The European Commission has formally requested Spain to modify its rules on excise duties to bring them into line with European Union (EU) legislation. Under EU rules, all movement of excise goods under duty suspension within the EU must be accompanied by an electronic administrative document giving details about the goods, including information about their journey time to mitigate fraud.

SEOUL, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Imported car sales in South Korea hit a new record monthly high last month due to brisk sales of diesel and hybrid models amid high oil prices, a local trade association said Friday. Sales of imported cars in April reached a new high of 10,668 vehicles in April, up 30 percent from a year earlier, according to the Korea Automobile Importers and Distributers Association (KAIDA) . For the first four months of this year, imported auto sales amounted to 33,923 units, up 17.8 percent from the same period of last year.

China is prepared to agree on Friday to take several important steps to open up its markets and level the playing field for foreign businesses, according to a U.S. official traveling with the delegation at the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue.

Korea will hold its first round of negotiations with China on the bilateral free trade agreement next Thursday in Beijing, Seoul’s Trade Ministry said Friday. The two sides will set the detailed rules on how to proceed with the negotiations and exchange views on the scope and coverage of the FTA at the meeting next week, the ministry said in a statement. They also plan to discuss how to organize the negotiation working groups, exchange trade statistics and information related to tariff rates and future negotiation schedules.

The United States-Egypt Business Council of the US Chamber of Commerce has held meetings with senior members of Congress to push for commencement of negotiations on a US-Egypt free trade agreement (FTA). The meetings, held together with representatives from the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Egypt, highlighted the importance of expanding commercial partnerships between the two countries, to help facilitate greater economic stability in Egypt while boosting American exports to Egypt’s growing market of over 80m consumers.

MANILA -- Even as they have been squabbling over stones and reefs in the Scarborough Shoals for several weeks now, China and the Philippines feasted in Beijing on the palatable rice issue and how special this Asian staple will be treated by the World Trade Organization (WTO). Both China and the Philippines are WTO members, and the Philippines is seeking common ground with China as to how Manila’s rice trading mechanism is indelibly linked to farmers’ lifestyle.

The World Trade Organization's Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices held a meeting with WTO members recently to present feedback on 30 anti-dumping actions taken during 2011, and to hear nations' current trade policy concerns.

GENEVA - After almost a decade of major economic transformation, the Lao People's Democratic Republic is on the brink of World Trade Organization (WTO) membership. The small country's Herculean effort to join the exclusive trade club is a reminder to the 10 other least-developed countries (LDCs) now seeking membership of the cumbersome process involved.

When the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and European Union (EU) held a meeting in Brunei on April 27, emphasis was laid on the on-going negotiation of free trade agreements (FTAs) between the two regions. Economic and trade relations were said to have featured prominently during the meeting, with an emphasis on implementing the ASEAN-EU Trade and Investment Work Programme and on the importance of the bilateral FTA talks between individual ASEAN member states and the EU as building blocks for a region-to-region FTA.

SAN JOSE, April 30 (Xinhua) -- China has given the green light to imports of Costa Rican meat, Agriculture Minister Gloria Abraham said Sunday. Speaking at an agribusiness expo in northern Costa Rica, Abraham said three meat processing plants that met the requirements of China and secured certification now have gained entry into the Chinese market.