Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement to exacerbate Vietnam’s access to medicines crisis The United States is again pursuing an important free trade agreement that will lock in high drug prices out of poor people’s reach – this time across the Asia-Pacific region, warns international agency Oxfam. Talks resume in Singapore this week for the ‘Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement’ (TPPA). The US is again insisting that countries must take on strict intellectual property protection and drug pricing rules when they sign the deal.

SINGAPORE – The 16th round of negotiations for the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership talks began Monday in Singapore, with consideration of new membership and charting out plans to ensure a free-trade deal by October high on the agenda.The meetings through March 13 will involve some 600 delegates from the 11 countries negotiating the U.S.-led TPP agreement: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

(Reuters) - The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee on Monday warned he will not support a proposed free trade agreement between the United States and the European Union unless it tears down barriers that have long blocked U.S. farm exports."As chairman of the committee overseeing U.S. trade, I will support a deal only if it gives America's producers the opportunity to compete in the world's biggest market," Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, wrote in the Financial Times.

Russia will have to cut some import tariffs nearer levels accepted by its customs union partner Kazakhstan in World Trade Organization accession talks, said Eurasian Economic Commission Trade Minister Andrey Slepnev.

BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) -- China should be mindful of increased trade frictions with European countries and the United States, the Chinese representative to World Trade Organization (WTO) warned on Monday."China must remain alert to the intensity, measures and involved industrial sectors concerning trade restrictions on China," said Yi Xiaozhun, permanent representative of China to the WTO.

The World Trade Organization's (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body, on February 27, 2013, agreed to establish a panel to examine the dispute brought by Vietnam against US anti-dumping duties on certain frozen warm-water shrimp.Vietnam said it had failed to achieve a resolution during consultations launched on February 16, 2012, with the United States concerning several US laws, regulations, administrative proceedings and practices, including zeroing.

The European Union and the US announced this month that they will soon begin talks on the biggest free-trade deal in history. This news was not greeted with joy in Canada, which launched its own, so far inconclusive, trade talks with the EU some four years ago.There are essentially two kinds of ice skates.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has clearly disclosed his intention to take Japan into the TPP negotiations. All that awaits is his announcement to do so.

(Reuters) - The White House on Friday said it would work for approval of politically contentious legislation that would ease the way for new trade deals, as it tries to wrap up talks on an Asia-Pacific free-trade agreement this year.But the brief reference to the legislation known as "trade promotion authority" in an annual report on the president's trade agenda failed to impress some key Republicans who have been pressing for action on the issue for years.

Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, the United States, Vietnam and Singapore, will attend the meeting.Besides, 300 stakeholders, including business representatives, academics and non-governmental organizations from around the world, are going to attend theStakeholders' Forum on March 6, and various seminars and panel discussion sessions.