The Philippines Campaign Network Urges EC to Provide PCA Draft

The EU-Philippines Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) is under some suspicion since the details about the draft was not made available to the EU-ASEAN FTA Campaign Network (CN). According to a press release by the CN, they have urged the European Commission to divulge details about the content of the PCA. CN is a civil society network monitoring trade talks between the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

CN fears that the EU’s aggressive trade model perhaps...

More about this at Trade news section

China Says Trade Probes By India Will Damage Trade Ties

Soon after concluding a meeting between Indian ambassador to China Nirupama Rao and China’s deputy commerce minister Zhong Shan, the Ministry of Commerce of China has expressed that trade probes by India would have a telling effect on bilateral trade। Since October, India is in the process of investigating a slew of Chinese goods, and has restricted imports of Chinese steel, textiles and petrochemicals. Moreover, both strained relations due to the ban imposed on the Chinese toys recently by India for six months which China is planning to approach the WTO for the annulment of the decision.

Besides, the Industry & Commerce Ministry of India has launched...


More about this at Trade news section

The UAE Slashes Its Guidance on Growth Dramatically

According to a latest report, the UAE is expected to grow just by 3 percent from its last year’s performance of six percent. Huge slump in growth of sectors including construction, real estate, IT, hospitality and service industry since last September have factored in for the country to downgrade its projections several times in last couple of months. Similarly, Dubai, one of the emirates of the UAE has also brought down its growth as...

More about this at Trade news section

Indian Envoy Confident About FTA with the EU

Speaking at an event organised by the Belgian think tank Bruegel, India’s ambassador to the EU Jaimini Bhagwati said that he was confident of signing FTA with the EU in the coming months. He further added, the negotiations which began June last year has already completed five rounds and another two more would be held in February and March to finalize the deal. India and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are expected to sign FTA during the ASEAN summit which is planned to be held between February 27 and March 1 2009. The EU and ASEAN began talks with India during the same period last year.

The occasion which marked the release of the study titled “Beyond the WTO? An anatomy of EU and US preferential trade agreements”, Bhagwati remarked that...

More about this at Trade news section

‘Buy American’ Will Trigger Trade Wars - Warns Obama

Barack Obama, the newly elected president of the US echoed the concerns of economists and trade partners across the world while he said ‘buy American’ as part of the clause to the approval of mega Economic Recovery Package (ERP) would spark off trade wars. Obama’s statement came close on heels to the objections from the EU, France, Italy and its other trade partners at a TV interview.

The umbrage followed after the Senate tabled a bill which stipulated the use of the US-made iron and steel in all public-works projects, and plans of extending the same to all manufactured goods. In short, the ‘buy American’ clause in the nearly...

More about this at Trade news section

Columbia and the EU closer to Signing FTA

According to Fernando Cardesa García, Ambassador of the Delegation of the European Commission to Colombia and Ecuador, the bilateral talks with Columbia are expected to start by the second week of February. If things moved as planned, negotiations would conclude in June and some adjustments should be made in September and October, he added in an interview to Columbia’s leading magazine, Semana.

In last December, the European Union (EU) had decided to...

More about this at Trade news section

Turkey’s Imports Continue to Surge against Its Exports

According to Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜIK), Turkey’s imports recorded a growth of 18।7 percent to $201.8bn whereas its exports grew by 23.1 percent to $132bn causing huge trade deficit of $69.8bn in 2008. The financial turmoil in the EU, the largest importer of Turkish goods particularly has contributed in creating such a wide gap in exim trade.

Interestingly, almost half of country’s imports largely came from six countries including Russia, Germany and China। Russia led the import list of Turkey by registering a growth of 33।2 percent to reach $31.1bn, Germany with 6.5 percent at $18.7bn stood second and China followed by $15.6bn with 18.2 percent growth. However, China acquired...

More about this at Trade news section