ISDS Case Map
Asia
European Union (EU) trade organisations have called for regional free trade agreements to complement World Trade Organisation negotiations for a global open market.
Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong said the East Asia Summit next month would discuss the possibility of a Free Trade Agreement between East Asian countries.
A World Trade Organization ministerial meeting in Hong Kong in December is looming as key to the shape of free trade in Asia in the 21st century as countries within the region intensify their interest in integrating their markets.
"The consequences of failure would be an even further switch to [bi-lateral] Free Trade Agreements [FTAs] and long-term weakness for multilateral trade. Trade would become more discriminatory," said Razeen Sally, visiting senior research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore.
The Third World Network held a regional Asian workshop on bilateral and regional FTAs on 26-29 August in Kuala Lumpur. Many speakers and participants voiced concerns about how the developed countries are making use of such FTAs to get developing countries to accept issues.
The Asian Regional Workshop on Bilateral Free Trade Agreements was held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 26-28 August 2005. It was organized by the Third World Network and attended by about 120 participants from many Asian countries.
Several Asian countries and Asean as a bloc are now pursuing trade and economic frameworks and agreements with non-Asean countries.
This IMF working paper of July 2005 describes the proliferation of PTAs in the Asia-Pacific region, discusses their
characteristics and implementation, and assesses their potential effects.
Estamos afrontando varios impactos negativos tanto de la OMC como de los TLC. Por ejemplo, Tailandia, conocida como el país con mayor exportación de arroz; sus campesinos están sufriendo muchísimo y están perdiendo la tierra así como las semillas locales.
We are facing severe negative impact of both WTO and FTA. For instance, Thailand known as the biggest rice exporting country but Thai peasant has been suffering in huge amount of debt and losing the land as well as the local seeds.
