South Korea's trade ministry vowed Tuesday to make more progress in expanding trade pacts with counterparts from Central and South America this year, in line with its efforts to diversify its export portfolio amid the growing protectionism around the globe.

President Donald Trump’s administration on Friday said Vietnam’s actions to push down the value of its currency are “unreasonable” and restrict U.S. commerce, but did not impose punitive tariffs.

Vietnamese enterprises should be well-prepared to enhance shipments to the UK, particularly after the UK-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement took effect on December 31, 2020, according to insiders.

The EU and the incoming administration of US President-elect Joe Biden should suspend a trade dispute to give themselves time to find common ground, France’s foreign minister said in remarks published on Sunday.

Although the world market is forecast to have many unpredictable developments, the Ministry of Industry and Trade has set a target for export turnover to increase by about 4-5% compared to 2020, maintaining the momentum of trade surplus.

The cost to hire shipping containers has skyrocketed to nearly ten times its pre-pandemic level, according to export businesses and trade agencies.

Many economists have said the Vietnamese economy is set to speed up this year.

When President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated next week, he will quickly move to transform most dimensions of United States (US) policy. A glaring exception is China. But if Biden maintains outgoing President Donald Trump’s confrontational approach to the world’s second-largest economy, he will come to regret it.

China will complete the necessary domestic approval procedures for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement within six months, the Ministry of Commerce said.

China’s economy picked up speed in the fourth quarter, with growth beating expectations as it ended a rough coronavirus-striken 2020 in remarkably good shape and remained poised to expand further this year even as the global pandemic raged unabated.