Twenty-four government officials from developing countries and economies in transition concluded the three-month intensive training course on 2 December 2010 at the WTO. The Patroness of the first Advanced Trade Policy Course, H.E. Ambassador Mrs. Venetia Sebudandi of Rwanda, and ITTC Director Hakim Ben Hammouda participated in the closing ceremony, with the Head of the ITTC's Geneva-based Courses Unit, Susan Hainsworth.

South Korea said the revised free trade agreement with the U.S. is mutually beneficial and won’t hurt the nation’s carmakers.The countries agreed on Dec. 3 to revise the stalled free- trade accord and change provisions for automobiles and pork. The U.S. will now end its 2.5 percent tariff on automobiles in five years, instead of immediately or after three years, as was previously agreed. South Korea will cut its 8 percent tariff on U.S. automobile imports to 4 percent immediately, instead of eliminating it entirely, according to a White House fact sheet.

BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) Friday welcomed ruling from the World Trade Organization (WTO) that the European Union (EU) anti-dumping duties on Chinese screws and bolts were discriminatory and are in violation of global commerce rules.For a long time, the EU has been requiring Chinese exporters to prove they meet with the "single duty" requirements when they are responding to anti-dumping cases, bringing a heavy burden and unfair treatment to Chinese companies, said an official with the MOC.

WASHINGTON, Dec 3 (Reuters) - South Korea has agreed to give the United States five years to phase out a 2.5 percent tariff on Korean-built cars rather than cut the tariff immediately, clearing the way for a deal on a stalled bilateral trade pact, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.An article on the newspaper's website quoted people familiar with the negotiations as saying the phase-out was intended to encourage union support when the agreement moves to Congress, where a political battle is likely.

The value of world merchandise trade was 18% higher in the third quarter of 2010 than in the same period of 2009, according to the latest WTO quarterly figures released on 1 December 2010. This marks a slowdown in comparison with the 26% increase registered in the second quarter of 2010.

When the European Union slapped crippling anti-dumping duties on Vietnamese bicycle exports in 2006, one factory’s Taiwan- based owner decided enough was enough.The company closed up shop, shutting its facility in southern Vietnam and with it, cutting 500 jobs."(The duties) really closed our factory," said Jon Edwards, chief executive officer of A&J Worldwide, a bicycle manufacturer. "It made it uncompetitive, so we had no choice but to open a new factory somewhere else."

New Delhi, Nov 24 (IANS) Even as ties between India and Pakistan remain frosty, India Wednesday told a visiting 12-member Pakistani trade delegation that Islamabad should grant New Delhi Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status and called for a five-fold increase in bilateral trade.Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao said India hoped that the Pakistan government would implement the recommendations of the Panel of Economists appointed by the Pakistan Planning Commission and urged Islamabad to accord MFN status to India.

The first round of talks between the European Union and Vietnam for a bilateral FLEGT Voluntary Partnership Agreement will be held from November 29-30 in Hanoi, said a Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development official.Tran Kim Long, deputy head of the ministry’s International Cooperation Department, was speaking outside a seminar on the impacts of a Forest Law Enforcement, Governance and Trade (FLEGT) deal on Vietnam’s wood product exports to the EU.

The European Union (EU) is very likely to pressure China on currency appreciation at the upcoming Sino-EU summit in Brussels.The EU hinted in a document released at the end of a one-day summit on Thursday that currency policy was high on the list of strategic interests the EU planned to pursue when Chinese and EU leaders meet in October."In view of the EU-China summit in particular, the European Union should actively pursue its strategic interests, (including) the dialogue on exchange rate policies," the document said.

BRUSSELS — The European Union said Thursday that it would sign a sweeping free-trade agreement with South Korea, its first with an Asian trade partner.Officials welcomed the deal as proof that protectionist pressures were being resisted despite the temptations of governments to shield their industries from competition at times of economic uncertainty.