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1-Sep-2008
Fair Trade Alliance
The Philippine government has been making a hard sell on JPEPA — threatening that a failure to ratify shall be catastrophic to the Philippines, while a ratification of the agreement shall be a big boost to the economy. FairTrade, on the other hand, bolsters its position urging the government to renegotiate the treaty because of the agreement’s inherent economic and constitutional questions. The Senate must correct these patently one-sided contents in JPEPA so that it will effectively benefit Philippine industries and the Filipino people. In fact, what the JPEPA proponents have NOT told the Nation is that JPEPA is biased against the Philippines.
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1-Sep-2008
Asia Pulse
Chief negotiators from South Korea and the European Union have agreed to seek a package solution on controversial issues such as auto trade after failing to narrow their gap in three-day free trade talks, officials said Friday.
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1-Sep-2008
Bolivia Rising
The right laments the "isolation" of the Bolivian economy from the global currents of trade because it has put three crosses against the free trade agreement with the United States and there isn’t the will to take part in an agreement with the European Union, the "biggest markets on the planet".
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1-Sep-2008
Financial Times
This article is written in recognizing the numerous opinions floating around in Sri Lanka in respect of the proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India. Most of the public discussions and paper articles on CEPA, which we see today, are either based on personal or political sentiments or absolute analysis of numerical figures. The whole purpose of this article is to give a holistic and comparative analysis based on facts and figures explaining the current status of the FTA with India.
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1-Sep-2008
Commodity Online
The much-awaited free trade agreement with Asean nations is bound to affect import and export of several commodities in India. The first one may be palm oil, which is a major commodity for India as it depends on Malaysia for its edible oil needs.
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1-Sep-2008
Energy Bangla
Bangladesh feels that the BIMSTEC has immense potential for creating greater economic interaction, flow of trade and investment among the member states, though its FTA has yet to be finalised.
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1-Sep-2008
The economic partnership agreements (EPAs) are being given a bad name for nothing, according to Ghanaian parliamentarian JB Danquah.
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1-Sep-2008
Foreign Control Watchdog
The NZ Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently announced the opening of negotiations with Singapore, Chile and Brunei to extend a two year old trade and investment agreement (the grandly named Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership - often known as the P4) into investment and financial services.
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31-Aug-2008
The Maritime Union has blasted a new free trade agreement between New Zealand, Australia and the ASEAN nations, saying it is bad for workers because it includes Burma.
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30-Aug-2008
PTI
Allaying fears of the Left-ruled Kerala that an FTA with ASEAN could harm farmers’ interest in the southern states, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath today said India cannot get isolated in the growing economies of east Asia. "They don’t even know what the agreement is," Nath said when asked to comment on Kerala’s opposition to the FTA.
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30-Aug-2008
Xinhua
South Korea and the European Union failed to narrow their gap in their free trade agreement (FTA) talks, South Korean Trade Ministry said on Friday.
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29-Aug-2008
Channel News Asia
A proposed free trade agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the European Union is "one of the most challenging" ASEAN is negotiating, the bloc’s chief said on Thursday. The two parties had agreed on a schedule for discussions, but were having problems making headway due to the complexity of the talks.
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29-Aug-2008
Jamaica Gleaner
A senior European Union diplomat in Kingston warned Wednesday that Caribbean countries that fail to sign a trade pact the region negotiated with EU by the October 31 deadline will lose preferential access for their product into the European market.
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29-Aug-2008
Scoop
The Alliance Party says the news that New Zealand has negotiated a free trade deal with ASEAN nations that include the fascist dictatorship of Myanmar is a disgrace of historical proportions and is a slow motion disaster for workers in New Zealand and in Myanmar.
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29-Aug-2008
Voxy
The Maritime Union of New Zealand says a free trade deal signed with ASEAN nations including the military dictatorship of Myanmar is bad for workers as it will boost the violently anti-worker regime in Myanmar and threatens workers rights.
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28-Aug-2008
Radio Jamaica
One of Jamaica’s major trade unions is insisting that Jamaica could be heading down a dangerous path if it goes ahead and signs the controversial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.
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28-Aug-2008
Inquirer
Philippine Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Thursday said she will ask Senate President Manuel Villar to postpone voting on the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) until after a formal exchange of notes that will guarantee the treaty does not violate the Constitution.
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28-Aug-2008
Kyodo
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations concluded Thursday a free trade accord with Australia and New Zealand that will link up the 10-member grouping with the latter’s free trade pact, the sides said.
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28-Aug-2008
AFP
ASEAN nations have concluded a deal for free trade in goods with India, the bloc’s seventh-largest trading partner, ministers said Thursday.
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28-Aug-2008
MCOT
Economic ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, meeting in Hanoi, have pledged to work for the speedy ratification of an economic partnership agreement with Japan that is expected to take effect before the end of this year. A Philippine official says the pact will come into force on 1 October.
