OTTAWA--Canada should find out in June if it's been successful in a long-running dispute over a contentious U.S. meat-labeling rule. A World Trade Organization panel is expected to issue a confidential interim report to the governments on June 20, according to a person familiar with the matter. The final report is expected a month later, on July 22, according to this person, who has seen the timelines for the decision. The panel heard oral submissions from the governments last week in the dispute over country-of-origin labeling, known as COOL.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. trade panel voted Friday to extend antidumping and countervailing duties on laminated woven sacks from China after the first five-year review of the measures imposed initially in 2008. The U.S. International Trade Commission (USITC) voted against revoking the existing duty orders on laminated woven sacks from China, saying it "would be likely to lead to continuation or recurrence of material injury within a reasonably foreseeable time. "

PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has suggested the government not to impose anti-dumping duty on mports of Purified Terephthalic Acid (PTA) into India in view of its demand supply mismatch, which according to latest estimates stands at 4,096,952 MT against 3,420,000 MT.

NEW DELHI: India has imposed a safeguard duty on import of a chemical used by pharmaceutical and dye industries for 15 months to protect domestic producers.  The Finance Ministry imposed the safeguard duty on Sodium Nitrite (the chemical) following recommendation for the same by the Directorate General of Safeguards (DGS).  Safeguard duty is a WTO-compatible temporary measure that is brought in for a certain time-frame to avert any damage to a country's domestic industry from cheap imports. 

The Latin American economic bloc Mercosur has nearly concluded a free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said on February 24.

Chinese authorities have confirmed that the additional duties for imports from the EU were removed on 19 February 2014. According to WTO rules, anti-dumping duties can only be imposed under strict conditions where injurious dumping occurs, i.e. when foreign products are sold below fair value and cause damage to industry in the importing country.

HA NOI (VNS) — Viet Nam gained a trade surplus of US$244 million in the first two months of this year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported. During the first two months of this year, the nation saw a year-on-year increase of 12.3 per cent in total export value to reach $21.06 billion and of 17 per cent in total import value to reach $20.816 billion. Le Thi Minh Thuy, head of the GSO's Trade Department, told Viet Nam News that the national trade surplus from the first two months was due to a trade surplus in the foreign direct investment (FDI) economic sector.

SINGAPORE—The ministerial talks for the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord that ended Tuesday in Singapore failed to reach a broad agreement. But even if Japan, the United States and emerging economies agree on the pact in the future by making concessions in their talks, they will nonetheless face thornier issues, including one on harmonizing tariff rates for the same kind of product—a key to maximizing trade liberalization’s positive effects.

(Reuters) - Three top U.S. lawmakers on key congressional committees have reached a bipartisan deal on legislation the White House needs to advance international trade agreements and will introduce the measure early next month, congressional aides said on Saturday. The Trade Promotion Authority legislation, which would let the White House put trade agreements before Congress for an up or down vote without amendments, is considered crucial to enacting trade deals and could pave the way for major accords with Pacific Rim and European trading partners.

As participating countries failed to reconcile a variety of conflicts, including one between Japan and the United States, an accord on creating a new free trade zone in Asia and the Pacific region has been postponed till next year. A rough road lies ahead for the negotiations. A ministerial meeting of the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks ended in Singapore on Tuesday.