BEACON

The Canadian Minister of International Trade, Stockwell Day has declared the FTA with the members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland would come into force from July 1 this year. The first ever FTA and associated Bilateral Agricultural Agreements were signed between both parties at the side lines of [...]

At a meeting at Luxembourg today, the foreign ministers of the EU will review whether the three year old sanctions imposed on Myanmar (Burma) to be extended or not. Though there are other key issues to be discussed including the political crisis in Moldova, ties with Russia and the Croatia’s EU integration, Myanmar seemed to [...]

Mounting pressure from the Indian government has forced Egypt to call off the ‘precautionary fee’ of 25 percent of CIF value imposed in January this year on Indian cotton yarn, fabric and sugar. This tariff was in addition to 5 percent import duty on cotton and mixed yarn and 10 percent import duty on cotton [...]

A South Korean Parliamentary Committee has ratified the FTA with the US in an effort to get it tabled in the parliament for the final vote. The draft will be sent to the plenary session of the parliament that is scheduled to be held on 29 and 30 of this month.
The chairman of the National [...]

International Trade Centre (ITC) specialists and trade law experts from 51 nations will converge at Geneva this week to give finishing touches to the model contracts for trade deals. The model contracts are developed to help small businesses especially from developing countries to accomplish trade deals by bypassing complicated trade formalities.
According to the ITC press [...]

The much anticipated early recovery of the Middle East and many other Asian economies including China and India by the end of this year are likely to inundate these markets with overseas investments. The revival of these economies will attract many companies from Europe and North America with cash reserves to invest in these countries [...]

The President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev in his four-day visit to China had talks with the Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao, and witnessed the formalities of signing ten new pacts between both countries. The deals include co-operation in the fields of transport, agriculture, tele-communications, culture, education, health, tourism and sports.
Both countries have maintained steady link with [...]

The home state of the US President Barack Obama became a stage for angry protests after a retired steel worker discovered ‘Made in India’ etched on stacked pipes in train carriers to the Granite City, the steel town of Illinois. One of the protesters said the cheap Indian steel pipes had replaced the American ones, [...]

The President of Venezuela, Hugo Chávez and his Columbian peer, Alvaro Uribe have signed five agreements during a brief one day visit by the latter to Caracas. The signed deals include Colombia providing electricity from Puerto Iniria to Venezuela’s San Fernando de Atabapo. Besides, they have also inked other pacts such as granting of license [...]

According to the Middle East oil experts, the current crude prices in the realm of $50/barrel will help GCC to avoid a potential budget deficit as announced by the latest bulletin of the Emirates Industrial Bank (EIB). The bulletin has stated that GCC nations would suffer from a deficit in their budgets this fiscal for [...]