Consumers in India and the European Union can hope for mutual imports of goods and services at significantly lower duties, as the two sides have intensified talks to reach a free trade agreement within this year. In a meeting with Ireland Minister for Enterprise, Jobs and Innovation Richard Bruton Ireland here, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said both EU and India are "committed to a balanced and ambitious agreement" within this year.

The bilateral trade between India and Japan would be hit in the first quarter of the current fiscal due to massive destruction caused by an earthquake and tsunami that hit the Land of the Rising Sun, last month. "The real impact would be seen in April-June this fiscal on account of less demand owing to earthquake and tsunami in Japan," Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) Director General Ajay Sahai said.

VNEconomyNews.com - Vietnam will raise taxes on some imported commodities in order to curb inflation. The Ministry of Finance plans to raise import duty on some commodities from around 5-10 percent. These commodities are not essential import items. Duty on items like printing machines will rise by 5 % from 0%, tobacco will rise to 50 % and band magnetic for making films will rise to 15% from 10%.

SEOUL (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday the Obama administration was committed to passing a long-delayed free trade agreement with South Korea, and that the pact was ready for review by Congress. "I want to state as strongly as I can how committed the Obama Administration is to passing the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement this year," she told a gathering of business leaders in Seoul during a whirlwind trip through South Korea and Japan. April 16th, 2011 Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Nearly a decade worth of work to reach a world trade deal is on the verge of "failure," World Trade Organization Director General Pascal Lamy said on Saturday in a plea for countries to rise above their own narrow interests for the good of the global economy. "The WTO system is in grave risk of not being able to conclude a round started almost 10 years ago," Lamy told members of the International Monetary Fund just a few months after Group of 20 leaders urged negotiators to strike a deal by the end of this year in the long-running talks.

BOAO, Hainan, April 16 (Xinhua) -- China said Saturday that it hoped to see equal opening-up within the World Trade Organization. "Before China further opens up some sectors, we hope to get in return equal opening-up within the WTO, and some developed countries in particular can open corresponding sectors," said Chen Deming, China's commerce minister, at the Boao Forum for Asia annual meeting running from April 14 to 16 in the southern island province of Hainan. "Such opening-up should be established in mutual-benefit and win-win basis," Chen said.

(Reuters) - The Obama administration is making a big push to get Russia into the World Trade Organization by the end of the year and to persuade Congress to approve permanent normal trade relations with the former Cold War enemy, a top White House official said on Friday. "It's not a gift to Russia. We think it's in our national interest," White House national security official Michael McFaul said in a speech at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) -- China will prolong its anti-dumping probe into imports of caprolactam, a widely used synthetic polymer, from the European Union and the United States, for six months, said the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Friday. The probe then will end on Oct. 22, 2011, half a year later from the previous deadline of April 22, said a statement on the MOC website. The postponement was made because the case was relatively "special" and "complicated," said the statement.

HANOI, April 14 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam and Slovakia have many opportunities to promote cooperation in trade and investment, said Vietnamese State President Nguyen Minh Triet during a reception held here Thursday for the visiting Slovakian Economy Minister Juraj Miskov. Both sides have potentials in many fields for expanding cooperation, so the two governments' policies should be transformed into practical cooperative results, the president said.

The European Union has exuded confidence that negotiations for the proposed free trade agreement between the 27-nation block and India would be concluded by the end of this year. European Union's Ambassador to India Daniele Smadja has said that the negotiations for the proposed Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) are on track. "What is clear is that there is a will on both sides to finish the negotiations this year. My impression is that they are on track," Smadja told EurActiv, an European website, in an interview.