(Reuters) - South Korea will scrap caps on rice imports from 2015, potentially opening up the politically sensitive market to more imports from countries such as the United States and China, in a move that has been fiercely resisted by many farmers. Seoul said steep tariffs would be used to protect its farmers. While this is likely to prevent a short-term surge in imports, farmers are worried that it could open the floodgates to foreign sales down the line in a country where locally grown rice has traditionally enjoyed almost mythical status.

BRASILIA, July 18 (Xinhua) -- The president of the European Commission (EC), Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, Friday called for concluding negotiations and finalizing a free trade agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Southern Common Market ( Mercosur). In an address at Brazil's University of Brasilia, where he was presented with an honorary doctorate, Durao said it was time that more than decade-long talks with Mercosur nations Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela concluded in a deal.

With an ultimate goal of stimulating economic growth, hopes are high that the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement will lead to a spike in cross-border business deals among member countries. Assuming that’s the case, Japan’s chief TPP negotiator posed an interesting question: why does the pact sidestep a key factor that affects practically all international business activity?

(Reuters) - China's Commerce Ministry expressed strong opposition on Friday to an anti-dumping investigation started by the United States into imports of Chinese tires, the latest trade row between the world's two largest economies. The ministry said in a statement that the application for the probe had serious flaws and that the U.S. tire industry did not support it.

HCMC – Australia’s Anti-Dumping Commission has decided to launch an anti-dumping investigation into the galvanized steel products imported from Vietnam and India, announced the Vietnam Competition Authority under the Ministry of Industry and Trade. The authority said the decision came after BlueScope Steel Limited filed for a dumping margin of 16.26% applied to the Vietnamese steel products exported to Australia.

On Monday the World Trade Organization (WTO) found the United States guilty of violating global trade rules when it imposed punitive import duties in 2012 on a number of Chinese products, including solar panels. In the $7.2 billion case, the 3-member WTO panel found that the U.S. was unjustifiably imposing countervailing duties as a response to the alleged subsidies that the Chinese government was providing to exporting firms.

Why is the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) taking so long to conclude? It has already missed three deadlines, the latest being October 2013. And President Barack Obama’s recent Asia visit did not produce the widely anticipated push towards the finish line. And what will the TPP will look like when finally concluded? Despite WikiLeaks’ best efforts, the negotiations are walled by secrecy. Will the TPP be the comprehensive twenty-first century agreement proponents tout?

Washington, D.C. – United States Trade Representative Michael Froman announced today that a World Trade Organization (WTO) dispute settlement panel issued a mixed result, rejecting numerous claims brought by India in a challenge against U.S. trade remedy laws and determinations issued by the Department of Commerce regarding imports of certain steel products from India.

(Reuters) - World Trade Organisation judges said on Monday the United States broke its rules in imposing hefty duties on Chinese steel products, solar panels and a range of other goods that Washington argues enjoyed government subsidies. In a similar case involving U.S. methods in deciding when foreign imports are unfairly priced, another WTO panel ruled in support of some claims by India against tariffs on steel exports from three of its major firms.

(Reuters) - The World Trade Organization on Monday backed some key claims by India against countervailing duties imposed by the United States on certain steel products, but rejected others. The WTO panel, ruling on the April 2012 case, said the United States had acted wrongly in claiming some Indian subsidy programs had given steelmaker Tata [TATAI.UL] an unfair advantage.