bilaterals.org logo
bilaterals.org logo
  1. Negotiations

Asia & Pacific


Bilateral deal-making involving governments of Asia and the Pacific region.

Shaukat for setting up ECO free trade area
9-May-2006     Business Recorder
Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Friday called for the establishment of an ECO free trade area and intra-regional oil and gas pipelines, saying an energy grid could create inter-linkages necessary for making the Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO) more effective.
Korean, Malaysian auto barriers pose trade negotiation challenge
3-May-2006    
Opening up trade in autos poses a major challenge in free-trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with South Korea and Malaysia, experts in the United States say.
ADB set to promote trade liberalization
27-Apr-2006    
Asian Development Bank President Haruhiko Kuroda said the bank would help promote regional trade liberalization as part of the institution's mid- and long-term strategies.
Hopes of US duty-free access fading for Asian countries
26-Apr-2006     Emerging Textiles
The road to US duy-free access could be longer than expected for a series of emerging countries. While Pakistan was recently refused that textiles and apparel benefit from preferential treatment, chances of duty-free access for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka or Cambodia are progressively fading.
Turkey: FTA with Tunisia & Morocco vital for textile sector
26-Apr-2006     Fibre2fashion
Currently, Turkey has inked Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with 19 countries and now, the formation of Mediterranean Basin Free Trade Area, is being added which will improve economic and commercial transactions between the Mediterranean countries.
Change or risk losing market share, New Zealand told
10-Apr-2006    
Asean has told New Zealand, whose big dairy and meat product trade to the regional grouping has slowed in recent years, that it risks losing market share to newer competitors muscling their way into the area unless its exporters turn more creative and move quickly to meet changing regional consumer needs.
Asian FTA would simplify trade rules
10-Apr-2006    
Thai business leaders have welcomed a Japanese proposal to create an East Asian Free Trade zone to integrate economies in the region, but they were sceptical about whether Japan would liberalise its sensitive agricultural sector. If Japan's idea comes true, they said, it would help countries in the region overcome the ''spaghetti bowl'' effect of proliferating bilateral free trade agreements with different trade rules.
US in relentless bid to forge FTA with Southeast Asia
7-Apr-2006     AFP
More than three years after President George W Bush unveiled an initiative to forge free-trade agreements with Southeast Asian nations, a deal aimed at prising open the 500-million-strong regional market remains elusive.
ADB attacks bilateral trade deals
7-Apr-2006     Financial Times
“A lot of these bilateral deals have nothing to do with economics. Instead, they [Asian Development Bank's members] are mostly doing it for diplomatic reasons, including efforts to gain access to natural resources.”
Japanese govt to propose big Asian free-trade zone
4-Apr-2006     AFX
The Japanese government plans to propose the formation of an Asian free-trade zone which could include half the world's population and rival the EU and NAFTA, an official of the trade ministry said.