WELLINGTON, May 8 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government announced Thursday a drastic cut in the allowance in duty-free tobacco to bring the country into line with Australia as part of its campaign to make New Zealand smoke-free by 2025. From Nov. 1, the duty-free allowance would fall from 200 cigarettes to 50 cigarettes and from 250 grams of tobacco to 50 grams in line with limits set by Australia in 2012, Associate Minister of Health Tariana Turia said.

Following a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Brussels on May 7, the European Union (EU) and Japan agreed to a one-year review that should lead to the "early conclusion of a highly comprehensive and ambitious" free trade agreement (FTA). A joint press conference reaffirmed "the importance of strengthening the trade and economic relationship" between the EU and Japan, in which the proposed FTA "would play a vital role, notably by addressing issues related to market access for goods, services and investment, procurement, and non-tariff measures."

(Reuters) - Briefing Pacific trading partners on progress in U.S.-Japan trade talks is an important step in moving discussions on a 12-nation trade bloc to the next level, U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Wednesday. The United States and Japan said after a leaders' summit last month they had found a path forward on access to Japan's farm and auto markets but gave no details of what was agreed.

INDIANAPOLIS | Steel dumping poses a real threat to jobs in Northwest Indiana, and policy-makers in Washington need to take heed, industry officials said. Industry leaders said the domestic steel industry was "under assault" from a surge of subsidized imports that are being sold below market rates. They called for stronger enforcement of international trade rules during a town hall forum Wednesday at the Association for Iron and Steel Technology AISTech 2014 conference in Indianapolis.

President Obama’s visit to Japan from April 23-25 was important for US-Japan alliance relations. But did the visit genuinely strengthen trust between Japan and the United States? A number of outstanding problems indicates that there is room for a great deal of improvement.

(Reuters) - Former South African Trade Minister Alec Erwin will lead a World Trade Organization panel appointed to judge a landmark trade dispute over Australia's anti-tobacco laws, the global trade body said on Tuesday. Erwin, a former trade unionist and member of the South African Communist Party, will chair a three-strong panel whose other members are Swiss law professor Francois Dessemontet and Billie Miller, a former foreign minister of Barbados.

NEW DELHI: The US government is coming under intense pressure from lawmakers to act against India at the World Trade Organization (WTO) for what they say are violations of patent rules. The tough stance adopted by US lawmakers raises the pressure on the new Indian government to swiftly swing into action to check against potential damage to bilateral trade ties, which have taken a knock in recent months.

(Reuters) - Japan and the United States have made progress on a two-way trade deal but a gap remains and effort is needed to come to a final compromise, a top official in Japan's cabinet said on Wednesday. Yasutoshi Nishimura, senior vice-minister of the Cabinet Office, told reporters in New York the two countries were in the "last stretch" of a deal vital to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation bloc that would extend from Asia to Latin America.

(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.

(Reuters) - Russia has requested talks with the European Union on the EU's energy rules that challenge Gazprom's business model, in a possible first step towards filing a dispute at the World Trade Organization, WTO officials said on Thursday. The EU introduced the legislative package in 2009 with the aim of opening up gas and electricity markets, but Russia has objected strongly to it even before the current crisis in its ties with the European Union.