Companies and investors in Singapore and Australia are now to have greater certainty in their investments, and protection of their intellectual property rights (IPR), following a review and amendments to the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA).

Following his meeting with Lee Hsien Loong, prime minister of Singapore, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso confirmed that the ongoing negotiations on a free trade agreement (FTA) with the Asian country are on track and “can be finalised successfully very soon”. The talks were launched in March 2010 and, according to EU sources, are “moving forward with a good pace”. Both sides aim at concluding them before the end of 2011.

(Reuters) - The United States was entitled to impose extra safeguard duties on imports of Chinese tires, the World Trade Organization's top court said on Monday, upholding a ruling made in December 2010. The United States imposed the 35 percent duties in September 2009 after the United Steelworkers union complained that surging Chinese imports were hurting U.S. producers. WTO rules allow members to impose temporary extra tariffs on goods to counter a destabilizing flood of imports.

Brazil's Foreign Minister Antonio de Aguiar Patriota said on Sunday he hoped Russia would enter the World Trade Organization (WTO) this year. "Brazil and Russia are countries which develop fast from economic point of view, they rapidly recovered from the crisis. We expect economic growth in 2011 and Russia's entering to the WTO till the end of the year," Patriota told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during the meeting.

VNEconomyNews.com - Foreign importers continuously contact to place orders, but this does not make Vietnamese exporters happy: they do not have tra fish to sell. Just a couple of weeks ago, farmers cried about the tra fish unsaleability, especially oversize fish. The tra fish prices dropped dramatically, while merchants, who supplied fish to processing workshops, refused to collect fish from farmers

SEOUL (Yonhap) — Rival parties agreed Thursday to begin the ratification process for the long-pending free trade agreement with the United States at the same pace with the U.S. Congress, officials said. The last-minute compromise averted a feared clash between the rival parties. Opposition lawmakers had hinted at the possibility of using force to block the bill’s introduction at a parliamentary committee if the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) unilaterally pushed for it.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and chief ministers of eastern and northeastern states will push for a thaw in relations with Bangladesh by talking trade next week. And trade with Bangladesh invariably means textiles. Instead of addressing Bangladesh as a rival in export markets, the government wants to give it access to our markets, without charging duties. This gesture faces opposition from domestic textile-makers who say this will be a major blow.

WINDHOEK, Sep 1 (IPS) - It is not certain that an African free trade area will further regional integration or deepen the existing inequality between countries. For the past year and a half the African tripartite free trade area (FTA) has dominated the economic agenda in South and East Africa.

(Reuters) - Fifty economists have written to ask U.S. President Barack Obama to "step up to the plate" on World Trade and champion a last gasp deal on the moribund Doha round of world trade talks. The letter was drafted by Jagdish Bhagwati, a professor at Columbia University, and signed by economists based in the United States, Canada, Europe, Australia, Singapore and Japan, as well as three former trade ministers and a former president of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo.

SEOUL, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- South Korean lawmakers agreed Thursday to begin the process of endorsing the bilateral trade agreement with the United States in tandem with the U.S. Congress, media reports said. The ruling Grand National Party was expected to push the ratification bill through the parliamentary trade committee Thursday, but the last-minute agreement with the main opposition Democratic Party prevented a physical clash many foresaw.