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17-May-2007
Jakarta Post
MNCs can always refer to Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) to which Indonesia is a party and use the "umbrella clause" in the BIT to transform a problem that was originally a contractual dispute into an international investment dispute.
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17-May-2007
Economic Times
India is all set to sign a bilateral investment protection agreement (BIPA) with Mexico on May 21. This will be first such agreement with a member of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
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17-May-2007
CCTV
China and Peru launched the first joint feasibility study in Beijing on building a free trade zone in the past two days, and pledged to conclude the study within three months, said Wang Xinpei, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce on Wednesday.
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17-May-2007
Embassy Magazine
Vietnam’s assistant foreign affairs minister says Canada and members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) are "optimistic" about a free trade agreement, but doesn’t want to speculate as to when such a deal would come to fruition.
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17-May-2007
Ohmynews
Asian economic regionalism, driven by active FTAs, reached a decisive point recently as China, South Korea, Japan and ASEAN countries compromised on the plan for financial reserves to put the possible financial crisis under control.
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17-May-2007
AFP
A senior South Korean official warned Wednesday that the free trade deal with the United States could collapse if Washington "unilaterally" urges Seoul to revise it to reflect new US policy guidelines.
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17-May-2007
Hankyoreh
The Congressional Research Service, the research arm of the United States Congress, concluded in a recent report that the establishment of a "Committee on Outward Processing Zones on the Korean Peninsula" was a concession on the part of the US from its stance on products produced in North Korea, but that American negotiators yielded nothing of substance in free trade talks with South Korea.
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16-May-2007
EUX.TV
The European Union on Tuesday vowed to press ahead with efforts to eliminate tariffs and quotas on imports from African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states, arguing that the deals were needed to open up markets in poor nations. "We must create regional markets, ... poor countries need bigger regional markets," German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek- Zeul said.
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16-May-2007
Yonhap
South Korea and Australia will begin a joint study this year to explore a free trade agreement, a senior trade official said Wednesday.
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16-May-2007
Financial Express
A deal may come only nearer to 2015, the year Asean is targeting for the creation of a single market for its 10 members, Asean secretary general Ong Keng Yong said.
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16-May-2007
IPS
The Malawian government is optimistic that its new economic and technical cooperation agreement with South Africa will finally draw investors from its mighty neighbour.
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16-May-2007
Economic Times
India has sought a major expansion of the opportunities on offer for Indian professionals in Thailand, as the two countries rush to conclude the negotiations on a free-trade agreement (FTA) comprising trade in goods and services and investment, which is likely to be signed during Thai premier General Surayud Chulanont’s visit to New Delhi in June.
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15-May-2007
Economic Times
A section of India’s generic drug industry has claimed that its ability to export generic drugs to over a dozen countries with which the US is planning FTAs will increase, if a “conceptual agreement” reached last week by the US’ House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Bush administration is ratified and implemented.
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15-May-2007
Dominican Today
The Central American Integration System’s (SICA) 22 member countries and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) last Saturday have announced the start of negotiations for a Free Trade Agreement between the two blocs as a first step to continue advancing towards an association pact.
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15-May-2007
ZNet
Ana Valencia still tries to eke out a living as a miner in the hills near the headwaters of Colombia’s Rio Salvajina. Her sisters are gone now to the nearest city of Cali, where they work as domestics. She’s having a hard time hanging on.
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15-May-2007
MENAFN
What do the Gulf Cooperation Council countries want from FTAs?
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14-May-2007
Committee on Ways and Means
Full text of the bipartisan trade deal reached between the US’ Democrat-led Congress and the Bush Administration
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14-May-2007
Ohmynews
Switzerland is the first European country with which Japan negotiates an FTA.
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13-May-2007
Balita Organization
On the contentious issue of transboundary movement of toxic waste, which inclusion in the JPEPA had caused an uproar locally, Philippine Trade Secretary Peter B Favila said it is likely that the same provision would be carried in the Japan-ASEAN trade deal.
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13-May-2007
Scoop
As Lebanon heads down the fast track to trade liberalisation, some commentators are predicting a devastating impact on small-holder farmers. Unable even to sell produce on the Lebanese market let alone for export, farmers are painfully unprepared to compete with subsidised imports. Yet little is being done to fortify the agricultural industry as the fruits of major bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) and liberalising reforms loom on the near horizon.
