(Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will travel to China, Japan and South Korea in the first week of December, a trip designed to emphasize the U.S. commitment to a policy pivot toward Asia. With events in the Middle East and domestic policy battles dominating President Barack Obama's attention in recent months, questions have emerged about the extent of Obama's commitment to this shift, particularly after the president canceled participation in two Asia-specific summits last month.

Indonesia has raised a lawsuit against the cold rolled sheet and galvanized steel sheet imports from Vietnam. Meanwhile, Thailand has sent a letter to the Vietnam Steel Association, warning about a possible lawsuit to be raised to protect the steel manufacturers in the country. As such, the warnings about the installation of non-tariff barriers to prevent steel products from Vietnam to enter South East Asian countries have nearly come true. The warnings have come true

The poultry industry is asking the government to impose an anti-dumping duty of 91 percent on Germany and the Netherlands. They want a similar duty of 58 percent on the UK as part of attempts to halt the dumping of frozen bone-in chicken portions in countries belonging to the Southern African Customs Union. SA does not impose duties on members of the European Union (EU) because of a trade and co-operation agreement signed in 2001.

The countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade talks made little progress on intellectual property rights at an interim meeting Monday because of lingering disputes between the United States and emerging economies. To narrow down the key issues on which political decisions will hang at a ministerial meeting in December, the 12 members are looking to hold another meeting next month to discuss rules on patent and copyright protection, informed sources said. It was the first time Japan had chaired a TPP meeting since formally joining the negotiations in July.

HANOI, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam pocketed 5.37 billion U.S. dollars from seafood exports in the first ten months of 2013, an increase of six percent over the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) on Tuesday. In October alone, the country earned 689 million U.S. dollars worth of seafood products. During the 10-month period, the United States remained the largest importer of Vietnamese seafood, accounting for 21.7 percent of the country's total export value.

The European Union (EU) and Japan have held a third round of negotiations toward a free trade agreement (FTA) that is expected to boost Europe's economy by up to 0.8 percent. The round focused on an analysis of each side's proposals for the FTA's text. Discussions took place in a number of working groups, covering topics such as trade in goods and services, technical barriers to trade and non-tariff measures, rules of origin, customs and trade facilitation, investment, procurement, competition, and intellectual property, among others.

October 28 (DZH AAFN) -- The U.S. Department of Commerce announced Oct. 25 that it had decided to launch anti-dumping and countervailing measures against oriented electrical steel originated in China, the Ministry of Commerce said Monday. At the same time, the U.S. will start anti-dumping investigations against oriented electrical steel imported from Czekh, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Poland and Russia.

Analysts believe that once joining the Trans Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP) agreement, Vietnam would have the opportunity to become one of the three biggest textiles and garments centers in the world. With considerable progress made at the last TPP negotiation round, all the parties keep a hope that the negotiations would finish by the end of the year, because all of them can see the big benefits from the agreement once it is signed. Vietnam is believed to be the biggest beneficiary from the agreement among the 12 member countries.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Commerce Department announced Friday that it initiated trade probes against imports of electrical steel products from seven foreign countries. The products under investigation are flat-rolled alloy steel products used in electric power industry, whose technical name is grain-oriented electrical steel (GOES), the department said in a statement.

GENEVA – A World Trade Organization dispute settlement panel has basically upheld a joint claim by Japan, the United States and the European Union that China’s export duties on rare earth metals violate WTO rules, it was learned Friday. This is the first time Japan has lodged a direct complaint against China with the global trade watchdog.