(Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday called for talks on a far-reaching free trade agreement with the 27 nations of the European Union, throwing his weight behind a deal that would encompass half the world's economic output.

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union and the United States announced Wednesday that they have agreed to pursue talks aimed at achieving an overarching trans-Atlantic free trade deal.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe must look positively at participation in negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership multilateral trade and economic framework to realize economic revitalization, which is the top priority of his administration.Deliberations of the House of Representatives Budget Committee, the first full-fledged Diet debate since the launch of the Abe administration, have started.

It’s been a while since we last heard anything about the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement. All we knew was that the secret negotiations were still ongoing, but no public statement had been made for a few months. Now the silence has been broken as the treaty may be losing support from a potentially important ally.

(Reuters) - Efforts to agree a U.S.-EU trade pact could spur the rest of the world to revive global talks for fear of being sidelined in the emerging shape of global commerce, Indonesia's candidate to head the World Trade Organisation said.

HANOI, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam pocketed 17.08 billion U.S. dollars from its exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2012, an increase of 25.7 percent year-on-year, reported the Vietnam General Department of Customs on Monday.

(Reuters) - A senior U.S. official said on Monday he was optimistic progress can be made on a number of trade fronts in President Barack Obama's second term, but declined to say whether he was on a short list to be the next U.S. Trade Representative."This is a an exciting time to be engaged in trade policy, in trade promotion," U.S. Commerce Under Secretary Francisco Sanchez told reporters after a speech to the Information Technology Innovation Foundation, a technology policy group.

The United States and Mexico have reached a tentative agreement on cross-border trade in tomatoes, narrowly averting a trade war that threatened to engulf a swath of American businesses.The agreement, reached late Saturday, raises the minimum sales price for Mexican tomatoes in the United States, aims to strengthen compliance and enforcement, and increases the types of tomatoes governed by the bilateral pact to four from one.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is facing challenges in handling the issue of Japan's participation in the talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade framework.While Abe hopes to express willingness to take part in the talks during a summit with U.S. President Barack Obama set for late this month, he is still wavering on the issue due to strong opposition from within his own Liberal Democratic Party.

Trade and Competitiveness Minister Craig Emerson today welcomed Laos officially as the 158th member of the World Trade Organization (WTO).Australia supported Laos's bid to join the WTO, serving two terms as Chair of the Working Party for Laos's accession. It also provided technical assistance during negotiations.Dr Emerson said domestic reforms implemented as part of the WTO accession process had already benefited the Lao people.