ISDS Case Map
China
ASEAN is being fragmented by intensifying US-China competition for regional influence, which is putting a premium on bilateralism with the big powers at the expense of ASEAN's ambition toward more regional multilateralism.
In an age when the new superpower will be China, much has been written about Kevin Rudd becoming Australia's first Sinophile prime minister.
Unions have given Labor the go ahead to negotiate a free trade deal with China after the ALP agreed to address fears about potential job losses in Australia.
Presents a brief summary of RP-CHINA Agreements, the legal objections and the Legal Remedies available.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union's analysis of a potential free trade agreement between Australia and China predicts around 170,000 job losses in manufacturing if the agreement goes ahead. Since implementing previous agreements with the US, Thailand and Singapore, AMWU says an estimated 26,000 jobs have been lost as a result, almost all in the manufacturing sector.
South Korea will quickly decide whether or not to launch negotiations for free trade agreements (FTA) with China, Australia and Gulf states, the nation's top economic policymaker said Wednesday.
India and China together represent the "new global economic architecture" Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said on Tuesday. But India and China themselves are often embroiled in fractious trade disputes.
South Korea has been reluctant to rush into an FTA with China amid fears that cheap food could flood the domestic market. But South Korean officials said they would now consider starting free trade talks with China, after Seoul and Washington sealed a trade agreement last week.
Korea and China are moving swiftly toward negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement. China's courtship of Korea has intensified since Seoul clinched an FTA with the US last Monday, with Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao expressing hope last Thursday that an FTA between Beijing and Seoul can be concluded
as soon possible".
"I will lead a large business delegation to China in June, and will try to give support so that China opens negotiations with Switzerland," Leuthard told the Neue Zuercher Zeitung am Sonntag newspaper in an interview.
