A round up of the latest PTA news, all available at bilaterals.org.

Central African preferential trade may soon emerge:

The Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) yesterday held a meeting of its Finance Ministers in Cameroon’s biggest city, Douala, where the fast-tracking of regional integration was on the agenda. Four of the six member countries agreed to move on with a plan to create a free trade zone in the region, while Gabon and Equatorial Guinea asked CEMAC to await further discussions at home before joining the programme, at earliest in June.

South Korea is stubbornly protecting its agricultural markets in FTA talks with the US:

South Korea and the United States made no headway in high-level talks to resolve outstanding agricultural issues that have been a sticking point in bilateral free trade negotiations, the government said Tuesday… “Negotiators wrangled over market liberalization for ’sensitive’ South Korean agricultural produces, but were unable to reach any clear cut conclusions,” the official said. He did not elaborate on details, but Seoul said items like rice must be put on the sensitive items list even if a FTA is signed.

The EU’s tariff preferences for ACP countries are at risk:

EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson reiterated the EU threat at a meeting last week that the ACP countries would lose their preferential access to EU markets if Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) were not signed by the end of the year… The 79 ACP countries in six regions (the Caribbean, four African regions and the Pacific) seem divided on the urgency of an agreement.