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The first round of negotiations on a free trade agreement between the US and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) is expected to start later this month. According to the UAE News Agency, the agreement "will enable the Middle Eastern country to join the largest and fastest growing consumer market in the world" - an advantage that "will enhance the opportunity of enhancing trade exchange between the two countries," it said…

The World Trade Organization has accepted a request to rule on a European Union complaint against new US legislation abolishing contested corporate tax breaks. The EU's second request for the issue to be considered by a disputes panel that had already examined the previous US system of Foreign Sales Corporations (FSC) was automatically accepted at a recent meeting at the WTO headquarters in Geneva. "The United States has failed to implement the (WTO) Disputes Settlement Body's recommendations and rulings by failing to withdraw without delay schemes found to be prohibited subsidies," the EU said in the petition. Washington has said it is "profoundly disappointed" by the EU's move; and…  

The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) has approved $570 million in financing for four new projects in Mexico - increasing OPIC's support for US investment in Mexico more than ten-fold over previously existing levels, according to a recent OPIC press release. The funds will help support "even more US investment under the auspices of the US-Mexico Partnership for Prosperity," it said. The funding will enable the four new projects in Mexico to "specifically target sectors that drive the Mexican economy - the nascent purchasing power of its youngest generation, and energy infrastructure," said OPIC President and Chief Executive Officer Peter Watson.  He predicted that the success of these projects "will encourage even greater levels of American investment" in Mexico. The Partnership for Prosperity is a joint effort of the public and private sectors initiated by President Bush and Mexican President Vincente Fox in September 2001 to spur economic growth and development in remote regions of Mexico.

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