WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - The United States must fix mistakes it made in the North American Free Trade Agreement by insisting in new trade talks with Canada on unrestricted access to that country's poultry and dairy market, U.S. agricultural groups said on Monday. "All we're asking is that we have an open and free fair trade shot at the border," Bill Roenigk, senior vice president at the National Chicken Council, said at a hearing conducted by the U.S. Trade Representative's office on the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) pact.

MOSCOW, Sept. 24 (Xinhua) -- Russia would cut oil export duties for new deposits in the East Siberia region by half, Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Monday. Novak also told reporters after meeting Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev an existing tax break on resource extraction in East Siberian fields would be extended to 2022. The break was first introduced in 2007 and set to end in 2017. The new tax regimes would support the building of new oil pipelines in the region, so the normal investment cycle would be maintained, Novak said.

OTTAWA - Following through on the Conservative government's Pacific pivot on trade will take elbow grease and a little help from our neighbours south of the border, says Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird. Baird told the Canadian Council of CEOs in a speech in Ottawa Monday that despite the raft of free-trade deals Canada has signed since 2006, "we have yet to complete one with any country in Asia." "We're fully aware that in order to succeed in the Asia-Pacific, Canada needs to be seen as a bigger player," he said. "And actually step up to the plate."

LEESBURG, Va. -- With 1,350 employees in its five U.S. factories, New Balance is proud that it still produces 7 million pairs of shoes each year at its plants in Maine and Massachusetts, the last major athletic footwear company that still has manufacturing jobs in the United States. But the company says those jobs could very well disappear if the U.S. scraps its tariff on athletic footwear coming in from Vietnam.

HA NOI – (VNS) Relations between Viet Nam and the European Union (EU) have gained more momentum with a significant increase in bilateral exchanges in recent months, said Jean-Jacques Bouflet, Trade Counsellor of the EU Delegation at a public dialogue forum held in Ha Noi yesterday.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a sweeping, plurilateral free-trade agreement spanning the Pacific Rim. The ongoing, secretive treaty negotiations involve Australia and New Zealand; countries from South East Asia such as Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam; the South American nations of Peru and Chile; and the members of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, Canada, Mexico and the United States. There has also been some discussion as to whether Japan should be included in the negotiations.

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal by Mitsuru Obe suggests that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda will announce a decision to participate in the TPP after a cabinet reshuffle (scheduled for early October). While a decision to participate in the TPP is highly unlikely, a decision to participate in the TPP talks is certainly possible. This would mean the government progressing from its current position of ‘consultations with the TPP member countries’ to formal participation in the TPP negotiations.

(Reuters) - The United States is asking countries for strong rules to protect the free flow of data, ranging from video clips to back-room office operations, in talks on a Asia-Pacific free trade agreement, a U.S. official said on Friday. The U.S. proposal is "very aggressive in terms of asking for binding rules that allow data to move" across borders over the Internet, Jonathan McHale, deputy assistant U.S. trade representative for telecommunications and electronic commerce policy, said during a panel discussion.

As the U.S. hammers on China’s front door with demands to further open up its economy, Obama administration officials are negotiating a potential back alley to the same end — a trade agreement with other Asian nations they hope will challenge China to change some of its core economic policies.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) was signed in 2005 by Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. Malaysia, as well as Australia, Canada, Peru, Mexico, the US and Vietnam, is currently negotiating to join the TPP. Malaysia’s interest in the TPP, and its participation in numerous rounds of negotiations, is shrouded in secrecy. There is no public discussion on why Malaysia sees participation in the TPP useful to its interests, and no government studies to determine the costs and benefits of TPP membership have been disclosed.