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5-Feb-2008
CanWest
The European Union, being pressured to support the launch of free trade negotiations at the next Canada-EU annual summit in Montreal this fall, is showing only lukewarm enthusiasm for the idea.
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5-Feb-2008
Palm Beach Post
Fourteen years after approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, a behind-the-scenes struggle is being waged over one of its last provisions — the unrestricted trade of sugar between the United States and Mexico.
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5-Feb-2008
stuff
Trade Minister Phil Goff has welcomed the United States decision to join negotiations with New Zealand and three other countries on a joint financial services and investment agreement.
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3-Feb-2008
Bloomberg
Mexican Agriculture Minister Alberto Cardenas said the government won’t act to curb imports of US sugar that domestic producers say will add to a surplus, reducing prices and profit. Instead, Mexican and US companies should sort out their own limits, he said.
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2-Feb-2008
Caribbean Net News
Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Dr Henry Jeffrey and Indonesia’s Ambassador to Guyana, Suprijanto Muhadi on Wednesday signed an agreement on the promotion and protection of investments in the two countries.
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2-Feb-2008
NZ Herald
Once the brouhaha dies down and cabinet ministers pass through the self-congratulatory phase, the hard questions will start over just how good a deal the New Zealand Government has got with China on behalf of New Zealand businesses and farmers.
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2-Feb-2008
AfricaNews
The controversial Economic Partnership Agreements has divided the African Union as the Heads of State and Government attending the AU Summit are yet to take a decision on the issues.
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2-Feb-2008
Venezuelanalysis
The sixth conference of the Latin American alternative trade alliance known as ALBA—which stands for the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas and means “Dawn” in Spanish—was held in Caracas on January 25-26. The brainchild of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, ALBA was founded by Cuba and Venezuela in 2004 as a fair trade alternative to US-backed free trade policies and is made possible thanks to Venezuela’s oil money.
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2-Feb-2008
UPI
By offering itself to former colonies as a more attractive and respectful trading partner, China initiated Africa’s refusal to put up with the EU’s demanding policies.
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2-Feb-2008
Earth Times
The Singapore government said Thursday it has substantively concluded negotiations with the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council for a free trade agreement. The final round of talks, held from 28-31 January 2008, was the last of four that started in January 2007.
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1-Feb-2008
Mar Roxas’s defeatist attitude
In a last ditch effort to make solons listen to reason, Bobby Tanada and the Fair Trade Alliance (FTA) gave a rebuttal to the ‘tabla-talo’ logic of Senator Mar Roxas concerning the Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA).
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1-Feb-2008
Conditional approval of RP-Japan deal proposed
Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago yesterday said she will propose a “conditional” Senate approval of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), pointing out that the wide-ranging free trade deal needed to be amended or else be rejected by the Supreme Court for being in conflict with the Constitution.
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1-Feb-2008
Reuters
Thousands of Mexican farmers, some herding cows, flooded into the capital on Thursday and set a tractor on fire to demand government protection against cheap US farm imports under NAFTA.
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1-Feb-2008
Upside Down World
The Salvadoran government had proclaimed that from the moment of its entry into force, the free trade agreement with the United States would boost the local economy, creating thousands of jobs, so that even street vendors would be exporting their typical snacks. But nearly two years later, the economic paradise has yet to arrive.
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31-Jan-2008
Al Bawaba
Carlos M. Gutierrez, the influential and persuasive US Secretary of Commerce plans to use a keynote business conference in Jordan to press home the ambition of the Bush administration to see the establishment of a regional US-Middle East Free Trade Area by the deadline of 2013.
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31-Jan-2008
Via Campesina
From 11th to 13th January 2008, 21 delegates and members of Via Campesina, from the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Peru, South Korea, Norway, France, Haiti, Mali, Italy, the United States, Mozambique, Turkey, the Basque Country and Nepal, met in Dijon for a strategic seminar on the theme “Food Sovereignty and Free-Trade Agreements” convened and organised by the Via Campesina’s Food Sovereignty work committee.
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31-Jan-2008
IPS
Malawi finally has to face up to the dilemma of choosing between being a member of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) or to stick with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) if it is to continue receiving funding from the European Union.
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31-Jan-2008
Lanka Business Online
Sri Lanka is negotiating more free trade and investment deals with other countries to increase trade and foreign investment. Two rounds of talks were held in January with India and Pakistan on free trade and investment agreements while the first negotiations on an investment promotion and protection agreement with Kuwait was concluded on January 30. The Sri Lanka-Kuwait negotiations will be followed by negotiations on a Sri Lanka-Jordan Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement
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31-Jan-2008
Bangkok Post
Thai business leaders are urging the new government to press forward with bilateral free trade negotiations with the United States, aiming to receive more preferential treatment than rival countries.
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30-Jan-2008
IP Watch
A panel of government and non-governmental experts on intellectual property and biodiversity issues last week stressed the high impact that leading economies’ bilateral free trade negotiations are having on multilateral policymaking in Geneva.
