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16-Jul-2008
Monsters and Critics
Taiwan’s free trade agreement (FTA) with Honduras has gone into effect, further expanding trade ties between Taipei and Tegucigalpa, the Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.
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16-Jul-2008
Norman Girvan
The growth of relations between several Caricom states and the Venezuelan-promoted
ALBA and Petrocaribe initiatives is one of the most significant recent developments in
regional affairs. An immediate issue that has arisen is whether membership of ALBA
might conflict with the obligations of membership of Caricom itself. There are also larger
issues of a strategic nature for Caricom.
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16-Jul-2008
Norman Girvan
Analyses the Cariforum-EC EPA from a critical standpoint, including the EPA architecture, what each side gets from the Agreement, the scope of binding commitments, the institutional machinery and the scope for revision of the Agreement. The points are illustrated with direct quotations from the EPA text.
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16-Jul-2008
Norman Girvan
The ACP countries, by opening up their markets freely to European goods, services and companies will be transformed into a state of development via an impressive chain of unproven, theoretical assumptions. The EPA itself is replete with development rhetoric and references to the development objectives of the Agreement, most, if not all, of which are compromised by the content of the Agreement itself. Nowhere in the Agreement is there a direct, targeted attack on the basic supply-side problem, let alone binding commitments to put in place a complement of measures aimed at this problem.
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15-Jul-2008
Korea Times
South Korean activists Monday sent a petition to the United Nations, asking the international organization to admonish their government for its hardline crackdown on street protests over US beef imports.
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15-Jul-2008
IPS
New street protests were called for Thursday in some Amazon regions, in response to decrees issued by President Alan García, making it easier for private investors to enter the territories of native communities. The decrees were set in motion thanks to the powers granted by the legislative branch to the executive under the free trade agreement (FTA) signed with the United States. Political analysts say the government has exceeded its legal powers.
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15-Jul-2008
Mmegi Mobile
While government officials promise the EPAs will bring more jobs and beef market openings for Botswana, Botswana unions believe they are nothing but recolonisation of ACP countries and say ’the EU is coming back to deplete our (African) resources’.
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15-Jul-2008
BS
Growth of exports to Thailand and Singapore has slowed after India signed bilateral duty-free agreements with these countries. But a similar pact with Sri Lanka has improved the growth in India’s exports to the island nation.
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15-Jul-2008
LIP
The Lima Chamber of Commerce suggested today that Peru and China’s negotiating teams should not speed up the signing of a Free Trade Agreement in November as the requests of both countries have not coincided
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14-Jul-2008
Emirates Business 24/7
Imposing a value added tax (VAT) on GCC and Arab products in the UAE would be against the agreements signed by the country with other Gulf and Arab states, according to the Ministry of Economy.
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14-Jul-2008
Inside Costa Rica
The first major disruption of the nine-month-old Costa Rican-Panamanian free trade agreement came on July 6, when approximately 200 truck drivers from Panama, Costa Rica, and other Central American countries paralyzed cargo crossing from Paso Canoas, Panama to Cerro Punta, Costa Rica.
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14-Jul-2008
Reuters
The European Union could sign a long-stalled partnership pact with Syria this year, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Sunday at the Paris launch of a new "Union for the Mediterranean"
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14-Jul-2008
Jamaica Observer
While the majority of Caricom governments have signalled readiness to sign the EPA, reservations remain strong enough. Meanwhile, conflicting signals keep coming out of Brussels.
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14-Jul-2008
Jakarta Post
Canada and Indonesia are currently in talks to ink a bilateral agreement that will help protect the investments of Canadian companies in Indonesia, as well as promote Indonesia’s potential to Canadian businesses.
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12-Jul-2008
Xinhua
Chile and Turkey ended the second round of negotiations on a Free Trade Agreement on Friday, the Chilean Foreign Ministry said, adding that "It’s very important to integrate the private sectors in this process, because they will take advantage of the FTA."
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12-Jul-2008
7th Space
The European Commission, negotiating on behalf of the European Union, and Central America will meet in Brussels from 14 to 18 July 2008 for a fourth round of negotiations in view of an Association Agreement between the two regions.
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12-Jul-2008
Bangkok Post
The Charoen Pokphand Group, Thailand’s largest agribusiness conglomerate, is preparing to expand in India by establishing two more animal feed plants.
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11-Jul-2008
FPIF
Through the prism of beef, Koreans confront the limitations of key contemporary institutions: democracy, capitalism, and nationalism.
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11-Jul-2008
Manila Bulletin
The 21-member countries of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), seen to be playing a crucial role in pushing for the conclusion of the stalled Doha Development Round of the WTO, are moving ahead with its agenda of improving market access and substantial reductions in market-distorting measures in agricultural trade in light of the soaring food prices.
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11-Jul-2008
Reuters
A US business group outlined a plan on Thursday to restore White House trade negotiating authority that was badly damaged in a fight between President George W. Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a free trade pact with Colombia.
