ISDS Case Map
geopolitics
Bahrain's parliament yesterday rejected a decision by the government to lift a ban on Israeli goods as part of a trade deal with the United States.
Australia's support of the US in Iraq could help local companies crack the huge US government contract market, an American consultant on the US-Australia FTA says.
Oman came to the closing stages of its Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations with the US on October 3, after talks on the final details closed successfully. Omani and US officials say the final signing should now take place early in 2006.
Business giants in the US are backing the Free Trade Agreement with Bahrain as it comes under scrutiny in hearings at the Senate and House of Representatives in Washington.
Reports have circulated that Kuwait will lift its embargo on Israel, but they remain unconfirmed. The Kuwaiti daily Al Qabas noted that Kuwait had not yet signed a free-trade agreement with the United States. Such an agreement would not permit a trade embargo on Israel.
Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian made a pitch for the signing of a free trade agreement with Honduras during a state banquet host by him for visiting Honduras President Ricardo Maduro yesterday.
The decision to lift boycott of Israel in line with the US FTA does not entail any economic, cultural, political, diplomatic or any other form of normalisation, Bahrain's Foreign Minister said.
Nineteen societies and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have rapped moves to normalise relations with Israel and called for joint national and regional efforts to abort the US-initiated Broader Middle East project.
US Democrats pressed Bahrain on Thursday to change its labor laws before an expected vote in Congress this year on a bilateral free trade pact with the tiny kingdom known as the Gulf's banking hub.
"We have been repeatedly told by officials that the free trade agreement [FTA] signed with the US did not include an article on allowing Israeli goods into Bahrain, but we see that the situation has changed now," Al Mouawda said.
