Taipei, Aug. 25 (CNA) Former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg expressed support for Taiwan's inclusion in the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade bloc during a security dialogue in Taipei Tuesday. It will be in the interest of not just Taiwan, but also of the region and the world as a whole, he said, while taking questions on Taiwan's bid to join the U.S.-led trade bloc for the Asia-Pacific region.

The official statements are clear: Regional leaders and policymakers want to make the 26-member Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) the main stepping stone towards the gradual establishment of the Continental FTA (CFTA)comprising the 54 members of the African Union.

Peru's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Tourism (MINCETUR) organized a seminar recently to outline the benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). At the seminar, it was noted that the TPP will open up a market of 805 million consumers to Peruvian companies. The agreement is currently being negotiated between countries representing 40 percent of the global economy – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam.

The presidential election in the United States next year could affect the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks, but Malaysia’s bigger concern is convincing the people that the free trade deal is good for the country. International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed said he remained hopeful that TPP, a proposed free trade agreement involving 12 countries including Malaysia, could be concluded.

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are aiming to complete negotiations on an expanded free trade agreement by November. In a media statement following a meeting of ASEAN economic ministers with Chinese Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng on August 23, ministers welcomed recent progress and underscored the importance of driving forward the negotiations.

Asian countries have agreed to speed-up the conclusion of a more localised trade agreement after the delays finishing a competing US-led pact, in a bid to maintain regional economic integration just as a growth slowdown is hitting financial markets. Economic ministers, including trade minister Andrew Robb, agreed that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) should be substantively finished by the end of the year potentially shifting the focus of how Asian countries will try to harmonise the existing noodle bowl of trade deals.

HA NOI (VNS) — Enterprises from Ha Noi hope to find more business opportunities in the textile, garment and footwear industries in Eastern European countries in the future. At a seminar on encouraging trade between Ha Noi and the Czech Republic held in Prague last Thursday, Le Hong Thang, director of the Ha Noi Industry and Trade Department, said last year Ha Noi's garment and textile export values reached US$1.6 billion, including $436 million from the European Union market.

The WTO could not just be a trade forum and it had to keep development in mind, Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Nirmala Sitharaman said in an exclusive interview with The Hindu on Friday. She was speaking about its 10th Ministerial meet in Nairobi in December. On yuan devaluation, she said India was identifying sectors that would be immediately affected. On halting discussions on a free trade pact with the EU, she said some 700 generic drugs tested in India were taken off the shelves of member-countries.

Vietnam’s livestock industry on which the livelihoods of nearly 10 million people depend will most likely be put on the chopping block by the 11 other signatory nations to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade accord. Livestock-poultry industry to suffer most after major trade pacts take effectDeputy Director Tong Xuan Chinh of the Department of Livestock Production also pointedly asserted that the nation’s farmers and ranchers would simply lack the capacity to compete in a post TPP world.

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 22 (Bernama) -- The ASEAN Economic Community (AEC) will be the buzzword as regional trade and economic ministers converge here Saturday to finalise initiatives towards closer economic integration. As the 47th ASEAN Economic Ministers' Meeting (AEM) gets underway, AEC takes on far greater importance amid the current economic slowdown that would potentially affect some economies in the absence of effective remedies to counter, for instance, tumbling crude oil prices.