US President Barack Obama, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso, and EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy, after meeting in Washington on Monday, affirmed their commitment to “making the US-EU trade and investment relationship - already the largest and most integrated in the world - stronger.”

After 4 years since the initiation of the negotiation, with the endeavors of both Parties, on 11 November 2011, on the side-line meeting of APEC Summit in Honolulu, Hawaii, the USA, with the observation of President Truong Tan Sang and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera, Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and Minister of Foreign Affairs Alfredo Moreno Charme signed the Free Trade Agreement between Viet Nam and Chile.

The EU – Viet Nam MUTRAP III Project organized a training course on Trade, Environment, and Workers’ rights (24 - 27/10/2011) in Vinh Phuc to improve understanding of officials in Governmental agencies, research institutes, universities and business associations on “new issues” of international trade such as sustainable development, relations between trade and environment, trade and workers’ rights…

After an 18-year process, Russia now appears set to join the WTO, with the Formal Working Party finishing its negotiations on 10 November. Negotiators have forwarded the Russian accession accord to the upcoming December ministerial conference, where trade ministers will vote on the package.

Leaders of the nine countries negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement announced a broad outline for the proposed accord at this weekend’s gathering of Asia-Pacific leaders. Canada, Japan, and Mexico also stated their interest in joining the negotiations at the meet, held in the US state of Hawaii.

Upon finishing two days of high-level talks in Cannes, France, leaders from the Group of 20 major economies have instructed their trade ministers to pursue “fresh, credible” approaches to resolving the impasse in the WTO’s Doha negotiations at the upcoming December ministerial

In order to create a better legal framework and amend Decree 72, Planning Department, and Legal Affair Department of MOIT have conducted a research to assess the implementation of Decree 72 and a comparative study of international experience to improve the legal framework concerning the activities of foreign traders under the sponsorship of the EU – Viet Nam MUTRAP III.

In order to help Government officials and lecturers of research institutes and universities have an opportunity to understand thoroughly the relationship between trade and IPRs, especially the negative impacts of TRIPs Plus and TRIPs Extra on Viet Nam’s international trade activities, the EU – Viet Nam MUTRAP III organized a training course on Trade and Intellectual Property Rights from 24 to 27/10/2011.

Tensions are building between Brazil and its trade partners over imports, with the Brazilian government announcing on 4 October an investigation on whether China is shipping footwear to the South American country via Vietnam and Indonesia to avoid paying an antidumping tariff. Meanwhile, Japan and South Korea reportedly raised concerns at a WTO committee meeting last week over Brasilia’s new imported car tax increase

Forty-two countries are close to finalising a deal that would liberalise access to billions of dollars worth of public procurement contracts, the chair of the WTO committee on government procurement said yesterday. Delegations are being urged to finish negotiations by the global trade body’s December ministerial