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Free trade pacts more dangerous than WTO - IBON
20-Aug-2006 IBON Foundation
In the wake of the collapse of the Doha talks in the World Trade Organization (WTO), negotiations for the Philippines to enter into an Asia-Pacific free trade agreement (FTA) have become more urgent for industrialized countries. But independent think-tank IBON Foundation warns that entering into an FTA could be even more dangerous than liberalization under the WTO.
India halves FTA exclusion list with Asean
20-Aug-2006
In what is seen as a dramatic move, India on Friday slashed its controversial exclusion list of products for tariff reduction from 850 to 560 to kick-start the recently-suspended negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Asean.
Labour & environmental issues in FTA talk, says NZ
20-Aug-2006 Bernama
Labour and environmental issues will still be included in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiation between Australia, New Zealand and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a senior New Zealand trade official said.
Main Uruguayan parties reject US FTA
20-Aug-2006 Prensa Latina
The principal political parties and movements of Uruguay rejected possible signing of a free trade agreement with the US on Thursday.
Farmers’ suicides may hit FTA deal
20-Aug-2006 Gulf Daily News
India is citing the fear of political fallout and its suicide epidemic among farmers as obstacles to hammering out a free-trade deal with Southeast Asia, officials said yesterday.
Progress on HIV drugs threatened by new trade pacts
20-Aug-2006 IPS
In the midst of the world’s biggest HIV/AIDS conference here, close to a hundred activists launched a noisy protest over bilateral free trade agreements, which they say elevate patent protections above the right to life-extending antiretroviral drugs.
CEOs will focus on NAFTA region
20-Aug-2006
The region covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement will loom large as chief executives across all industries plot their growth in 2007, according to a survey commissioned by the New York Stock Exchange. The executives listed the US and China as the top two "strategically important" countries.
US gives Pakistan ‘non-paper’ on BIT
20-Aug-2006
The United States has given a “non paper” to Pakistan that shows some flexibility for signing the much-delayed Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between the two countries soon.
Europe eager for trade pact with Korea
19-Aug-2006 Korea Times
The European Union is showing eagerness to establish a free trade agreement (FTA) with Korea ahead of the resumption of talks next month, officials of both sides say.
ASEAN wants agriculture to be in ASEAN-East Asia FTA
19-Aug-2006 Tehran Times
ASEAN does not discount the possibility of having a free trade agreement (FTA) with all East Asian countries as a whole, said the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry director Ramon Vicente T. Kabigting. However, it must first consider including agriculture in the agreement for this to materialise, he told reporters.
Free trade agreements, intellectual property and access to medicines
18-Aug-2006
Patent and data protection rules in free trade agreements have a profound impact on the ability of developing countries to access life saving medicines of assured quality.
Latin America Now: An Interview with Raúl Zibechi
17-Aug-2006 Upside Down World
In this interview, Raúl Zibechi discusses the challenges of the Evo Morales administration in Bolivia, the power and role of Bolivian social movements, projects for regional integration such as People’s Trade Agreement and the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the region’s new situation after the electoral victories of various "progressive" governments.
When free trade sinks into the ’noodle bowl’
17-Aug-2006 IHT
FTAs are supposedly meant to substitute for lack of progress at the WTO. In practice they are mostly preferential arrangements that run counter to APEC’s principle of "open regionalism," which allows members to pursue liberalization at their own pace but on a nondiscriminatory basis.
Pressure on SADC states to clear way for free trade area
17-Aug-2006
Pressure was mounting on Southern African Development Community (SADC) leaders to get economic integration back on track in a bid to meet the 2008 target date for a free trade area in the region, said Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad yesterday.
Chile eyes Viet Nam free trade deal
17-Aug-2006 VNS
Viet Nam will receive priority under Chile’s plans to develop its free trade agreement (FTA), according to the Chilean Foreign Ministry’s External Economic Department.
FTA means deeper poverty in Peru
17-Aug-2006
An issue that has received less attention is the implications of the FTA for the entry of genetically modified organisms (GMO’s) into Peru.
Asean to set deadline for India to decide on FTA talks
17-Aug-2006 Bernama
Asean will set a time frame for India to decide whether it wants to continue with negotiations on the Asean-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA), a Philippine economic official said Wednesday.
Plan B for world trade
16-Aug-2006 Financial Times
The indefinite suspension of the Doha round of world trade talks creates big risks for the world economy. A new explosion of discriminatory bilateral and regional agreements is likely to substitute for global liberalisation, eroding the multilateral rules-based system of the World Trade Organisation.
Negotiate, negotiate and negotiate
16-Aug-2006 Gulf News
The EU has brought up new subjects that "hasn’t really made the GCC side too happy" in terms of delaying the EU-GCC FTA negotiations. "You saw the negotiations being filled with all kinds of issues that really shouldn’t have been a part of an FTA agreement: human rights, political reform and (anti-) terrorism strategies."
Frente Amplio rejects FTA with US
16-Aug-2006
The Political Board of Uruguay’s Frente Amplio on Tuesday ratified its rejection of the US-sponsored Free Trade Agreements within the framework of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).