19-Feb-2006
AFP
Some 2,000 South Korean farmers, movie-makers and anti-US activists staged a candlelight protest Friday against free trade negotiations with the United States.
19-Feb-2006
Bangkok Post
Differences over pharmaceuticals could be overcome, but the countries are far from reaching a common understanding on biodiversity issues.
19-Feb-2006
IPS
In a replay of congressional efforts last year that foiled a bid by a Chinese company to buy a US oil firm, a group of hawkish US lawmakers, citing national security concerns, are trying to block a deal that gives a major Arab company control over a British firm that runs some US ports.
19-Feb-2006
MCOT
Although the local political situation has become heated, with rumours on dissolving the parliament prevaling in the country, the Thai-US negotiations will continue,
Naris Chaiyasoot, Director General of the Ministry of Finance’s Fiscal Policy Office, said.
19-Feb-2006
Hundreds of American companies have been invited to a key conference in Bahrain next week to discuss ways to enhance commercial ties between the two countries.
18-Feb-2006
With the government’s recent efforts to sign a free trade agreement with the United States drawing intense opposition from farmers here, a top Korean government official said the trade negotiators would try to exempt rice from the economic pact.
18-Feb-2006
The time is not right for the United States and Egypt to begin negotiations on a free- trade agreement, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in an interview on Friday with Arab media.
18-Feb-2006
A seminar heard yesterday that although US negotiators had asked Thailand to fully deregulate its financial services and allow US investors unrestricted stakes in the brokering and banking sectors, Bangkok was insisting that the sector was not ready to face direct competition.
18-Feb-2006
El Universal
Venezuela’s Minister of Industry and Trade Gustavo Márquez thinks that an eventual Free Trade Agreement (FTA) by Colombia and the United States could result in unfair competition to the detriment of Venezuelan commodities.
18-Feb-2006
Bangkok Post
Supara Janchitfah looks at the rules of the Thai-US FTA negotiation process and finds them more favourable to the American side.
17-Feb-2006
Jacobo Kattan was hoping to build an industrial park and create 8,000 new jobs after the expected implementation of a regional free-trade pact last month. Instead, he’s had to fire 2,000 workers and close three companies as the region’s clothing industry haemorrhages, putting factories in legal limbo while much of their business leaves for Asia.
17-Feb-2006
Reuters
The United States may announce soon that it is beginning free trade talks with Malaysia, US Trade Representive Rob Portman said on Wednesday.
16-Feb-2006
Agricultural unions and associations in Panama repeated their intention Thursday to continue protests over the way the Isthmus government is negotiating a free trade treaty with the United States.
16-Feb-2006
Ecuadorian Foreign Affaire Minister Jorge Illingworth asserted that a Free Trade Agreement with the US would basically depend on a favorable agriculture deal.
16-Feb-2006
Industry and Commerce minister Francisco Javier Garcia blamed the US Trade Office for delays in reviewing documentation pertinent to the country’s entrance in the Free Trade Treaty with United States and Central America (DR-CAFTA).
16-Feb-2006
Guatemalan young people announced Thursday their willingness to join the massive February 24 march scheduled against the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US in Guatemala City.
16-Feb-2006
A group of US congressmen have introduced legislation urging US President George W. Bush to give preference to Taiwan as his administration considers which countries to consider for potential free-trade agreements.
16-Feb-2006
President Roh Moo-hyun said Thursday the South Korea-U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) should not be blocked by some interest groups’ resistance.
16-Feb-2006
Yonhap
"Farmers and ranchers will be invited to take part in negotiations from the outset," a Korean agricultural ministry official said.
15-Feb-2006
Asia Pulse
South Korea’s rice industry could suffer a significant drop in earnings and production if the country signs a free trade pact with the United States, even if rice is excluded from the deal, a report said Wednesday.
