India seeks safeguards in China-led trade pact

BANGKOK: India wants safeguards to be built into a China-led trade pact to prevent a sudden surge in imports, the Commerce Ministry said recently as a new round of talks begin in Thailand.

 Negotiators for the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) are in Bangkok this week for talks aimed at finalising the giant free trade zone by the end of the year.

Indian Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has been holding talks to allay fears of a flood of Chinese imports if New Delhi joined the agreement, the Ministry said.

The focus and emphasis of the meetings chaired by the Commerce and Industry Minister was on putting in place appropriate safeguards including auto-trigger mechanism against sudden surge in imports from RCEP countries, it said in a statement.

India and China signs 120 MoUs for exports to China

NEW DELHI: Private companies from India and China signed more than 120 MoUs for export of various products from India, including sugar, chemicals, fish, plastics, pharmaceuticals and fertilisers recently. “China is working to bring down its trade surplus with India. In the first eight months of this year, India’s trade deficit went down by 1.6 per cent to $37.9 billion,”

Zhu Xiaohong, Counsellor, Embassy of China, pointed out at the India-China Business Meeting & Signing Ceremony organised by FICCI.

Modi and Xi held the second India-China Informal Summit on October 11-12.

Over 60 Chinese entrepreneurs from 34 sectors will carry out trade promotion activities in India; these enterprises have formalised trade agreements with orders of about $100 million, pointed out, Liu Changyu, Deputy Director General, Foreign Trade Department of Ministry of Commerce.

India’s trade deficit with China fell to $53 billion in 2018-19 from over $60 billion a year ago, but it still accounts for almost a third of India’s overall trade deficit.

Zhu said that attract Chinese customers, India needs to focus on compatibility, competitiveness, creativity and cooperation. “Chinese consumers want products that are competitive. Also products lacking innovation cannot succeed in the Chinese market,” he cautioned.

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce is willing to strengthen cooperation with departments in India to improve economic and trade development, said Liu. “Chinese enterprises have responded to the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ campaigns and their investment in India has exceeded $8 billion,” he said.

“In the next 15 years, China will import $30 trillion of goods and $100 billion of services from the world. As the only two major developing countries with a population of over 1 billion, China and India are focussing on development,” he said.

Global Value Chains can help Developing Countries in better growth outcomes: World Bank

GENEVA: In an era of slowing trade and growth, developing countries can achieve better outcomes for its people through reforms to boost their participation in global value chains, according to a latest World Bank report.

In the report titled “World Development Report 2020: Trading for Development in the Age of Global Value Chains” that was released recently,

the bank argues that these reforms can help developing countries expand from commodity exports to basic manufacturing, while ensuring that economic benefits are shared more widely across society.

“Global value chains have played an important part in the growth, by enabling firms in developing countries to make significant gains in productivity, and by helping them transition from commodity exports to basic manufacturing,” World Bank Group Chief Economist Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg said.

She said that in the age of global value chains, all countries have much to benefit by speeding up reforms that increase commerce and boost growth.

The global value chains today account for nearly 50 per cent of trade worldwide, the World Bank said in its report.

“But their growth has plateaued since the financial crisis of 2008,” it said.

According to the report, creation of the European single market—together with the integration of China, India, and the Soviet Union into the global economy—created huge new product and labour markets, and so firms could sell the same goods to more people and take advantage of economies of scale leading to the further deepening of GVCs.

The report highlights the steps countries can take to attract GVC investments, even if they have been largely left out of the value chain revolution.

Small steps—such as speeding up customs and reducing border delays—can yield big benefits for countries making the transition from commodity exports to basic manufacturing.

“For many goods traded in global value chains, a day’s delay is equal to imposing a tariff in excess of one

per cent. In addition, investments that improve connectivity by modernising communications and roads, railways, and ports can yield large benefits,” it said.

India's August rice exports drop 29% on weak African demand: Govt

MUMBAI: India's rice exports in August fell 29% year-on-year to 644,249 tonnes, Government data showed, due to weak demand from African countries for non-basmati rice, among other factors. "Demand from west African countries is weak for non-basmati rice. They have bought a lot from China and don't need to buy huge volumes now," said Nitin Gupta, 

Vice President of Olam India's rice business. India is the world's biggest rice exporter but its shipments have plunged 27% in the first five months of the 2019/20 financial year, starting on April 1, to 3.8 million tonnes, the data showed.

