ISDS Case Map
ASEAN
ASEAN nations have concluded a deal for free trade in goods with India, the bloc's seventh-largest trading partner, ministers said Thursday.
Economic ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, meeting in Hanoi, have pledged to work for the speedy ratification of an economic partnership agreement with Japan that is expected to take effect before the end of this year. A Philippine official says the pact will come into force on 1 October.
The Southeast Asian bloc and China announced here Wednesday that they made substantive progress in the negotiations on the bilateral investment pact which is expected to be signed at the Bangkok Summit in December this year.
ASEAN is set this week to finalise a free trade agreement with India and hold talks with Australia and New Zealand, signalling the importance of regional pacts amid fading hopes for a global trading regime.
The European Union is considering ''deeper'' free trade area (FTA) discussions with Asean members that would cover political issues sensitive for some Asean governments: labour rights, environment legislation, competition policy, transparency in government procurement, and liberalisation in services.
India and ASEAN have announced that talks on services and investment are set to commence next month ahead of a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) to be signed later this year. This latest step in deepening regional economic integration is further evidence of an ever expanding matrix of competing regional economic interests, which Burma finds itself at the heart of.
Having wrapped up long-drawn negotiations on free trade agreement for merchandise goods with ASEAN, India will push for greater market access for services and investment in the 10-nation Southeast Asian trading bloc.
The Philippines is pushing the development of local dairy industry as its counter-offer to the 100 percent tariff cut on the same products asked by Australia and New Zealand under the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement.
Australia is hopeful of an early conclusion to a regional free trade agreement (FTA) with intensive negotiations underway, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith says. The potential deal between Australia, New Zealand and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) was discussed at bilateral talks between Smith and his Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda in Jakarta on Monday.
Asean Secretary-General Dr Surin Pitsuwan today shot down the possibility of a speedy conclusion of the European Union-Asean Free Trade Agreement
