(Reuters) - Brazil campaigned hard to get the top job at the World Trade Organization this week but behind closed doors even it acknowledges that the WTO's main mission - pushing forward in global trade talks - looks for the moment like a lost cause. Instead, President Dilma Rousseff's government is moving, albeit cautiously, towards less ambitious bilateral and regional deals that may have a greater chance of success. Rousseff's hope is that more trade could shake Latin America's most insular major economy from a surprisingly deep recent slump.

ASEAN trade officials, along with its six partners, kicked off talks on a regional trade agreement in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam, on Thursday. The talks began with the establishment of the trade negotiating committee that would discuss various trade and investment issues until next Monday, Trade Ministry director general for international trade cooperation Iman Pambagyo said.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - European Union officials on Thursday touted the huge economic potential of a proposed free trade pact with the United States even as they poked fun at its cumbersome name, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. "We've launched this strange animal called TTIP ('tee tip')," EU Ambassador to the United StatesJoão Vale de Almeida said at a reception to mark Europe Day. "This is a game-changer. As I like to say, this is the mother of all free trade areas."

Japan acknowledges the crucial and central role of the Association of Southeast Nations (ASEAN) in the region as well as in the forming East Asian structure, a Japanese parliamentarian told ASEAN Secretary General Le Luong Minh. Akira Matsu, a member of the House of Councillors – the upper house of the Japanese parliament, visited the ASEAN Secretariat and met with Minh in Jakarta on May 6 during her visit to Indonesia.

Brazil has been criticized for battling a slowdown in its growth with protectionist trade policies, restrictions on capital flows and programs that favor local industry. Can one of its diplomats now become the world’s free-trade champion? World Trade Organization members announced in Geneva on Wednesday that they had chosen Brazil’s Roberto Azevedo to be the next director general, turning to a longtime trade diplomat from a prominent developing country to run an organization fighting to restore its clout.

Sixteen Asia-Pacific nations including Japan and China held the first round of negotiations Thursday toward the creation of one of the world's largest free trade blocs. During the five-day meeting through Monday in Brunei, the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and their six regional partners will discuss the scope and method of talks on the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership as they aim to conclude a deal by 2015.

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PARIS — Roberto Carvalho de Azevêdo, the next head of the World Trade Organization, said on Wednesday that the institution needed to adapt as the United States and other nations turn away from the multilateral forum to regional trade agreements.

BRUSSELS, May 8 (Reuters) - Canada threatened on Wednesday to take the European Union to the World Trade Organisation over its plans to label Canadian oil sands as dirty, but promised not to delay a bilateral trade pact. The issue has overshadowed relations as Canada and the EU try to deepen economic ties through a trade deal that could generate $28 billion a year in new business and commerce.

BRUSSELS, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Over 450 companies in the European solar industry on Wednesday voiced strong opposition to a potential decision by the European Commission to impose provisional anti-dumping duties on imports of Chinese solar panels. The statement was made amid a number of media reports in recent days that the Commission plans to propose provisional anti-dumping duties with rates ranging between 37 percent and 68 percent on imports of Chinese solar panels.