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Costa Rica advances in free trade talks with China, Singapore
9-Sep-2009 Tico Times
Both accords are expected to be finalized within the first half of 2010.
Egypt seeks to expand US trade zones
8-Sep-2009 The Peninsula
Egypt has asked the United States to expand preferential trade industrial export zones in southern Egypt, but a bilateral free trade deal is “off the table” for now, Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid said yesterday.
Japan goes gaga over banana diet
8-Sep-2009 Antara
More than 90 percent of Japan’s banana import comes from the Philippines, where Sumitomo Corp. has been operating for 40 years. Sumitomo’s profit quadrupled to Y 1.7 billion in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2009, boosted by the morning banana diet.
Fishing boats blockade shipping channel in protest against ASEAN trade pact
8-Sep-2009 The Hindu
Scores of mechanised fishing boats and crafts blockaded the shipping channel at Fort Kochi on Monday as a show of protest against the export-import agreement India has signed with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Expanding the Pathways to Prosperity in the Americas
8-Sep-2009 infowars
At least in rhetoric, the PPA attempts to balance economic progress and trade initiatives with social justice. Until something is done with the flawed NAFTA model which has benefited multinational corporations at the expense of labor, health, safety and environmental rights, it will not mean a damn thing.
CPI(M) concerned over ASEAN FTA
7-Sep-2009
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) on Sunday expressed concern at the free trade agreement with the ASEAN countries and termed as “intriguing” the move by India to break the so-called deadlock in the World Trade Organisation’s talks.
Eritrea in Negotiations to Join Economic Partnership Agreement with EU
7-Sep-2009
Eritrea is involved in ongoing negotiations to enter the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union. The comprehensive trade partnership would cover issues like services, investment, agriculture, technical standards, trade facilitation and trade related rules.
Eastern promises
7-Sep-2009
When the Rubber Bill (intended to amend the Rubber Act, 1947) was presented in Parliament on August 7, the Opposition did not let it through. The reason was, it was presented by Prithviraj Chavan, minister of state for parliamentary affairs, and not any minister of commerce and industry, which is the ministry concerned.
ICSID rejects Turkish Co $756m claim against Pak
7-Sep-2009
An arbitral tribunal appointed by the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (lCSID) of the World Bank hearing a claim brought by a Turkish investor against the Islamic Republic of Pakistan has rejected all claims for breach of a bilateral investment treaty between the two countries.
Development coherence in trade governance: Key to the rebuilding of the global economy
7-Sep-2009
The global crisis has one positive and liberating aspect—policymakers and even once-arrogant neoliberal economists are now openly questioning the wisdom of untrammeled liberalization. The present global recession has abundantly shown that liberalizing the financial and other economic sectors wholesale sans rules is a formula for disaster, be it applied in a developed market economy like the United States or in a small developing economy like Haiti.
Learning from ALBA and the Bank of the South: Challenges and Possibilities
7-Sep-2009 Monthly Review
Although the crisis is indeed delegitimizing capitalism as an engine of “progress,” the weakening global economy is greatly complicating, if not weakening, efforts to advance ALBA as well as the Bank of the South.
EPAs: Digging our own Grave
6-Sep-2009
It is saddening that Zimbabwe is going ahead in signing the interim and full Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union (EU) at the expense of its citizens, small-scale farmers and industries. The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Professor Welshman Ncube stated that cabinet had agreed to sign the interim EPAs that will run until December 2010 adding that full EPAs would be signed by end of December 2010.
EU seeks to settle trade row with India amicably
6-Sep-2009
The European Union on Friday said it would prefer to resolve two commercial disputes with India without engaging in a legal battle at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). The first dispute involves seizure of Indian generic drugs in transit at some EU-based ports, including Amsterdam, which were bound for certain third world countries, on the grounds of patents infringement.
Free trade deals to push up cost of medicines
6-Sep-2009
The bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) India is negotiating with Japan and the European Union (EU) can lead to a sharp rise in the cost of medicines, a network of civil society groups has warned.
Potato fight
5-Sep-2009 Al-Ahram Weekly
A couple of weeks ago, following the discovery of some cases of brown rot, the EU decided to impose a ban on Egyptian potato exports. The Egyptian government believes that the reason behind the move is to protect local European produce from competition.
Will new trade agreements reduce dependence on US?
4-Sep-2009 Final Call
Presidents Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Felipe Calderón of Mexico agreed recently to explore the possibility of a free trade agreement as part of a strategy to reduce their dependence on the industrialized world.
Jordan, Iraq sign free-trade agreement
4-Sep-2009 Earth Times
Jordanian Prime Minister Nader Dahabi made a whirlwind visit Thursday to Baghdad, signing a free-trade agreement that Jordan hoped would serve as a catalyst for boosting trade with neighbouring Iraq
Asian trade: The noodle bowl
4-Sep-2009 The Economist
Why trade agreements are all the rage in Asia
Trade agreements: Doing Doha down
4-Sep-2009 The Economist
Regional trade deals are no substitute for a Doha agreement. Indeed, they are its enemy, writes The Economist
Commentary: Pantechniki v. Albania decision offers pragmatic approach to interpreting fork-in-the-road clauses
3-Sep-2009 IISD
The recent decision in Pantechniki v. Albania appears to be the only award in the public domain in which a tribunal has held a fork-in-the-road clause to have been triggered by an investor’s prior court proceedings.