South Korea is happy to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), but its negotiations seeking a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with China will take priority over joining the TPP. The Trade Ministry of South Korea said in a press release on Monday that the Korean government “will first push for a South Korea-China FTA as a bridgehead for expanding presence in Chinese markets, while considering joining the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” the  Wall Street Journal reported.

Right after the U.S. Department of Commerce’s preliminary conclusion identifying welded stainless steel pressure pipes imported from Vietnam as being dumped on the U.S. market, with the final result set to be released on May 17, experts warned that there would be no way for local firms to export steel products to the U.S. Speaking with the Daily on Wednesday, steel expert Dinh Huy Tam said that the value of welded stainless steel pressure pipes was three times higher than that of normal items, at about over US$2,000 a ton.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (Xinhua) -- The United States on Monday extended a memorandum of understanding signed five years ago with Beijing on restricting U.S. imports of archeological items originating in China. The deal targets items from the Paleolithic period through the Tang Dynasty, ranging in date from approximately 75,000 B.C. to A.D. 907, and monumental sculptures and wall arts at least 250 years old, the State Department said in a statement.

Jan 13 (Reuters) - The United States increased pressure on China on Monday in a dispute over U.S. high-tech steel exports, accusing Beijing of not complying with a World Trade Organization directive to drop duties. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said China continued to use tariffs to effectively block imports of U.S. grain oriented flat-rolled electrical steel, used in the cores of high-efficiency transformers, electric motors and generators, despite a WTO ruling in the United States' favor.

(VOV) - Vietnam’s trade surplus with the US continues to rise, from US$10 billion in 2010, to $14.8 billion in 2012, and estimated $20 billion in 2013. Vietnamese US-based Trade Counsellor Dao Tran Nhan says the lofty trade surplus has helped readjust the country’s 2013 trade balance. With annual GDP valued at more than US$15 trillion, the US is a massive market attracting the interest of any countries intent on boosting trade, industrial development, and cooperation.

South Korean President Park Geun Hye said her nation will seek to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks and wants progress toward a commercial deal with China this year, as an appreciating won threatens exports.

BEIJING, Jan. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- On Dec. 7, 2013, the Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Bali successfully closed. The Bali Trade Agreement (Bali Package) reached at the meeting exceeded expectations. This is the first time that the WTO has reached a comprehensive trade agreement.

(Reuters) - U.S. lawmakers on Thursday proposed a bill to give the White House power to fast-track international trade agreements as the United States gears up for a hectic year of trade negotiations. The bill would let the administration put trade deals before Congress for an up or down vote without amendments, a move backed by big business and farmers but viewed with caution by others. Without that assurance, trading partners could be less willing to sign deals.

BEIJING, Jan. 10 (Xinhua) -- China has launched a second probe into anti-dumping measures on X-ray security scanners from the European Union (EU), the Ministry of Commerce said on Friday. The investigation follows a World Trade Organization (WTO) ruling issued in April, a ministry statement said. China completed the first probe before 2011. On Jan. 23, 2011, the country imposed anti-dumping duties between 33.5 percent and 71.8 percent on X-ray security inspection equipment imported from the EU with a time span of five years.

(SeeNews) - Jan 10, 2014 - The US International Trade Commission (ITC) said in a notice on Wednesday that it had started more anti-dumping and countervailing duties investigations into certain imports of crystalline silicon photovoltaic (PV) from China and Taiwan. The US trade watchdog said that the probes would determine whether there was a reasonable indication that the US solar industry was “materially injured or threatened with material injury” from China and Taiwan-made crystalline silicon, which is allegedly sold in the US at prices less than market value.