KAMPALA, UGANDA - Ten years ago, in the Qatari capital of Doha, member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO), launched the Doha Round of negotiations.

The Harper government should bite the political bullet and agree to start dismantling the controversial supply-management system for dairy, poultry and egg farmers to boost Canada’s access to robust Asia-Pacific markets, analysts said Wednesday. The Harper government should bite the political bullet and agree to start dismantling the controversial supply-management system for dairy, poultry and egg farmers to boost Canada’s access to robust Asia-Pacific markets, analysts said Wednesday.

Canada and Mexico won a trade case against a U.S. law on meat labeling on Friday, in a move that may boost shipments of cattle and hogs to the United States. A World Trade Organization dispute panel agreed with their complaint that mandatory U.S. labeling laws were too stringent, giving U.S. livestock an unfair advantage over imports from Mexico and Canada. The panel said the U.S. rules, called country of origin labeling, or COOL, violated WTO rules on technical barriers to trade.

A third round of negotiations has been held in Montreux, Switzerland, on a free trade agreement (FTA) between China and Switzerland. FTA negotiations between the two countries were officially launched in Davos in January 2011, with the first round negotiation being held in April in Bern and the second round in July in Xi'an, China. Both governments have expressed their belief that the FTA would contribute to increased bilateral trade and economic exchanges, and have underlined their wish to see the negotiations proceed swiftly.

Bolivia Friday reiterated its definite rejection to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the United States due to great trade imbalance between the two countries. "We can't sign, under any arguments, a Free Trade Agreement with the United States because it means a plunder of our natural and productive resources, besides the great commercial differences we have," said the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs David Choquehuanca. "We have to defend the interests of our country and businessmen, an FTA should benefit the Bolivians and not drain us," he said.

Dhaka, Nov 15 (bdnews24.com)—The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has imposed conditions on flood-hit Pakistan in allowing duty-free entry of 75 products into the market of the European Union (EU) countries. WTO gave Pakistan the opportunity to increase export of 13 of the 75 products up to 20 percent in two years, trade secretary Golam Hossain told reporters on Tuesday. Bangladesh had objection about eight of the 13 products, he said and added that two were dropped from the list. The six were readymade garment products.

Following talks on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Meeting in Honolulu, the countries negotiating the proposed extension to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam – announced they had reached the broad outlines of an agreement.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) has published comprehensive details of the tax and trade commitments made by Russia as part of its accession bid, due to be deliberated upon at the WTO Ministerial Plenary in December at which Russia is tipped to be granted membership to the global trade body.

The United States on Sunday welcomed Canada and Mexico’s willingness to join negotiations on a Pacific free trade accord. "The United States welcomes the interest of Canada and Mexico, our neighbors and largest export markets, in seeking to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said in a statement. "We look forward to initiating consultations with them and with Congress and our domestic stakeholders and to discussing the TPP’s high standards for liberalizing trade and specific issues of concern to the United States," he added.

This weekend’s APEC Leaders’ Summit concluded with a bold announcement on progress with a broad outline of, and framework for, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. The TPP is the first trade agreement which President Obama did not inherit from his predecessors, and it is seen as a means of keeping the US engaged in Asia. Understandably then, the pressure to show that progress had been achieved at the Honolulu summit was on everyone’s mind.