Without providing further details, top trade officials in the United States and Taiwan both put a positive spin on the ongoing trade negotiations that were launched last summer. A Taiwanese official indicated that the trade talks are at the tail-end of the first phase of negotiations.

China's tariff commission announced today that starting on May 1, 60 types of goods from Nicaragua will be tariff free. This is part of an early agreement reached between the two governments, as a precursor of a more comprehensive trade agreement for which the negotiations are ongoing.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong visited Beijing last week and during his visit, the two governments announced "substantive" progress on the negotiations to expand their bilateral trade agreement, and reached agreements on food safety, dispute settlement, and R&D.

This week, China and ASEAN held the first round of negotiations, kicking off a process of upgrading their bilateral trade arrangements.

Officials from the United States and Taiwan held the second round of negotiations for the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade this week in Taipei, and delivered some results that a Taiwanese top official said he is "quite satisfied with."

After ten months of trade negotiations, government officials from China and Ecuador revealed that the bulk of the agreement has been concluded, with only some procedural steps left to be completed. As bilateral trade has grown steadily over the past couple years, the agreement is expected to further bolster trade

This week, China and El Salvador announced that they will start the negotiations for a trade agreement. This will be the fourth set of trade talks between a Latin American country and China that have begun this year, as China's trade with the region has been growing steadily.