17-Apr-2006
IHT
The South Korean government may offer more incentives for farmers and their families in an attempt to curb protests over its negotiations with the United States for a free-trade agreement, South Korea’s chief negotiator said Monday.
17-Apr-2006
Reuters
The United States hopes to agree a road-map with southern Africa on reaching a trade pact this week but will not budge on key issues that have previously stalled talks, a top official said on Monday.
17-Apr-2006
Bangkok Post
Thailand’s National Economic and Social Advisory Council has urged the government to delay free trade negotiations with the US on financial services and take intellectual property rights and agriculture liberalisation off the agenda.
17-Apr-2006
FT
New legislation designed to increase the state’s share of windfall oil revenues by some $600m a year is set to derail Ecuador’s plans to negotiate a trade deal with the US, according to government officials.
17-Apr-2006
Korea Times
South Korea is poised to include a partial opening of the education market in its coming talks for a free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States. The US is calling for the Korean government to open the college education market involving graduate schools and the pre-school education market involving kindergartens.
17-Apr-2006
Chosun Ilbo
A massive protest against a planned free trade agreement between Korea and the U.S. brought some 8,000 trade unionists, farmers, students and actors from 100 groups to Daehagno, downtown Seoul on Sunday.
16-Apr-2006
Daily Times
The United States is reluctant to give increased market access for textile to Pakistan and has conveyed that any new trading arrangement that could be finalized between the two countries would be minus textile, a senior official told the Daily Times on Saturday.
16-Apr-2006
Xinhua
South Korean chief negotiator for the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States Kim Jong-hoon said Saturday that the public-sectors services would be excluded from the FTA talks.
14-Apr-2006
Daily Times
Pakistan and United States on Thursday agreed to conclude Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) as early as possible.
14-Apr-2006
A presidential senior secretary strongly defended Korea’s move to sign a free trade deal with the United States by saying that the deal, if successfully concluded, would pull the nation into the ranks of advanced countries.
13-Apr-2006
Critics of a free trade agreement in the Americas point to what they perceive are missed deadlines and lost opportunities as proof that a hemisphere-wide pact is dead and gone.
13-Apr-2006
Ollanta Humala, frontrunner in Peru’s presidential election.
Mr Humala says the deal should be put to a popular vote
Peru’s decision to sign a free-trade agreement with the US has provoked a domestic political row, with critics calling for the deal to be blocked.
13-Apr-2006
Peruvian farmers are organizing a march from Cusco to Lima to protest the free trade agreement with the US, the president of Peru’s National Agrarian Confederation, Antolin Huascar, stated Thursday.
13-Apr-2006
With just 40 days in force, the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US already has negative effects for the Salvadoran people, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN) has denounced Thursday.
13-Apr-2006
President Roh Moo-hyun’s public relations secretary Lee Baek-man has rejected criticism from circles close to the government that a planned free-trade agreement with the US would amount to selling out the nation.
13-Apr-2006
Miami Herald
The CARICOM bloc already enjoys preferential access to the US market through the Caribbean Basin Initiative. But key textile concessions are set to expire in 2008, and the region has been losing ground to competitors in Central and South America as those countries sign free trade deals with Washington.
13-Apr-2006
ITP Business
The combined effects of the ongoing Dubai Ports World furore over the sale of six major US ports that sparked a catalytic delay in Free Trade Agreement talks between the US and the United Arab Emirates, could provide a significant economic boost to not only the UAE, but also to the Middle East, experts have suggested.
13-Apr-2006
United States and Peru signed Wednesday a bilateral free trade treaty - two years in the making - at the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington.
13-Apr-2006
The Korean government has rolled up its sleeves to win over public support for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with the United States, as it is faced with more and more voices worrying about its possible negative implications.
13-Apr-2006
A key US negotiator reaffirmed Wednesday that a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea means opening up its rice market.
