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Exclusive: EU says Chinese FTA possible, but wants market opening
22-May-2013 Reuters
The European Union is willing to deepen trade ties with China but wants to see concessions from Beijing first, documents seen by Reuters on Tuesday showed.
PM Lee on Japan FTA: ’Let’s go for ambitious review’
22-May-2013
Singapore would like the ongoing review of its free trade agreement (FTA) with Japan to be an "ambitious review", and not one resulting in just minor adjustments, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in Tokyo on Wednesday, after meetings with its top leaders.
SADC scrambles to meet EU trade deadline
22-May-2013 Mmegi
Trade ministers from SADC member states met in Gaborone yesterday as part of efforts to thrash out a new inclusive Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union ahead of next year’s deadline.
Taiwan trying to secure FTAs with U.S., EU: president
21-May-2013
President Ma Ying-jeou has said that his administration has been working toward signing free trade deals with the United States and the European Union, a development that sock manufacturers in Changhua County are eager to see.
Kosovo looks to EU trade agreement
21-May-2013 Eurasia Review
By launching a free trade regime with the EU, as part of its Stabilisation Association Agreement, Kosovo is hoping to increase the amount of agricultural products that it exports to the 27 member countries in order to improve revenues.
Historic Indo-Lanka trade pact goes public for the first time
21-May-2013 Lanka Web
The first ever international Free Trade Agreement entered by Sri Lanka has boosted its exports to its partnering country by no less than 16 times-and overall trade volumes grew by eight fold.
Food and capitalism: a crisis of waste and destruction
21-May-2013 PSL
Capitalism and the racing pace of technology at the service of maximizing profits have come together to form a super-crisis of waste and destruction. We can use corn as an example
US livestock industry ready for ’comprehensive’ FTA with EU
21-May-2013 Farm Futures
Coalition of ag organizations says previous talks through Trans-Pacific Partnership should be used as model for EU agreement
Turkey-South Korea FTA includes many firsts
21-May-2013 Hürriyet Daily News
A free trade agreement (FTA) between Turkey and South Korea that came into effect at the beginning of this month has registered a number of firsts for Turkey, which had exempted its agricultural goods from deals until the Seoul deal but is now aiming to use the new agreement as a template for future FTAs.
Despite lacking FTA, Japan to get US LNG
21-May-2013 Japan Times
The United States said Friday it will allow exports of domestically produced liquefied natural gas to Japan and other countries to which it is not bound by free-trade agreements, authorizing a plan to deliver shale and other gases from Texas.
China willing to launch FTA talks with India: Li Keqiang
21-May-2013 Economic Times
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang today offered Indian goods more access to his country’s market for narrowing bilateral trade deficit and expressed willingness to start talks for a free trade agreement with India.
Live from the TPP: IP chapter shows no sign of resolution, end of negotiation in 2013 highly unlikely
21-May-2013 Infojustice
There is a strong sense in the halls of the current TPP negotiation that the end is not in sight. And one of the primary reasons s a lack of consensus on intellectual property and pharmaceuticals issues, reports Infojustice from Lima.
Consumers International releases three new papers on the TPP for the Lima round
20-May-2013
Consumers International (CI) has commissioned the production of three papers, the first on the competition chapter by one of our members, and the other two by independent experts, respectively covering the investment chapter and how it affects A2K, and the free flow of information provision and its impacts on privacy.
Turkey seeks seat at US-EU trade table
17-May-2013 Reuters
Turkey is pushing for involvement in a proposed free trade pact between the United States and Europe which it fears could leave it sidelined and hamper its ambitions to become a top 10 economy over the next decade.
Rival trade pacts could converge
16-May-2013 China Daily
Separate multiparty free-trade talks in Asia backed by China and the United States are generally seen as a rivalry between the world’s two biggest economies, but some experts say the agreements could prove complementary and ultimately converge.
European firms push Thai-EU FTA talks
16-May-2013 The Nation
Representatives of the European business community in Thailand yesterday said the country’s service sector was in a dangerous situation due to strict local regulations that obstruct foreign investment, especially from Europe.
TIFA will help ease trade in West Africa
16-May-2013 B&FT
If concluded, the TIFA will create opportunities for US companies interested in doing business in West Africa, and will assist in addressing impediments to U.S. trade and investment in the region.
EU-India FTA talks stuck; insurance could be game spoiler
16-May-2013 PTI
Talks between India-EU chief negotiators on FTA today got stuck with the European bloc making clear that the pact cannot proceed unless the insurance sector was further opened up by New Delhi, which expressed its inability to do so without Parliament approval.
IPR lists for trans-Atlantic trade deal still growing; Risk of locking in old IPR regimes?
16-May-2013 IP Watch
Locking in Europe and the United States to “old” intellectual property regimes is the one “killer argument” against including an IP chapter in the upcoming Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), according to Bernd Hugenholtz, director of the Institute for Information Law (IViR) at the University of Brussels.
Malaysia and the TPPA
16-May-2013 FTA Malaysia
If we put the USTR Report on foreign trade barriers, together with discussions surrounding the ‘leaked’ TPPA chapters and texts on investment, intellectual property, regulatory coherence and transparency, among others, we get a clearer picture of what’s at stake, what changes are being planned to our laws, regulations and policies, and who are the stakeholders who stand to benefit the most from those changes.