At the October 25 meeting, the head of Vietnam’s Delegation, Ambassador Nguyen Trung Thanh expressed concerns over the deadlock of the Doha negotiations and raised questions about issues of Vietnam’s interest in the context of WTO’s efforts to build new principles for negotiations on the Multi-lateral Agreement on Trade in Service.

On October 23, the World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to establish a panel to examine the complaint by the United States against China’s imposition of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on more than USD3bn in exports of American-produced cars. The US originally requested consultations with China with respect to the duties on July 5, 2012, and, as those consultations held on August 23 were unsuccessful in resolving the dispute, requested on September 17 that the WTO should constitute a dispute settlement panel.

A vote on Friday that formally approved Laos’s application to join the World Trade Organization marked a key coming of age for the small, landlocked Communist country, which has quietly posted some of the world’s strongest economic growth over the past several years. It also marked the latest step in a Southeast Asian push to integrate economies in the region of 600 million people as it tries to present itself as a single-market, more-viable investment alternative to China.

The Gillard Government will position Australia as a connecting rod between Latin America and Asia in pursuit of a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific. Australia has been in talks with Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Chile about the possibility of a trade deal with these countries of the Pacific Alliance, as it is known, that could extend to other countries in the Asian region. Trade and Competitiveness Minister Craig Emerson said Australia would seek observer status in the ongoing trade negotiations involving the four Pacific-facing nations of Latin America.

(Reuters) - Australia unveiled a long-term plan to boost trade with a booming Asia on Sunday, aiming to lift Asian input into its economy to one third by 2025 from 25 percent now, via more business withChina and India in particular.

Trade: Europe’s Parliament has moved to revitalize the continent’s weak economy by clearing the way for a free-trade agreement with the U.S. A baby step, yes, but if it succeeds, it’ll be the mother of all trade pacts. By a vote of 526-94, the European Parliament approved its first resolution calling for talks on a U.S.-European free-trade agreement, starting in the first half of 2013.

HA NOI (VNS)- Participants at a seminar in Ha Noi yesterday agreed that the signing of a partnership and co-operation agreement (PCA) between Viet Nam and the European Union last June would open the door to a multitude of ties between the two sides. Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son said that the agreement marked an important development.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement currently being negotiated between the US and eight Pacific-rim countries has the potential to shift global trading patterns for textiles and demand for US textile exports, a new report says. Textiles are a major issue in the talks because the negotiating parties include Vietnam, a major apparel producer that mainly sources yarns and fabrics from China and other Asian nations.

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The Malaysian government is imposing a provisional duty on steel wire rods imports from China, China's Taiwan, Indonesia, South Korea and Turkey after preliminary investigations found the lower-priced imports have hurt the domestic industry. The ministry of international trade said in a statement on Tuesday that an anti-dumping duty of up to 33.62 percent would take effect no later than January 28 or 120 days from the publication of a government gazette on Tuesday.

AFRICAN countries are planning to create a single trading bloc by the year 2017, to ease business transactions in the continent. Speaking here on Tuesday, the President of African Organization for Standardization (ARSO), Dr Joseph Ikemefuna Odumodu allayed fears that the proposed Free Trading Zone for Africa may be obliterated by the already existing Regional Trading Blocs.