India may agree in the WTO negotiations to cut tariff in specific sectors in which the country is, anyway, slashing duties under Free Trade Agreements with different countries and blocs, a Commerce Ministry official said today. In the government-industry consultations here, an indication was given that India may show some flexibility on a demand from the industrialized nations that the developing world should agree for zero or close-to-zero duties on their imports of specific goods.

The value of world merchandise trade was 22% higher in the first quarter of 2011 compared to the same period of 2010, according to WTO figures released on 1 June 2011.These short-term “value” figures should not be confused with the annual trade growth figures headlined in the 7 April 2011 press release, which are “volume” data using “constant dollars” with inflation taken into account.

TOKYO, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Japan and the Republic of Peru on Tuesday signed a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) which will promote the liberalization and facilitation of trade and investment between the two countries. According to the agreement, the new pact, which will come into effect once ratified by the Diet of Japan and Congress of Peru, will eliminate tariffs on more than 99 percent of the value of goods traded between both countries, within a 10 year timeframe.

SEOUL, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has become the second largest trade partner of South Korea four years after a bilateral free trade agreement took effect, the foreign ministry said Tuesday. Two-way trade volume between the two totaled 106.8 billion U.S. dollars as of May this year, second highest only to China, according to the ministry. Before the agreement that went into effect in June 2007, ASEAN, comprising ten countries, was South Korea's fifth largest trade partner.

Mexico said Sunday the fifth round of negotiations for forming a single free trade agreement (FTA) with Central America ended with important progress on various issues. The most prominent achievements were made on issues such as market access, the ease of the trade and the technical obstacles to trade, the Economic Ministry said in a statement. There were also important progress on trade mark, trade defense, government purchases and solution of trade differences. The sixth round of the talks will be held in August in El Salvador, the ministry said.

Mexico, like Korea, is a country heavily dependent on exports to sustain its economic growth, but the two countries are currently not seeing eye-to-eye over a possible trade deal. For both countries, it is not as simple as previous free trade agreements signed with other economies. Only recently has Korea entered the free trade agreement game while Mexico has signed FTAs with more than 50 countries, including Japan, putting more than 90 percent of its trade under free trade agreements.

GENEVA - Member states at the World Trade Organization are looking at moving stalled Doha free trade talks forward by first agreeing on areas specific to the poorest states, the trade body's chief said on Tuesday."Priority should be given to LDC (least developed countries) issues," Pascal Lamy, WTO director-general said after consultations with member states."These LDC specific issues should be put on a fast track," Lamy said.The world trade chief said at the end of April that the Doha round of global talks aimed at expanding free trade was on the brink of failure.

Exports of Vietnamese farm produce to Japan will see sharp increases if domestic businesses take advantage of the Vietnam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA).In 2010, the export turnover of Vietnamese agricultural, forestry, and aquatic products hit a record high of US$19.5 billion. The export value of these products to Japan alone reached US$1.5 billion, up 18 percent.Taking advantage of the VJEPA

Thailand and nine foreign embassies have urged the US to extend tax privileges after they expired early this year, costing their exporters more than Bt2 billions in higher duties.The move came after exporters filed a complaint to the Thai Trade Representative in the US saying they have lost export competitiveness in the US market after the US Congress did not extendthe US generalized system of preferences to Thailand and the nine other exporting nations.

In sync with several other major economies, India initiated less number of anti-dumping probes against imports between October, 2010 and April 2011, according to a joint report of the multilateral agencies.India launched 15 anti-dumping investigations during this period as against 20 in the same months (October 2009 to April 2010) of earlier period, the report of the World Trade Organization, OECD and UNCTAD said.