The Russian government is pushing hard for greater economic co-operation with China - signing big energy deals such as a natural gas pipeline that will bring gas from Russia's far East to China.

But Moscow has signalled it also wants more trade between ordinary businesses...

This has been excerpted from 13 April 2016 article by CRIEnglish.com.

The World Bank is exploring ways through which it can help Nigeria ratify Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) reached in Rotterdam, Netherlands in December 2013.

In pursuit of this, a team of the World Bank and WTO lead by Nigeria’s Ambassador to the WTO, Mr David Ademola Adejuwon and World Bank’s senior private sector development specialist for Trade Facilitation, Mr Manuel Henriques visited the Nigeria’s Shippers’ Council, economic regulator of the seaports, yesterday at the council’s headquarters in Lagos...

Imports of counterfeit and pirated goods are worth nearly half a trillion dollars a year, or around 2.5% of global imports, with US, Italian and French brands the hardest hit and many of the proceeds going to organised crime, according to a new report by the OECD and the EU’s Intellectual Property Office.

Speaking at the annual meeting of the Inter-Pacific Bar Association in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 14 April, Director-General Roberto Azevêdo maintained that the proliferation of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in recent years has helped to expand world trade. But he also highlighted that some trade issues can only be solved globally and “it is at the global level that we need to take a considered view of the evolution of RTAs and of the trade negotiating agenda” to achieve a balanced, harmonious and inclusive framework. 

These statistical profiles show the value-added content in an economy's exports, its participation in global value chains and the contribution of services to the value-added content of exports. They also cover trade in intermediate goods and services, trade facilitation and foreign direct investment.

This has been excerpted from a release by the World Trade Organization and is available in its entirety at:
https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/miwi_e/countryprofiles_e.htm

WTO members revived this week long-standing talks to deepen the WTO’s scrutiny of regional trade agreements (RTAs) in line with instructions laid out by ministers last December. Provisions in the recent Nairobi Ministerial Declaration, said the new committee chair, could pave the way for a more constructive review of how these deals affect the wider multilateral trading system.

Growth in the volume of world trade is expected to remain sluggish in 2016 at 2.8%, unchanged from the 2.8% increase registered in 2015. Imports of developed countries should moderate this year while demand for imported goods in developing Asian economies should pick up. Global trade growth should rise to 3.6% in 2017, WTO economists reported on 7 April.

China is reportedly altering its tax policy for e-commerce in a move which will further promote cross-border trading for the country, and is set to particularly benefit cosmetics sales...

This article is available on cosmeticsdesign-asia.com.

The anticipated ratification of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement is expected to have a negative impact on Cambodia’s economic growth as Vietnam takes priority as a top trading partner within the 12-member bloc that accounts for 40 per cent of the world’s economy, an academic said yesterday during a lecture organised by the Canadian Chamber of Commerce in Cambodia.