

Australia
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16-Sep-2012
As the China FTA stagnates, Ted Baillieu gets on with business
At first blush, it looks like a suicide mission - taking hundreds of businesspeople to China for a big encounter with a one-party state, just weeks before that one party is to stage a 10-yearly leadership transition that will cascade down through every significant job in the country.
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11-Sep-2012
Big Tobacco warning at free-trade talks
Delegates attending trans-Pacific free-trade negotiations in the United States are being warned their countries could end up like Australia if they agree to allow corporations to sue governments in international courts.
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3-Sep-2012 Les Echos
L’Asean annonce des progrès vers une zone de libre-échange en Asie
Seize pays d’Asie, comptant pour la moitié de la population mondiale environ, ont conclu un accord de principe pour créer une zone de libre-échange, a annoncé vendredi Surin Pitsuwan, le secrétaire-général de l’ASEAN, l’association des nations d’Asie du Sud-Est.
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31-Aug-2012
Pan-Asian FTA possible
Sixteen nations home to roughly half the world’s population have agreed "in principle" to create a free trade area spanning Asia, according to Asean secretary-general Surin Pitsuwan.
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29-Aug-2012 Reuters
Australia scraps carbon floor price, agrees EU link
Australia and the European Commission on Tuesday agreed to link their carbon trading schemes by 2018, allowing Australian companies to buy cheaper EU carbon credits and providing a much-needed boost for the flagging European market.
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29-Aug-2012 La Tribune
Les quotas de carbone vont "voyager" entre l’Europe et l’Australie
Les ministres européen et australien en charge du climat ont annoncé ce mardi 28 août leur projet de lier leurs systèmes d’échange de quotas de carbone d’ici à 2018. Une première qui pourrait être suivie d’autres alliances, comme l’espèrent les experts de la lutte contre le changement climatique.
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15-Aug-2012
Australia upholds tobacco branding ban
Australia’s High Court has rejected a challenge by the world’s biggest tobacco companies which are seeking to overturn a law requiring cigarettes to be sold in plain packaging from the start of December.
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15-Aug-2012
Fair trade group condemns big tobacco’s use of trade agreements to continue plain packaging fight after High Court defeat
“We welcome the High Court decision as a vindication of the Government’s right to regulate tobacco as an addictive substance that still kills 15,000 Australians per year,” Dr Patricia Ranald, Convener of the Australian Fair Trade and Investment Network, said today.
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13-Aug-2012
Business demands sovereign risk protection in FTAs
The Gillard government’s refusal to reconsider its decision not to demand sovereign risk protection for Australian companies in free-trade agreements has been met with loud objections from leading business groups who say such provisions are vital to international trade, according to The Australian Financial Review.
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13-Aug-2012 Tax News
Australian business leaders launch trade agreement campaign
Members of the Australian business community have launched a campaign for trade agreements to include provisions to allow private companies to sue foreign governments for breach of contract or property rights.
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29-Jul-2012
Abbott’s Chinese dance
Tony Abbott’s speech in China is interesting on a number of levels. Since May, the Opposition leader has been executing a positive pivot on the Asian Century. This transition has left Mr Abbott more comfortable conceptually than he was last October about a bilateral free trade deal between Canberra and Beijing.
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26-Jul-2012 Stock & Land
FTA ’can’t be relaxed’ for China
China has been pushing to accelerate negotiations on an FTA with Australia, and has recently indicated it would want more liberal rules to apply to state-owned enterprises.
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28-Jun-2012 Adelaide Now
SA Government signs trade agreement with China
The South Australian Government has signed a trade and economic cooperation agreement with China in a bid to grow exports.
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1-Jun-2012
Ensuring Free Trade Agreements don’t impede access to HIV treatments
The UN’s top agency for HIV-AIDS has warned that million of lives could be at risk, if intellectual property and other trade agreements impede access to treatment.
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1-Jun-2012
Craig Emerson certain FTA deal with Japan is close
Momentum and political will on sealing the long-awaited free trade agreement with Australia are building in Japan, Trade Minister Craig Emerson said yesterday.
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22-May-2012
Free trade agreement with Malaysia opens up education, telco sectors
Malaysia and Australia signed a free trade agreement that will allow Malaysia to export all goods duty-free into Australia once the deal comes into force on January 1, 2013.
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21-May-2012 El Espectador
Australia firmará TLC con Malasia y espera hacerlo con Colombia y México
Australia firmará esta semana un tratado de libre comercio con Malasia, que según indicó este lunes un ministro australiano facilitará la negociación de acuerdos similares con China, Corea del Sur y Japón, además de atraer a otros socios potenciales como Colombia o México.
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21-May-2012
In the dark on trade deal
At 11.30 this morning, Kuala Lumpur time, Trade Minister Craig Emerson and his Malaysian counterpart will sign a free trade agreement that promises "a new chapter" in the Australia-Malaysia relationship.
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20-May-2012
Trade win with Malaysia spurs regional talks
Labor hopes a breakthrough free trade agreement to be signed with Malaysia tomorrow - giving Australian companies unprecedented access to Asia’s eighth-biggest economy - will provide momentum to negotiations on other bilateral deals across the Pacific region.
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14-May-2012
FTA with China is on track, says Carr
Foreign Minister Bob Carr wants to "broaden and deepen" Australia’s relationship with China in the face of growing international competition.