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28-Dec-2008
AP
Call it the free trade follies. South Korean opposition politicians last week used a sledgehammer to try and force their way into a barricaded committee room to stop the ruling party from introducing debate on a free trade agreement with the United States. Fire extinguishers were used amid the melee — it’s not entirely clear by whom — that threw South Korea’s National Assembly into chaos.
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28-Dec-2008
Antara
The negotiation on Free Trade Agreement between Indonesia and New Zealand is expected to be resumed in March 2009 after the signing of the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand FTA agreement in February 2009.
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28-Dec-2008
Daily Times
Pakistan and Afghanistan are expected to enter in to a new trade and economic cooperation mechanism during the President of Pakistan first official visit to Afghanistan on January 7, 2009
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27-Dec-2008
KNS
Representatives of peasant organizations in south Korea went into an all-night sit-in strike in Seoul on Dec. 22 to check the passage of the motion calling for the ratification of the south Korea-US FTA through the National Assembly.
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27-Dec-2008
UAE Daily News
Arab states should not pursue the process of establishing the greater trade zone "because it won’t be useful," an Arab League official says
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25-Dec-2008
AFP
Japan and Vietnam signed an economic partnership pact Thursday with a promise to cut tariffs on some 92 percent of goods and services traded between the two nations within a decade.
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25-Dec-2008
MercoPress
A leading number of Brazilian businessmen belonging to the country’s powerful National Confederation of Industry, CNI, said it was time to sign a bilateral agreement with the European Union, which would leave out Mercosur
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24-Dec-2008
South Lebanon
Quebec inked an economic partnership agreement with Israel this fall in Jerusalem. Attracting little attention from major media outlets, Quebec’s bilateral accord was signed during a government-led delegation to Israel that included high-level state officials and corporate representatives this past September, amidst Israel’s ongoing siege of Gaza.
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24-Dec-2008
INQ
The Filipino fisherfolk group Pamalakaya is urging the Department of Foreign Affairs to investigate the reported entry of foreign fishing vessels allegedly feasting on rich tuna grounds in portions of the Philippine Sea. The fishing vessels are reportedly owned by Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese companies, and Japan has recently access to Philippine waters under JPEPA.
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24-Dec-2008
ITN
Argentina has refused calls by Siemens to suspend proceedings at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in which a committee is considering Argentina’s request to revise a 2007 award, following the admission by the German firm that it had bribed Argentinean officials.
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24-Dec-2008
When the government of Ecuador failed to make a scheduled interest payment on private bonds this month, it was hardly the first time a country had defaulted in the middle of a financial crisis.
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24-Dec-2008
African Manager
Kenya last week signed a new bilateral agreement with India, geared towards advancing trade, investment and technical cooperation.
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24-Dec-2008
Khaleej Times
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Tuesday said it had suspended talks with the European Union for a free trade agreement (FTA). The decision to halt more than two decades of hard negotiations between the two regional economic blocs to sign the world’s first region-to-region free trade agreement came a week ahead of a crucial summit by GCC leaders in Muscat.
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23-Dec-2008
IPS
Double standards are being applied in the way that the European Union awards trade preferences to poor countries, an African exporters grouping has alleged.
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22-Dec-2008
Business Day
The European Commission has made a major concession in trade talks with the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu), offering a deal that should avert the break-up of the customs union. It proposed a tariff deal that would align the bloc’s controversial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the bilateral trade agreement under which SA trades with the EU. If accepted, the offer would essentially allow Sacu to maintain its common external tariff and keep the customs union intact.
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22-Dec-2008
GMA News
A final protocol for the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) allowing small farmers to sell bananas to Japan has been submitted and is up for comment, said a Bureau of Plant Industry official.
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22-Dec-2008
Upside Down World
A Canadian mining company intends to sue El Salvador’s government for several hundred million dollars if it is not granted permission to open a widely unpopular gold and silver mine that scientists warn would have devastating effects on local water supplies.
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22-Dec-2008
Zawya
The GCC-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed last week comes almost a year after the six gulf nations announced a common market to remove trade barriers within themselves and to deal with the world as one entity. Economists predict that the agreement will serve as a precursor to more FTAs between Gulf and prominent Asian economies.
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22-Dec-2008
PressAfrik
The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is a danger to the fishing sector and the food safety in West Africa and particularly in Senegal.
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21-Dec-2008
Indopia
The Free Trade Agreement between India and ASEAN will be signed in the first week of March 2009. It will lead to tough competition from Vietnam, whose productivity in tea, coffee and pepper is much higher than India’s.
