(Reuters) - The European Union is seeking to contain a new complaint that a trade deal with the United States would undermine Europe's protection against dangerous chemicals, eager to avoid another front of resistance to the world's biggest trade accord. More than a year into negotiations, the European Commission, the EU executive, is engaged in a public relations battle to defend plans to deepen the transatlantic trading relationship and create a market of some 800 million people encompassing almost half the world's economy.

(Reuters) - Secrecy about trade negotiations between the United States and Japan is hampering progress on a broader Pacific trade pact, a senior Chilean official said on Friday. Hopes of sealing a deal this year on the ambitious 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are looking dim, largely because of a deadlock between the pact's two biggest economies, the United States and Japan, over how widely Japan will open its doors to farm exports.

HA NOI (VNS)  — The Viet Nam Association Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has filed an appeal before a United States court against anti-dumping duties imposed on Vietnamese shrimp. The Dan Viet (Vietnamese People) online newspaper quoted Truong Dinh Hoe, VASEP general secretary, as saying on Tuesday that the appeal was filed before the US International Commerce Arbitration Court, which earlier issued its final decision on anti-dumping duties imposed on 30 of 32 Vietnamese shrimp exporters to the US.

Mexico's Ministry of Economy has initiated an anti-dumping investigation on hot-rolled coil steel (HRC) imported from Germany, China and France. Mexican steelmakers Altos Hornos de Mexico (Ahmsa) and Ternium have requested that anti-dumping duties be applied to imports of HRC from Germany, China and France at the rates of 27.2 percent, 102.9 percent and 14.4 percent, respectively.

SEOUL, Oct. 2 (Yonhap) -- President Park Geun-hye said Thursday that South Korea and Vietnam agreed to make aggressive efforts to conclude a free trade agreement within this year as the two countries seek to further strengthen their ties. The commitment was reached during a summit between the South Korean president and General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam Nguyen Phu Trong in Seoul. The two sides plan to wrap up the seventh round of negotiations on the free trade deal Thursday.

Trade and Investment Minister Andrew Robb will host a three-day meeting of his counterparts from the 12 countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP) in Sydney from 25 October 2014.  Ministers will work to progress negotiations with an eye to concluding the basic elements of the agreement before the end of the year.  "After more than four years of intense negotiations the conclusion of the world’s largest regional trade agreement is within reach," Mr Robb said.

(Reuters) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not decided whether to appoint U.S.-based economist Arvind Subramanian as the government's chief economic adviser, a senior government source told Reuters, in a delay that may impact policy and budget preparations. Subramanian, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, was informally recommended to the post by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley more than a month ago but Modi still wants to discuss the appointment, the source said.

(Reuters) - The United States and Brazil are close to settling a decade-old trade dispute over cotton subsidies, three Brazilian sources close to the talks told Reuters, in what would be the first concrete step to repair ties hurt by an espionage scandal. Washington is within hours of reaching an agreement with Brazilian cotton producers demanding compensation for cotton subsidies enjoyed by U.S. growers, a senior Brazilian government official said. He asked not to be named because negotiations are ongoing.

Non-tariff barriers have emerged as a hindrance for Bangladesh to enjoy a win-win situation while exporting goods to India though the latter mentioned that it had offered Bangladeshi garment items duty-free access to its market, said State Minister for Jute and Textiles Mirza Azam.Bangladesh has exported goods worth $564 million in the fiscal year 2012-2013 while the amount was $230 million during the June-January period of 2013-2014 fiscal, registering a decline in Bangladesh's export to Indian market, Azam said calling for removing the non-tariff barriers.

BEIJING, Sept. 29 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced it will begin a review of the nation's imported polyvinyl chloride (PVC) policies as anti-dumping measures are due for renewal. The review comes at the request of domestic PVC companies and seeks to evaluate whether dumping or damages to the domestic industry will recur if the anti-dumping measures were terminated against PVC imports from the United States, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Russia as well as China's Taiwan, the MOC said in a statement Monday.