Russian President Vladimir Putin has met with Chinese premier Li Qiang, hailing growing trade relations as Moscow becomes increasingly dependent on Beijing for political and economic support.

"Our trade relations are developing, developing successfully ... The attention that the governments of the two countries on both sides are paying to trade and economic ties is yielding results," Putin said at the meeting in the Kremlin Wednesday.

Businesses across a variety of industries are bracing for freight trains to stop moving Thursday at both major Canadian freight railroads if they can't resolve a contract dispute with the union that represents engineers, conductors and dispatchers.

The impact will be widespread because so many companies rely on Canadian National and CPKC railroads to deliver their raw materials and finished products. Railroads carry more than $1 billion Canadian (US$730 million) worth of goods each day and delivered more than 375 million tons of freight last year.

Japan racked up a 621 billion yen ($4.3 billion) trade deficit in July, as prices of imports surged, according to government data released Wednesday.

Japan's imports grew nearly 17% from a year ago to 10.2 trillion yen ($70.6 billion), while exports grew 10% to 9.6 trillion yen ($66 billion), the Finance Ministry said.