(Reuters) - U.S. trade officials and industry groups on Friday aired concerns about Chinese trade protectionism while voicing hope that an economic agenda-setting meeting of China's top leaders this weekend would launch deeper reforms. The hearing on China's compliance with market-opening pledges that got it into the World Trade Organization featured a mix of praise for recent signals of a new wave of reform and complaints about theft of intellectual property, discriminatory industrial policies, and trade restrictions.

The US Department of Commerce has initiated antidumping and anti-subsidy investigations against steelmakers in Taiwan and five other countries to determine whether foreign governments’ financial support of these companies hurt the US’ steel industry, the Bureau of Foreign Trade said.

According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, the January-October figure is 14.8 billion USD, representing a year-on-year increase of 18.7 percent.  The Republic of Korea, the US and Japan are the biggest importers of Vietnamese products, posting growth rates of 68 percent, 37 percent and 35 per cent, respectively, against the same period last year. 

Taiwan's former vice president Vincent Siew will lead a business delegation on a visit to the United States later this month to drum up support for Taiwan's efforts to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, according to a statement from the Taipei's representative office in the US Wednesday. Siew's 18-member delegation will depart Taiwan Nov. 16 for San Francisco, New York and Washington DC, where he is scheduled to give a 15-minute speech on Taiwan's current economic climate and its prospects for the future, the office said.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. trade panel decided on Thursday to extend antidumping and countervailing duties on Chinese exports of steel pipes after a five-year review of the measure imposed initially in 2008. The bipartisan International Trade Commission (USITC) voted unanimously against revoking the duty orders, saying it "would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time."

(VOV) – The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers (VASEP) has announced the US recently overtook Japan to become the world’s biggest importer of Vietnamese shrimp. The November 7 announcement noted US shrimp prices sharply increased in the first nine months, prompting Vietnam to boost its shrimp shipments to this market. Vietnam Customs said shrimp exports to the US increased 62.6% from last year’s levels to more than US$542.7 million in the reviewed period.

In the mere 20 years or so since the re-establishment of diplomatic relations in 1992, economic cooperation between South Korea and Vietnam has deepened significantly. Both countries have pledged to conclude a bilateral FTA by 2014.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- The United States and Japan face "two challenging and difficult issues" to wrap up the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade negotiations by the end of this year, a U.S. trade official said here Wednesday.

The International Trade Commission has rescheduled for Nov. 20 a public hearing on trade barriers that U.S. small and medium-sized enterprises perceive as disproportionately affecting their exports to the European Union. This investigation was requested by the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative in association with the launch of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership negotiations, which among other things will seek to enhance the participation of SMEs in trade between the U.S. and the EU. The ITC has also revised other deadlines in this investigation, as follows.

PanARMENIAN.Net - Aluminium producer UC RUSAL has announced that under Judgment dated Nov 5, 2013, the General Court of the European Union upheld the appeal of RUSAL Armenal ZAO (Armenal), a foil-producing subsidiary of UC RUSAL located in Armenia, for annulment of a Council regulation that had imposed an anti-dumping duty on imports of aluminium foil by Armenal into the European Union.