(Reuters) - An ambitious trade pact being negotiated among Pacific Rim nations so far fails to properly protect endangered species and could undermine existing safeguards for the environment, environmental groups said on Wednesday. Documents released by the whistle-blowing group WikiLeaks show countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) did not plan to sanction trading partners who break environmental promises - an issue that has caused a rift between the United States and others in the bloc and is an obstacle to finalizing the deal.

NEW DELHI (Web Desk) -- Pakistan has called on India to increase market access for its products and remove non-tariff barriers such as visa regime, while encouraging free flow of investment and goods between the two countries, said local daily The Hindu on Thursday. In an interview with the newspaper, Pakistan's Minister of State for Commerce and Textiles Khurram Dastgir Khan said Pakistan and India should have a level-playing field and described the visa regime as the biggest non-tariff barrier between them.

AUSTRALIA: The Australian Anti-Dumping Commission has recommended that a duty is imposed on Chinese and Korean manufacturers after initial investigations found they are dumping towers in the market at deflated prices. In response to a claim by Australian manufacturer Keppel Prince, the commission found that Asian manufacturers have won contracts to provide towers at below-cost price in order to establish themselves in the market.

Import duties charged by the Chinese on American hi-tech steel exports have been costing US producers more than $250 million, according to a report by the BBC. While the Chinese claim that they have reduced import duties, the Americans say ‘not enough’. The World Trade Organisation (WTO), which has acted as mediator between the two nations, has now sided with the Americans, claiming that China has been ‘unfairly placing tariffs on US steel products’.

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Brazilian cotton producers visiting Washington were pessimistic that the U.S. Congress would finish wrangling over farm policy in time to comply with international rules on cotton subsidies and avoid trade sanctions on U.S. exports to Brazil. Brazil challenged U.S. cotton subsidies at the World Trade Organization and won the right to impose $830 million in retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods ranging from cars to milk powder. But sanctions were put on hold while Washington wrote a new farm law that was expected to eliminate the long-standing subsidies.

HANOI, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Despite many difficulties, Vietnam's exports of seafood products saw growth of over 10 percent in 2013 on the previous year, and are predicted to keep the growth trend in 2014 due to improving signs from major markets. Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) said on its website on Wednesday that Japan, the European Union ( EU) and the United States would remain as Vietnam's major seafood importers in 2014, while China and China's Hong Kong are emerging as potential markets.

SEOUL, Dec. 20 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's trade commission on Friday launched a formal investigation into alleged dumping by a local importer of ethanolamine. The probe will affect products from the United States, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand, according to the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy. Ethanolamine is a chemical compound used to produce various products including detergent and plasticizer.

The final shape of the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement should emerge "in the next couple of months", although how far the new trade pact will go in "new generation" issues such as intellectual property remains to be seen, says the executive director of APEC, Alan Bollard. In an interview with BusinessDesk, the former Reserve Bank of New Zealand governor said TPP was now "very advanced" but contested the view that negotiations had been any more secret than for other trade pacts.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Yonhap) -- South Korea and the United States held high-level talks here Monday on Seoul's interest in potentially joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a U.S.-led multilateral trade agreement, officials said.

South Korea is happy to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but its negotiations seeking a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with China will take priority over joining the TPP. The Trade Ministry of South Korea said in a press release on Monday that the Korean government “will first push for a South Korea-China FTA as a bridgehead for expanding presence in Chinese markets, while considering joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” the  Wall Street Journal reported.