Laos will be officially admitted to the World Trade Organisation on February 2, the global mediator said on Thursday, after the southeast Asian country ratified an agreement to become the WTO's 158th member. Laos worked on membership for 15 years before the WTO general council accepted its bid on October 26.

The Indian government has gazetted a new 20% tax on specified steel imports from China, in an effort to protect India's steel industry from what it calls "disruption." A Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) notification states that increased imports of certain types of hot rolled flat products of stainless steel have "threatened to cause market disruption to the domestic industry."

The first nine months of 2013 will mark a crucial period for the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) negotiations being conducted by the United States and 10 other trans-Pacific nations.

Jan 9 (Reuters) - Vietnam has asked the World Trade Organization to appoint a panel of arbitrators to rule on a dispute over alleged dumping of Vietnamese shrimp on the U.S. market. The escalation of the case is awkward for Washington as it attempts to strike a regional free trade deal with Vietnam while under domestic pressure from American shrimp producers to clamp down on Vietnamese imports.

Before Japan can state its stance on the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade talks, it must study whether the accord will truly require member states to fully eliminate tariffs, trade minister Toshimitsu Motegi said Tuesday.

A Financial Times article today focuses on possible negotiations for a bilateral trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union and some of the potential sticking points in completing such a pact. Chief among these, the article notes, are “behind-the-border” domestic regulation, such as differing technical standards in areas such as pharmaceuticals, medical services, and advanced electronics, as well as “safety regimes for conventional cars” and foodstuffs.

Liberal Democratic Party policy chief Sanae Takaichi said Sunday that if Prime Minister Shinzo Abe decides to join the talks on the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, he will have his party's backing because Japan still has the option of skipping the free-trade pact.

(Reuters) - France has doubled its capacity target for photovoltaic power generation and offered more financial support to small solar power farms that use European-made panels in a bid to rescue the country's ailing solar industry.Energy Minister Delphine Batho announced the measures, which are expected to spur investments worth more than 2 billion euros ($2.6 billion), during a visit to a solar panel factory in Western France.

The coming year will likely see major developments in the denouement of the contest between regional strategies across Asia and the Pacific, with the ASEAN-inspired Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) now vying for policy primacy alongside the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) strategy across the region.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, like the Doha Round, appears always to be concluded next year.