(Reuters) - Australia asked five countries challenging its tobacco policies on Wednesday to stop delaying the progress of their cases at the World Trade Organization and took the unusual step of speeding up one of the complaints against itself. Indonesia, Ukraine, Cuba, Honduras and Dominican Republic have all launched complaints at the world trade body to try to overturn Australia's "plain packaging" laws on tobacco.

BRUSSELS, March 27 (Xinhua) -- European Union trade chief announced on Thursday the anti-dumping investigation against Chinese telecommunications equipment makers will not be pursued. EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in a news conference the decision is a significant step towards addressing the mobile telecommunications case, but the European Commission would not drop the anti-subsidy investigation in the same area although it will not be activated for the time being.

BRUSSELS — Completing a landmark trans-Atlantic trade agreement could help Europe wean itself from reliance on Russian energy supplies, the United States trade representative, Michael Froman, has said.

A new trade deal with South Korea will remove duties on 86.8 percent of Canadian agricultural tariff lines and more than 95 percent of tariffs on industrial products, the Canadian Government has publicized. Ministers and members of parliament have met with workers and business representatives across the country to inform stakeholders of the impact of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Korea.

TOKYO, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Japan and Canada kicked off their 5th round of free trade talks here on Monday, with trade in energy and intellectual property rights in focus, according to local media. Elimination of tariffs on agricultural products is not expected to be touched in the five-day talks, Japan's Kyodo News quoted a Foreign Ministry official as saying, adding the issue was covered in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks which involved the two countries.

The United States and the Philippines, during their recent meeting under the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA), agreed to a program of expanded future engagement on bilateral, regional, and multilateral trade issues, and, in particular, on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) treaty.

U.S. Steel Corp. (X), the largest U.S. producer of the metal by volume, said South Korea is dumping steel pipes and tubes in the U.S. South Korean steelmakers created a network of related companies in order to evade U.S. trade laws, Mario Longhi, chief executive officer of Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel, said in remarks prepared for the U.S. Congressional Steel Caucus today.

Following the recent resolution of the trade dispute over European Union (EU) exports of solar-grade polysilicon, China and the EU have welcomed another agreement to resolve a trade dispute involving European wine exports without the imposition of anti-dumping and anti-subsidy duties.

NEW DELHI: The government's pre-election bonanza for the sugar industry has been questioned at the World Trade Organization, making it the second farm subsidy to global face scrutiny in recent months. 

HA NOI (VNS)— Viet Nam's livestock industry, while relatively well dev eloped, has not been able to take advantage of its export potential, experts say. So far, the industry has only succeeded in exporting small volumes of fresh and processed livestock products, they told the Thoi Bao Kinh Doanh newspaper. Nguyen Dang Vang, the chairman of the Viet Nam Livestock Association said export livestock enterprises have mainly exported suckling pigs and salted duck eggs to Hong Kong and Malaysia apart from several varieties of meat to China via border trade.