The fourth round of negotiations towards a 'Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement' between the European Free Trade Association states and Indonesia concluded on March 29, 2012. Three-day negotiations made progress on a broad range of issues, EFTA reported, including on technical cooperation and capacity building. It was agreed to continue the fast pace of negotiations, which began with a first round on January 31, 2011, with meetings to reconvene for a fifth round of negotiations in July 2012.

BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhuanet) -- China's decision to cut import tariffs, against the backdrop of lurking protectionism in "too many" countries, has been hailed by the World Trade Organization. "At a time when too many governments are reverting to trade restrictive measures, news of China's market-opening initiative is most welcome," WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said in an interview with China Daily in Brussels. Rockwell was speaking after China announced a package of measures cutting import tariffs last week.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is moving ahead with cooperative efforts to evaluate and identify initiatives to support freer, faster and more beneficial trade in the region that will lead ultimately, it is hoped, to a Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific (FTAAP).

HCM CITY — The Viet Nam Exporters Association (VEXA) has called on Vietnamese businesses to participate in the Turkey World Trade Bridge (TWTB) exhibition held June 3-10 in Istanbul. The week-long event aims to promote trade and investment ties between Turkey and other countries.

Japanese and European Union authorities are likely to conclude preliminary talks for a future trade accord within weeks, business leaders of the two sides said Wednesday. The so-called scoping exercise, aimed at identifying matters of mutual concern and interest related to a free-trade agreement, will conclude "probably in weeks," Arianespace Chairman Jean-Yves Le Gall said at a news conference in Tokyo following a two-day meeting of the EU-Japan Business Round Table.

New Delhi: India, China and Thailand are among the fastest-growing markets for exports from the least-developed countries (LDCs), WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy has said. “Three of the five fastest-growing markets for LDC exports are regional partners- China, India and Thailand,” World Trade Organisation (WTO) website quoted Lamy as saying.

HANOI, April 4 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam should establish a commercial border trust fund (CBTF) with support from donors and technical assistance to provide preferential trust loans and training for commercial banks in lending loans to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

During his speech to the European Union (EU) – Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Business Summit in Phnom Penh on April 1, Karel De Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, stressed that a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) was needed between the two regions.

Dubai The World Trade Organisation (WTO) yesterday urged the UAE to liberalise its foreign investment regime and scrap laws that give local companies a monopoly in the sale and distribution of foreign branded goods. In a statement following the conclusion of the UAE’s second Trade Policy Review (TPR) with the WTO — six years after the first review in 2006 — WTO officials stressed that changes to the Commercial Companies and Commercial Agencies Law were still needed.

(Reuters) - Argentina came under a barrage of criticism at the World Trade Organization on Friday, where the United States, European Union, Japan and 10 other countries accused it of tying up imports in red tape. Argentina's center-left government has imposed a raft of sometimes unorthodox import restrictions in recent years as it battles to shield local industry and its trade surplus, which shrank 11 percent in 2011 to $10.4 billion.