Canada and Mexico have been invited to join negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the newest trade agreement involving the United States and eight other countries. Now the U.S. International Trade Commission will weigh the economic effects of additional duty-free access of goods if Mexico and Canada are added. Both countries already have a free-trade accord with the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement, enacted in 1994. The ITC will submit its report to U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk no later than Nov. 19.

HONG KONG — Signs that the Chinese economy is sputtering mounted Friday, in the form of dismally feeble trade data that fanned expectations that Beijing would soon step up its efforts to buttress growth before a key leadership transition this autumn. China’s giant economy has emerged as a key driver of global growth, and hopes are high that rising affluence, urbanization and development will help mitigate the weakness of the European and U.S. economies.

HCM CITY — Viet Nam has failed to reap expected benefits from joining the World Trade Organisation and has in fact seen slower growth since, experts say. Their assessment was made at conference held earlier this week by the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM) to review the nation's socio-economic situation five years after joining the WTO. During the 2007-2011 five-year period since it joined the WTO, the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) stood at 6.5 per cent, down 1.3 percentage points over the 2002-2006 period, the conference heard.

The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) is seeking input for newly initiated investigations into the probable economic effect of a U.S. free trade agreement (FTA) with members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), including Canada and Mexico. The investigations, U.S.-Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement Including Canada and Mexico: Advice on the Probable Economic Effect of Providing Duty-Free Treatment for Imports, were requested by the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) in a letter received July 19, 2012.

THE UK PIRATE PARTY has warned that as the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership trade treaty looms closer into view, so does the scale of the damage that it could do. The Trans Pacific Partnership is another secretive trade agreement that like ACTA and SOPA looks to wrest common sense away from copyright protection and pass its policing to corporations.

WASHINGTON (Kyodo) -- Japan should not be included as a new member of the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks as it is likely to trigger a larger U.S. trade deficit due to Tokyo's problematic automotive market and currency policy, a U.S. think tank said in a report released Wednesday.

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - U.S.-led talks on a free trade pact in the Asia Pacific region are not an attempt to economically contain China, a top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday. "This is absolutely not a negotiation that's directed at China," Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Demetrios Marantis said in remarks at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars. The United States is hosting the 14th round of talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in early September. A final agreement is unlikely before the end of 2013.

The United States recently challenged duties imposed by China on U.S. auto exports at the World Trade Organization (“WTO”). The duties, ranging from 2 to 21.5 percent, were imposed by China after the government conducted antidumping (“AD”) and countervailing duty (“CVD”) investigations. The United States is challenging numerous aspects of China’s autos determination.

The United States has won an impressive string of victories against China at the World Trade Organization in the past few years but U.S. companies have seen only limited benefits, according to a review of the cases and interviews with analysts and officials familiar with them.

There’s been a new development with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). A portion of the agreement detailing the copyright terms and exceptions has been leaked. This is certainly of particular interest given that the US reacted to the defeat of ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting trade Agreement) by saying that there would be new limitations and exceptions inserted into the agreement. How has the agreement really turned out in this area? We investigate.