That is especially bad news for Mercosur, an agricultural superpower, which is one of the few areas in the region not actively negotiating a bilateral trade agreement with the United States.
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Meanwhile, two-way trade between India and Sri Lanka, which signed a bilateral free-trade agreement in 1999, is ballooning.
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Trade between the countries has been growing ever since they reached a bilateral free-trade agreement five years ago.
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One result has been that Australia is now the only major economy to have a bilateral free-trade agreement with America while also actively discussing one with China.
Advancing the Soviet demand for a full-blown bilateral Trade Agreement to be consummated at the upcoming 1990 summit between Presidents Bush and Gorbachev.
And he has also said that if the Doha trade talks can't be restarted consideration should be given to a bilateral India-EU free-trade agreement.
Those who urge that a global World Trade Organization agreement is preferable to a series of bilateral and multilateral pacts ignore the WTO's very limited progress towards creating global free trade.
Although he has spoken in support of free trade in the past (and voted for NAFTA), his more recent record includes "no" votes on the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and a number of bilateral free trade agreements.
The origins of the dispute lie in America's decision, at Boeing's prompting, to withdraw in 2004 from a 12-year-old bilateral agreement with Europe governing trade in large civil aircraft.
America is pursuing a regional trade agreement for the Americas, has signed bilateral deals with Chile and Singapore, has begun bilateral talks with 14 other countries, and promises many more.
On its own, Singapore has just concluded a free-trade agreement with New Zealand and now has Australia (New Zealand's existing bilateral partner) and India in its sights.
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