World trade negotiations to go on fast track: US, Brazil
New York: World trade negotiations will speed up in 2007 said US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim after a meeting in New York.

They said tough bargaining is necessary to revive the Doha Round of trade talks, which collapsed in July over agricultural policies. They said progress is quietly being made.

Both the officials, who met in Rio de Janeiro in September, said the outcome of US congressional elections and the re-election of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva last year should not affect the direction of the trade talks.

Some analysts fear that with Democrats in control with the US Congress, it will be hard for president George W Bush to renew the trade promotion authority, or TPA, which allows the White House to negotiate agreements that can not be amended by Congress.

The legislation expires July 1 and, without an extension, the Doha round could be dead until after the 2008 US presidential election.

Schwab will also discuss the Doha round with European officials next week, during a US-EU summit in Washington, and should meet Amorim again on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos at the end of the month. (See: Developed nations anxious for a trade pact before July 2007)
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Google may acquire stake in Chinese company
Beijing: Leading Search engine Google Inc plans to buy a stake in China's Xunlei Network Technology Co and is said to be partnering Ceyuan Ventures, a Shanghai-based venture capital firm for the investment.

Shenzhen-based Xunlei provides a person-to-person file sharing network and other downloading services. More than 80 million users have installed its software and its websites attract more than 50 million visitors a day according to a media report in China Daily a newspaper in China.

Baidu.com Inc. controlled nearly 57 per cent of China's search-engine market at the end of June, according to Analysis International, a Beijing-based IT research company.

Baidu and Google, which has only 16 per cent of the China market, are exploring options to expand their online video services in the world's fourth-largest economy.
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