ISDS Case Map
geopolitics
The elements of a proposal to Iran as approved on 1 June 2006 at the meeting in Vienna of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia, the United States and the European Union, including the commitment to achieve an EU-Iran Trade and Economic Cooperation Agreement on trade and investment.
Free-trade agreements generally set tariffs on beef and commodities and deal with government procurement contracts and labor provisions. But as US Congress prepares to vote on a contentious free-trade accord with Peru, the figure of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is looming large.
The government could give up trying to persuade the U to recognize products from the inter-Korea Kaesong Industrial Complex as made in South Korea in free trade negotiations. “It has become impossible to win Washington's consent about the Kaesong issue because of North Korea's sudden missile launches,” an official here said.
The U.S. Congress is likely to approve a free trade agreement that includes strong foreign policy components with Oman, one of Washington's closest allies in the Middle East, despite protests over the Arab country's record on labour standards, human rights and the environment.
In keeping with the global trend, it is free trade agreement (FTA) talks galore in the Gulf. Apart from a deal with Lebanon, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are collectively and individually negotiating FTAs with the United States, European Union and India at present.
Even as Congress has finally begun a serious debate about whether U.S. troops should be withdrawn from Iraq, another part of President Bush's "war on terror" is advancing with far less public fanfare. Last month, the Senate Finance Committee approved the implementation of the U.S.-Oman Free Trade Agreement and cleared the way for its consideration by Congress.
Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said in Karachi on Sunday that no progress had been made so far with the Indian government on the resolution of Siachen, let alone Kashmir and other vital issues, but he hoped that “outstanding issues will be resolved soon if the dialogue between the two neighbours continues”.
The American-backed FTA is certainly not designed to serve the interest of ordinary Malaysian or American workers (it may well lead to the practice of dumping and out-sourcing instead), but it will invariably open up the Malaysian economy to the rigours and discipline of the global market.
A senior US senator drew clear lines Wednesday on what the Congress will not accept in a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea, including imports from an industrial complex inside North Korea.
Once we confront the flimsiness of the free trade ideal and admit that every deal has varied implications, the sleight of hand that characterizes so-called global free trade might begin to be broken down and something called fair trade might yet emerge.
