27-May-2006
Taipei Times
The first round of Taiwan's free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with El Salvador and Honduras is expected to take place from Monday to Wednesday in Central America, officials with the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Thursday.
27-May-2006
Stuff.co.nz
Negotiations for a free trade pact between South Korea and Japan have been deadlocked for more than a year partly due to differences over how the two sides view their history, South Korea's commerce minister said on Friday.
27-May-2006
The Age
After a year of skirmishing, Australia's free trade discussions with China are taking shape, with China agreeing in principle to include the sensitive areas of government procurement and investment in any agreement.
27-May-2006
Korea Times
Business leaders in South Korea and Japan need to play an active role in achieving a free trade agreement between the two countries, a Korean conglomerate owner said Thursday.
26-May-2006
Bangkok Post
Thailand has reaffirmed that it did not sign the Asean-South Korean free trade agreement on goods because of rice. South Korea insisted on excluding rice under its sensitive list, but Thailand, the world's largest rice exporter, demanded that it open up its local market.
26-May-2006
Chosun Ilbo
The US is a much better free-trade partner for Korea than China or Japan, where issues of race and historical animosities would make an agreement difficult, Korea's chief negotiator in free-trade talks with the US said Thursday.
26-May-2006
IPS
Showing the door to Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) and scuttling US free trade negotiations have long been agenda priorities for Ecuadorian social movements and political sectors. But following government steps that have all but made these goals a reality, the atmosphere seems more anxious than celebratory.
25-May-2006
Reuters
The first draft statements of a free trade agreement exchanged by South Korea and the United States show "considerable differences" between the two sides, an agriculture ministry official said.
25-May-2006
PDI
The Supreme Court of the Philippines has no jurisdiction to issue a ruling on a petition filed by party-list group Akbayan seeking to stop the government from signing a bilateral trade pact with Japan without a full disclosure of its provisions to the public.
25-May-2006
FT
Washington's ambassador to Japan on Wednesday added his voice to those calling for closer economic integration between the world's two biggest economies, though he stopped short of formally proposing talks aimed at the conclusion of a bilateral trade agreement.
