17-Apr-2006
JPEPA Research Project
Working draft of the agreement as of 21 April 2003
17-Apr-2006
Bangkok Post
Thailand’s National Economic and Social Advisory Council has urged the government to delay free trade negotiations with the US on financial services and take intellectual property rights and agriculture liberalisation off the agenda.
17-Apr-2006
FT
New legislation designed to increase the state’s share of windfall oil revenues by some $600m a year is set to derail Ecuador’s plans to negotiate a trade deal with the US, according to government officials.
17-Apr-2006
Korea Times
South Korea is poised to include a partial opening of the education market in its coming talks for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. The US is calling for the Korean government to open the college education market involving graduate schools and the pre-school education market involving kindergartens.
17-Apr-2006
Chosun Ilbo
A massive protest against a planned free trade agreement between Korea and the U.S. brought some 8,000 trade unionists, farmers, students and actors from 100 groups to Daehagno, downtown Seoul on Sunday.
16-Apr-2006
Daily Times
The United States is reluctant to give increased market access for textile to Pakistan and has conveyed that any new trading arrangement that could be finalized between the two countries would be minus textile, a senior official told the Daily Times on Saturday.
16-Apr-2006
Xinhua
South Korean chief negotiator for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States Kim Jong-hoon said Saturday that the public-sectors services would be excluded from the FTA talks.
16-Apr-2006
ACN
The Bolivian representative to an anti-“free trade” conference underway in Havana, proposed a “People’s Trade Agreement” - a joint initiative between the government and social movements in that South American country.
16-Apr-2006
Xinhua
The Ecuadorian government hopes to have the next round of FTA negotiations on May 8 in Washington — if it manages to pass an amendment bill to the Hydrocarbons Law. But the legislation is being staunchly opposed by private oil firms.
15-Apr-2006
This Day
Oxfam yesterday urged West African nations not to mortgage their future by signing on to the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) being negotiated with the European Union.
14-Apr-2006
Daily Times
Pakistan and United States on Thursday agreed to conclude Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) as early as possible.
14-Apr-2006
A presidential senior secretary strongly defended Korea’s move to sign a free trade deal with the United States by saying that the deal, if successfully concluded, would pull the nation into the ranks of advanced countries.
14-Apr-2006
Bangkok Post
A failure to manage trade liberalisation and agricultural policy could make the financial plight of Thai farmers worse, warns Prapat Panyachatraksa, a former agriculture minister.
14-Apr-2006
Africast
ECOWAS Trade Ministers have rounded off a one-day appraisal meeting on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union with an agreement on pre-conditions to be fulfilled before the beginning of the second phase of the negotiations.
13-Apr-2006
SABC News
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has warned government that thousands of textile workers, especially women, will soon join the unemployment queue.
13-Apr-2006
Critics of a free trade agreement in the Americas point to what they perceive are missed deadlines and lost opportunities as proof that a hemisphere-wide pact is dead and gone.
13-Apr-2006
Japan will not demand as much market opening in negotiations on free trade agreements with Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, compared with talks with the more developed members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, it was learned Monday.
13-Apr-2006
Ollanta Humala, frontrunner in Peru’s presidential election.
Mr Humala says the deal should be put to a popular vote
Peru’s decision to sign a free-trade agreement with the US has provoked a domestic political row, with critics calling for the deal to be blocked.
13-Apr-2006
As African trade ministers continue their meeting in Nairobi, NGOs are trying to make their positions known on various issues, including the economic partnership agreement being negotiated between the EU and African states and agricultural subsidies used by rich nations.
13-Apr-2006
Peruvian farmers are organizing a march from Cusco to Lima to protest the free trade agreement with the US, the president of Peru’s National Agrarian Confederation, Antolin Huascar, stated Thursday.
