-
5-Aug-2007
IMC Manila
Instead of addressing the longstanding issues of health workers such as inadequate
pay, poor working conditions and lack of opportunities in the Philippines, the JPEPA
will only give another reason for the government to push with its labor export policy
as a measure to boost the economy through strong remittance flows.
-
3-Aug-2007
Islands Business
This is the first time that members of the major business sector and representatives of private sector organisations from all 14 Pacific Forum Islands Countries will be coming together with regional ministers and senior policy officials to discuss major strategic business issues that face the region.
-
3-Aug-2007
Economic Times
India and Sri Lanka have decided to sign a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by October this year for augmenting mutual trade and investment, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh said Thursday.
-
3-Aug-2007
Chosun Ilbo
Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry on Wednesday suspended quarantine inspections of all US beef imports after again finding banned vertebral bones in a shipment
-
3-Aug-2007
The EC’s Head of Delegation to the Pacific has sent to the Pacific EPA negotiating team a letter dated Friday 3 August that states Pacific Trade Ministers have misinterpreted an earlier EC communication and there is no conditionality that would reduce the EDF funds available to the Pacific if the region does not sign an EPA.
-
3-Aug-2007
The National
A free trade agreement covering the Pacific region is unlikely to be worth the paper it is written on as far as Papua New Guinea is concerned.
-
3-Aug-2007
Daily Times
Pakistani entrepreneurs should take advantage of Morocco’s Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with USA and European Union, particularly in the textile and readymade garments, Morocco Ambassador Mohammed Rida El Fassi said.
-
3-Aug-2007
Vanguard
Nigerian captains of commerce and industry have warned that the proposed trade agreements are not in the best interest of the growth of industry in the country.
-
2-Aug-2007
Reuters
The European Union and east African countries thrashing out a new but contentious trade deal will sign parts of it by a Dec. 31 deadline even if all is not ready by then, a Kenyan trade official said on Wednesday.
-
2-Aug-2007
IBON
JPEPA is undoubtedly beneficial — for big Japanese corporations and elite corporate interests in the Philippines, not for the Filipino people.
-
2-Aug-2007
Pacific Trade Ministers have responded to a threat by the EC to cut development aid funds to the region if the Pacific does not conclude the EPA by the end of the year. In a strongly worded letter to the EC Commissioner for Development, they stated they would “not accept the EC imposing this linkage on the RIP with respect to the EPA.”
-
2-Aug-2007
Just before the Pacific ACP Trade Ministers Meeting opened in Vanuatu on 31 July 2007, the Deputy Head of the Pacific desk in the EC’s DG Development sent the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat an email that stated the Pacific’s allocation of the European Development Fund would be cut by 48% if it does not sign up to an EPA and by 26% if a goods-only agreement is concluded.
-
2-Aug-2007
Servihoo
The Chilean legislature late Tuesday approved a free trade agreement with Japan that will likely be signed into law when President Michelle Bachelet’s visits Tokyo in September.
-
1-Aug-2007
Inquirer
Independent think-tank group IBON Foundation scoffed at President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s call for the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to conclude a regional free-trade agreement with Japan despite strong protests against the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
-
1-Aug-2007
WNSC
After the emerging disaster of CAFTA, Central American countries recently launched into a new round of trade negotiations, this time with the European Union.
-
1-Aug-2007
Infoshop News
Between the 9th and 11th of September, 2007, Auckland will host the second annual "United States-New Zealand Partnership Forum". We intend to protest and if possible shut down this forum and disrupt the related activities and events.
-
1-Aug-2007
GBF
The EU is doing almost everything possible, both legally and illegally, to get the EPA signed, according to Kwabena Okai Ofosuhene of the Abibimman Foundation in Ghana. “It is very unfortunate and sad that there are key elements within the ECOWAS Commission who are working secretly to enable the EU achieve this.”
-
1-Aug-2007
Radio Fiji
The Pacific Forum has for the first time publicly admitted there have been problems in sealing an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union.
-
1-Aug-2007
Buenos Aires Herald
Mexico’s entry to Mercosur is “essential,” President Néstor Kirchner insisted yesterday after a meeting with his Mexican peer Felipe Calderón in Mexico City.
-
1-Aug-2007
IPS
"When we try to negotiate as individual countries, we give the Europeans the ammunition to divide and discriminate against us", said Zimbabwe’s Deputy Minister of Information and Publicity Bright Matonga.
