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US rules out N Korea park in S Korea trade pact
20-Aug-2006 NDTV
The United States cannot agree to South Korea’s request for a free trade pact between the two countries to include goods made in an industrial park in North Korea. "It won’t happen, can’t happen," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said Friday.
Canada examining its Foreign Investment Protection Treaty Program
20-Aug-2006 Mondaq
Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is currently considering expanding the countries covered by its bilateral investment protection agreements. Potential future partners include a number of Caribbean and Latin American countries, as well as Pakistan, Vietnam, South Korea, Japan, Libya, Israel, and South Africa, among many others.
US-India Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture: Indian proposal (May 2006)
20-Aug-2006
A proposal to implement the US-India KIA from India
US-ASEAN deal won’t address Myanmar
20-Aug-2006 Houston Chronicle
The United States will sign a pact with Southeast Asia next week to boost trade and investment, but the plan has been scaled down because of Myanmar, whose poor human rights record has hindered trade relations, officials said Saturday.
Peru seeks to renegotiate free-trade pact with US
20-Aug-2006 Bloomberg
Peruvian President Alan Garcia said his government will seek to renegotiate a free-trade agreement signed between Peru and the US which is awaiting a vote in the US Congress. "We need to think about a different accord, one for the poor, one that looks within, complying with a national agenda."
Textiles ’not negotiable’ in China FTA
20-Aug-2006 The Age
Industry plans for Australia’s manufacturing, textile and clothing industries are not up for negotiation in a free trade deal with China, the federal government says.
Japan draws up Nikai initiative to boost regional trade
20-Aug-2006 The Star
The Japanese private sector is pivotal in pushing the initiative, as they want to dangle what is undoubtedly a carrot for Asean countries to propel the proposed East Asia Free Trade Area (EAFTA).
Free trade pacts more dangerous than WTO - IBON
20-Aug-2006 IBON Foundation
In the wake of the collapse of the Doha talks in the World Trade Organization (WTO), negotiations for the Philippines to enter into an Asia-Pacific free trade agreement (FTA) have become more urgent for industrialized countries. But independent think-tank IBON Foundation warns that entering into an FTA could be even more dangerous than liberalization under the WTO.
India halves FTA exclusion list with Asean
20-Aug-2006
In what is seen as a dramatic move, India on Friday slashed its controversial exclusion list of products for tariff reduction from 850 to 560 to kick-start the recently-suspended negotiations on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Asean.
Labour & environmental issues in FTA talk, says NZ
20-Aug-2006 Bernama
Labour and environmental issues will still be included in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiation between Australia, New Zealand and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a senior New Zealand trade official said.
Main Uruguayan parties reject US FTA
20-Aug-2006 Prensa Latina
The principal political parties and movements of Uruguay rejected possible signing of a free trade agreement with the US on Thursday.
Farmers’ suicides may hit FTA deal
20-Aug-2006 Gulf Daily News
India is citing the fear of political fallout and its suicide epidemic among farmers as obstacles to hammering out a free-trade deal with Southeast Asia, officials said yesterday.
Progress on HIV drugs threatened by new trade pacts
20-Aug-2006 IPS
In the midst of the world’s biggest HIV/AIDS conference here, close to a hundred activists launched a noisy protest over bilateral free trade agreements, which they say elevate patent protections above the right to life-extending antiretroviral drugs.
CEOs will focus on NAFTA region
20-Aug-2006
The region covered by the North American Free Trade Agreement will loom large as chief executives across all industries plot their growth in 2007, according to a survey commissioned by the New York Stock Exchange. The executives listed the US and China as the top two "strategically important" countries.
US gives Pakistan ‘non-paper’ on BIT
20-Aug-2006
The United States has given a “non paper” to Pakistan that shows some flexibility for signing the much-delayed Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) between the two countries soon.
Europe eager for trade pact with Korea
19-Aug-2006 Korea Times
The European Union is showing eagerness to establish a free trade agreement (FTA) with Korea ahead of the resumption of talks next month, officials of both sides say.
ASEAN wants agriculture to be in ASEAN-East Asia FTA
19-Aug-2006 Tehran Times
ASEAN does not discount the possibility of having a free trade agreement (FTA) with all East Asian countries as a whole, said the Philippines’ Department of Trade and Industry director Ramon Vicente T. Kabigting. However, it must first consider including agriculture in the agreement for this to materialise, he told reporters.
Free trade agreements, intellectual property and access to medicines
18-Aug-2006
Patent and data protection rules in free trade agreements have a profound impact on the ability of developing countries to access life saving medicines of assured quality.
Latin America Now: An Interview with Raúl Zibechi
17-Aug-2006 Upside Down World
In this interview, Raúl Zibechi discusses the challenges of the Evo Morales administration in Bolivia, the power and role of Bolivian social movements, projects for regional integration such as People’s Trade Agreement and the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the region’s new situation after the electoral victories of various "progressive" governments.
When free trade sinks into the ’noodle bowl’
17-Aug-2006 IHT
FTAs are supposedly meant to substitute for lack of progress at the WTO. In practice they are mostly preferential arrangements that run counter to APEC’s principle of "open regionalism," which allows members to pursue liberalization at their own pace but on a nondiscriminatory basis.