President Barack Obama will strive to come to an agreement with his Mexican and Canadian counterparts on the Trans-Pacific Partnership as the three leaders meet this week to discuss how the members of Nafta will fit into the new, far-reaching trade pact.

TOKYO, Feb. 18 (Xinhua) -- Akira Amari, Japan's minister in charge of the Trans- Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade talks, said on Tuesday that Japan may make concessions over sensitive farm products' tariffs, local media reported. The TPP negotiations will never make progress "if there is no change at all," Amari told a press conference, "I guess no one thinks that all tariff lines will be in status quo."

The European Union will chair the 6th Round of negotiations for the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) which begin today in Geneva, with a view to opening up markets in services ranging from financial services, e-commerce to maritime transport among World Trade Organisation's (WTO) members. As EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht stated: "I'm glad to see we have momentum towards getting a broad-based trade in services agreement. This is excellent news for an ever more important sector of the European economy.”

BEIJING, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Commerce announced Monday in a preliminary ruling that the European Union and the United States have dumped perchlorethylene on the Chinese market. The ruling said perchlorethylene imports from the two regions have caused substantial damage to the domestic industry. Importers of the product must place deposits with Chinese customs starting on Tuesday, depending on the dumping margin as determined by the ministry.

The anti-dumping investigation conducted by the United States International Trade Commission against Chinese solar-energy products is hindering the process of solving the trade dispute, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce said on Monday. "The US International Trade Commission has not realized that the two countries' solar industries are tightly linked. US solar imports from China have created great commercial benefits and job opportunities for the US," said an official from the Bureau of Fair Trade for Imports and Exports at the Ministry of Commerce.

Peruvian authorities are trying to protect garment sector from being substantially undercut by Chinese competitors who flood the market with cheap products. Peru’s National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) has decided to impose anti-dumping duties on five types of clothing— t-shirts, dress shirts, pants and shorts, underwear and socks—imported from China.

Two–way trade between Vietnam and Japan was estimated at 25.6 billion USD in 2013, according to the General Department of Vietnam Customs.  Of the amount, Vietnam’s commodity exports to Japan reached 13.6 billion USD, a yearly rise of 4 percent, while imports from the market were valued at 11.6 billion USD, a year-on-year increase of 0.7 percent.  Vietnam’s major export commodities to Japan included garment-textile, crude oil, vehicles and accessories. 

The South Korean Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced that, following the conclusion of negotiations in December last year, South Korea and Australia initialed their bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) on February 10, and agreed to its signing within the first half of this year. The Ministry said that both sides have agreed to work towards obtaining their respective internal procedural approvals to meet the target for signature of the agreement, and that the FTA should become effective as soon as possible, hopefully in 2015.

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s ambitious trade agenda appeared to fall further victim to election-year politics on Capitol Hill on Friday when Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in a closed-door retreat with House Democrats, said he understood why they would not grant Mr. Obama the crucial authority he needs to conclude large trade deals with Asia and Europe.

House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi firmly announced her rejection of the “Fast Track” bill at an event on Wednesday, saying it was “out of the question.” Its passage has become increasingly tenuous since Senate Majority leader Harry Reid came out against it two weeks ago.