HA NOI (VNS) — The Viet Nam Association of Seafood Producers and Exporters (Vasep) forecast that the export value of tuna will decrease by 5 per cent this year, bringing in an estimated US$123 million for the second quarter of the year. Vasep predicted a drop in turnover because of a recent sharp decline of the world price of tuna, coming in below $1,000 per tonne. The global increase in tuna production, and the depreciation of the euro and Japanese yen against the US dollar are listed as causes.

PORTLAND, Oregon -- President Obama landed in Portland Thursday evening to press his case for an Asia-Pacific trade deal that he says would boost U.S. exports to 11 nations and strengthen environmental and labor protections for workers abroad. Mr. Obama, headlining a fundraiser in downtown Portland, was greeted by some 200 protesters opposed to that very deal.

May 8- Canada is facing a tough squeeze at talks on a major Pacific trade treaty because the concessions other nations want it to make could cause serious problems for the governing Conservatives in this October's general election. Canada, one of 12 nations aiming to create the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), is under pressure to start dismantling protections for its dairy and poultry industry that keep domestic prices high and make imports expensive.

(Reuters) - Canada risks getting left behind in a 12-nation Pacific trade deal because it has been reluctant to negotiate opening its markets, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said on Thursday. Vilsack also told Reuters that longstanding disagreements with Japan over rice exports would not threaten the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and that the United States and Japan were working toward a compromise.

Matt Salmon, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives said he was pleased with the four-day trip to Vietnam starting from May 4.  At a press conference on the trip in Hanoi on May 7, Salmon, who headed the delegation from the US House of Representatives, expressed his support for the signing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. Of the 12 countries negotiating the TPP, Vietnam could benefit more from the agreement, he added.

Economist Brad Delong blogged a few days ago that it drives him crazy when people analyze trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership in terms of simple trade theory. [A]nalyzing modern trade agreements as if they were primarily Ricardian deals is likely to lead one substantially astray. One has to think, and think deeply, creatively, and subtly, about all the potential general equilibrium effects. One has to work hard to bound their magnitude.

Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Yoon Sang-jick and Vietnam's Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang finalized the free trade pact in the presence of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng in Hanoi on May 5.  According to this latest free trade deal, Korea will lift tariffs on a total of 409 goods while Vietnam will remove tariffs on 272 goods, all occurring in stages over the next 15 years. 

APEC head and former Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard says he thinks the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade deal will be signed soon. The partnership involving 12 countries, including New Zealand and the United States, has been in negotiation for five years. Dr Bollard, who is the executive director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) secretariat in Singapore, said many of the difficult areas under negotiation had been worked through this year. He said people should not be worried about the deal.

Russian Ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on Tuesday that his country had asked the EU to postpone the implementation of the trade part of the Association Agreement with Ukraine until 2017. The Russian ambassador gave the news at a public event in Brussels, Ukrainian newspaper Europeiska Pravda has reported, with reference to the EUobserver publication.

As Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe finished his historic weeklong visit to the United States, in addition to addressing a joint session of Congress and traveling to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston, Prime Minister Abe met with President Obama last Tuesday to advance work toward a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Together, the 12 countries negotiating the TPP, including Japan and the United States, account for 40% of the global economy.