Topic: Trade

The European Union on Friday launched a challenge against Argentina's import restrictions at the World Trade Organization, calling the Latin American country's trading and investment system "protectionist and nationalistic."

China filed a complaint at the World Trade Organization (WTO) on Friday to challenge U.S. tariffs charged on Chinese goods that the United States considers to be unfairly subsidized.

China's new push to open state controlled industries may look bold after a decade of stuttering privatization progress, but Beijing faces stiff resistance from vested interests in its effort to extend its World Trade Organisation dividend.

China stocks are set for more rangebound trading on Friday, as investors continued to grapple with global and domestic economic uncertainties.

The World Bank cut its economic growth forecast for China this year to 8.2 percent on Wednesday and urged the country to rely on easier fiscal policy that boosts consumption rather than state investment to lift activity.

Japan's exports rose in April from a year before at the fastest pace in more than a year, helped by a recovery in overseas demand.

The world has "hopefully" gotten through the worst in terms of what some analysts have called "currency wars," according to Chad P. Bown, senior economist at the World Bank's Development Research Group, Trade and International Integration.

The United States imposed punitive tariffs on solar panel imports from China, the latest in a series of trade disputes between the world's two biggest economies and sparking accusations by Beijing of protectionism.

Pascal Lamy, the World Trade Organization's Director General, told CNBC on Monday that in his opinion Asian banks have stepped in to fill the gap left by European banks in the trade finance market.

The situation in the euro zone has become so bleak that it is giving rise  to rumors the euro will be tied to the dollar at close to parity, a dramatic fall, which would have severe implications for the US and China. The Financial Times reports.

Japan's current account surplus fell less than expected in March in an improvement from the previous month, as exports slowly recover on an increase in demand from the United States and as earnings from overseas investments rise.

Chinese and U.S. leaders said Friday that they had made important progress on a range of economic issues, with China Prime Minister Wen Jiabao saying the agreement had included “some important breakthroughs.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said China is strong enough to handle the economic and financial reforms that the United States seeks.

Manufacturers that have counted on China for growth in recent years – while developed economies have been sluggish – expect that this year they will depend on the U.S. and, to a lesser extent, Latin America, while Asia and Europe drag on their results. The FT reports.

The lifting of decades of broad Western sanctions on Myanmar will prove to be both a boon and a test for China, for years the former Burma's top investor and trading partner, bringing both risk and opportunity for long-established Chinese firms.