The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a multilateral free trade agreement that is currently being negotiated by 12 countries with a combined market of 793 million people and gross domestic product of US$27.5 trillion (RM90 trillion). The 12 countries are Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, New Zealand, Australia, the United States, Mexico, Peru, Chile, Canada and Japan. The list of participating countries is able to expand to include any other Asia Pacific region country even after the TPP Agreement is created.

BEIJING, Aug. 14 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced Wednesday that it has launched an anti-dumping investigation into single-mode optical fibers imported from India. The investigation has been launched in response to a petition filed by the domestic industry, according to a statement posted on the MOC's website. The MOC will investigate whether Indian companies have sold single-mode optical fibers at an artificially low price in China and damaged Chinese businesses.

Japan is arranging one-on-one meetings with the 10 other countries, apart from the United States, involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks on the sidelines of the next negotiations session later this month, a government source said. The government is prepared to present lists of items for which it could eliminate tariffs, and they will not include five sensitive farm products that Japan intends to keep protecting, the source said Tuesday.

After the failure of Doha round of talks, which hindered the process of multilateral trade liberalisation, many countries turned towards regional trade, resulting in economic benefits and regional prosperity. In contrast, trade talks between Pakistan and India hit snags every time the two countries achieved some progress on that front. The nuclear-armed rivals have once again locked horns over the recent killing of five Indian soldiers on the Line of Control just when the leadership of both sides showed willingness to carry on peace talks.

The World Bank and the World Trade Organisation are embarking on a joint initiative to develop and maintain a database on trade in services, in a bid to promote policy transparency. Transparency plays a key role in the dynamic area of trade in services because the regulatory framework is complex and little information is publicly available. Cross-border trade in services makes up one-fifth of all world trade, even without considering international transactions through foreign affiliates and the temporary movement of people.

HA NOI (VNS)— Viet Nam exported 77,000 tonnes of tea during the past seven months, earning a turnover of US$120 million, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. While the volume of tea exports was equal to the volume from the same period last year, export value rose 4.1 per cent thanks to the surging price of tea on global markets, the ministry said, adding that the $1,526 per tonne benchmark price for tea was 4.4 per cent higher than last year's figure.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Commerce Department on Tuesday set final countervailing duties on frozen warmwater shrimp from China and other four countries. The department made its final affirmative determinations that frozen warmwater shrimp exporters from China, Ecuador, India, Malaysia and Vietnam had received countervailing subsidies ranging from 18.16 percent, 10.13 percent to 13.51 percent, 10.54 percent to 11.14 percent, 10.80 percent to 54.50 percent, and 1.15 percent to 7.88 percent, respectively.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — Some of the issues and arguments highlighted by opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim pertaining to Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations are not new, International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said today. "In fact, the issues are among concerns prioritised by Malaysian negotiators at the ongoing TPP negotiations," he said, referring to the media statement by Anwar on the TPP yesterday.

The European Union (EU) has been a key export market for Vietnamese seafood products for many decades. There is a high likelihood for the boost in seafood export to this potential market in the future when the Vietnam – EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) is signed.

The Washington trade policy community is buzzing over the two largest international trade negotiations since the effective collapse of the Doha multilateral trade round. The buzz may be even louder in foreign capitals.