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10-Feb-2009
BusinessWorld
The Philippines and the European Union yesterday started talks in Manila for a general framework on bilateral cooperation that is requisite for a free trade agreement. The talks, which could take as long as two years to complete, will dwell on a wide variety of issues — from peace, security and human rights, to protection of intellectual property and workers rights.
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10-Feb-2009
Korea Times
South Korea has signed a contract with a US lobbyist to facilitate congressional ratification of a pending free trade deal amid growing opposition to the pact fueled by the global economic crisis, Yonhap News reported Monday quoting an informed source.
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10-Feb-2009
Jakarta Post
The Indonesian government should act “wiser and more cautious” before signing a new free trade agreement (FTA) with Australia and New Zealand this month, a local non-government economic watchdog insisted during a press conference in Diponegoro, Central Jakarta Monday.
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10-Feb-2009
Xinhua
Local media say South Korea wants to finalize the FTA talks within the first quarter this year and make it effective early next year.
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9-Feb-2009
This Day
For failing to assent to the interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) being proposed by the EU to the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, processed agricultural produce being exported from Nigeria to the EU attracts an extra cost of a minimum of 6 per cent of the total value of products being exported. Similar products being exported from countries such as Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire and others who have endorsed the temporary EPA do not attract this extra cost, therefore putting Nigerian products at a major cost disadvantage in the export of processed products to the EU.
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8-Feb-2009
Daily Star
US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Richard A Boucher today said till now Dhaka and Washington did not have an active negotiation on Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (Tifa).
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8-Feb-2009
AFP
The Swiss shook off right-wing fears over job losses on Sunday, voting resoundingly to prolong an EU free labour agreement and extending the policy to workers from bloc newcomers Bulgaria and Romania.
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8-Feb-2009
Business Mirror
The Philippines and the European Union (EU) will formally start on Monday the negotiations for the Partnership Cooperation Agreement (PCA) that qualifies Manila to the comprehensive free-trade agreement between the EU and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations that seeks to facilitate trade and investments between two influential regional blocs.
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8-Feb-2009
The Island
The President of the Sri Lanka Nepal Business Council of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka said that Nepal had approached Sri Lanka about entering into a free trade agreement.
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8-Feb-2009
Reuters
Developing countries hoping to compensate for slumping demand in rich countries and falling commodity prices are looking at ways to bolster one of the most dynamic parts of their economies — South-South trade.
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8-Feb-2009
Andina
Peru’s Foreign minister Jose Antonio García Belaunde said Saturday that Spain wants to sign formally the Association Agreement between Peru and the European Union (EU), when this country takes on presidency of the bloc in 2010.
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8-Feb-2009
IPS
Brussels officials have rejected calls from three southern African governments for a reassessment of a new trade accord with the European Union.
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7-Feb-2009
The EU-ASEAN Campaign network, with members in Europe and Southeast Asia, assailed the statements made recently by Philippine Assistant Secretary Ramon Cabigting of the Department of Trade and Industry expressing support to the EU proposal to proceed with bilateral talks with the EU and the country’s willingness to liberalize its services sector.
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6-Feb-2009
Jordan and Pakistan are expected to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) this year, with negotiations to finalise the draft deal slated for March, Pakistan’s envoy to Jordan said on Wednesday.
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6-Feb-2009
East African Community (EAC) Council of ministers has set up a monitoring mechanism to deal with non-tariff trade barriers (NTBs) that have ruined investor confidence.
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6-Feb-2009
The President of the Sri Lanka Nepal Business Council of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) said that Nepal had approached Sri Lanka about entering into a free trade agreement.
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5-Feb-2009
IHT
European car makers called Thursday for the European Union to scrap a draft free-trade deal with South Korea, saying it won’t let them increase exports during a sales slump at home.
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5-Feb-2009
Xinhua
Australia will examine its free trade deal with the United States to see if Washington is flouting its obligations under the pact if the United States adopts a "Buy American" clause for new stimulus projects.
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5-Feb-2009
NZ Herald
South Korean companies are eyeing the investment potential of prime New Zealand resources as both countries prepare to start bilateral free trade negotiations.
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5-Feb-2009
Socialist Worker
The US will find it harder and harder to maintain neoliberalism abroad and some sort of financial state capitalism at home. As unemployment grows, it will also become more difficult to use access to the US market as leverage to incorporate client states abroad into the fold of US imperialism. We are at a major turning point. Like most of neoliberal ideology, free trade has lost its allure. However, what will replace it isn’t entirely clear. There are many possibilities, and they all depend on the level of class struggle. In the US, the most crucial question is whether workers get pulled into a nationalist, protectionist "Buy American" campaign—or whether they take an internationalist approach in concert with workers in other countries
