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28-Aug-2008
Inquirer
Philippine Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago on Thursday said she will ask Senate President Manuel Villar to postpone voting on the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) until after a formal exchange of notes that will guarantee the treaty does not violate the Constitution.
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28-Aug-2008
Kyodo
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations concluded Thursday a free trade accord with Australia and New Zealand that will link up the 10-member grouping with the latter’s free trade pact, the sides said.
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28-Aug-2008
AFP
ASEAN nations have concluded a deal for free trade in goods with India, the bloc’s seventh-largest trading partner, ministers said Thursday.
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28-Aug-2008
MCOT
Economic ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, meeting in Hanoi, have pledged to work for the speedy ratification of an economic partnership agreement with Japan that is expected to take effect before the end of this year. A Philippine official says the pact will come into force on 1 October.
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28-Aug-2008
Xinhua
The Southeast Asian bloc and China announced here Wednesday that they made substantive progress in the negotiations on the bilateral investment pact which is expected to be signed at the Bangkok Summit in December this year.
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28-Aug-2008
Jamaica Observer
The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) says it will seek to delay the signing of the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), between CARIFORUM and the European Union, to allow for a review and possible renegotiation of the agreement.
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28-Aug-2008
ABS-CBN
A former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law on Wednesday criticized as unconstitutional the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) for allowing Japanese citizens to own land, practice certain professions and operate and administer educational institutions in the Philippines.
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27-Aug-2008
IPS
Honduras has joined the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), amid criticism from the business community and right-wing political sectors.
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27-Aug-2008
LIP
Peru’s minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism, Mercedes Aráoz, considered today the possibility that negotiations with China in order to reach a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) could end in November.
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27-Aug-2008
PWW
While Colombian representatives lobby the Democratic and Republican conventions in support of the Bush administration’s Colombia Free Trade Act, the US labor movement continues its opposition to the pact, signed in November 2006 but put on hold by Congress last April.
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27-Aug-2008
Forbes
The Canadian government said Tuesday it had wrapped up free trade negotiations with Jordan, along with parallel labor and environment agreements.
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26-Aug-2008
Opinión
The President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, accused the US of extending its Free Trade Agreements program to divide Latin American countries.
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26-Aug-2008
Mmegi
A few days after the Southern African Development Community (SADC) became a free trade area, fears are mounting that the move may spell doom for Botswana’s agricultural industry.
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26-Aug-2008
GNA
Civil society organisations have asked governments of ECOWAS countries to suspend all trade-related negotiations with the EU.
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26-Aug-2008
Caribbean Net News
Labour unions in Trinidad and Tobago are gearing up for a nationwide shut down of the country on September 8. They are protesting rising crime, uncontrollable food prices and increasing violence in the country, and calling for Trinidad and Tobago not to rush into signing the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
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26-Aug-2008
IPS
Eight months after congratulating themselves for having become the first region within the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping to conclude negotiations with the European Union on a new trade and economic pact, Caribbean leaders are getting cold feet as the time draws near to affix their signatures to the document.
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26-Aug-2008
Thanh Nien
Vietnam and Japan have reached agreements on several trade matters at the eighth round of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations recently concluded on August 22 in Japan.
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26-Aug-2008
IPS
The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) that Southern African Development Community (SADC) governments agreed to will boost large South African companies’ reach in the region at the expense of small-scale producers and shops.
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26-Aug-2008
NBR
New Zealand companies should take advantage of Mexico’s free trade agreement with the United States and look at entering the lucrative US market via its neighbour, a visiting trade representative says.
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25-Aug-2008
Tico Times
As Costa Rican lawmakers return today from a weeklong vacation, time grows tight to pass two laws required to implement the Central American Free-Trade Agreement with the United States (CAFTA). Lawmakers must pass a bill amending the agreement, as well as a bill that strengthens intellectual property rights, before an Oct. 1 deadline.
