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Opening a trade gateway
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.
Pakistan ratifies SAFTA - but no free trade with India
19-Feb-2006 UNI
Pakistan has ratified the much-trumpeted South Asia Free Trade Agreement (Safta), but trade between India and Pakistan will not be initiated under this agreement, instead it will continue under the existing import regime.
Exclusion of rice from trade deal ‘possible’
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.
Time not right for US-Egypt trade pact: Rice
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.
US meets resistance on full access to finance
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.
Brunei-Japan FTA talks on the cards
18-Feb-2006
Brunei and Japan will hold two-day preparatory talks starting Monday to conclude a bilateral free trade agreement.
Inept handling of trade agreements
18-Feb-2006 Financial Express
All trade agreements may fumble in delivering results if they take effect prior to completion of all modalities and arrangements, which are to govern and ease trade between the signatory countries. But both the South Asian Preferential Trade Agreement (SAPTA) and its successor agreement on free trade — South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) — were signed before completing these essential formalities
Colombia-US FTA may distort Venezuelan market
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.
Free trade could cost plenty
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.
CAFTA In Limbo
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.
US Senators express concern over Chevron lobbying tactics
17-Feb-2006 PR Newswire
US Senators Patrick Leahy and Barack Obama have written to the US Trade Representative urging that he ignore Chevron’s campaign to exclude Ecuador from FTA negotiations until the Ecuadorian government shuts down a historic environmental lawsuit against the company.
US nearing decision on trade talks with Malaysia
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.
RI seeks wider access to Japan labor market
17-Feb-2006 Jakarta Post
Indonesian trade negotiators are pushing their Japanese counterparts to allow the country’s workers more access to Japan’s labor market.
Free trade in reciprocity
17-Feb-2006 Le Monde Dipliomatique
The new political climate is favourable to projects for regional integration other than the US-led free trade area of the Americas, the most radical being the mutually helpful Bolivarian Alternative.
Panama protests build over US FTA
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.
Ecuador-US FTA hinges on farming
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.
Israel, Mercosur negotiating free-trade agreement
16-Feb-2006 Globes
Israel has initiated negotiations for a free-trade agreement with Mercosur. Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor director general Raanan Dinur said, “This is one of the most important steps Israel has taken in foreign trade in recent years.”
SA wary of calls to broaden EU trade pact
16-Feb-2006
SA’s chief trade negotiator, Xavier Carim, said yesterday that it was premature for the European Union (EU) to call for a large-scale expansion of the free trade agreement between the 25-nation bloc and SA.
Industry and Commerce chief: The US has not concluded reviewing FTA
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).
India, Asean toiling for pact on negative items under FTA
16-Feb-2006
India and Asean (Association of South East Asian Nations) are struggling to reach an agreement on the list of sensitive items for the proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between the two sides. The sensitive or negative list contains items which will not be subjected to duty cuts agreed under the FTA.