(Reuters) - When U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk came into office four years ago, he famously said he did not have a "fever" to negotiate trade deals. But with just a few days left on the job, he sounds like he caught one.

BRASILIA, Feb 19 (Reuters) - Brazil's government said on Tuesday it had settled a trade dispute it brought to the World Trade Organization in 2008 against the United States over 'anti-dumping' penalties the U.S. imposed on imports of Brazilian orange juice since 2006.

BRUSSELS — Importers of inexpensive solar panels from China said on Tuesday that imposing tariffs would lead to hundreds of thousands of job losses in the European Union, the biggest export market for the Chinese equipment.The claims by the Alliance for Affordable Solar Energy, a coalition of companies that install and service panels, were aimed at stopping the European Commission from imposing penalties in the biggest trade case of its kind in terms of value.

BEIJING, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Wednesday that measures taken by the United States over warm water shrimps from China are against World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.MOC spokesman Shen Danyang told a press conference that the U.S. launched both anti-dumping and countervailing measures even though it saw China as a "non-market economy" and that it has no adequate evidence.

WASHINGTON, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Japan must be willing to negotiate in all trade sectors, including politically sensitive ones like rice, if it wants to join the United States and 10 other countries in talks on a regional free-trade pact, the top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday.

US Trade Representative Ron Kirk says Japan should be willing to negotiate all items to join talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade pact. But he also suggests the possibility of setting some exemptions from tariff cuts.The top US trade official made the remarks in an interview with Reuters news agency on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared more positive about Japan joining talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade arrangement, saying high-level negotiations could lead to exemptions that many ruling party members are demanding.

(Reuters) - Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will be seeking to put a strong U.S.-Japan alliance on full display in the face of potential threats from a nuclear North Korea and an assertive China when he meets U.S. President Barack Obama on Friday.Abe, who has kept his ratings high since taking office in December, also needs Obama's signoff on his economic revival recipe of big spending and hyper-easy monetary policy.

South Korea’s Minister for Trade Bark Tae-ho and Colombia’s Minister of Commerce, Industry and Tourism Sergio Diaz-Granados formally signed the bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between their two countries at the South Korean Foreign Ministry on February 21.

HANOI, Feb. 19 (Xinhua) -- The Russia-Vietnam bilateral trade turnover reached 3.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2012, up 40 percent over 2011, which is expected to increase to 7 billion dollars this year, official said on Tuesday.The remarks were made by Anatoly Borovik, Russian Consul General in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City at a press briefing held on the occasion of the 63rd anniversary of diplomatic ties between the two countries.