ISDS Case Map
US
Botswana's Ministry of Trade and Industry will host a meeting of the Southern African Customs Union and United States (SACU/US) Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations this week in Gaborone.
On July 3-9, 2005, a bipartisan delegation of Members of the Committee on
Ways and Means of the US House of Representatives traveled to Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru regarding the ongoing negotiations for a free trade agreement with
the countries and to discuss investment and security issues in the region.
"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.
Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed ibn Mubarak Al-Khalifa confirmed Friday that Bahrain officially has ended its boycott of Israeli goods in favor of the United States' Free Trade Agreement.
South Korea will seriously consider resolving trade issues with the United States that are dampening efforts to forge a free-trade agreement, South Korean Deputy Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo said Friday.
Instead of heeding the wave of social opposition, the United States has dug into its trenches, and in economic policy those trenches are the bilateral trade agreements.
Colombia and Peru say 85 percent of the FTA is already negotiated, but representatives from Andean agricultural unions say the other 15 percent is more important. The US ultimatum states the FTA should be signed at the latest on November 20.
Peruvian National Farming Convention (COVENAGRO) chair Luis Zuñiga asserted that his government does not provide protection alternatives to the sector's workers, faced with an eventual Free Trade Agreement with the United States.
Colombia's government on Friday praised the latest round of talks on establishing a free trade area that would also include the US, Ecuador and Peru, saying a final deal could be reached by November.
Speculation is that negotiations for a US-Andean FTA are nearing completion. House Ag Committee ranking member Collin Peterson of Minnesota says Administration officials may be making similar mistakes to those made in CAFTA.
