As emerging Asian economies facilitate growth in the region and increasingly stand out as important players in global trade, the United States appears intent on getting its own share of the pie in the form of taking a leadership role in the Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade framework.

MOSCOW, Nov 3 (Reuters) - Russia is on the verge of ending its 18-year wait to join the World Trade Organization after accepting a trade deal with Georgia, the last big obstacle to membership of a club that will seal its integration into the global economy.

While South Korea’s main opposition Democratic Party (DP) is still blocking the passage of the South Korea–United States free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) in a parliamentary committee, opposition is now centred on the agreement’s investor-state dispute (ISD) settlement clause. The DP had aready been demanding that the agreement should be re-balanced. The party believes that, following its renegotiation last December, the treaty is now too favourable to the US, and that it should be further renegotiated.

JAKARTA, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia planned to stop importing salt for consumption next year as the national production would reach 1.4 million tons, or exceeding national need on salt for consumption at 1.2 million tons, an Indonesian official said here on Thursday. Sudirman Saad, Coastal and Small Islands Director General at Maritime and Fishery ministry said that the plan to stop the import on consumption salt has been agreed in a ministerial meeting led by Coordinating Economy Minister Hatta Radjasa.

After 18 years of on-again off-again negotiations, this past week Russia cleared some of the last hurdles standing in the way of becoming a full-fledged member of the World Trade Organization.

HANOI, Nov. 2 (Xinhua) -- The European Chamber of Commerce ( EuroCham) in Vietnam held a seminar to update information for exports to the European Union (EU) market in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday, reported Vietnam News Agency. The event was in the framework of the project to enhance trade policy-related capability for Vietnamese businesses, and under the EU-Vietnam Multilateral Trade Assistance Project in Phase 3 ( Mutrap III).

The Czech government is indicating it could delay the ratification of a Canada-EU free trade agreement, a deal that would be larger in scope than the North American Free Trade Agreement, if the Canadian government doesn’t scrap a visa requirement it imposed on Czech citizens in 2009. This is the latest in a series of European diplomatic moves that use the trade deal as leverage to pressure Canada to trash its Czech visa requirement.

China has welcomed the findings of the World Trade Organisation's Dispute Settlement Body that the European Union's application of anti-dumping duties contravened trade law, in a recent judgment partially in favour of the nation. The Panel said that the European Union had incorrectly applied calculating methodologies, in contravention of WTO clauses, upon placing anti-dumping duties on the import of Chinese-made shoes.

Oct 30 (Reuters) - Swiss Foreign Minister Micheline Calmy-Rey told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday she is hopeful Russia could join the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December. "I hope that our discussion today will be fruitful and the results will allow Russia to enter the WTO by the end of the year, in December," Calmy-Rey told Medvedev in his residence just outside Moscow. Medvedev responded by saying Russia "also very much wants that". October 30, 2011

The United States Trade Representative Ron Kirk used a recent speech at the US Chamber of Commerce to emphasize the focus that the Administration is putting on trade relations with the Asia-Pacific, because “that is where the world’s most dynamic economies are expanding rapidly and creating significant opportunities to increase US exports and jobs". He was looking forward particularly to next month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Economic Leaders’ Summit and the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations.