Sierra Mike
12-14-2002, 02:34 PM
I'm all for it, especially if they start importing the Sarong Party Girls.
The proposed U.S.-Singapore free-trade agreement expected to be finalized early in the new year will be the first such accord between Washington and an Asian country. But if the U.S. administration gets its way it won't be the last.
"This is in part a building block for trade deals that the U.S. wants to secure in the region," says Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics in Washington. "Hopefully the negotiators will have developed useful models of rights and obligations that can inform future trade agreements."
Indeed, with World Trade Organization talks proceeding at a snail's pace and both China and Japan offering free-trade agreements to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Washington has decided to dabble in a little trade diplomacy of its own. In late October, President George W. Bush unveiled the Enterprise for Asean Initiative to promote closer trade ties with countries in the region.
Read all about it at: Trade Deal Could Be First of Many... (http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0212_19/p022region.html) (registration required)
SM
The proposed U.S.-Singapore free-trade agreement expected to be finalized early in the new year will be the first such accord between Washington and an Asian country. But if the U.S. administration gets its way it won't be the last.
"This is in part a building block for trade deals that the U.S. wants to secure in the region," says Jeffrey Schott, a senior fellow at the Institute for International Economics in Washington. "Hopefully the negotiators will have developed useful models of rights and obligations that can inform future trade agreements."
Indeed, with World Trade Organization talks proceeding at a snail's pace and both China and Japan offering free-trade agreements to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Washington has decided to dabble in a little trade diplomacy of its own. In late October, President George W. Bush unveiled the Enterprise for Asean Initiative to promote closer trade ties with countries in the region.
Read all about it at: Trade Deal Could Be First of Many... (http://www.feer.com/articles/2002/0212_19/p022region.html) (registration required)
SM