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11-Dec-2004
Indian Express
In a major policy shift, the government has decided to convert all preferential/free trade agreements (PFA/FTA) into comprehensive economic cooperation agreements (Ceca).
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10-Dec-2004
Visiting Republic of China Minister of Economic Affairs Ho Mei-yueh met with Deputy US Trade Representative Josette Sheeran Shiner Thursday to discuss matters of mutual concern. Ho, who arrived in Washington, D.C. Wednesday to lobbying support for the signing of Taiwan-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA), said her meeting with Shiner marked a good start for Taiwan’s FTA drive.
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10-Dec-2004
Commerce Minister Humayun Akhtar Khan has said Pakistan wanted free trade with the United States, China and Latin states and would soon sign accords with them in this regard.
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10-Dec-2004
Humayun Akhtar Khan, the federal commerce minister, said on Thursday that the United States has promised to initiate negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) with Islamabad soon.
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10-Dec-2004
US Embassy Tokyo
US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick predicts that Congress will allow a two-year extension of President Bush’s trade negotiating authority to go forward, giving more time to conclude World Trade Organization negotiations as well as bilateral and regional negotiations.
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10-Dec-2004
The Nation
The initiation of bilateral free-trade agreements with countries all around the world has become one of the foreign policy cornerstones of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s government.
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10-Dec-2004
AAN
The Japanese government has urged Thailand to lift tariffs on car imports as part of its efforts to conclude a free trade agreement. At the same time, Japanese automakers, whose affiliated firms take up most of the Thai auto market, are cautious about the FTA because it could cause fierce competition between the same Japanese car models.
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10-Dec-2004
Nation
Proponents and opponents of free-trade agreements stood firm Tuesday on their respective positions, while a government adviser warned against completing negotiations in haste.
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10-Dec-2004
Asia Times
In excluding agriculture from FTA negotiations, the South Korean government is setting itself up for even greater domestic backlash when multilateral negotiations pry open a sector insulated from any form of competition.
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7-Dec-2004
ANN
Singapore and Thailand have emerged as the two Asian countries with the highest number of completed free trade agreements (FTA), according to Asia News Network reports.
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7-Dec-2004
Reuters AlterNet
Japan and the Philippines on Monday clinched a broad free trade agreement (FTA) that would include letting a trickle of nurses into Japan to help cope with a shortage.
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7-Dec-2004
EIU ViewsWire
If proof were needed that an Asian free-trade "arms race" has begun in earnest, then the 10th ASEAN summit in Vientiane on November 29th-30th provided it in abundance. The highlight of the summit was the signing of an FTA between China and ASEAN, but equally striking was the number of other trade pacts that were, variously, agreed, worked on or proposed during the meeting in the Lao capital.
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6-Dec-2004
India made it clear on Monday that it would aggressively push for more regional trade agreements, though it attached importance to the multilateral trading system.
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6-Dec-2004
“Our economy is based too much on hydrocarbons. We must diversify our economy. If not, Algeria will become lost in the global marketplace,” Abdelhamid Temmar, chief economic counsel to President Abdelaziz Bouteflila, said last week during meetings with finance and trade leaders in Washington.
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6-Dec-2004
The Australian
Australia’s largest internet service providers have made an 11th-hour bid to amend the free trade agreement with the US, claiming it would expose them to an avalanche of litigation.
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6-Dec-2004
South Centre
Agreements on investments between developing countries have increased substantially in both number and geographical coverage over the past decade, according to UNCTAD data released on 23 November 2004.
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5-Dec-2004
World Peace Herald
South Korea, which has long remained out of the race for free trade zones, has geared up for high-profile efforts to jump on the free trade bandwagon, which could ensure more benefits to its export-driven economy.
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3-Dec-2004
The U.S-Jordan FTA is a “first” FTA in two ways. It is the first FTA to be ever concluded with an Arab country. It is also the first FTA to include labor and environment within the text of the FTA itself.
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27-Nov-2004
EU
An essential feature of the implementation of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership has been the negotiation of Association Agreements between the European Union and nine of its Mediterranean Partners to replace the 1970s Co-operation Agreements.
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26-Nov-2004
At the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Chile last weekend, leaders discussed economic issues, especially trade. Singapore and Peru, for example, agreed to initiate talks for a free trade agreement.
