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 By  Jack Ewing New York Times The funeral directors will have to wait for their big get-together. So will the toymakers, the equestrians and the vegans. All those groups and many more had scheduled trade fairs to take place in Germany in recent months. But these rituals of business life, a chance for people to make deals, check out the competition and commune with others in the same walk of life, are in crisis. The mass cancellation of trade fairs has been a disaster for hotels, restaurants and taxi drivers around the world, but especially in Germany. The country has four of the world’s 10 largest trade venues, more than any other nation. The big worry for the exhibition industry is that companies will discover they can do without trade fairs. Trade fairs have played a central role in German economic life at least since the Middle Ages, when merchants convened in cities like Leipzig to trade wine, furs, grain and gossip. The rst Hanover Fair in 1947, a showcase for machine to...

By Shruti Srivastava, Bloomberg India’s key manufacturing exports may lose market share to a China-backed Asian trade bloc, from which PM Modi walked away last year to protect the interests of local farmers and industry. Some of India’s top 10 exports such as engineering goods, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, and electronics face erosion in market share on account of lower taris that members of the 15- nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership enjoy for trading among themselves, according to economists. To put things in perspective, engineering products alone account for a quarter of the nation’s merchandise exports. “In sectors where India is somewhat contributing to the global supply chain, RCEP would prove to be disadvantageous,” Amitendu Palit, a senior research fellow at the National University of Singapore, said by phone. “Under RCEP, cost of trade will come down which is a big advantage.” As the trade pact kicks in, tari will be eliminated on at least 92% of traded good...

The Hindu June 22, 2020 India can potentially reduce its trade deficit with China by $8.4 billion over FY21-22, which is equivalent to 17.3% of the deficit with China and 0.3% of India’s GDP, Acuité Ratings & Research said in a study. Reference:  https://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/india-can-reduce-trade-deficit-with-china-by-84-bn-study/article31893193.ece

The Hindu June 21, 2020 Posted by Radheyshyam Jadhav India imports various bulk drugs/active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) for producing medicines. About two-thirds of the total imports of bulk drugs and drug intermediates are from China. As calls for a boycott on Chinese goods and materials gains momentum, this statistic bears significance. Reference:  https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/china-accounts-for-two-thirds-of-indias-bulk-drug-imports/article31881676.ece

The Hindu June 18, 2020 The first deadly face-off between Indian and Chinese troops in more than four decades adds another layer of uncertainty to companies already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic on both sides of the border. The clashes that left 20 Indian soldiers dead, along with an unknown number of Chinese casualties, followed a seven-week military standoff between the two nuclear-armed powers. While India in a statement late Tuesday said it remains committed to peace on the border with China, an escalation risks disruption for firms from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Xiaomi Corp. to Tata Motors Ltd. that have customers -- and investors -- in two of the worlds biggest economies. A gamut of companies importing parts or capital from China will have to find alternative sources quickly if tensions escalate, said Aneesh Srivastava, chief investment officer at Star Health and Allied Insurance Co. The makers of white goods, luggage bags, auto components and some of the...

Hindustan Times 19 June 2020 Data posted on India’s Beijing embassy website, which it sourced to China’s customs department, showed total bilateral trade between Jan and Nov 2019 at $84.3 billion, a drop of nearly 3.2% from the previous year’s $ 95.7 billion. The deadly border skirmishes between India and China have cast a cloud over trade relations, which have seen the latter rapidly expand its footprint in the Indian economy, spanning infrastructure, physical goods and hi-tech, with the value of total bilateral trade surging 20% in the last six years, according to official data. At least some of this surge, experts admit, has come at the cost of local industry. Chinese firms have ploughed huge investments into some of the country’s most iconic tech brands, such as the ride-hailing service Ola, a fintech company Paytm, food-delivery app Zomato and e-commerce platform Flipkart. How large are Chinese investments in India and what do the two countries trade in? Mapping these...

