negotiations be scrapped.
Panama agriculture minister resigns over US talks
10-Jan-2006 Reuters
Panama’s agriculture minister resigned on Tuesday, alleging that a proposed free trade deal with the United States could expose the country to bird flu, foot and mouth disease and mad cow disease.
OPINION: It could be a matter of life and death
10-Jan-2006 Bangkok Post
Thailand should think carefully about surrendering its sovereign rights under the WTO — and access to cheap medicine — in exchange for an FTA with the United States
Pact’s progress
9-Jan-2006
The China-ASEAN FTA will form a huge market, with 1.85 billion consumers and a combined gross domestic product of almost US$2.5 trillion. Both sides hope to establish an FTA by 2010, and will gradually reduce export tariffs until then.
For the GCC and India, escalating opportunities
9-Jan-2006
Regional economic diversification received a boost when the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and India - which signed a bilateral framework agreement for economic cooperation in August 2004 - announced that final negotiations for a free-trade agreement (FTA) would start this month, to thrash out niggling issues like rules of origin and differential tariffs.
USTR mulls FTA talks with Egypt, S Korea, Malaysia, Swiss
9-Jan-2006
The Bush administration is considering free-trade negotiations with Egypt, South Korea, Malaysia, and Switzerland, the US Trade Representative’s top agriculture trade negotiator said Monday.
Crisis-ridden Vanaspati producers to hold protest tomorrow
9-Jan-2006
Threatened with virtual closure of domestic Vanaspati industry, manufacturers for the first time will resort to workers-type-demonstration, staging a march to the Parliament, as a protest against import of Vanaspati on zero-tariff from Sri Lanka under Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that rendered the local production uncompetitive.