(Reuters) - The United States and China have both appealed against recent rulings in disputes at the World Trade Organization (WTO), filings published by the WTO showed on Friday. The United States said it wanted to correct some legal issues in a case that it brought jointly with the European Union and Japan, handing China a heavy defeat over its restrictions on exports of rare earth metals.

BRUSSELS: European negotiators, hoping to cut fuel bills, will press their US counterparts in Washington this week on including energy exports in a transatlantic trade pact that aims to integrate two markets accounting for half the world’s economy.   Bringing politically sensitive energy into the debate stands to complicate talks spanning agriculture to finance, but the rewards could be big for the European Union, where natural gas prices are around three times those in the US.  

HCM CITY (VNS)— Viet Nam's exporters have ample opportunities to export farm and food products to the European Union (EU), according to experts. At a seminar on the export of farm and food products to the EU in HCM City last Friday, the Ministry of Industry and Trade's Trade Promotion Agency noted that the industry for processing farm and food products has continued to develop in the EU even as other industries faced difficulties in production and sales due to an economic downturn.

(Reuters) - Big gaps remain between the United States and Japan after two days of top-level talks on a bilateral trade deal that is vital for a broader regional pact, negotiators on both sides said on Thursday. Japan and the United States are seeking a two-way trade deal, regarded as a key part of the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), before U.S. President Barack Obama travels to Japan for an April 24-25 state visit.

(Reuters) - Japan is considering slashing tariffs on U.S. beef imports to less than 10 percent from the current 38.5 percent in negotiations aimed at laying the ground for a broad Pacific trade pact, the Nikkei business daily said on Thursday. The proposed cut would be much deeper than one negotiated with Australia, which on Monday agreed to a trade deal with Tokyo including a halving of the levy on frozen beef to 19.5 percent.

The EU today launched a case in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against the Russian ban on imports of pigs, fresh pork and certain pig products from the EU. Russia closed its market to the EU – cutting off almost 25% of all EU exports – at the end of January 2014. It based its decision on four isolated cases of African swine fever (ASF) detected in wild boar at the Lithuanian and Polish borders with Belarus.

Vietnam has endured nearly 20 antidumping lawsuits from various countries over the last two years and local businesses complain that it is an arduous task to resume exports to these markets even when the trade remedies are relaxed. Vietnamese-made polyethylene (PE) bags have almost vanished from the U.S. market after the products were subject to extremely high antidumping and anti-subsidy duties for five years from 2009, following a ruling by the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) in 2010.

SEOUL, April 8 (Xinhua) -- South Korea and Australia singed a free trade agreement (FTA) Tuesday in Seoul after five years of negotiations, the South Korean trade ministry said. South Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Yoon Sang- jick and his Australian counterpart Andrew Robb sealed the bilateral free trade pact in Seoul attended by President Park Geun- hye and Prime Minister Tony Abbott. The Australian prime minister arrived in Seoul Tuesday morning to hold a summit with Park after visiting Japan to wrap up its separate FTA with Japan.

(Reuters) - The United States pressed Japan on Thursday to open its farm and auto markets to overseas competition and said it could not expect special treatment in a Pacific trade pact covering one-third of global imports and exports. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman told U.S. lawmakers that Japan's reluctance to lower trade barriers was holding up agreement on the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would stretch from Asia to Latin America.

Taiwanese officials on Friday stated the nation’s intention of becoming a “constructive partner” in the US’ efforts to promote regional economic integration during the latest round of bilateral talks, Vice Minister of Economic Affairs Bill Cho (卓士昭) said. The officials also briefed their US counterparts on reforms the nation has undertaken in its bid to join the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade bloc, Cho said.