10-Sep-2006
Xinhua
China and the European Union (EU) have agreed to launch negotiations on a framework agreement, which will encompass the full scope of their bilateral relationship, said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Saturday.
10-Sep-2006
Reuters
US and South Korean officials expressed disappointment on Saturday at the progress made during four days of tough trade negotiations aimed at clinching a proposed free trade agreement between the two countries.
10-Sep-2006
Bloomberg
The European Union said it will seek bilateral trade deals with China and Korea, exploring new ways of conquering foreign markets as talks over a global trade pact flounder.
10-Sep-2006
ABS-CBN
Japan and the Philippines signed a free-trade pact after overcoming the thorny issue of Filipina nurses seeking work in the world’s second-biggest economy.
9-Sep-2006
The upcoming Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) will bring dubious gain to the local economy while severely limiting government’s policy options to develop domestic industries.
9-Sep-2006
It is contemptible how the Philippine government trades its citizens for export goods that will only push the country to even greater disaster. This is the aim of the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo is set to sign with Japan Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi today during the Asia Europe Meeting in Helsinki, Finland.
9-Sep-2006
Bilateral trade deals are not in the interests of anyone, EU President Finland said on Friday, in the first public criticism of European Commission plans to seek one-on-one pacts with Asian countries.
9-Sep-2006
The Common Market for East and Central African (COMESA) states have begun fresh negotiations for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) in a bid to expand domestic markets through strategic trade liberalisation.
9-Sep-2006
For Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the future of the Filipino people has a very cheap price. So cheap that she has opted to sell it to Japan by further opening up the local economy in exchange for the annual deployment of 400-500 caregivers and nurses to Japan.
9-Sep-2006
Trade and Industry Minister Dr. Mukhisa Kituyi has asked the COMESA ministerial taskforce to hasten implementation of the regional customs union to achieve the free trading within member-countries.
9-Sep-2006
At issue are commodities as varied as rice, apparel and automobiles, as well as lucrative new markets in banking and other financial services, with potentially billions of dollars in commerce at stake. But for several countries negotiating trade pacts with the US, the outcome may have less to do with economics than with American election-year politics.
9-Sep-2006
GNN
Underneath the radar of the mainstream media, the US and South Korea are negotiating a “free trade agreement” that, if signed, will be the largest such agreement since NAFTA was passed in 1994. Hence, it’s a massive issue for US and Korean workers, and has been arousing massive opposition.
9-Sep-2006
After a lull in the first half of the year, there appears to be movement on various fronts of SA’s trade agenda.
9-Sep-2006
Pakistan and Mauritius signed the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA), Rule of Origin and Customs Cooperation agreements during the 5th session of their Joint Working Group on PTA to be held in Islamabad in November this year.
9-Sep-2006
Fresh from acclaim at the Cannes Film Festival for creating a South Korean "Jaws," the director Bong Joon Ho staged a lone protest outside the Culture Ministry in Seoul, shouting slogans and raising a red placard.
9-Sep-2006
Brendan Vicas, a senior researcher at the Institute for Global Dialogue, has warned that SADC’s free trade protocol will be difficult to implement. SADC member states have again been urged to renounce their membership of other regional economic groupings.
9-Sep-2006
Thai exporters and importers have benefited from the free-trade agreements with Australia and India but reaped fewer benefits from Asean’s FTA with China, according to a survey by the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI).
9-Sep-2006
The Ontario government is demanding that Ottawa exclude the auto sector from free trade talks with Korea because of potential harm to the industry.
9-Sep-2006
Approximately 58,000 small and medium-size milk cattle owners of 10 or less milk cows would be displaced from the Dominican market as the DR-CAFTA trade accord is implemented with Central America and the United States, according to Agriculture Planning deputy minister.
9-Sep-2006
Japan expects to gain agreement from India by the end of this year to start talks on a bilateral economic partnership agreement, a senior Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.
