U.S., African Countries Discuss Free Trade
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The U.S. trade envoy met Friday with ministers from five southern African countries in hopes of advancing negotiations on the United States' first free-trade agreement in sub-Saharan Africa.
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SYDNEY, Sept. 7 -- President Bush on Friday called on Pacific Rim leaders to support efforts to expand free trade, saying that open markets are a crucial element in strengthening the "forces of freedom and prosperity."
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Foreign ministers from the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meet here Wednesday hoping to move towards a free trade deal between the regions.
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BRUSSELS, May 22 (IPS) - Anti-poverty campaigners have likened trade  negotiations between the European Union (EU) and several regions  in Africa to a boxing match between a schoolboy novice and a  heavyweight champion.
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Top negotiators of the European Union  and the United States will meet on Friday as part of an urgent  push for a breakthrough in long-delayed global free trade  talks, EU and U.S. officials said.
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Israel, Egypt and the United States are to set up four free-trade zones under an agreement to be signed on December 14, which will give certain goods duty-free entry to the American market, according to the office of Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon.
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Military chiefs from the United States and nine African countries have met in Senegal to seek ways to strengthen the battle against terrorism.
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The United States is building a partnership with Africa to pull the continent out of poverty, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday as she lent her support to moves to boost U.S.-African trade.
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High-level officials from Egypt, Israel and the United States signed a three-way trade deal Tuesday that would allow Israeli-Egyptian products duty-free access to the US market, a further step toward launching a broader free trade pact in the Middle East.
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How to tap and protect Africa's natural resources, the continent's role in the world and the information age's impact on African society are pressing themes as a summit of African leaders opens Thursday.
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Possible US help for DR Congo's army will be discussed when the two countries leaders meet in Washington.
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Brazil and the United States are exploring ways to breathe life into moribund talks designed to forge a free-trade region covering the Americas,  senior U.S. and Brazilian officials said Sunday.
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The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is rallying for free trade agreements during its huge&#160;Consumer Electronics Show&#160;this week, saying barrier-free trade with other countries is crucial to the growth of U.S. jobs.Support for free trade isn&#39;t as strong in Washington, D.C., as it has been in past years, with several presidential candidates expressing concerns about free trade agreements, Gary Shapiro, the group&#39;s chief executive, said at a CES press conference on Monday.Free trade is &quot;something we&#39;ve taken for granted as an industry,&quot; Shapiro said. &quot;For the first time in my career, I am concerned about the future of free trade ... primarily because in Congress, on television, and with some of our presidential candidates, free trade is not a given.&quot;Shapiro, who has given his personal support to Republican Mitt Romney&#39;s presidential campaign, declined to single out presidential candidates who he saw as antitrade, but leading Democrats Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama have all expressed concerns about free trade agreements, often because of environmental concerns. Mike Huckabee, winner of the Iowa presidential caucuses on the Republican side, said in an October debate that the U.S. doesn&#39;t have fair trade with other countries because &quot;an American company is having to pay an extraordinarily high tax on everything they produce, but the countries who are exporting to us don&#39;t have the same border adjustability that we do.&quot;But Shapiro and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said Monday that free trade agreements are critically important to the consumer electronics and IT industries.&quot;This is real money for real people in the United States,&quot; Schwab said during the CEA press conference from Las Vegas. &quot;If there were ever a sector of the economy, if there were ever an industry, where you see the very, very clear converging of the benefits of free trade, of free markets and of the protection of intellectual property, this is it.&quot;Shapiro and Schwab called on Congress to approve free trade agreements that are pending with Columbia, Panama and South Korea. Including a trade agreement with Peru approved by Congress in December, those four countries represent about 124 million consumers, Schwab said.One reporter asked why U.S. residents should support free trade when they see friends or relatives losing jobs to workers in other countries, imported toys containing chemicals that harm children, or pet food that kills dogs and cats.Free trade can cause problems for a small number of workers, but many more U.S. workers have jobs because of free trade, Shapiro said. Free markets have &quot;temporary dislocations,&quot; but in the long term, countries cannot protect individual jobs in a global economy, he said. &quot;A great country doesn&#39;t put up walls,&quot; Shapiro added.Schwab said her office is working hard to crack down on imports of dangerous products. &quot;Our responsibility as a government is, first and foremost, the health and safety of our citizens,&quot; she said.
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US and South Korean negotiators have resolved some minor differences as they prepare to wrap up free trade talks ahead of a looming end-month deadline, officials said Monday.
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KHARTOUM, Dec 8 (IPS) - Leaders of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP)  Group of States wrapped up their fifth summit Friday in the  Sudanese capital, Khartoum -- this after two days of debate over  trade relations between the ACP, a 79-member grouping that  includes some of the world's poorest nations -- and the  European Union (EU).
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Asia-Pacific leaders attending the annual summit in Santiago this week are being asked to consider establishing a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).
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The United States hailed on Tuesday its partial free trade deal with Israel and Egypt as &quot;a very important development.&quot;.