Philippine conglomerates undertake a number of big projects requiring concessions, licensing and permits.

CNN: Is She Ready to Rule?

It has also put forward a list of 14 big items, from trade concessions to visa-free travel, that it wants brought into the negotiations.

ECONOMIST: Russia and the European Union

And when Mr Barak's otherwise big concessions stopped short of yielding Palestinian sovereignty over Jerusalem's Haram al-Sharif, where the great mosques stand, Arafat got the pretext he needed.

ECONOMIST: America and the Middle East

That was used by the governor of Okinawa to prise considerable concessions from America, including the return of the big Futenma air station.

ECONOMIST: Japan

That may well be in part because the government wants a bit of wriggle room to get its legislation through the House of Lords without setting itself a tight deadline, which could give opponents of its various big bills some extra leverage with which to extract concessions.

BBC: The year ahead in Parliament

Ron Gettelfinger, the president of the United Auto Workers union, got his members to accept two-tier wages and big concessions on the health-care and retirement plans.

WSJ: The Auto Makers Are Already Bankrupt

Although poor countries did not get the immediate concessions on textiles that they had been demanding, the Doha round offers the prospect of big long-term gains.

ECONOMIST: The Doha round

As a result neither were prepared to make the hefty concessions that could possibly convince the presidential task-force that the pair were deserving of big supplies of emergency cash.

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