APEC head and former Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard says he thinks the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) free-trade deal will be signed soon. The partnership involving 12 countries, including New Zealand and the United States, has been in negotiation for five years. Dr Bollard, who is the executive director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) secretariat in Singapore, said many of the difficult areas under negotiation had been worked through this year. He said people should not be worried about the deal.

Russian Ambassador to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said on Tuesday that his country had asked the EU to postpone the implementation of the trade part of the Association Agreement with Ukraine until 2017. The Russian ambassador gave the news at a public event in Brussels, Ukrainian newspaper Europeiska Pravda has reported, with reference to the EUobserver publication.

As Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe finished his historic weeklong visit to the United States, in addition to addressing a joint session of Congress and traveling to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Boston, Prime Minister Abe met with President Obama last Tuesday to advance work toward a Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement. Together, the 12 countries negotiating the TPP, including Japan and the United States, account for 40% of the global economy.

NEW DELHI: India is working with WTO members to ensure a permanent solution at the "earliest" on the issue of food security, Parliament was informed today.  Ending months-long deadlock, the WTO in November last year acceded to India's demand to remove constraints on the food stockpiling issue."India is working with the WTO members to ensure a permanent solution at the earliest," Commerce and Industry Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha. 

Vietnamese agro-produce will have many chances to penetrate deeper into South Korea following a free trade agreement signed Tuesday, an official said after the signing. South Korea will cut import duties on many products that are Vietnam’s export staples, which will increase their competitiveness in the East Asian country, said Le An Hai, deputy head of the Asia-Pacific market department under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The government of China has pledged to contribute USD 500,000 (CHF 465,093) to the WTO’s Least Developed Countries and Accessions Programme (also known as the China Programme) for 2015. Initiated in July 2011 under the WTO’s Aid for Trade initiative, the China Programme aims to enable least-developed countries (LDCs) to better integrate into the global economy by strengthening their participation in WTO activities and helping those not yet members to join the Organization. The China Programme provides financing to support:

Minister of Trade, Industry & Energy Yoon Sang-jik and Vietnamese Industry & Trade Minister Vu Huy Hoang signed the Korea-Vietnam FTA in Hanoi on May 5 in the presence of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyễn Tấn Dũng. According to the agreement, Korea and Vietnam will eliminate 94.7 percent and 92.4 percent of their tariffs based on the amounts of imports, respectively.

May 5 (Reuters) - Vietnam signed a free trade agreement (FTA) with South Korea on Tuesday which is expected to boost its exports to the Korean market and more than double bilateral trade over the next five years, the Vietnamese government said. The agreement with Seoul is among a series of trade deals Vietnam has been chasing as part of its ambitions to become a regional manufacturing dynamo and lure investment to strengthen its $184 billion economy.

Negotiations on the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement have reached their final discussions, with talks expected to be wrapped up by June. EU-MUTRAP technical assistant team leader Claudio Dordi analyses the hallmark agreement’s potential impacts on Vietnam’s economy.

Hoang Thanh Van, head of the Animal Breeding Department, tells Kinh Te and Do Thi (Economy and City) newspaper about opportunities and problems the sector will face when Viet Nam joins the TPP. Viet Nam will most likely participate in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) this year. Could you tell us about the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for Viet Nam's animal-breeding sector?