LAHORE - SALMAN ABDUHU — The Federal government’s decision to liberalise trade with India and cabinet approval to eliminate negative list by year end are going to open country’s doors to Indian products whereas Pakistan has nothing significant to export India except raw gypsum, salt and dry fruits. As per Federal Board of Revenue, Pakistan would face revenue loss of Rs3 billion per annum after normalisation of trade with Indian especially when South Asian Free Trade Area (Safta) tariffs become operative from January 2013.

TBILISI, March 2 (Xinhua) -- Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said on Thursday that his country expects to have free trade agreement with the European Union in 2013. "We have opened free trade talks with the European Union and it is realistic that we will complete it next year. It is realistic for Georgia to have a deep and comprehensive free trade agreement with the European Union from next year," said Saakashvili.

Following a meeting last September with Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda referred to the South American country as "a neighbor" of Japan only separated by the Pacific. Now the countries are working to further shrink the distance by strengthening bilateral ties, most notably in the economic field. "We’re optimistic about (finalizing) the economic partnership agreement" between Japan and Colombia, visiting Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin told The Japan Times in an interview Feb. 23.

HCM CITY—The cashew industry has set a modest target of exporting 170,000 tonnes of cashew nuts worth US$1.5 billion this year, up 11.1 per cent over last year, as it anticipates difficulties ahead, according to the Viet Nam Cashew Association (Vinacas). Last year Viet Nam exported 166,109 tonnes of cashew nuts, earning $1.35 billion, a drop of 16.46 per cent in volume but an increase of 20.13 per cent in value. The US remained the biggest importer of Vietnamese cashews, followed by the EU and Asia. China is the largest importer of Vietnamese cashews in Asia.

JAKARTA, March 1 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia's exports showed a downward trend over the last six months as the debt crisis in Europe has trimmed the demand of emerging Asia. Head of the Statistic Bureau named only Suryamin announced on Thursday that the shipping of goods from Indonesia had decreased to 15.49 billion U.S. dollar in January from 18.81 billion U.S. dollar in August. Data from the bureau showed that exports in Sept, Oct., Nov, and Dec were 17.82 billion U.S. dollar, 16.80 billion U.S. dollar, 16.92 billion U.S. dollar and 17.20 billion U.S. dolar respectively.

BRUSSELS, Feb 29 (Reuters) - The World Trade Organization (WTO) issued confidential findings on Wednesday in one of the world's largest trade disputes, in which the European Union accuses Boeing Co of having benefited from $5.3 billion subsidies from U.S. authorities. The Geneva-based trade watchdog delivered its verdict on an appeal by the United States against a WTO ruling in March 2011 that Boeing had received multi-billion-dollar U.S. subsidies. The report is not expected to be made public for several weeks, although extracts of such findings sometimes leak out beforehand.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Wednesday urged Congress to grant permanent normal trade relations (PNTR) to Russia, a move she said would benefit American businesses. The top U.S. diplomat argued that Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) is "very much" in the interest of the kind of rules-based economic system that Washington believes benefits Americans.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 29 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. trade official Wednesday asked support from Congress to restore the government's ability to impose tariffs on subsidized products from "non-market economies" (NME). U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk urged a House panel to propose a legislation in a hearing that would empower the Department of Commerce to impose countervailing duties (CVD) on "non-market economies".

(Reuters) - Senior U.S. lawmakers said on Wednesday they hope to move quickly on a bipartisan bill to preserve the Commerce Department's ability to impose duties on subsidized goods from China, which has been placed in jeopardy by a court ruling.

AUSTRALIAN beef exporters have been caught in the fallout from a US-Korea Free Trade Agreement, which will start next month. The Korean Government has effectively put any discussions on an Australian agreement on hold because, industry sources indicate, the US agreement has created so much angst in Korea. But US beef will have a competitive tariff advantage for at least a year, and possibly longer with the stalling of Australian talks. All countries exporting beef to Korea had a 40 per cent tariff.