Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Russia, and his visit to Pakistan next year for the SAARC summit, has raised hopes about the possibility of resumption of the bilateral composite dialogue.
As the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) goes through another round, some details have started trickling out from the secretive negotiations. A concerning detail for Australia is the provision that applies penalties to foreign state-owned enterprises (SOEs) if they receive discounted loans when investing in TPP member economies.
The idea of ‘competitive neutrality’ is the basis for these provisions. This clause aims to stop SOEs from receiving an advantage over their private competitors by virtue of their connection to their home state.
Black Forest ham, Asiago, Gorgonzola, Gouda, and many other European geographical indications for foodstuffs are at the centre of a TTIP food fight. They are all protected from imitation by other companies in many countries of the world. Not in the US though. And as the details of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership are negotiated, the EU wants to stop American manufacturers from being able to falsely label their products with their protected names.
US exports of goods and services to China have been practically flat since the first quarter of 2014, while Chinese exports to the United States have expanded only modestly. This is not an inspiring record. Meanwhile, two-way stocks of direct investment remain well below potential — about US$60 billion from the United States to China and around US$50 billion going the other direction. This stands in contrast with a potential of at least US$100 billion in each direction.
The international trading system is at a crossroads. While the Doha Round of WTO negotiations remains deadlocked, new trade rules are being called for to adjust for new realities, such as the expansion of global value chains (GVCs). This means for the first time since the establishment of the WTO in 1995, regionalism has prospered over multilateralism, with the parallel emergence of three mega-regional trade negotiation platforms. With this in mind, China must reconsider its approach to negotiating trade agreements.
The White House’s effort to hammer the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement in Maui failed. As time is running out for President Obama’s legacy achievement, both Washington and Beijing are reassessing their options.
Last week, Pacific Rim officials met on the island of Maui, Hawaii, to conclude the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement. In addition to trade ministers from 12 countries, the meeting included 650 officials, lobby groups and other stakeholders.
However, the talks failed.
After fierce resistance from Australia and several Asian countries, the United States is again making an aggressive move to get the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) approved in all member states.
In a crippling blow to Barack Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, talks between nations in the partnership have collapsed.
All 12 nations in the pact besides the U.S. failed to reach an agreement late last week, causing Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to scramble over the weekend. The pact is originally designed to allow more trade between the U.S., Mexico, Canada, and many other nations throughout Asia.
After 10 years of negotiations and the official signing in June 2015, the Australia–China free trade agreement (FTA) still is not a done deal. A coalition of Australian trade unions is seeking to ‘stop the China FTA’ at the final hurdle, a vote in federal parliament.
The ECB’s Economic Bulletin neatly summarizes some interesting trends in Eurozone trade patterns. There are four main points.
First, through the early 2000s, most of the trade was between EMU countries. Since then, however, trade outside of EMU has increased, and in Q1 of this year, extra-EMU trade accounted for more than 55%.
