The Committee on Safeguards, on 2 May 2011, considered 23 notifications of safeguard action led by Indonesia with seven and Ukraine with five. Indonesia said the increase in its safeguard notifications was the result of recent awareness in the domestic industry of the availability of trade remedies like safeguards to counter the negative effects of trade liberalization. It said that its notifications should be seen as a reflection of its wish to be as transparent as possible, and assured other members that its safeguard investigations would be conducted in line with WTO rules.

Despite continued opposition from the main opposition Democratic Party (DP), the ruling Grand National Party (GNP) pushed approval of the South Korea-European Union (EU) free trade agreement (FTA) through the South Korean parliament on May 5. The FTA’s passage through the National Assembly had been in doubt up to the last moment, despite the majority held by the GNP. For example, its ratification bill had been approved by the parliamentary foreign affairs and trade committee at the end of last month, but only after the government had made some concessions.

JAKARTA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- Indonesian Industrial Minister MS Hidayat said that Indonesia and the European Union (EU) would set up a joint commission tasked to discuss standards of trade commodities between the two economies, local media reported here on Thursday. Hidayat said that the discussions would set up detailed standards approved by respective authorities. According to the minister, the would-be discussed joint standards will be implemented in each commodity sector involved in trade between the two economies.

India today said it attaches priority to its strategic partnership with Japan, even as bilateral trade and investment is set to get a boost after their comprehensive market-opening pact comes into force. Bilateral trade and strategic ties between the countries came up for discussion during a meeting between India's Finance Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, and Japanese Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda here today. The two ministers were in Hanoi for the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank.

The achievements of 10 years of negotiations must not be discarded in the face of continuing Doha Round stalemate, World Trade Organization (WTO) delegates have stressed, as director general Pascal Lamy warns of talks teetering on the brink of failure.

VNEconomyNews.com - Vietnam’s wood exports generated US$1.1 billion in the first four months of the year, up 52% from same period last year, with the U.S. and European countries remaining key buyers. Meanwhile, local wood processors so far have imported US$350 million worth of timber and other materials, up 18% over the same period last year, according to the agriculture ministry.

(Reuters) - The chief of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Pascal Lamy, hailed on Monday the impending accession of small Pacific island state Vanuatu as a sign of confidence in the body at a time of turbulence. Lamy, who said last week that the WTO's Doha round of negotiations on a new global trade pact was on the edge of failure after 10 years, was speaking after a working group approved terms for Vanuatu to join.

If Vietnamese enterprises have thorough preparations, they can take full advantage of the opportunities to be brought by free trade agreements (FTA) between Vietnam and other countries in the world. Vietnam is under the negotiations for a series of FTA with countries and blocs. According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MOIT), to date, Vietnam and Chile has conducted seven negotiation sessions on a bilateral FTA. The ministry believes that it is very likely that the two sides will reach an FTA after some more negotiation sessions.

India and Australia are all set to open negotiations on free trade following a feasibility study that showed each sides would gain ASD 30 billion over 20 years from lowering barriers. According to Australian Trade Minister Craig Emerson, preliminary talks on a deal with India would kick off next week in Canberra with his visiting Indian counterpart Anand Sharma. The minister praised India government's formal agreement to begin negotiations on a free-trade agreement as a milestone in diplomatic relations.

The cooperation between Vietnam and Indonesia has been accelerated in recent years. The Jakarta Post emphasized this in an April 30 article on the growing trade ties between Vietnam and Indonesia. The newspaper cited the Indonesian Central Statistics Agency as reporting that Vietnam-Indonesia bilateral trade hit a record of US$3 billion in 2010, up 46.5 percent against 2009. In January this year, it jumped to US$326 million, up 78.4 percent from the same period of last year, it said.