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30-Sep-2005
Thai Labour Campaign
This paper shows how free trade agreements (FTAs) in Southeast Asia are essentially a means to secure foreign direct investment (FDI) at the expense of labour standards. It explores the significance of FDI in export-oriented industrialisation and for economic transformation in Southeast Asia, with emphasis on the increasing global competition for FDI.
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30-Sep-2005
swissinfo
An independent report says a free-trade accord between Switzerland and the United States would have "extremely valuable benefits" for both countries.
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30-Sep-2005
UNCTAD
World Investment Report 2005, by UNCTAD, presents the latest trends in foreign direct investment and explores the internationalization of research and development by transnational corporations along with the development implications of this phenomenon.
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30-Sep-2005
Information sheets from USTR
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30-Sep-2005
Gulf News
Nineteen societies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have rapped moves to normalise relations with Israel and called for joint national and regional efforts to abort the US-initiated Broader Middle East project.
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30-Sep-2005
The Australian
Australia and Indonesia bolstered trading ties today, which could support efforts by Canberra and Wellington to forge a free trade agreement with ASEAN.
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30-Sep-2005
VOA
Thailand has been aggressively negotiating bilateral and regional trade agreements in the face of the uncertainty over whether the WTO will reach a deal on liberalizing global trade. But the agreements fail to live up to expectations of increased trade and investment.
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30-Sep-2005
American Chamber of Commerce in Thailand
Ambassador Nitya Pibulsonggram, the chief negotiator for the Thailand-US Free Trade Agreement, spoke to AMCHAM members on May 25, 2005 about the importance of the FTA to Thailand.
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30-Sep-2005
BRIDGES
Ecuador’s opposition to US demands on access to test data for clinical drug trials has emerged as a primary obstacle in the ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) talks between the US and a group of three Andean countries.
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30-Sep-2005
ABC News
US Democrats pressed Bahrain on Thursday to change its labor laws before an expected vote in Congress this year on a bilateral free trade pact with the tiny kingdom known as the Gulf’s banking hub.
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29-Sep-2005
My Caribbean News
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is in St Lucia today to launch the third phase of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations between the European Union and the Caribbean region.
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29-Sep-2005
Business Report
South African exporters will now have more access to Kuwait’s market after trade and industry minister Mandisi Mpahlwa yesterday signed a free trade agreement with the oil-rich Middle East country. The deal with Kuwait was concluded a day after Mpahlwa signed a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), also an oil producer.
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29-Sep-2005
Americas Program, International Relations Center (IRC)
Last year was the tenth anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and nearly all evaluations of the agreement conceded that the period showed negligible or negative results for Mexico. As the developing country partner of the agreement, Mexico’s experience under NAFTA has major implications for other developing nations negotiating FTA’s, particularly with the United States.
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29-Sep-2005
PIDS
In a recent round table discussion sponsored by the Philippine Institute for Development Studies, the service industries - specifically the telecommunication and the finance sectors - were tackled as two of the crucial areas where the Philippines can have the best potential if the FTA agreement with the US pushes through.
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28-Sep-2005
AFP
Southeast Asian economic ministers knuckled down here Wednesday to thrash out free trade agreements (FTA), with historically high oil prices intensifying calls for greater regional cooperation.
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28-Sep-2005
ActionAid
The free trade Economic Partnership Agreements
(EPAs) proposed by the European Union would have a
devastating effect on African, Caribbean and Pacific
(ACP) countries if they go ahead as planned.
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28-Sep-2005
AllAfrica.com
Botswana’s Ministry of Trade and Industry will host a meeting of the Southern African Customs Union and United States (SACU/US) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations this week in Gaborone.
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28-Sep-2005
The Standard
Kenya’s chances of fighting poverty and growing its economy will be harmed if it signs a new economic agreement with the European Union in 2008, a human rights group said.
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28-Sep-2005
Ways and Means Committee
On July 3-9, 2005, a bipartisan delegation of Members of the Committee on
Ways and Means of the US House of Representatives traveled to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru regarding the ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement with
the countries and to discuss investment and security issues in the region.
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28-Sep-2005
IPS
As European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson prepares to kick off a new phase of trade negotiations in the Caribbean this week, trade groups are asking the bloc to shelve regional agreements in order to avoid a "development disaster".
