(Reuters) - The euro zone crisis will continue to hamper African countries' trade and economic growth because of the continent's dependence on exporting to European markets, the World Trade Organization chief said on Saturday. "The European economic slowdown is a problem for Africa," WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy told a news conference on the margins of an African Union conference for trade ministers in the Ghanaian capital. Lamy said there could be a significant decline in the growth of African economies if the euro zone crisis continued to worsen.

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economy Hatta Rajasa said Friday that the government forecasts trade volume between Indonesia and Germany will double to reach 12 billion U.S. dollar by 2015. Both countries have great potential to boost bilateral trade cooperation given the fact that Germany and other European countries had seen a high economic growth in Asia region recently, the minister said. Germany's economy was still dynamic amid a widespread debt crisis over other European nations, said Hatta.

The European Union spelled out on Friday 36 steps it had taken to comply with a ruling by a panel of the WTO's dispute settlement body (DSB) against illegal subsidies for planemaker Airbus. "As a result of this review, the European Union has adopted a course of action that addresses all forms of adverse effects, all categories of subsidies, and all models of Airbus aircraft covered by the DSB's recommendations and rulings," it said.

Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging an investigation into Chinese solar imports, which they say don’t fairly compete with domestic products. Imports of Chinese solar products have increased 350 percent from 2008 to 2010, according to the letter today provided by Bonn-based SolarWorld AG, which filed a trade complaint Oct. 19.

Commerce Minister Chen Deming said Friday that China-U.S. trade rose 17 percent year-on-year to reach 363 billion U.S. dollars in the first ten months of the year. The increase led to China and the United States becoming each other's second-largest trading partners, Chen said at a dinner held by the American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham-China). Trade between China and the United States will likely exceed 400 billion U.S. dollars in 2011 and the figure will further increase in 2012 according to forecasts from the ministry and customs authorities, Chen said.

A free trade agreement (FTA) with the European Union (EU) will create jobs and economic growth for all regions of Canada, the minister in charge has said, welcoming a report from small and medium-sized enterprises endorsing the negotiations.

Indonesia's exports in October increased by 16.17 percent to 16.80 billion U.S. dollars year on year, the country's Statistic Bureau announced here on Thursday. Deputy for Distribution and Services of the Statistic Bureau named only Djamal said that non-oil and gas exports rose by 20.33 percent to 13.907 billion U.S. dollars, and oil and gas exports by 1.94 percent to 2.897 billion U.S. dollars.

(Reuters) - A dispute over government aid for aircraft rivals Airbus and Boeing Co enters a delicate stage on Thursday as Europe faces a deadline to tell the United States how it is eliminating billions of dollars in subsidies struck down by the World Trade Organization. "It is by a huge margin the most commercially significant case the United States has ever prosecuted at the WTO," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a speech on Wednesday at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Appellate Body, in a public notice, moved the release of its final report from Nov. 22 to Dec. 22 -- almost two months after the Philippines appealed the initial ruling on the dispute with the US and the European Union (EU). “Due to the time required for completion and translation of the Reports, the Appellate Body will not be able to circulate its Reports by Tuesday, 22 November 2011. We estimate that the Appellate Body Reports in this appeal will be circulated to WTO Members no later than Thursday, 22 December 2011,” the notice read.

VNEconomyNews.com - Vietnam and South Korea will start negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) early next year with an aim to create more business opportunities for enterprises of the two countries, Korean officials said on Tuesday. Kim Deok Ku, deputy director of FTA Division under the Ministry of Knowledge Economy, said on the sidelines of a conference on ASEAN-South Korea FTA on Tuesday that his country had completed a feasibility study for an FTA with Vietnam. The agreement is planned to be discussed early next year, he added.