(Reuters) - Canada and Norway failed to overturn a European Union ban on their seal products on Monday when the World Trade Organization ruled the bloc had a right to outlaw imports of the furs on moral grounds. Canada said it would appeal against the WTO decision, and that any public opposition to its seal trade was based on "myths and misinformation". Many animal rights groups have long said the commercial killing of seals and their pups for fur and other products is cruel.

Susan Sell is a professor of political science at George Washington University, who has carried out landmark research on international negotiations over intellectual property. Below is her response to five questions about the intellectual property chapter of the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, which the Obama administration has been negotiating with trading partners behind closed doors. A draft of the chapter was leaked to WikiLeaks two days ago. The draft TPP text was kept secret from the general public. Who has seen it and why?

The leak of a document purported to be part of the draft text for the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership trade accord has further dented optimism talks can be concluded by the end of this year. "Next year is doable, but this year is very tough," Mustapa Mohamed, Malaysia's international trade minister, said. "We've got another few weeks to go and Christmas. People close shop. What came out in the last couple of weeks from WikiLeaks is not helping the process."

(Reuters) - Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng denounced the United States as "irresponsible" on Sunday after Washington accused China of jeopardizing a deal that aims to cut tariffs on technology products, saying Washington had disappointed participants in the talks. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman said on Thursday that China's demands to exempt more than 100 products from a technology trade deal risked leading to a breakdown in the negotiations.

The US solar industry has charged India with implementing trade barriers that it says discriminate against US solar energy technology exports. Testifying recently on Capitol Hill, the Solar Energy Industry Association’s Vice-President of Trade & Compliance, John Smirnow, charged that India’s local content requirement “discriminates against US solar exports and, thereby, provides an unfair competitive advantage to India’s domestic solar manufacturers.”

BEIJING--There are good prospects for the resolution of a trade dispute over shipments of European wine to China, Karel de Gucht, the European Commissioner for Trade, said Friday. China began an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into European wine exports in June. Dumping refers to selling goods below the cost of production with the aim of forcing competitors out of business. "It's not an impossible case to resolve," said Mr. de Gucht at a press briefing in Beijing. "It will be extremely difficult for the Chinese to demonstrate that there is dumping."

Indonesian biofuel producers plan to appeal the EU’s final ruling on a biofuel dumping case that resulted in significant punitive duties on their exports. Togar Sitanggang, a member of the Indonesian Biofuel Producers Association (Aprobi), said Indonesian biofuel producers would lodge an appeal with the European Court of Justice once they confirmed the ruling.

KIEV, Nov. 21 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov on Thursday urged Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) members to refrain from erecting new trade barriers within the block. "In the circumstances of the long-term losses from the global recession, it is wrong and unacceptable to build new barriers within the CIS," Azarov told a cabinet meeting. Azarov ordered the government to better align Ukrainian trade regulations with those of the CIS to prevent disputes and avoid complications in economic relations with the block's members.

Unless India’s minimum support prices for farmers and food subsidies are safeguarded against the rules of the World Trade Organisation, the Ninth WTO Ministerial scheduled for next month in Bali could fail, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma has warned. Mr. Sharma told WTO Director-General Roberto Azevedo on the phone on Tuesday that an outcome in Bali that addressed only the proposals of the developed countries would not be acceptable to India, according to sources in the government.

(Reuters) - The United States and European Union accused China on Thursday of jeopardizing talks on eliminating trade tariffs on billions of dollars of technology products due to its determination to claim dozens of exemptions. The talks are aimed at expanding a 16-year-old World Trade Organization agreement and updating it for the Internet era, cutting the import cost of a long list of items such as personal computers, laptops, telephones, fax machines, computer software, semi-conductors and many office machines.