ISDS Case Map
EU
European Union
As the European Union enters a difficult watershed moment in its internal affairs, Egypt and the partner countries in the EU's ten-year Euro-Mediterranean Partnership ponder their own new administrative spiderweb. The new European Neighborhood Policy was designed to speed up free trade and strengthen human rights and political reforms - but it could pass us over altogether.
National Association of Nigerian Traders has joined forces in the moved to secure about 5 million stakeholder signatures against the endorsement of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between European countries and the Africa Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries.
Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the civil society have called for a shift in the commencement date of Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), from January 2008 to a more appropriate and realistic date. They said this became necessary in view of the apparent unpreparedness of Economic Community of the West African State (ECOWAS), little or lack of public awareness on EPA process and the little involvement of non-state actors.
Owing to slow multilateral trade negotiations, the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) -- two of the world's most important trading blocs -- are moving toward a free trade agreement as a means of boosting two-way trade.
The European Union hopes to reach a free trade agreement with Latin American trade group Mercosur by May 2006. But some Brazilian diplomats said Brazil wishes to delay the signing of the agreement till the end of the Doha round so as to seek more concessions from the EU on issues regarding agricultural products.
The way to counter the momentum of the US bilateral push would be to quickly bring to conclusion the deal between the GCC and the EU and through such a mechanism reinvigorate the multilateral approach to regional relations.
The Prime Minister's Trade and Economic Relationship Committee has decided to go slow on bilateral trade agreements with Washington and Brussels. Even in the limited context of services, the government would rather remain unget-at-able to the two largest trading partners of the country in the medium term. Much less would New Delhi harbour the idea of entering into more comprehensive economic agreements covering trade in goods, investment and financial services with the twosome.
Zambia stands to lose about US$15 million if it maintains its economic partnership agreement with the European Union (EU), Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry Dipak Patel has said.
Looking at the experience of Jordan's pharmaceutical sector, this paper shows that the expected benefits from bilateral agreements between developed and developing countries have been largely overestimated while the costs underestimated.
The Syrian government has taken prominent human rights activists to task for calling on the EU not to sign a billion-dollar trade deal with Damascus due to its poor human rights record.
