Vehicle importers are urging the government to implement the scheduled tariff cuts under the Asean free trade agreements (FTAs) with China and Korea. Fe Perez-Agudo, president of the Association of Vehicle Importers and Distributors (AVID), said the group has submitted a position to implement the scheduled reduction to 20 percent from 30 percent in 2012 under Asean-Korea FTA tariffs on light commercial vehicles (LCVs). Agudo is president and chief executive of Hyundai Asia Resources Inc. (HARI), the exclusive distributor and importer of Hyundai vehicles.

It has been disclosed that Taiwan and Singapore have begun talks on a free trade agreement (FTA), which both sides are looking to complete within one year. The completion of such an agreement would represent a breakthrough for Taiwan following the signing of the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China at the end of June last year. Taiwan had looked on the ECFA as ending its isolation, hopefully leading to talks on FTAs with other Asian countries, but progress on that front has been slow.

New Delhi, May 27 (PTI) 

(Reuters) - The World Trade Organization has ruled against some U.S. labeling regulations for meat sold in supermarkets, saying they discriminate against foreign suppliers, people close to the case said on Thursday. The confidential interim ruling, if approved later this year, would deal a partial victory to Mexican and Canadian breeders frustrated in their attempts to export to the United States, and opens the way to scores of similar legal challenges, the sources said.

LONDON LETTER: Peter Sutherland and Jagdish Bhagwati say their review of the Doha trade talks is being published as an urgent warning of failure IN THE eyes of admirers, Peter Sutherland is one of the architects of globalisation. Today, however, he is a worried man, believing that the rules built up over decades, slowly at first and then with greater speed in the 1990s, are in danger.

HANOI, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam attracts great attention from Chinese businesses, and in return, China sees Vietnam as potential market in the future, said Dao Ngoc Chuong, Deputy Head of the Asia-Pacific Market Division, under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade (MIT).

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday he was confident Russia's 17-year attempt to join the World Trade Organization would reach a successful conclusion. Obama and Medvedev, meeting on the sidelines of a Group of Eight summit on the windswept Normandy coast, said they were committed to an agreement on missile defense. One issue that has bedevilled U.S.-Russian relations is Russia's drive to enter the World Trade Organization, which would lead to an increase in trade for both countries.

In their fourth joint leaders’ meeting, and the first since Japan’s earthquake and tsunami in March, Japan’s Prime Minister Naoto Kan, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korea’s President Lee Myung-bak have agreed to increase their efforts to conclude a tripartite free trade agreement (FTA) between their countries.

TAIPEI—A warning from a government trade council in Taiwan highlights concerns that the island has become increasingly isolated by the burgeoning network of free trade agreements connecting Asia and the rest of the world.

India's onion export dropped by over 31 per cent in 2010-11 at 12.89 million tons as compared to the previous year due to damage to the crop and ban on shipment in the later part following soaring of domestic prices of the kitchen staple. India had exported 18.73 million tons of onion in 2009-10 financial year. The sources attributed the dip in 2010-11 to damage to the crop due to unseasonal rains in main producing regions of Maharashtra and Gujarat in October-November last year.