VNEconomyNews.com - Vietnam’s exports to the EU do not match with their potential, said Nguyen Canh Cuong, deputy head of the Trade Promotion Department, at a dialogue in Da Nang on July 2. Exports to the EU reached US$15 billion in 2010 and increased by 18 percent in the first half of this year. The figure is low because many provinces and cities have neglected this potentially significant market. Economic experts said that essential products such as garments, children’s toys, footwear, arts and handicraft products are Vietnam’s strengths for penetrating EU markets.

NEW DELHI: The United States has alleged that restrictions imposed by India on export of cotton has contributed to global price volatility and its appropriateness should be discussed at the World Trade Organization, but India maintains that the restrictions fall outside the purview of the multilateral trade body.

Representatives of many companies in the U.S. apparel industry agreed here on Friday that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade agreement should boost trade in the apparel industry first.

Taipei, July 2 (CNA) Around 1,500 Taiwanese products are facing a growing threat from South Korean exports in the European market as a result of a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) between the European Union and South Korea, which took effect July 1, economic officials said Saturday. In its FTA talks with other countries, the EU is expected to hold up its agreement with South Korea as a model because of its wide scope, officials of the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) said.

ASUNCION, Paraguay, June 30 (UPI) — Latin America’s Mercosur trade bloc is impatient for progress on free-trade talks with the European Union to lead to an early agreement, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said. Brazil has been in the forefront of Mercosur pronouncements on the increasingly contentious talks for reaching a free-trade pact. The negotiations are snagged on European farm industries’ fears about a flood of Latin American produce and Mercosur partners’ often mercurial behavior toward European exports to the region.

HA NOI — The country's energised coffee sector enjoyed significant growth to most export markets in the first six months of the year. Belgium, the second largest consumer of Vietnamese coffee after the US, for example imported US$178.5 million worth of coffee, marking a six-fold increase over the same period last year.

The EU and ASEAN states have been discussing the possibility of signing a Free Trade Agreement since 2007. Thankfully, the Indonesian government has decided that another one to two years is needed to fully investigate the effects of the FTA before signing.

During a meeting with South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak, the parliamentary opposition leader, Sohn Hak-kyu, has insisted that the text of the South Korea-United States free trade agreement (KORUS FTA) should be renegotiated. Originally signed in 2007, protracted negotiations last December had permitted both sides to declare that they had successfully resolved all of the outstanding issues surrounding the KORUS FTA, particularly with regard to concerns then being expressed by the US motor industry.

Non-tariff barriers (NTBs) are still the biggest stumbling block to countries raising current low levels of intra-regional trade. Low income levels within individual SADC (Southern African Development Community) member states and adverse geography have also emerged as the biggest drawback to intra-regional trade.

ASUNCION (Kyodo) — Japan proposed Wednesday launching a dialogue with Mercosur, the four-nation South American trade bloc, to boost economic relations and explore the possibility of signing a free trade agreement. Foreign Minister Takeaki Matsumoto said in a speech to the Mercosur summit in the Paraguayan capital Asuncion that it is "high time to move forward on mutually complementary bilateral ties and establish a new win-win relationship."