Japan and the European Union began their third round of free trade negotiations in Brussels on Monday, aiming to engage in full-fledged discussions on tariffs and other trade barriers. The Japanese delegation represented by Jun Yokota, ambassador in charge of economic diplomacy, and the EU team headed by Mauro Petriccione, director for Asian and Latin American trade at the European Commission, are taking part in the five days of talks, which also cover nontariff barriers, through Friday.

For more than a decade, the business sector has been telling governments to shift the focus of regional economic integration. Dealing with across-the-border problems of connectivity and behind-the-border problems caused by needless differences in economic regulations is now more important to business than further liberalisation of border barriers to trade or investment. A recent report by the World Economic Forum concludes that reducing supply chain barriers to trade could increase world GDP ‘over six times more than removing all tariffs’.

The WTO committee dealing with food safety and animal and plant health heard a record number of specific trade concerns — 11 new, 12 old and one under “other business” — but was unable to agree on a mediation procedure designed to avoid legal disputes when it met on 16–17 October 2013.

Japan and the United States will hold their third round of bilateral trade negotiations next week in Washington on auto trade-related issues and nontariff measures, the government said Friday. The three-day talks from Monday, in parallel with the 12-member Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade negotiations, will be attended by Takeo Mori, the Japanese ambassador for economic diplomacy, and Acting Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Wendy Cutler, as in the previous two rounds.

India has slapped anti-dumping duty of up to $9 per kg on import of a bulk drug from the European Union to protect the domestic industry. The Revenue Department has imposed the duty - a levy to discourage cheap imports - on bulk drug Cefadroxil Monohydrate originating in or exported from the EU for five years. It has been levied following recommendations by the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD).

Luxembourg, Oct 19 (IANS) The European Council Friday adopted an updated mandate concerning free trade agreements (FTA) negotiations with the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries. The new mandate allows the European Commission to open negotiations on investment protection provisions with ASEAN member countries as part of the on-going FTA talks, reported Xinhua citing the Council in a statement after a meeting of EU trade ministers.

BEIJING, Oct. 18 (Xinhuanet) -- The government is expected to further lower the bar on rice imports, in a bid to boost the country's food supply, industry experts said. The China National Grain and Oils Information Center forecast that the country's rice output will drop 0.7 percent year-on-year to 202.8 million metric tons in 2013, indicating the rice production is falling after stable output growth for a decade.

OTTAWA — Canada and the European Union tentatively agreed to a sweeping trade agreement on Friday. But while billed as a free-trade pact, the limited information released about its terms suggests that the details of any final deal may focus on adjusting import-export quotas and fine-tuning regulations as much as the easing of tariffs.

The immutable principle of TPP is to push up the trade liberalization and fair competition among enterprises, with no discrimination for private, foreign invested or domestic enterprises. There must be any preferential or discriminatory treatment for any enterprises, including SOEs. Therefore, the agreement will comprise a chapter about SOEs.

The National Association of Manufacturers of Canned Fish and Shellfish (Anfaco Cecopesca) is to once again ask the authorities of the European Union (EU) for the exclusion of Thai tuna from the free trade agreement that the European bloc is negotiating with Thailand. On Wednesday the general secretary of Anfaco Cecopesca and president of Eurothon, Juan Manuel Vieites, is to meet with Joao Aguiar, the chief negotiator of the European Commission (EC) for such bilateral trade agreement.