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7-Apr-2006
Financial Times
“A lot of these bilateral deals have nothing to do with economics. Instead, they [Asian Development Bank’s members] are mostly doing it for diplomatic reasons, including efforts to gain access to natural resources.”
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6-Apr-2006
Xinhua
Venezuela has accused the United States of attempting to undermine the unity of the five-nation Andean Community in the way of free trade deals.
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6-Apr-2006
UPI
Amidst rising anti-trade sentiment in Congress, House Republicans and Democrats wrangled over labor rights issues Wednesday demanding that a US free trade deal with the Omani government include stronger provisions to protect workers rights.
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6-Apr-2006
The Nation
An examination of the globalised approach by both EU countries and the US to bilateral FTAs shows that acceleration has occurred as the WTO has lost its effect. While it is easy to rationalise that the global north is acting independently because the WTO is failing, it is more fun to speculate that the global north is acting to stall the WTO since they get much better terms on a one-to-one basis in their agreements with developing countries.
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6-Apr-2006
TMCnet
Japan and Saudi Arabia agreed Thursday to launch negotiations on concluding a free trade agreement between Japan and the Gulf Cooperation Council, which consists of six oil producers in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia, Japanese officials said.
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6-Apr-2006
NBR
New Zealand is on track to become the first Western country to clinch a free trade agreement with China after the leaders of both countries set a goal to secure such a deal within one to two years.
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6-Apr-2006
IPLeft
Unless this FTA is blocked, Korean economy, nay, the
whole Korean society will soon fall under US unilateralism built
upon transnational capital, Korea-US military alliance, and of course
the new gained strategic flexibility of the US forces in Korea.
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6-Apr-2006
Prensa Latina
The free trade treaty between US and Guatemala is unconstitutional and violates everything from the principle of equality of enterprises to working rights, declared Guatemalan attorney Ramon Cadenas Wednesday.
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6-Apr-2006
Japan’s sponsorship of a vast free trade area including most of Asia, Australia and New Zealand is expected to be on the agenda when Associate Trade Minister Jim Sutton visits Tokyo later this month.
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6-Apr-2006
Reuters
With can of spray paint in hand, Ecuadorean author Alex Ron has turned his writing talent loose on the walls of Quito to vent his anger about a pending U.S. free-trade pact that has sparked weeks of Indian protests.
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5-Apr-2006
ABS-CBN
The Philippines’ top diplomat said Wednesday he hoped to sign a delayed free-trade deal with Japan in July to mark the 50th anniversary of the re-establishment of relations after World War II.
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5-Apr-2006
Reuters
The United States and Indonesia launched talks on Tuesday to curb illegal logging that threatens the Southeast Asian country’s rain forests and advanced other initiatives that could lead to a free trade pact, top trade officials from both countries said.
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4-Apr-2006
We are living in a post-TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) world. Almost every member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) has had to reform their intellectual property laws in order to meet the minimum standards of protection that TRIPS prescribes .
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4-Apr-2006
AFX
The Japanese government plans to propose the formation of an Asian free-trade zone which could include half the world’s population and rival the EU and NAFTA, an official of the trade ministry said.
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4-Apr-2006
Korean News Service
Representatives of south Korean civic and social organizations reportedly called a press conference on March 28 to declare the inauguration of the "Headquarters of the All-people Movement for Checking the Conclusion of FTA."
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4-Apr-2006
Yonhap
A former aide to President Roh Moo-hyun on Tuesday denounced the president’s push for a free trade agreement (FTA) deal with the United States as a "grave blunder" that could endanger the Roh regime and the entire Korean economy.
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4-Apr-2006
Daily Star
The implementation of the Association Agreement-signed four years ago by the European Union and Lebanon-was announced Monday, and is expected to boost bilateral trade, increase the access of Lebanese exports to Europe, and strengthen institutional and political ties between the two sides.
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4-Apr-2006
Dar Al Hayat
The Great Arab Free Trade Area Agreement (GAFTA) was enforced in January 2005 after a 7-year preparatory transition period. This is the first joint Arab economic action likely to help the Arab countries gain huge profits in line with the regulations of the WTO, the venue absorbing regional economic blocs. Most probably, the results in the first experimental year were not up to the expectations.
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4-Apr-2006
Daily Times
The European Union will give strong support to efforts by the continent’s southeastern countries, most of them in the Balkans, to sign a regional free trade deal this year, EU officials said on Monday.
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4-Apr-2006
Reuters
The United States is pressing Peru to remove technical barriers to US agricultural products concerning food safety before the two countries sign a bilateral free trade deal, a senior US lawmaker said on Monday.
