The New Zealand and Chinese governments have signed an upgrade to the free trade agreement between the two countries.

On 22 January, at a meeting of the Negotiating Group on Rules, heads of WTO delegations said they were committed to keeping up the momentum in the fisheries subsidies negotiations and they welcomed the second revision of the draft consolidated document circulated on 18 December by the chair, Ambassador Santiago Wills of Colombia.

Negotiations on the Australia–India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement (CECA) are set to restart after being suspended in 2015. Australia’s new Minister for Trade Dan Tehan has flagged that a trade deal with India will be one of his top priorities.

Global services trade in the third quarter of 2020 fell 24% compared to the same period in 2019, according to statistics released by the WTO on 26 January. This represents only a small uptick from the 30% year-on-year decline registered in the second quarter, in marked contrast to the much stronger rebound in goods trade.

Vietnam experienced major difficulties in 2020 due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, but nonetheless fulfilled the dual task of fighting the disease and maintaining a stable environment for socioeconomic development.

The European Union (EU) yesterday called on the Sri Lankan Government to notify its import restrictions to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) stressing that open and fair trade requires a level playing field, something which has not been the case as a result of the limits in place since April 2020.

Following the implementation of several bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements (FTAs), along with a number of impending FTAs, Vietnamese products have enjoyed a number of comparative advantages when gaining entry into demanding markets, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT).

In its latest "Asia Economics Quarterly" report, the Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) said Vietnam posted the fastest growth in Asia in 2020 and will once again be among the star performers in the region in 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic has made many aware of the vulnerability of supply chains, giving an upper hand to China, which manufactures crucial medical and other products for Japan and much of the world.

South Korea posted a trade surplus of more than US$60 billion with its free trade agreement (FTA) partners last year amid the pandemic, data showed Tuesday.