ISDS Case Map
EU
European Union
Policymakers from Asean and the European Union are expected to receive a feasibility study on the free-trade agreement between the two blocs in April, according to an EU trade official.
The proposed Euro-Mediterranean Free Trade Area (EMFTA), due to be established in 2010, might only generate slight net gains in regional economic welfare, but significant social and environmental costs in the Arab nations and Turkey, as well as extensive dislocations in south European agriculture.
Chief negotiators from the six Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions that are fashioning the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union met in London last week to compare notes and review strategies, and emerged saying that they had a better understanding of the way forward.
Ukraine expects to win market-economy status from the European Union in December and plans to start negotiating a free-trade regime with the bloc early next year, Prime Minister Yuriy Yekhanurov said.
Farmers from across the Caribbean took to the streets of the St Lucian capital, Castries on Friday to picket top European Union negotiators, who were meeting on the island.
The Gulf Cooperation Council and the European Union are very close to striking a free trade agreement as coordination on this issue is in its final stages, an informed diplomatic source close to the process told Kuwait News Agency.
EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson is in St Lucia today to launch the third phase of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations between the European Union and the Caribbean region.
The free trade Economic Partnership Agreements
(EPAs) proposed by the European Union would have a
devastating effect on African, Caribbean and Pacific
(ACP) countries if they go ahead as planned.
Kenya's chances of fighting poverty and growing its economy will be harmed if it signs a new economic agreement with the European Union in 2008, a human rights group said.
As European Union trade chief Peter Mandelson prepares to kick off a new phase of trade negotiations in the Caribbean this week, trade groups are asking the bloc to shelve regional agreements in order to avoid a "development disaster".
