HCM CITY — The Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) is compiling a draft decree to deal with problems relating to the management of coffee exports. The decree would require exporters to meet specific conditions such as having legal trading certification, exporting at least 5,000 tonnes of coffee a year for two consecutive years, having standard processing and warehousing facilities to store at least 5,000 tonnes of coffee, and meeting financial transparency standards.

SEOUL, Oct. 24 (Yonhap) — South Korea and Indonesia agreed to significantly boost their economic ties, a move that will include the signing of a free trade deal at an early date, the Seoul government said Monday. The countries have also agreed to seek what they called joint "mega projects" that will symbolize their economic cooperation and Seoul’s support for the economic development of the Southeast Asian country, according to the Ministry of Knowledge Economy. The agreements came at a Seoul meeting of the countries’ joint task force for economic cooperation.

Representatives for Canada and the European Union (EU) have concluded a 'productive' ninth round of talks toward a free trade agreement, with progress made in the core market access areas of goods, services, investment and government procurement.

The government is trying to accelerate its decision on whether to join multilateral negotiations for a Pacific-wide trade pact while compiling a package to support the nation’s farmers, who fear being inundated by cheap imports if Japan decides to enter the pact. The United States and South Korea finalized a free-trade accord earlier this month, putting additional pressure on Japan to open its markets by joining the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and supporting its he flagging economy by expanding exports.

The membership of the United States in the World Trade Organization (WTO) has made it nearly impossible for the U.S. to instate trade policies that are in the best interest of the country. In fact, the United States loses 9 out of 10 cases that are brought against it in the WTO.

BRUSSELS, October 22, 2011 - The EU’s Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht yesterday announced that the last remaining bilateral issues for the EU in Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation have been resolved. "We have struck a deal on the final outstanding bilateral issues, leaving the way open for Russia to join the WTO by the end of this year.

At a recent summit meeting in Seoul, the South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and the Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda have agreed to resume working-level discussions on negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) between the two countries. The two countries launched negotiations on a bilateral FTA in December 2003. They held six rounds of such talks, before the dialogue was broken off after November 2004. What were called “working-level” talks also took place during the year after June 2008, with little success being disclosed.

Although Russia has intensified its efforts to join the WTO by the end of 2011, membership remains elusive. This may have direct implications for Russia’s timid free trade undertakings in the Asia Pacific and elsewhere.The ongoing free trade agreement (FTA) negotiations with New Zealand have been mostly in parallel with the WTO accession talks, while an FTA with Vietnam is in an initial exploratory phase.

BEIJING, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce on Friday said that it regretted and was deeply concerned about anti-dumping and anti-subsidy probe applications by several U.S. solar product makers which asked the U.S. government to investigate Chinese exports of solar panels. A senior official with the Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports of the ministry told Xinhua that China currently registered a trade deficit of 1.88 billion U.S. dollars with the U.S. in the trade of solar products and the raw materials and equipment in making clean energy products.

Oct 21 (Reuters) - European Union proposals to rank Canadian oil sands as a highly polluting fuel can probably be defended if Ottawa challenges the move at the World Trade Organization (WTO), legal advisers to the EU's executive have said. "The Commission's Legal Service has provided reassurance that the greenhouse gas methodology set out in the implementing directive... may probably be defended in the case of a challenge before the WTO," said a letter sent to EU government experts by the bloc's executive, seen by Reuters on Friday.