The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative held a public hearing on Monday to hear testimony regarding Canada's participation in negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Clay Hough, IDFA senior group vice president, testified that IDFA supports Canada's participation, but the country must abandon its current dairy policies because they conflict with TPP goals.

ROC President Ma Ying-jeou said Sept. 25 that his administration will continue to clear away trade barriers and create conditions for Taiwan’s participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ma made the remarks while receiving Atul Keshap, senior U.S. official for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum and coordinator for economic policy in the State Department Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, at the Presidential Office in Taipei City.

(Reuters) - Moscow is likely to challenge European Union rules that restrict Russian gas company Gazprom's control of its European pipeline assets by contesting them at the World Trade Organization, a government source said on Thursday. The rules, known as the Third Energy Package, are an irritant in Russia-EU relations. The source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Russia - which joined the WTO in August - was looking into whether the EU rules were subject to WTO regulation.

(Reuters) - Ukraine's announcement that it intends to raise hundreds of tariff ceilings may have an impact on the global trading system, the U.S. ambassador to the World Trade Organization said on Wednesday. The move has raised fears that Ukraine has found a way to get around a fundamental check on protectionism that was put into place when the WTO was created in 1995.

Claude Barfield noted that the most significant development at the G20 Summit in Los Cabos was the decision to invite Canada and Mexico to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

On 5 September in the margins of the APEC Leaders meeting in Vladivostok, Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Trade Ministers met to review the progress of TPP negotiations. Ministers provided a Report to TPP Leaders outlining the substantial headway that has been to date. TPP Leaders confirmed their commitment to concluding a comprehensive, truly regional TPP agreement as rapidly as possible, and welcomed new Members Canada and Mexico to the negotiating group.

Yesterday, eleven stakeholder witnesses spoke before the Trade Policy Staff Committee (TPSC) to give testimony on Canada’s entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. The TPP is a multilateral trade agreement that will boost U.S. exports to the growing economies of the Asia-Pacific region. As preparations begin for Canada’s entry, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) and its interagency partners are soliciting public comments to help inform negotiating work and strengthen U.S. proposals.

After the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was launched in 2005, it did not attract much attention until 2009, when the US started to get involved into the negotiation process. The US, as usual, quickly grabbed the driver's seat and pushed the process toward the direction it favors, that is, building the TPP as the model 21st century free trade agreement (FTA).

In the first update of its 2008 report which was compiled before the economic crisis that year, the European Chamber of Commerce Taipei (ECCT) has issued a further study on the implications of the potential trade treaty between Taiwan and the European Union (EU).

(Reuters) - The European Union launched a complaint at the World Trade Organization on Tuesday accusing the United States of failing to withdraw subsidies for Boeing (BA.N) by Sept 23, as required by an earlier WTO ruling. The EU's complaint is part of a seven-year trade battle between Washington and Brussels over subsidies for Boeing and Airbus (EAD.PA). Both have won WTO rulings that the other paid billions of dollars of illegal subsidies to its aircraft industry. Both have claimed victory each step of the way.