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Industry group urges Congress to unfreeze Colombia trade agreement
16-Apr-2008 Market Wire
The United States Council for International Business (USCIB) called on Congressional leaders to approve the trade pact claiming considerable progress in Colombian government efforts to protect trade unionists.
Caricom’s corporate conglomeration
27-Mar-2008 Jamaica Observer
At the 19th Intercessional Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government in the Bahamas, Prime Minister Golding called on Caribbean companies to join together in joint ventures because, acting independently, individual enterprises will be unable to penetrate European markets or to achieve the levels of efficiency that each country requires to enter and dominate those markets. He said the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will provide a challenge to which the region must respond.
Govt seeks inputs from industry for Japan CEPA
12-Mar-2008 Economic Times
The Indian government has asked industry to come up with an ‘offensive’ list of items of export interest to India in the Japanese market.
Cameroon: ACP-EU free trade accord - experts say Gov’t is on wrong track
8-Mar-2008 AllAfrica.com
Association des Producteurs de Bananes du Cameroun (ASSOBACAM), sources reveal, pushed the Cameroonian government to jump into a bilateral agreement with the EU Commission. Many observers interpret the move to mean that government sacrificed the young industrial sector of the country to protect the interest of banana producers, most of which are owned by Western countries.
The story of a Dutch letterbox which could cost Bolivia a fortune
7-Mar-2008 Corporate Europe Observatory
Running their business via a letterbox company in the Netherlands, transnational corporations profit from the corporate-friendly Dutch tax regime and bilateral investment treaties the Netherlands has with third countries. Euro Telecom Italia (ETI), a subsidiary of Italian telecoms giant ENTEL, is one such letterbox company. ETI recently lodged a complaint with the World Bank tribunal ICSID against Bolivia for compensation, after the Bolivian government had launched a review the company’s much-criticised performance and attempted to negotiate a buy back of what used to be a public telecommunications company.
Private sector for India-US investment treaty by year-end
28-Feb-2008 Mangalorean
The US-India Private Sector Advisory Group has asked the two governments to negotiate a bilateral investment treaty by end of 2008 while continuing to promote sectoral openings.
Powerful Panasonic calls for a free trade agreement with Peru
22-Feb-2008 IPCDigital
The Japanese appliances giant, Panasonic, has called for the establishment a free trade agreement between Japan and Peru.
US trade decision ’great news’ says AmCham
5-Feb-2008 Scoop
The United States decision to get involved in forging a trade accord involving New Zealand is a major milestone in the quest for a US-NZ free trade agreement, says the American Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand (AmCham). AmCham has been lobbying hard for a US-NZ FTA for nearly 10 years now.
Growers, users in NAFTA faceoff
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.
Thailand: Private sector urges revival of FTA talks
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.
No commitments to implementing the Arab Free Trade Agreement
24-Jan-2008 Dar Al Hayat
The president of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists questions the fate of the Arab Free Trade Agreement ten years after its actual implementation.
Text of US-Mexican sugar industry deal (2008)
23-Jan-2008 IATP
The US and Mexican sugar industry are trying to get a deal adopted by their governments to regulate sugar trade, now that NAFTA has dismanteled all remaining tariffs between the two countries as of 1 January 2008.
Canada announces start of bilateral investment treaty negotiations with Mongolia
14-Jan-2008 TLB
On January 9 2008, Canada announced that it will commence negotiations of a bilateral investment treaty with Mongolia. This is good news for Canadian mining companies...
Feb. deadline looms for Korea-US FTA
11-Jan-2008 Chosun Ilbo
It was in late June last year that the much-touted Korea-US free trade agreement was signed between the two countries. More than six months later official ratification of the deal has yet to be made by either US Congress or the Korean National Assembly. Korean business organizations say if the stamp of approval is not given by February’s end, the hard-won trade deal could go down the drain.
Pharma-chemical lobby demands unhindered trade
9-Jan-2008 swissinfo
The influential umbrella group of the Swiss pharmaceutical and chemical industries has demanded that the government act to remove global trade barriers. It said such demands should be made when creating free trade agreements with selected countries, preferably Brazil, Russia, India and China, as well as the United States.
USTR Susan Schwab and CEA President & CEO Gary Shapiro at International CES: Trade is vital to US economic growth and jobs
8-Jan-2008 Reuters
Free trade agreements are important for the US consumer electronics industry
Select few see benefits of free trade: report
29-Dec-2007 FInancial Post
The Canadian Business Council on National Issues, whose CEOs pushed for free trade with the United States two decades ago, and that remain members of the since-renamed Canadian Council of Chief Executives, have cut jobs since even as their revenues have soared
NPPC urges Australia not to restrict pork imports
20-Dec-2007 Farms.com
Citing the US-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which became effective Jan. 1, 2005, the US National Pork Producers Council said, in advance of an Australian government report that may recommend protecting Australia’s pork industry, that US pork should be excluded from any such action.
Israeli, Palestinian businessmen urge trade talks
12-Dec-2007 The Guardian
Key members of the Israeli and Palestinian private sectors recommended in a joint study that peace negotiators adopt a "Free Trade Agreement Plus" (FTA Plus) as the basis for economic relations between Israel and any future Palestinian state.
US companies urge investment pacts with BRIC nations
5-Dec-2007 Guardian
Major US exporters urged the Bush administration to begin negotiations with the "BRIC" nations — Brazil, Russia, India and China — on bilateral investment treaties, which they said were critical to US service company efforts to tap those large markets.