GENEVA — The WTO is expected Thursday to partly uphold an EU complaint against decades of US state support for aircraft maker Boeing which it is claimed meant billions of dollars in lost sales for rival Airbus. The ruling, a second key part in the bruising dispute between two of the world's biggest trading powers and their dominant aircraft makers, was released confidentially to US and EU authorities on January 31. Neither of the state parties in the dispute have commented so far.

SEOUL, March 31 (Xinhua) -- South Korea's oil product exports surged 63.5 percent on-year in February due to higher crude oil prices, the government said Thursday. Overseas shipments of oil products, including gasoline, diesel, kerosene, naphtha and Bunker-C oil, reached 3.47 billion U.S. dollars in February, up 63.5 percent from 2.12 billion dollars a year earlier, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy said. Refined oil products were the fourth-largest export item for the country last month, following ships, semiconductors and petrochemicals.

China launched an appeal at the World Trade Organization in a case against the European Union on Wednesday, saying a WTO ruling had not gone far enough in its favour, people familiar with the lawsuit said. The move comes less than a week after the EU appealed the same ruling, in which the WTO found the European Union broke international law in the way it set import duties on Chinese-made screws and bolts used mainly in cars, white goods and machinery.

MEXICO (Xinhua) -- The governments of Mexico and Britain agreed on Tuesday to strengthen economic ties between the two countries. Mexican President Felipe Calderon and Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said the common goal of the two countries is to double the bilateral trade flow to more than 6.8 billion U.S. dollars by 2015. "The objective is to double the trade in the next years," Clegg said at a joint press conference held with Calderon.

(Reuters) - A senior Democratic lawmaker on Tuesday urged the Obama administration to prod Republicans into action on a free trade pact with South Korea by "immediately" sending Congress a draft implementing bill. "Congress should approve the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement before Memorial Day," Representative Sander Levin said at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

By honoring its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO), China has made an above-average contribution to the Doha round of world trade talks, Chinese ambassador to the WTO Yi Xiaozhun said here Tuesday. "China is open to any form of negotiations, as long as those negotiations respect the development demand, build on the progress achieved and center around the multilateral process," Yi said at a WTO Informal Trade Negotiation Committee meeting intended to give a fresh momentum to the decade-long Doha round

BUENOS AIRES (Xinhua) -- The governments of Argentina and Venezuela on Tuesday signed a package of agreements on furthering bilateral trade. "The agreements will allow us to considerably increase Argentine sales to Venezuela," said Argentine Industry Minister Debora Giorgi after meeting with her Venezuelan counterpart Edmee Betancourt. Under the agreements, Venezuela will import 16,900 cars worth 200 million U.S. dollars from Argentina during the remainder of 2011. The trade deal is expected to help boost exports by 30 percent by the Argentine manufacturing sector.

According to the Swiss Federal Administration, Switzerland and the European Union (EU) have recently initiated negotiations on an agreement governing closer cooperation between their competition authorities. The administration notes in its release that the main objective of this bilateral agreement is to facilitate implementation of cartel law provisions on both sides. Negotiations will also include the question of exchanging confidential information, the administration adds.

KATHMANDU, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Nepal requested South Asian countries to reduce tariff on their products during the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA) working committee meeting that started here Monday. Nepal urged Bangladesh to remove 121 products, Pakistan 86 products, Sri lanka 128 products, and Afghanistan 11 products from the Sensitive List, according to the participants of the meeting. Similarly, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri lanka requested Nepal to reduce tariffs on various products from Sensitive List.

Russian crude oil export duty is set to hit a two and a half year high after the government's monthly calculation alteration added an extra 16.08% to the rate.