ISDS Case Map
ASEAN
Member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations expect to conclude a free trade agreement with South Korea in a meeting to be held in the Philippines next month, the Department of Trade and Industry said.
India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement talks are in troubled waters with Asean insisting on New Delhi to eliminate its big list of negative items, contrary to the stand taken by the former.
Cheaper products from North Korea's Kaesong special economic zone, which is a part of the proposed Asean-South Korean free trade agreement, may flood into Thailand and hurt local producers, according to executives of the Board of Trade.
Trade minister Toshihiro Nikai's announcement earlier this month that Japan plans to start talks with 15 other nations in 2008 to create an Asia-Oceania free-trade zone took many by surprise -- not only experts but also those within government -- sparking speculation about the ministry's true intentions.
A proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the ten-nation Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has hit a major roadblock with India's agriculture ministry objecting to the inclusion of commodities like pepper, rubber, palm oil, coffee and tea in an ambitious tariff liberalisation programme.
Asean has told New Zealand, whose big dairy and meat product trade to the regional grouping has slowed in recent years, that it risks losing market share to newer competitors muscling their way into the area unless its exporters turn more creative and move quickly to meet changing regional consumer needs.
Thai business leaders have welcomed a Japanese proposal to create an East Asian Free Trade zone to integrate economies in the region, but they were sceptical about whether Japan would liberalise its sensitive agricultural sector. If Japan's idea comes true, they said, it would help countries in the region overcome the ''spaghetti bowl'' effect of proliferating bilateral free trade agreements with different trade rules.
New Zealand will probably end up dealing with 10 schedules for the gradual phase-out of tariffs, one for each of the Asean countries.
Japan's proposed Asian regional free trade agreement got tepid support today from Trade Minister Phil Goff, who told the Gateway to Asean Summit in Auckland that the plan was "consistent" with other activities already well underway.
Concerns raised by a section of domestic industry against indiscriminate opening up of the Indian market to imports have touched a chord at the highest levels of the policy establishment.
