BRUSSELS, Sept 22 (Reuters) - The European Union hopes to sign a trade deal with Ukraine and open trade talks with Georgia by the end of the year despite concerns over energy policy, farm goods and corruption, an EU trade official said on Thursday. The deal with Ukraine is designed to stimulate trade already worth an estimated 22 billion euros ($30 billion) a year while contacts with Georgia would launch negotiations for a free-trade pact.

BEIJING, Sept. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- Trade volume between China and the Middle East last year surged to 190 billion U.S. dollars, Jiang Zengwei, vice commerce minister said at the "2011 China International Muslim Entrepreneurs Forum" held in Yinchuan. In the first half of the year 2011, the trade volume increased by 36 percent year-on-year to hit 120 billion dollar mark, Jiang said. The Entrepreneurs Forum is one of the most important event at the 2nd China-Arab States Economic and Trade Forum, which attracts more than 200 participants from 47 countries and regions.

Sept. 21 (Bloomberg) -- China said the nation’s duties on American poultry are “in line” with rules by the World Trade Organization after the U.S. filed a complaint with the trade arbiter about the Chinese taxes. The complaint targets Chinese anti-dumping and countervailing duties on American poultry products, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told reporters yesterday. A request for consultations is the first step in the case, and the U.S. and China must now hold talks for at least two months in a bid to resolve the dispute.

A World Trade Organisation (WTO) has backed Mexico in a dispute with the USA over trade barriers imposed on Mexican tuna imports. The WTO panel ruled that Mexican fishermen’s fishing methods are sustainable and meet the requirements of the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) in the protection of dolphins. The WTO has released a report issued by the panel that reviewed a complaint filed by Mexico regarding US measures concerning tuna and tuna product import, marketing and sale.

HCM CITY — The US is taking steps to increase bilateral trade with Viet Nam by adding 14 economic specialists to the US embassy and Consulate in the country, according to the assistant secretary for the US Commerce for Trade Promotion, Suresh Kumar. Speaking at a media briefing in HCM City yesterday, Suresh Kumar told Vietnamese businesses to take advantage of their consultation to learn more about the US's import requirements. He noted that after a bilateral trade agreement between the two countries was signed in 2001, bilateral trade reached US$2 billion.

(Reuters) - The European Union and China could begin talks next month on a formal treaty setting out investment rules between the two trading powers, the EU's trade chief said on Tuesday. "I hope that on October 26, when we have the EU-China summit ... we will be able to launch these negotiations or at least to come to come to agreement in principle to do so," EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht told a seminar of EU business executives and officials. The EU and China have been considering how to formalise rules governing investment flows between them.

(Reuters) - U.S. trade officials will announce a major trade enforcement action against China on Tuesday, according to an advisory from the U.S. Trade Representative's office. The advisory, which was obtained from a business group, said U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk "will hold a press conference to announce a major trade enforcement action against China." It gave no other details. One possible action could target China's export restrictions on rare earths, which are crucial for global electronics production and the defense and renewable energy industries.

China briefly stopped exports of rare earth elements to Japan last year following a maritime collision near Diaoyu/Senkaku islands and the subsequent political fallout. The reaction from Japan and other major buyers was alarm and protest as the metals are crucial to high-tech industries and China supplies over 90 per cent of rare earths globally (holding an estimated 37 per cent of the world’s reserves).

ASUNCION, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Paraguay ordered an immediate ban on beef exports Monday after detecting foot-and-mouth disease in the rural farming district of San Pedro, about 400 km north of the capital Asuncion. The discovery was made while testing 13 cows at a farm in San Pedro, according to a team of inspectors from Paraguay's National Animal Health Inspectorate (Senacsa), raising concern in the South American country's livestock industry as to the scale of impact.

Thailand will soon launch free-trade negotiations with Pakistan, pursuing its second bilateral pact with a South Asian nation following an existing agreement with India. Thailand and Pakistan are in the process of setting up a Joint Trade Committee (JTC) to strengthen trade ties, said Srirat Rastapana, director-general of the Trade Negotiations Department. "The prospects for a bilateral trade pact are high. Pakistan is a potential market for Thai exports and we should see closer economic cooperation in the near future," she said.