MEXICO CITY—Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo said Wednesday that Mexico is seeking a negotiated settlement to a dispute over Mexican sugar exports to the U.S., but that failure to reach an accord could lead Mexico to take the case to the World Trade Organization. The U.S. government in August imposed preliminary tariffs on Mexican sugar importsfollowing complaints by U.S. sugar growers that the Mexican government subsidizes the domestic industry, allowing Mexico to flood the U.S. market with cheap sugar, harming U.S. producers.

WASHINGTON - The United States and Brazil closed a 12-year-old fight over U.S. cotton subsidies Wednesday, with the U.S. paying $300 million to the Brazilian Cotton Institute to settle the trade battle. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said Brazil had agreed to end its World Trade Organization case against the world's largest cotton exporter, and to not lodge any new actions as long as current U.S. policies remain in place.

U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said he has a large coalition of support ready to back legislation that he says would strengthen existing U.S. trade enforcement rules. Speaking at Byer Steel in Carthage Wednesday, Brown, D-Ohio, said his soon-to-be-introduced Leveling the Playing Field Act would “ensure American companies – like Byer Steel – have the resources necessary to fight back against unfair foreign trade practices.” Byer Steel produces steel reinforcing bar or “rebar,” and structural steel.

(VOV) – The claims by the US Department of Commerce (DOC) were groundless and go against the spirit of trade liberalisation and the fine economic relations between the two countries. Foreign Ministry’s spokesperson Le Hai Binh made the remark while responding to a media question about Vietnam’s reaction to the US imposition of anti-dumping taxes on September 27. Vietnamese shrimp producers have not dumped shrimp on the US market, not doing harm or causing material damage to the US shrimp industry.

There was a complete failure to make any progress regarding the outstanding market access issues between Japan and the United States on the agriculture and automobile sectors, during two days of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) meetings, from September 23-24, between the US Trade Representative (USTR) Michael Froman and Japan's Minister for Economic and Fiscal Policy Akira Amari.

GENEVA: Russia on Friday (Sep 26) blocked a European Union (EU) move to get the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to order Moscow to void Moscow's import duties on vans from Germany and Italy. The wrangling over the vehicle duties is part of a raft of politically-charged trade disputes between the EU and Russia amid the Ukraine crisis.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh today that the United States Department of Commerce imposed anti-dumping for exporters Vietnam shrimp is unfair, goes against the spirit of free trade, relations between the two countries. On 09/27/2014, answering a reporter's question about Vietnam's reaction before the United States anti-dumping duties on shrimp export enterprises in Vietnam, the Spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam Le Hai Binh stated:

HA NOI (VNS)— Viet Nam has earned US$22.7 billion in profits from the export of farming, forestry and seafood products in the first nine months of 2014. The Thoi bao Kinh te Viet Nam (Viet Nam Economic Times) newspaper quoted the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) as saying the profits represented an 11.4-per cent year-on-year increase, with farming products bringing in $12.7 billion or a 9.8 per cent increase; forestry products, $4.41 billion or 13.2 per cent; and seafood products, $5.65 billion or 21.6 per cent.

BRUSSELS -- The European Commission will seek more concessions on nontariff barriers from Japan as part of negotiations toward an economic partnership agreement, focusing on the automotive sector, including a call for Japan to adopt common safety standards for autoparts. The executive arm of the European Union is collecting requests from member states and will convey the matter to the government of Japan as soon as next month, according to EU sources.

(Reuters) - World trade in goods will grow by 3.1 percent this year, much less than the 4.6 percent forecast in April this year, the World Trade Organization said on Tuesday. The WTO said it cut the forecast due to weak economic growth and muted import demand in first half of 2014. It added trade growth in 2015 was likely to be 4.0 percent, rather than the 5.3 percent expected in its previous forecast.Source: Reuters