23-09-2009 India’s ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) talks with some European countries have not been made public fearing strong opposition. Experts feel that liberalisation of domestic markets and rigid intellectual property rights regulations will adversely affect small retailers and local businesses.
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07-09-2009 Running into deadlocks for over eight years now, the Doha talks can culminate in a deal if governments show willingness to re-engage. Meeting in the Indian capital last week, trade ministers from WTO member countries called for giving a determined push to the multilateral process.
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30-06-2009 Foreign secretaries of Nepal and Pakistan attached special importance to inking Free Trade Agreement at the earliest at a meeting on Monday in Kathmandu. Both countries have also expressed their desire to further deepen bilateral cooperation in other areas of economy, agriculture, energy, environment and culture.
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30-03-2009 The claim of global recession hitting Sri Lanka’s garment export industry, the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner, is a contested one. With factories closing down, thousands of women have lost jobs and the ones still employed are facing uncertain future.
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27-11-2008 Ahead of the conference on Financing for Development in Doha this weekend, the United Nations Millennium Campaign has called upon rich countries to commit to a more equitable global trade and market access. At the same time, poor countries must mobilise domestic resources towards fighting poverty.
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20-08-2008 Indo-US agriculture deal known as Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture announced three years ago is being used to open up India's agriculture market to American MNCs. US agri-giants Monsanto, Cargill and Archer Daniels Midland now find it inadequate and want a complete overhaul of the sector.
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30-07-2008 After nine days of hectic negotiations at Geneva, the Doha Round of multi-lateral trade talks collapsed once again as India and China remain unrelenting on the US demands for opening markets. The developing countries insist on safeguarding farmers’ livelihoods against emergencies like global food crisis and oil price rise.
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21-04-2008 The new free trade agreements being signed up between rich and poor countries are proving far more damaging to the poor than anything envisaged within WTO talks, Oxfam said in a report
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21-04-2006 Bangladesh has finalised a list of 1,017 products to try to get duty-free market access to the WTO member countries. It was agreed at the last WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong that 97 per cent of products from the least-developed countries (LDCs) would be allowed duty-free access to the markets of WTO member nations.
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