BRUSSELS—Georgia offered Russia new conditions on accepting its bid to join the World Trade Organization, Sergi Kapanadze, the Georgian deputy minister of foreign affairs, said Wednesday. "We think, we hope we will be able to proceed" with Russian accession to the 153-nation body, Mr. Kapanadze said in a phone interview from Geneva, where he is leading his country's delegation in meetings with Russian diplomats. "We are now in the endgame of this."

House Speaker John Boehner (R - Ohio) has called on the US government to review its trade relationship with Russia, and consider wielding its influence in Russian WTO accession talks to achieve an acceptable compromise for Georgia. “Russia is eyeing, with the Administration’s assistance, entry into the World Trade Organization. This would require Congress to approve permanent normal trade relations. There are, however, significant outstanding commercial issues which must be addressed,” Boehner said in a speech at the Heritage Foundation.

The World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Wednesday that downside risks and uncertainties for the global economy are now growing, global activity is slowing down, economic performance continues to be uneven across countries, high debt levels and financial volatility are rising, high unemployment levels persist in many countries, and confidence has fallen sharply recently. “These risks are aggravated by perceptions in markets that governments’ responses to these challenges have been inadequate so far”, said the WTO in a recent report.

(Reuters) - The United States hopes to persuade China and other Asia-Pacific countries to agree on a deal to tear down barriers to trade in environmental goods and services when regional leaders meet next month in Hawaii, the top U.S. trade official said on Wednesday. "What we're pushing for is a voluntary commitment that would look at a basket of issues ... and commit to kind of a combined tariff rate of 5 percent," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told a business group.

Following the approval by the United States of its free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea, Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda is attempting to accelerate a decision by Japan on whether to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

NANNING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The eighth China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Expo closed in the city of Nanning in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region on Wednesday, with economic ties and mutual trust greatly enhanced between China and the 10-member ASEAN. "This expo has made new contributions toward friendly exchanges and economic cooperation between China and ASEAN countries," Zheng Junjian, secretary-general of the China-ASEAN Expo Secretariat, said at a press conference held after the closing ceremony.

BEIJING, Oct. 26 (Xinhua) -- The China Chamber of International Commerce (CCOIC) on Wednesday appealed to the U.S. government not to launch anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into Chinese-made solar panels after U.S. solar product makers filed a probe application. If the United States is to take action on Chinese new energy products, it will negatively affect both the Chinese and U.S. solar industries, as well as the global solar industry, said Wang Xiaokang, vice chairman of the CCOIC and chairman of the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov sees no tragedy if Russia will not join the World Trade Organization before the end of the year. Addressing reporters on the sidelines of the Finnish Business in Moscow forum on Tuesday, he aid that Russia had virtually completed its WTO accession talks with the European Union and the United States.

Delegations from the four European Free Trade Association states (Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Iceland and Norway), and India have met for a ninth round of negotiations towards a broad-based free trade agreement. Building on work since the last round of negotiations in June, EFTA said that significant progress was made on most parts of a future comprehensive trade pact.

Oct 25 (Reuters) - China triggered a court case against the United States at the World Trade Organization on Tuesday, arguing that U.S. anti-dumping measures on imports of diamond saw blades and frozen warm-water shrimp were invalid. The case was detailed in court papers obtained by Reuters. The United States has previously placed anti-dumping duties on imports of the products from China, claiming that they are deliberately priced below the market and killing off U.S. competition.