Australia is urging Japan to further lower its tariffs on beef under the Trans-Pacific Partnership after Tokyo agreed to substantially cut them under a two-way free trade deal struck in April, negotiation sources said Tuesday. Australia, which became the first major farming country to conclude a free trade agreement with Japan, is apparently seeking to maintain its competitiveness in the Japanese beef market against the United States, which is leading the drive behind the 12-member TPP framework.

While Vietnamese exports are facing, or have been subject to, antidumping tariffs in many nations, the Southeast Asian country has, for the first time ever, decided to levy duties on steel imports from four markets to protect domestic steelmakers. The Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade said in a decision on Friday that import duties of up to 37.29 percent will be imposed on cold-rolled stainless steel shipments from China, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Taiwan for materially hurting the domestic steelmaking industry.

HONG KONG — A United States business group said on Monday that China’s recent aggressive enforcement of its antimonopoly law could be a violation of its trade agreements, a claim that potentially raises the stakes in a recent pushback among foreign companies that say they are being discriminated against in China.

Prime Minister John Key expects the US government to put more emphasis on concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership regional trade and investment agreement once it gets past its mid-term Congressional elections in November. Negotiations between the 12 nations, including New Zealand, have stalled with the US and Japan dragging their heels on the deal.

The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop said that she had "reaffirmed, with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Australia's commitment to conclude a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of this year," during the second Australia-China Foreign and Strategic Dialogue in Sydney on September 7. However, following the latest round of negotiations held in Beijing from September 1-5, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), merely called the FTA talks "pragmatic and frank," with "positive and constructive progress" having been made.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s appointment of Koya Nishikawa as the new Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) is a big plus for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Nishikawa is an executive of the so-called ‘agricultural tribe’ (norin zoku) in the ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). While this suggests to some that he will hold out to the last on the issue of opening Japan’s agricultural markets, Nishikawa may not act as expected.

The EFTA States and Malaysia held a second round of negotiations on an Economic Partnership Agreement from 2 to 5 September 2014 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Taiwan and Beijing will this week resume talks on a goods free-trade agreement after negotiations were delayed due to vocal opposition by locals suspicious of closer ties with Beijing, officials said on Sunday. The three-day talks would reopen on Wednesday after being delayed for about five months, including massive protests in Taipei and a weeks-long blockade of parliament by students, but an economics ministry official reached by AFP would not give details.

BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Sunday it would waive anti-dumping measures on rubber imported from Russia, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) beginning Monday. The ministry said it has received no expiry review request from Chinese industries to extend the anti-dumping measures, which expire Sunday, and it would not start an expiry review itself.

HA NOI (VNS) — Russia has lifted a ban on seafood products from three more Vietnamese companies, raising the number of Vietnamese companies allowed to export seafood products to the European country to 10. According to the National Agro-Forestry-Fisheries Quality Assurance Department (NAFIQAD), Russia's Federal Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveilance Service has lifted its ban on the products of Anh Long Company, Seajoco Tan Phu Trung's Seafood Joint Stock Company No.1 and Frozen Factory AGF 9.