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Mwanakatwe joins other African ministers for pre- Continental Free Trade Area launch in Ethiopia
18-May-2015
Commerce, Trade and Industry Minister , Margaret Mwanakatwe joined other African Union Ministers of Trade, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia for a high level meeting convened by the African Union to prepare for the launch of negotiations for the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA).
Renegotiating the bite of our BITs
18-May-2015 Jakarta Post
Apart from its network of BITs, Indonesia is also a party to a number of multilateral and regional investment agreements such as the ASEAN Comprehensive Investment Agreement which also contain an ISDS clause, including recourse to ICSID arbitration.
More Dirty Little TPPA Secrets
18-May-2015 Foreign Control Watchdog
Imagine Trade Minister Tim Groser gets to the meeting of ministers to do the final horse-trading for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (now slated to happen in late May 2015), plays his final hand and signs away our future for a carton of milk powder. He will know that’s not really the end game: a final deal is not a final deal until the US Congress says so. The US has two more aces in its hand.
Canada just threw a grenade into Elizabeth Warren’s trade fight with Obama
17-May-2015 Huffington Post
Last week, Canadian Finance Minister Joe Oliver gave a speech in New York arguing that the Volcker Rule — a key tenet of the US’ 2010 banking law — violates the North American Free Trade Agreement. This underscores Senator Warren’s warning that such deals, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Obama is currently negotiating, jeopardize financial reform.
SL-China FTA to allow skilled workers here
17-May-2015
A storm is brewing over renewed negotiation of the proposed Indo-Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi threw the ball in the Sri Lankan court saying India was interested in finalising this agreement.
Chief negotiators resume TPP talks in Guam
17-May-2015 Kyodo
Chief negotiators from 12 countries resumed talks Saturday in Guam on a US-led Pacific free trade initiative, to be capped by ministerial-level talks from May 26 to 28.
Impacts of the US-Colombia FTA in the farm sector: The portraits
17-May-2015 La Silla Rural
A new book “puts faces” on the realities rural people are experiencing two years into the US-Colombia FTA.
Impacts of the US-Colombia FTA in the farm sector
17-May-2015 Biodiversidad en América Latina
This report looking at specific cases that reflect the farming reality of Colombia allows us to verify what happened with the promises around the US FTA and open a broad debate about it.
ECOWAS ministers dialogue on EPAs, common external tariff in Accra
16-May-2015
The 74th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers for sub-regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), opened here on Friday to discuss among other things the memorandum relating the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) .
ECOWAS urged to strengthen efforts to economic integration
16-May-2015
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms Hannah Tetteh, has urged the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to strengthen its efforts to promote regional economic integration and harmonise trade policies.
Eurasian union okays free trade with Iran
16-May-2015
The Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) has given the initial go-ahead to signing a free trade agreement with Iran, a senior official of the bloc has said.
More than 1,000 plaintiffs file lawsuit to keep Japan out of TPP
15-May-2015 Japan Times
More than 1,000 people filed a lawsuit against the government on Friday, seeking to halt Japan’s involvement in 12-country talks on a Pacific Rim free trade agreement, which they called “unconstitutional.”
Reject TPP dispute settlement: ALP
15-May-2015
Labor has called on the federal government to follow the example of the Howard years and oppose the inclusion of a controversial dispute-settlement provision in trade talks with the US.
Diet OKs trade agreement with Mongolia
15-May-2015
The Diet approved an economic partnership agreement with Mongolia on Friday.
Singapore breaks new ground as arbitration hub
15-May-2015
The International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes hears its first case outside of US, France
First hearing opens over Lone Star asset sell-offs in Korea
15-May-2015
An international tribunal began hearing a multi-billion dollar case Friday that the US private equity firm Lone Star filed against South Korea’s government over tax and other disputes surrounding its asset sell-offs in Korea.
Against the Trans-Pacific Partnership
15-May-2015 Jacobin Magazine
Opponents of the trade deal being secretly negotiated between the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam have moved the discussion beyond its putative impact on jobs and growth and closer to the agreement’s broader ramifications, writes the IUF’s Peter Rossman.
US Senate poised to breathe new life into Obama’s trade agenda
14-May-2015 Reuters
After blocking it Tuesday, enough Democrats are expected to support consideration of Obama’s "fast-track" trade negotiating authority today, having won the scheduling of a separate vote on a bill punishing countries that unfairly manipulate their currencies to keep their exports cheap.
Amul raises alarm over dumping of dairy products through FTA
14-May-2015 Hindu Business Line
The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation says that the EU, Australia and New Zealand are lobbying hard for access to India’s dairy market through bilateral Free Trade Agreements in order to dump their surplus stocks of dairy commodities.
UN blasts EU for backing global deal for ISDS, but not for country bailouts
14-May-2015 EurActiv
Richard Kozul-Wright, director at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), said support for investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) but not for state-investor was “incongruous”.