Today, China and Nicaragua signed a free trade agreement after four rounds of negotiations that took place over the past year. The agreement has 22 chapters, including four chapters on services trade and investment.

As part of Honduran President Xiomara Castro's China trip this week, the two governments announced that they are ready for trade negotiations. China also gave a green light to some Honduran agricultural products so they can be sold in China.

As a FTA negotiation officially launched.

A Peruvian trade official stated that Peru and China will resume trade talks to upgrade their bilateral trade agreement soon, while Uruguay plans to expand exports to China with potential trade talks.

USTR announced today that the United States and Taiwan "have concluded negotiations on the U.S.-Taiwan Initiative on 21st Century Trade," and released the full text of an agreement.

After months of negotiations, China and Ecuador signed a bilateral trade agreement last week. This makes Ecuador the fourth country in the Latin American region to have a trade agreement with China.

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.