SPECIAL REPORT / A green light to start talks on a transatlantic free trade agreement (FTA) is likely to come early next month, EurActiv has learned, lifting European industries’ hopes that increased demand from the US will help turn around its fortunes.Analysts believe that an EU-US FTA could deliver a 2% boost in GDP for both parties, providing a much needed fillip for European industries, but complications remain over the scope and commitment to a deal.

Canada and India are to hold the seventh round of negotiations toward a major new trade agreement next month, Canada's International Trade Minister has announced.

Beijing (ANTARA News) – Indonesian Minister for Tourism and Creative Economy Mari Elka Pangestu said the World Trade Organization (WTO) must give attention to developing countries.

As expected for a couple of months, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk, announced Tuesday that he’s leaving the administration at the end of February. He had told President Obama of his intentions shortly after the re-election in November.

The United States government has unveiled details of proposed flexibilities it wants to introduce into the planned Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement which will allow importers to buy scarce clothing, textiles and yarns from outside the bloc.

Tokyo, Jan. 22 (Jiji Press)--Japan Business Federation Chairman Hiromasa Yonekura said Tuesday that Japan should join Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks by May. If substantive TPP negotiations, now among 11 countries including the United States, are supposed to end in October, Japan has to join the talks in May at the latest, Yonekura told reporters after a meeting between senior officials of the business group known as Keidanren and the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has decided to defer any decision on whether Japan will continue with an application to join the negotiations on an extended Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), presently being led by the United States.Abe will put off his decision on the matter, which Japan's previous Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda had made an integral part of the manifesto of the then-ruling Democratic Party of Japan in the recent elections.

This year, the Central Asian countries will join the ranks of members of the World Trade Organization (WTO)Thus, Tajikistan received approval from the WTO on December 10, 2012, and will become a full member of the organization by June 7, 2013. Tajikistan took 11 years to become a WTO member.

Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) brought the country many advantages for protecting the domestic agriculture market, Agriculture Minister Nikolai Fyodorov said at a press conference in Berlin."We view WTO accession as satisfactory and believe that it provides more pluses for protecting the domestic market," he said.

HA NOI (VNS)— Viet Nam has sent a notice of official opposition to the United States over an anti-subsidy lawsuit against Vietnamese frozen warm-water shrimp.The Viet Nam Trade Office in the US expressed dissatisfaction and made a protest during a consultation on Saturday with the Import Administration under the US Department of Commerce's International Trade Administration.