NEW DELHI: Switzerland today expressed hope that negotiations along with three other countries on broad- based trade and economic partnership agreement with India would resume at the earliest.  European Free Trade Association (EFTA) - comprising Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway - has been in discussions with India for a free trade agreement. 

South Korea said Thursday it will push to conclude free trade agreements (FTA) with China, Vietnam and New Zealand before the year's end. Negotiations for a free trade pact have been underway with each country as South Korea seeks to expand its presence overseas. "In becoming one of the world's top 10 trading nations, the driving force behind our economy was exports," Prime Minister Chung Hong-won said as he presided over a government policy meeting. 

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Wednesday he hopes to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the upcoming Asia-Europe summit. “I would like to create the opportunity for talks with President Putin,” Abe told reporters before leaving for the multilateral summit in Milan. A Kremlin official said last week that a bilateral meeting at ASEM was possible. Abe and Putin are already expected to have talks on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit next month in Beijing.

Five east African nations have reached a deal with the European Union to renew a duty-free export regime for fresh fruit, vegetables and flowers they sell to the 28-nation bloc, representatives from both sides said on Wednesday. The deal, which is expected to take effect early next year, came after earlier negotiations failed to meet a Sept. 30 deadline, which means the five countries' horticulture exports have been subject to EU customs duty since Oct. 1.

Launched as a political bloc and security pact in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, ASEAN has evolved to embrace an ambitious economic agenda. Its latest project is to establish the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) by 31 December 2015. But is this likely? The blueprint for achieving the goal envisages the AEC standing on four pillars and meeting the deadline depends on progress on each of them.

GENEVA (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization will not rule on a legal challenge to Australia's landmark tobacco packaging laws until at least the first half of 2016, the panel of judges said on Tuesday, a delay that could slow anti-tobacco laws elsewhere. Australia's "plain packaging" rules ban colorful logos and are seen by public health advocates as heralding a new era of tobacco control. But Cuba, Indonesia, Honduras, Dominican Republic and Ukraine say the laws are an illegal restriction on trade.

The Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement in in trouble, and one of the reasons is Japan has refused to eliminate agricultural tariffs.  Japan is entirely correct in this.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) on Friday approved anti-dumping and countervailing investigations on imports of boltless steel shelving prepackaged for sale from China, paving the way for the Department of Commerce to set preliminary duties in the months ahead. The trade panel voted in the affirmative that there was a reasonable indication that a U.S. industry was materially injured by imports of these products, the ITC said in a statement.

Oct 10 (Reuters) - Mexico is optimistic it can resolve a dispute with the United States over sugar exports before an impending deadline later this month, Mexico's Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said on Friday. In August, the United States decided to slap import duties as high as 17 percent on Mexican sugar. The decision was a victory for the powerful U.S. sugar industry but a blow to candy and soft drink makers who can expect to pay more for the sweetener.

WASHINGTON, October 10, 2014 — The World Bank Group and the World Trade Organization (WTO) have agreed to enhance their co-operation in assisting developing and least-developed countries to better utilize trade facilitation programs which can help countries reduce trade costs and more fully engage in the global economy.