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Pakistan and Japan FTA study by November end
23-Jul-2008     Pakistan Daily
A Joint Study Group of Pakistan and Japan considering the feasibility of Free Trade Agreement between Islamabad and Tokyo would submit its draft report to the two governments by the end of November 2008.
EPA or development? Your choice
23-Jul-2008     Afrique Echos
The EPA will be disastrous for Africa. Its acceptance would amount to locking the continent into some kind of economic vacuum where its manouevring space would be drastically limited because of the exclusivity of such a deal, especially since the evidence shows that no country in the world has taken off with such bogus and demeaning arrangements.
Intellectual property in the EPA: broad scope, huge impact - Part III
23-Jul-2008     Jamaica Observer
Article 149 requires the EC Party and the Signatory CARIFORUM states to provide for the protection of plant varieties in accordance with the TRIPS Agreement and to consider, in this connection, accession to UPOV, 1991.
East Asia Summit explores free trade area prospects
23-Jul-2008     The Hindu
The East Asia Summit, a “leaders-driven forum” with India, as also China and Japan in its fold, “is studying the feasibility of a free trade area among its 16 countries.”
New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement Bill
23-Jul-2008     Scoop
How is it that in a land with such a shameful history of exclusion and institutional racism against the Chinese, the NZ Government is suddenly bending over backwards to become party to a free trade agreement with China?, the Maori Party asks
Guyana accuses Europe of trade bullying
23-Jul-2008     FT
The Caribbean could suffer economically if a proposed free trade agreement between several regional countries and the European Union is signed because of damaging flaws in the deal, according to Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana's president. “Europe negotiated in bad faith. We were bullied into this.”
SC ruling on JPEPA: Shackled by ‘entropy of the old tradition of secrecy'
22-Jul-2008     PCIJ
“WE must overcome the entropy of the old tradition of secrecy,” counseled Philippine Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno in his lengthy argument on the petition to have the government disclose details of the negotiations between the Philippines and Japan in relation to the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA). Obviously, it was an advice that went largely unheeded as majority of his colleagues upheld for a second time the Arroyo government's invocation of executive privilege.
Costa Rica targets trends for greater food exports
22-Jul-2008     foodnavigator.com
Costa Rican food companies are focusing on major trends like organics and social values to build their export platform, as an association agreement between the EU and Central America is expected to be reached in 2009.
US adopts pragmatic approach in FTA talks: MIER
22-Jul-2008     Borneo Post
“I don't think they are going to adopt a very hardline approach with respect to us. I think they look at Malaysia as a modern Muslim country and want to have successful trade negotiations,” the director of the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research told Bernama. The problem is that the US is not confining the negotiations to purely trade matters.
SKorea health workers threaten strike over US beef, wages
21-Jul-2008     AFP
South Korean hospital workers on Monday threatened to strike this week to press demands including a ban on the use of US beef for patients' meals.