TOKYO, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- Japan and the United States on Thursday conclude their talks on opening Japan's auto sector as a part of the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade talks without major progress. Japanese Ambassador in charge of economic diplomacy Takeo Mori said the working-level meeting made no major step forward but advanced the two sides mutual understanding. Local reports said the two countries will continue their bilateral talks related to the TPP but the specific date for the next round of negotiation remains unknown.

The European Union and Vietnam have agreed to push for the completion of a pending free trade agreement (FTA) during meetings between European High Representative Catherine Ashton, and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh. Following the initialing of the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) in June 2012, FTA negotiations were started almost immediately. Ashton said: "Implementation of the PCA will hopefully be complemented soon with an FTA, which will bring our bilateral relations to a new level."

A survey conducted by The Economist Intelligence Unit and sponsored by HSBC, which elicited businesses views on free trade agreements (FTA) in the Asia-Pacific region, found that only seven percent of export businesses made use of all the trade treaties they knew about. While more than 85 percent of respondents across the Asia-Pacific region reported that their exports to the markets concerned increased as a result of the FTAs that they used, the complexity of the agreements themselves was cited as a major barrier to their use by 45 percent of companies.

Heading into the fifth year of intense negotiations (with twenty-odd formal sessions and countless informal side meetings), the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement will almost certainly succeed — or fail — over the next six months. President Obama has set the November APEC leaders’ meeting as his personal deadline for the broad outlines of a deal encompassing and overcoming the major challenges in this purported ‘twenty-first century’ trade pact.

Of all the states in the union, Washington would benefit the most from a long-sought Pacific region trade pact. That’s the view of U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, who stopped off in Seattle Tuesday to promote the controversial proposed 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Also known as the TPP, the pact would be the single largest trade agreement in the world, with a goal of virtually removing tariffs and other trade barriers.

Aug 12 (Reuters) - Chinese solar panel maker ReneSola Ltd said it would use contract manufacturers across the globe to continue selling panels in the United States, which has imposed anti-dumping duties on solar products made in China and Taiwan. The United States extended tariffs to Taiwan last month after Chinese companies tried to sidestep the duties by moving the production of cells, which go into their panels, to Taiwan.

The Indonesian government is making all attempts to lower dependence on imported of raw materials and looking at way to substitute import raw material with local products. In this attempt, the Ministry of Economy in coordination with other minister are putting efforts to deal with the trade deficit which has surged from imported products and also has the potential to hit the national industry.

If the beef industry does not undergo a remarkable transformation, it will not be sufficiently competitive with imported beef in the future to survive, President of the Vietnam Husbandry Association Nguyen Dang Vang told radio The Voice of Vietnam (VOV). Vang said Vietnam has become the second largest consumer of Australian beef with 84,000 head of cattle imported since the beginning of this year, and the figure is forecast to reach 150,000 by the year-end.

SOCHI, August 11 (RIA Novosti) – Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow has a wide range of possible responses to Western sanctions under the rules of the World Trade Organization that can be used by any member. “There is a whole range of measures and defined tools within the WTO which, of course, each WTO member state has the right to use. Countries have begun using these tools and other countries have the right to use the necessary argumentation for explanations of one or another action,” Peskov said.

In order to safeguard the interest of the domestic textile industry and silk producing farmers from the adverse impact of cheaper imports, the Government has imposed antidumping duty on silk fabrics imported from other countries.