Hindustan Times 19 June, 2020 Posted by Kanishka Sarkar Top US trade representative on Thursday said the administration is negotiating with India over its status under trade preference programme Generalized System of Preferences. The US is mulling over restoring India’s beneficiary status under its trade preference programme Generalized System of Preferences on receiving a counterbalancing proposal from New Delhi, a top Trump ministration official told lawmakers on Thursday. The United States US is currently negotiating with India for it, he added.  “We’re in negotiations with India, we took away their GSP, and we’re in the process of restoring it if we can get an adequate counterbalancing proposal from them,” US trade representative Robert Lighthizer told members of the Senate Finance Committee.  “Till now, we haven’t done that. But this is something that we’re actually actively negotiating right now,” Lighthizer said, responding to a question from Senator Mari...

Money Control June 05, 2020 Reliance digital unit has raised Rs 87,655 crore from leading tech players and investors. Latest deal comes close on the heels of investments by Facebook, General Atlantic, Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners and KKR. Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala Investment Company will inject Rs 9,093.6 crore in Jio Platforms in exchange for 1.85 percent, the sixth investment in the RIL digital unit in as many weeks and underscoring its standing as an irresistible lodestar for some of the world’s biggest tech companies and investors. The investment by Mubadala, which manages about $229 billion in assets, at an equity value of Rs 4.91 lakh crore and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 lakh crore takes the total amount raised by Jio to an eye-popping Rs 87,655.35 crore, according to a statement by RIL. Jio Platforms, which runs movie, news and music apps as well as the telecom enterprise Jio Infocomm, has now sold a combined stake of 18.97 percent in six massive fu...

ET Prime June 05 2020 Wipro’s growth has failed to match the industry’s. Four CEOs across a decade have struggled to steady the ship. Abidali Neemuchwala, who joined in 2015 to script a turnaround, left earlier this month, midway through the process. The new CEO, Thierry Delaporte, has a tough job of turning around the company during a pandemic and a brutal recession. Neemuchwala may have created a base, but drastic changes will be needed. As Wipro moves on to its fifth CEO in a decade, it becomes necessary to ask: why have successive CEOs struggled? How badly has the company lagged its peers? And when will the “work in progress” reach a satisfactory conclusion? What’s in store for Wipro after Abidali Neemuchwala. More than half of Nifty 500 companies have only one woman director. Although regulatory push has prompted corporate India to go for gender diversity in boardrooms, it looks more an enforced development than the belief that diversity adds value. Indeed, the gla...

The Telegarph June 4, 2020 The Union cabinet on Wednesday allowed farmers to sell their products anywhere in the country, took steps to encourage contract farming and removed several items from the Essential Commodities Act. Farm minister Narendra Singh Tomar said the moves were a “historic step”, but analysts were sceptical. The cabinet approved The Farming Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Ordinance, 2020 that will allow buyers to purchase directly from farmers, while farmers can sell anywhere in the country. The changes allow the farmers to sell outside the mandis mandated by the agriculture produce market committees (APMC) of the state governments. The government also approved The Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Ordinance, 2020 to empower farmers to engage with processors, aggregators, wholesalers, large retailers and exporters — a move which will encourage contract farming. The cabinet also ...

Hindustan Times June 02, 2020 Rajesh Jayaswal The upward revision of MSME definition is broadly on the lines of that detailed in the Rs 21 lakh crore Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India Initiative) package announced on May 13, but for one change – the turnover limit of“medium manufacturing and service units have been further raised to Rs 250 crore, according to an official statement. The cabinet on Monday approved the expanded definition of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and finalised modalities for the Rs 20,000 crore subordinate debt for stressed units, and Rs 50,000 crore fund to boost growth of the sector—moves that will help more companies benefit from a package announced for small and medium companies, and also relieve the financial stress on them. The upward revision of MSME definition is broadly on the lines of that detailed in the Rs 21 lakh crore Atmanirbhar Bharat (Self-reliant India Initiative) package announced on May 13, but for one change – the...

The Indian Express January 06, 2020 The Revenue Department has asked the Director General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) to make the system of accrediting exporters with ‘star’ tag more robust as such exporters enjoy many facilities, including reduced customs inspections. The department based its advice on preliminary findings that some ‘star’ exporters were fraudulently availing IGST refunds. “There are instances where an exporter with over Rs 50 crore of exports of readymade garments has taken refund of Rs 3.9 crore while the entity’s total GST payment in cash was a mere Rs 1,650. In another case, tax payments in cash were Rs 51,201 while the exporter obtained refund of Rs 9.59 crore. It is believed that such cases involve fake invoicing and fraudulent tax credits, which have been encashed through the facility of IGST refunds,” an official said. The department further said there was a strong case for DGFT to continuously (or annually) seek a compliance and verification report fr...