Iran, the biggest buyer of India's basmati rice, has nearly stopped purchases in the last few weeks as it harvests its own crop, said an exporter based in New Delhi. 

"Iran could resume buying early next year after harvesting the local crop," the exporter said.

Rice supplies from India's summer-sown crop are expected to improve from next month and this could moderate local prices and make exports competitive, Gupta said.

Non-basmati rice exports could fall 40% in 2019/20 from a year ago unless the Government provided some incentive for exports, said B V Krishna Rao, President of the Rice Exporters Association (REA).

"The industry badly needs Government support to accelerate exports," Rao said.

India exported 11.95 million tonnes of rice in 2018/19 through March 31, down 7.2% from the previous 12 months, even though it had provided incentives for exports of non-basmati rice for four months of the year.

US outlines 'Phase 1' trade deal with China, suspends October tariff hike

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump recently outlined the first phase of a deal to end a trade war with China and suspended a threatened tariff hike, but officials on both sides said much more work needed to be done before an accord could be agreed.

The emerging deal, covering agriculture, currency and some aspects of intellectual property protections, would represent the biggest step by the two countries in 15 months to end a tariff tit-for-tat that has whipsawed financial markets and slowed global growth. But the recent announcement did not include many details and Trump said it could take up to five weeks to get a pact written.

He acknowledged the agreement could fall apart during that period, though he expressed confidence that it would not.

"I think we have a fundamental understanding on the key issues. We've gone through a significant amount of paper, but there is more work to do," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said as the two sides gathered with Trump at the White House.

With Chinese Vice Premier Liu He sitting across a desk from him in the Oval Office after two days of talks between negotiators, the President told reporters that the two sides were very close to ending their trade dispute.

JSW Infrastructuare to buy 14 more Mini-Bulk Carriers for $126 million

MUMBAI: JSW Infrastructure Ltd will buy as much as 14 more Mini-Bulk carriers that can move seamlessly along sea and river carrying cargo between its Jaigarh and Dharamtar ports for the captive use of the group’s steel mill and the upcoming cement plant at Dolvi located along the Amba river in Maharashtra.

 

The steel-maker previously ordered 18 such ships, each with a capacity to carry 8,000 tonnes at Chinese, Indian and Bangladeshi yards. Out of this, two vessels built at Bangladesh’s Western Marine Shipyard Ltd were delivered to JSW.

Cochin Shipyard Ltd is constructing four Mini-Bulk carriers for Utkarsh Advisory Services Private Limited, part of JSW group. The balance 12 ships are under construction at a Chinese yard.

 

“We would be ordering another 14 ships of 6,000-tonne capacity each, most likely from China and a few of them would be built at Cochin Shipyard,” Pranab Jha, Vice President, Shipping, JSW Steel Ltd, said recently. 

 

At about $9 million per vessel, the total acquisition cost for the 14 ships would be about $126 million.

 

JSW is looking to tap India’s Coastal Shipping and Inland Waterways in a big way to ferry cargo and cut logistics costs. The seaport at Jaigarh in Ratnagiri district and the riverine facility at Dharamtar in Raigad district are both run by JSW Infrastructure, a unit of Sajjan Jindal-led O P Jindal Group.

 

"About 30 ships would be for captive use; if required I can always play around," Jha said.

JSW, according to Jha, ordered four ships at Cochin Shipyard, to support the Make in India programme of the Government.

But, the higher prices quoted by other Indian yards and the timeline for construction led JSW to order most of the ships in the first lot of 18 vessels at the Chinese yard.

amallapuram Summit: New era of India-China cooperation begins with ‘Chennai connect’, says Prime Minister October 14 , 2019

CHENNAI: After around five-and-half hours of one-on-one talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping in multiple sessions spread over two days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said a new era of cooperation will begin on Saturday, 12th October, in Sino-India ties through the “Chennai connect”.
In his delegation level talks with Xi at a luxury resort overlooking the Bay of Bengal in Kovalam on the second and final day of the informal summit, Modi noted that India and China were global economic powers during most of the last 2000 years and were returning to stage gradually.
“The Wuhan spirit had given a new momentum and trust to our ties. A new era of cooperation will begin today through ‘Chennai Connect’,” Modi said while referring to the outcome of the first informal summit between the two leaders in the Chinese port last year.
The Prime Minister said strategic communication between the two countries increased following the first informal summit in Wuhan.