The US and the 10-member ASEAN have discussed a wide range of pressing regional issues, including maritime security and transnational crime, during the just-concluded annual dialogue here between the two sides.

KIEV, May 7 (Xinhua) -- Ukraine on Tuesday issued a temporary ban against pork imports from Belarus due to a reported outbreak of African swine fever (ASF). The State Veterinary and Phyto-Sanitary Service said in a statement that the decision was made in consideration of media reports about the death of pigs in Baranovichi region, west Belarus. The last time Ukraine imposed a ban on pork imports from Belarus was in March last year.

Japanese agriculture minister Yoshimasa Hayashi and his Indonesian counterpart Suswono on Monday confirmed the two countries' cooperation in establishing a proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP.  The RCEP, a free trade agreement covering wide areas of the Asia-Pacific region, would help create a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, or FTAAP, Hayashi told Suswono at their meeting here. A total of 16 Asia-Pacific countries, including Japan and Indonesia, are set to hold the first round of RCEP talks in Brunei from Thursday.

India has been constantly enhancing its trade partnership with a number of countries and regions, including Russia, Costa Rica, Commonwealth Nations, and West Asia- GCC, said Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry D. Purandeswari.

(Reuters) - Cuba has launched a legal challenge to Australia's tobacco packaging laws at the World Trade Organization, the Geneva-based trade body said in a statement on Monday. Cuba has never before launched WTO litigation. Its challenge follows similar complaints about Australia's tough tobacco packaging rules by Ukraine, Honduras and Dominican Republic.

May 6 (Reuters) - Canada lost an appeal at the World Trade Organization on Monday in a ruling on incentives offered to local companies, a case that has already led to legal challenges over suspicions of similar perks elsewhere. Japan and the European Union brought the case over a scheme intended to promote renewable energy in the province of Ontario. It offered above-market prices for electricity supplied by renewable energy companies but only offered the premium to firms who bought most of their equipment locally.

The recent news about Japan eagerly joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks touched a raw nerve in China. Combined with similar plans from Vietnam and some other Southeast Asian neighbors, China’s worries about the TPP are growing. The TPP did not attract much attention in 2003, when it was founded, but its potential was enormously strengthened since the US announced its interest in the original four-party partnership.

GENEVA: The World Trade Organisation is close to chosing its next leader in a final round pitting Brazil against Mexico, with the winner facing the tough task of restoring the clout of global commerce's rule-setting body.  Brazil's WTO ambassador Roberto Azevedo and his rival Herminio Blanco, Mexico's former trade minister, are expected to learn as early as Tuesday whether they have won a contest that is seen as too close to call. 

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzō Abe successfully stared down opposition from the domestic farm lobby and his own ruling party to take Japan into the TPP negotiations. The other half of the equation — gaining the consent of TPP negotiating countries to Japan’s entry — was sealed at the recent APEC ministerial meeting in Indonesia.

Japan's Economic Revitalization Minister Akira Amari and Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung have agreed that their countries will cooperate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks. Amari, who is in charge of the TPP issue, met separately with Prime Minister Dung and Industry and Trade Minister Vu Huy Hoang in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Friday. Vietnam is already taking part in the TPP negotiations.