Hindustan Times October 11, 2019 By Yashwant Raj Talks are currently underway towards an “interim” deal in the near-term and an FTA over a longer term, with India agreeing to open up portions of its agricultural sector in exchange for partial restoration of its benefits under a zero-tariff preferential US trade programme Squabbling among US private sector entities is understood to be one of the the key factors holding up an India-US trade deal that could lead to the opening up of the agriculture sectors of the two countries on a reciprocal basis and an ambitious Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between them, according to people familiar with the discussions. Talks are currently underway towards an “interim” deal in the near-term and an FTA over a longer term, with India agreeing to open up portions of its agricultural sector in exchange for partial restoration of its benefits under a zero-tariff preferential US trade programme. As part of these negotiations the United States is a...

Bloomberg October 06, 2019 By Irene Yuan Sun The region is losing out to Africa and elsewhere in the race to attract manufacturing investment. Vietnam seems to be the consensus pick for winner of the U.S.-China trade war, as Chinese and other manufacturers shift production to the cheaper Southeast Asian nation. If there’s a loser, at least in terms of missed opportunities, it may be the countries of South Asia. To understand why, remember that the trade war has only accelerated an important trend a decade in the making. Faced with rising costs, Chinese manufacturers must decide whether to invest in labor-saving automation technologies or to relocate. Those choosing the latter present an enormous opportunity for less-developed countries, as Chinese companies can help spark industrialization and much-needed economic transformation in their new homes. There may not be another such chance this generation. The only proven pathway to long-lasting, broad-based prosperity has been t...

Business Standard PTI, Washington October 08, 2019 Research shows the impact of the trade conflict is widespread and countries must be ready to respond in unison with cash infusions, Kristalina Georgieva said in her first speech as MD of IMF Grinding trade disputes are undermining the global economy, which is set to see its slowest growth in nearly a decade, the new IMF chief said Tuesday. Research shows the impact of the trade conflict is widespread and countries must be ready to respond in unison with cash infusions, Kristalina Georgieva said in her first speech as managing director of the International Monetary Fund. She also called for a ramp-up in carbon taxes to address the other challenge facing the global economy which is climate change. "In 2019, we expect slower growth in nearly 90 percent of the world. The global economy is now in a synchronized slowdown," Georgieva said in a speech ahead of IMF-World Bank autumn meetings next week. ...

The Financial Express October 09, 2019 By Smitha Francis Under the ominous shadow of the US-China trade war and global slowdown, there is urgency in concluding the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. Under the ominous shadow of the US-China trade war and global slowdown, there is urgency in concluding the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement. With RCEP set to add China as well as Australia and New Zealand as India’s new free trade partners, how does this trade deal fit in with India’s national priorities for increasing domestic value added production and employment through the Make in India mission? The shift in India’s approach to RCEP from the earlier reticence to the current TINA (there is no alternative) seems to arise from a perceived fear of marginalisation in relation to exports and FDI inflows. This marginalisation fear has two major assumptions underlying it.  The first is that the import of intermediate pro...

Lee Fang, August 19 2019 THE AMERICAN FUEL & Petrochemical Manufacturers, a powerful lobbying group that represents major chemical plants and oil refineries, including Valero Energy, Koch Industries, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Marathon Petroleum, has flexed its muscle over environmental and energy policy for decades. Despite its reach, AFPM channels dark money and influence with little scrutiny. The group is now leveraging its political power to criminalize protests of oil and gas infrastructure. In an audio recording obtained by The Intercept, the group concedes that it has been playing a role behind the scenes in crafting laws recently passed in states across the country to criminalize oil and gas pipeline protests, in response to protests over the Dakota Access pipeline. The laws make it a crime to trespass on public land used for “critical infrastructure,” impose a fine or prison time for violators, and hold protesters responsible for damage incurred during the pr...