SEOUL, March. 4 (Xinhua) -- China, South Korea and Japan started the fourth round of negotiations on trilateral free trade agreement (FTA) in Seoul on Tuesday. The fresh round of negotiations, to last until Friday, focuses on modalities of tariff reduction, the way of opening service trade, investment and certain range and fields of the agreement, according to the Chinese delegation. South Korea's Trade Minister Yoon Sang-jick on Monday told reporters that although these talks may not always go smoothly, the negotiations are "moving toward an end."

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The United States would welcome Taiwan's participation in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as long as it meets the high standards set by TPP members, Taipei's diplomat to Washington was cited as saying yesterday. Leo Lee, Taipei's deputy representative to Washington, was speaking in the wake of a recent report that cited unnamed U.S. officials as claiming that Taiwan could join TPP as early as 2015.

(VOV) -Vietnam has shown its flexibility and held its clear view in bilateral and multilateral negotiations of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Ministerial Meeting held recently in Singapore. Pham Quynh Mai, an official of the Multilateral Trade Policy Department under the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT), said MoIT Minister Vu Huy Hoang attended all sessions of the February 22-25 meeting and Vietnam’s view was acknowledged by all TPP members.

Prime Minister John Key says a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Russia could be delayed because of the escalating situation between the superpower and Ukraine. The Government has been negotiating a deal with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan for the past three years. Trade Minister Tim Groser has been in Moscow for the past few days and is making "good progress", Mr Key says. However, he will leave Moscow tonight after being told to leave the country following a trade meeting today.

THE PHILIPPINES and seven other countries have been found to be engaging in the dumping of steel pipes, documents from the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) showed.

(Reuters) - India's trade minister on Tuesday accused the United States of excessive trade protectionism, launching a broadside that coincided with the visit of a top U.S. official to patch up a stormy bilateral friendship. Trade friction between the two countries has increased ahead of a general election in India, amid lingering tension over the recent arrest and strip search of a female diplomat in New York suspected of visa fraud.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe says Japan will not set a deadline for concluding the Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade talks. He says placing a time limit on negotiations could hurt Japan. Abe spoke at a Lower House budget committee on Thursday, after TPP ministerial talks in Singapore ended without a date for the next round of discussions. Abe said the talks are in their final stage and the direction they are taking is becoming clear.

India has emerged as the largest exporter of shrimp  to the US market, for the first time in the history of seafood trade, in 2013. Overtaking Thailand, India had shipped 94,000 tones of shrimp to USA valued at US $1 billion. Roughly 50% of India’s total shrimp export was to USA. Now India became eighth largest exporter of food items, including Spices and Seafood, to the United States.

Asserting that the U.S. “cannot afford to stand on the sidelines of trade,” U.S. Vice President Joe Biden penned an op-ed in the Financial Times  on Thursday laying out the economic and strategic case for the Obama Administration’s current trade agenda. His comments are part of a larger effort happening in public and behind the scenes as the Administration pushes for the conclusion of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the face of opposition from its own party.

(Reuters) - A standoff between the United States and Japan is holding up talks on a sweeping Pacific free trade pact and a lack of authority to push an eventual deal through the U.S. Congress without amendment may be undercutting Washington's hand. After weekend talks in Singapore, including two separate sessions between Japan and the United States, Japanese Economics Minister Akira Amari said "considerable gaps" remained with the United States on bread-and-butter issues like farm tariffs.