The report forecasts global economic growth to 2.6% in 2024, barely above the 2.5% threshold commonly associated with a recessionary phase. The report says the prevailing focus on inflation overshadows urgent issues like trade disruptions, climate change and rising inequalities. It advocates for structural reforms and coordinated global efforts, proposing …
THE WITHDRAWAL of USA -- the largest consumer of coffee -- is unlikely to invalidate the International Coffee Agreement, which aims at stabilising coffee prices for the benefit of both consumers and producers. Sufficient importing members have already agreed to the pact. Though the loss has been acknowledged to be …
THE GROWING fear of losing jobs has fuelled the debate on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Among the major opponents to the pact between the US, Canada and Mexico, are Ross Perot, a contender for the US President's post in 1992, the American Federation of Labour-Confederation of Industrial …
ALLEGATIONS of illegal practices in the prawn trade in Chilika -- Asia's largest brackish water lake -- have been confirmed by a five-member 'fact-finding' committee set up by the Bhubaneswar High Court. The committee was set up in response to writ petitions filed by three primary fisherfolk cooperative societies challenging …
How do you see globalisation as a phenomenon, particularly where globalisation will mean only economic integration, and not a political one? Globalisation has a number of dimensions, which are now more or less integrated. Personally, I don't think globalisation has brought about only economic integration. Political integration has also taken …
THE PROPOSED North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) between the US, Canada and Mexico was dealt a stiff blow by a court judgement requiring the US government to file an environmental impact statement on the effects of the accord, before it comes into force on January 1, 1994. The suit …
CARIBBEAN banana producers have challenged the review to be undertaken by a General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) panel to examine European Community restrictions imposed on the fruit's import from Latin America. The review was proposed by Latin American countries, whose bananas are cheaper, and seeks to do away …
THE RADICAL Khmer Rouge has won enough seats in the May 1993 Cambodian elections to pose a definite threat to the newly elected Norodom Sihanouk government. But to sustain its success, the Khmer Rouge has ensure its teak trade with Thailand - a major source of its income - gets …
Even as Union finance minister Manmohan Singh proclaimed the success of liberalisation and globalisation of the country's economy before World Bank officials in April this year, the Clinton administration targeted India for discriminatory sanctions under the Special 301 provisions of the US Trade Act. This is the third time since …
THE RATE of work-related accidents in India is nearly eight times that of Western nations and has risen by 20 per cent in the last decade. The 13th World Congress on Occupational Safety and Health, held in Delhi recently, thus rightly focussed on working conditions in the country. Factory owners, …
BEIJING is making an all-out effort to join the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) by the end of this year, despite indications from US trade representatives that it may take longer. The Chinese have been wooing foreign investors by telling them that their entry to GATT is imminent, …
US SOURCES contend Japan is violating a 1991 agreement, which requires the Japanese to buy 20 per cent of its computer chip needs from USA. A third-quarter assessment in 1992 shows the US share of the Japanese chip market is still only 15.9 per cent. Responding to US commerce secretary …
BY THE end of the 1980s, 37 per cent of the paper and board consumed by the world was being collected and recycled to make more paper and board. While in the North it was environmental consciousness that brought about this recycling, in the South, poverty was the determining factor. …
RUSSIA has offered to trade its cut-price satellite launch potential for a guaranteed number of launches at international prices. Space agency chief Yuri Koptiev said he would accept a quota of three launches a year, one-fifth of the total world market. This would generate US $200 million for the Russians, …
PRESSING need for foreign exchange is pushing the country on to the international timber trail. Though the ministry of environment and forests (MEF) chooses to be tight-lipped, official sources admit timber exports have been given a green signal. To begin with, timber traders will be allowed to re-export teak wood …
PRESIDENT Bill Clinton wants American research to adopt the Japanese stress on industrial applications. But his call may have come too late as Japanese scientists are switching their thrust to basic research, in which the Americans have hitherto been pre-eminent. Clinton plans to add at least $7 billion to the …
HARMONISING the management of environmental and trade interests is like blending east and west -- the twain shall never meet. Not, at least, in the foreseeable future. Yet, this is the central pursuit of the authors of this elegant publication, a compendium of papers read at an international symposium. Each …
FOR THE first time in a decade, developing countries have received more money from developed countries than they returned as interest on debt. But losses caused by declining terms of trade continued to offset the gains in aid. The United Nations secretary general's report, however, cautions this turnaround in resource …
VIKINGS are taking to the market. A thick, yoghurt-like product made by Iceland's Viking inhabitants and pure, bottled water from glaciers are becoming part of the country's efforts to exploit one of the world's most pollution-free environments. Export diversification efforts come in the wake of a sharp fall in cod-catch, …
SHOULD a weed that provides income to villagers be eradicated? This is the dilemma forest officials in Jhansi district of Uttar Pradesh face. The lantana bush spreads like a weed and threatens the growth of trees by competing for soil nutrients. But a poor villager can earn up to Rs …
SPICES have drawn intrepid merchants to Indian shores through history, but falling international prices and uncertain demand abroad are worrying Indian growers, who supply about one-third of the world's spice trade. Official figures at the second spice congress in Goa recently show Indian spice exports dropped from 1.12 lakh tonnes …
