(Reuters) - The European Union accused Russia at the World Trade Organisation on Monday of failing to do anything to reduce trade friction while the United States said Moscow was implementing more trade restrictions. Although Russia and the European Union have both launched two trade disputes at each other in the past year - including one apiece last month - the European Union says Russia's illegal trade restrictions go beyond the ones already taken to the WTO.

Over the past few days ASEAN leaders met in Naypyidaw, the capital of Myanmar, for the first time ever at their 24th summit. Against what were once considered long odds, ASEAN has become a central feature of Asian regional architecture.

The 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations will launch a fresh round of talks Monday with expectations for progress as Japan and the United States move closer to resolving thorny bilateral issues. Their chief negotiators are set to hold the four-day meeting in Ho Chi Minh City and follow it up with a ministerial gathering in Singapore from May 19 to 20 to tackle pending issues ranging from tariffs and intellectual property rights to reform of state-owned firms.

(Reuters) - U.S. trade regulators ruled on Friday in favor of investigating allegations that Mexico is dumping cheap sugar in the United States, taking Washington closer to imposing penalties on sweetener imports.

Colombia is set to gain a foothold in East Asia after a free trade agreement is signed with Korea.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade negotiations continue to move along, with Japan now intensively involved and the government of South Korea close to jumping in. With the collapse of broader multilateral efforts in the World Trade Organization in Geneva, the TPP is the biggest game on the planet.

As mentioned in my last piece here, there has been much hand-wringing in recent years over the inability of the WTO to achieve new trade liberalization. The modest success of the recent Trade Facilitation Agreement was a small victory, but it is not liberalization in the traditional sense, where countries agree to rein in their protectionist impulses.

BEIJING - The Ministry of Commerce will levy anti-dumping duties on some alloy-steel seamlesspipes imported from the European Union and the United States from Saturday.

Asia- Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) trade ministers, at their meeting later this month, are being advised by the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) to accelerate the process towards making the Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) a reality.

TRA VINH  (VNS) —The Duc My cooperative in the southern province of Tra Vinh has sold 1 tonne of red–flesh dragon fruit to the US for VND24,000 (US$1.14) per kilogramme, according to the manager of the cooperative. The Director of Viet S Farm Company and intermediary for the deal, Vu Cong Bang, said the next two tonnes of dragon fruit would be exported to the US this month.