The 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations will launch a fresh round of talks Monday with expectations for progress as Japan and the United States move closer to resolving thorny bilateral issues. Their chief negotiators are set to hold the four-day meeting in Ho Chi Minh City and follow it up with a ministerial gathering in Singapore from May 19 to 20 to tackle pending issues ranging from tariffs and intellectual property rights to reform of state-owned firms.

(Reuters) - U.S. trade regulators ruled on Friday in favor of investigating allegations that Mexico is dumping cheap sugar in the United States, taking Washington closer to imposing penalties on sweetener imports.

Colombia is set to gain a foothold in East Asia after a free trade agreement is signed with Korea.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations continue to move along, with Japan now intensively involved and the government of South Korea close to jumping in. With the collapse of broader multilateral efforts in the World Trade Organization in Geneva, the TPP is the biggest game on the planet.

As mentioned in my last piece here, there has been much hand-wringing in recent years over the inability of the WTO to achieve new trade liberalization. The modest success of the recent Trade Facilitation Agreement was a small victory, but it is not liberalization in the traditional sense, where countries agree to rein in their protectionist impulses.

BEIJING - The Ministry of Commerce will levy anti-dumping duties on some alloy-steel seamlesspipes imported from the European Union and the United States from Saturday.

Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers, at their meeting later this month, are being advised by the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) to accelerate the process towards making the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) a reality.

TRA VINH  (VNS) —The Duc My cooperative in the southern province of Tra Vinh has sold 1 tonne of red–flesh dragon fruit to the US for VND24,000 (US$1.14) per kilogramme, according to the manager of the cooperative. The Director of Viet S Farm Company and intermediary for the deal, Vu Cong Bang, said the next two tonnes of dragon fruit would be exported to the US this month.

WELLINGTON, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government announced Thursday a drastic cut in the allowance in duty-free tobacco to bring the country into line with Australia as part of its campaign to make New Zealand smoke-free by 2025. From Nov. 1, the duty-free allowance would fall from 200 cigarettes to 50 cigarettes and from 250 grams of tobacco to 50 grams in line with limits set by Australia in 2012, Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia said.

Following a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Brussels on May 7, the European Union (EU) and Japan agreed to a one-year review that should lead to the "early conclusion of a highly comprehensive and ambitious" free trade agreement (FTA). A joint press conference reaffirmed "the importance of strengthening the trade and economic relationship" between the EU and Japan, in which the proposed FTA "would play a vital role, notably by addressing issues related to market access for goods, services and investment, procurement, and non-tariff measures."