Seoul [South Korea], March 19,2021: North Korea on Friday said that it will sever diplomatic relations with Malaysia for extraditing one of its nationals to the United States to face money laundering charges.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the North Korean businessman living in Malaysia is accused of supplying prohibited luxury items from Singapore to Pyongyang, in violation of UN sanctions.
Malaysia’s top court ruled that the businessman can be extradited to the US, rejecting his appeal challenging the extradition request.
“This world-startling incident is an out-and-out product of anti-DPRK conspiracy created from the heinous policy of hostility by the United States aimed at isolating and suffocating our country and the pro-US subservience by the Malaysian authority,” the official Korean Central News Agency said, using the North’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
“With regard to the grave situation that has prevailed, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the DPRK hereby announces total severance of the diplomatic relations with Malaysia which committed a super-large hostile act against the DPRK in subservience to the US pressure,” it added.
The news agency also claimed that the businessman was engaged in ‘legitimate external trade activities’, warning that the Malaysian authority will bear full responsibility for any consequences that occur between both countries.
North Korea also warned that the US will ‘pay a due price’, accusing it of being the “backstage manipulator and the main culprit of this incident”.
Brussels [Belgium], March 6,2021: The United States and the European Union agreed to temporarily suspend tariffs levied on billions of dollars of each others’ aircraft, wine, food and other products for a four-month period.
According to The New York Times, US President Joe Biden and Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, agreed in a phone call on Friday to suspend all tariffs imposed in the dispute over subsidies given to Boeing and Airbus for “an initial period of four months,” von der Leyen said in a statement.
The suspension allows both sides to focus on resolving this long-running dispute. It provides an important boost to EU exporters since the U.S. had been authorised to raise tariffs on $7.5 billion of EU exports to the U.S. Similarly, EU tariffs will be suspended on some $4 billion worth of U.S. exports into the EU, according to the European Commission.
“President Biden and I agreed to suspend all our tariffs imposed in the context of the Airbus-Boeing disputes, both on aircraft and non-aircraft products, for an initial period of 4 months,” she said.
“We both committed to focusing on resolving our aircraft disputes, based on the work our respective trade representatives. This is excellent news for businesses and industries on both sides of the Atlantic, and a very positive signal for our economic cooperation in the years to come,” Von der Leyen added.
According to a White House statement, Biden “underscored his support for the European Union and his commitment to repair and revitalize the U.S.-EU partnership.”
“Noting our shared values and the world’s largest trade and investment relationship, the leaders agreed to suspend the tariffs related to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Aircraft disputes for four months and to work toward resolving these long-running disputes at the WTO,” The White House said.
NYT further reported that The World Trade Organization had authorized both the United States and Europe to impose tariffs on each other as part of two parallel disputes, which began almost two decades ago, over subsidies the governments have given to Airbus and Boeing.
The EU had imposed tariffs on roughly $4 billion of American products, while the United States levied tariffs on $7.5 billion of European goods.
Former President Donald Trump took a “more adversarial and aggressive stance” toward the bloc. He accused it of cheating the United States on trade and imposed tariffs on European metals, aircraft and other products. Trump also threatened further tariffs against European automakers.
The Biden administration has said it would restore ties with the E.U., formerly a close ally, as it seeks to form coalitions to take on bigger global problems, like China’s unfair trade practices. The US has committed to pressing Europe for a settlement on the aircraft dispute, as well as other continuing trade spats over metals, digital service taxes and other issues, according to NYT.
“Finally, we are emerging from the trade war between the United States and Europe, which created only losers,” Bruno Le Maire, the French finance minister, said on Twitter adding that a burden would be lifted for French winegrowers, whose sales have been pummeled by steep retaliatory tariffs that the Trump administration imposed on imports to the United States.
In a joint statement with the European Union, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said the suspension would take effect “as soon as the internal procedures on both sides are completed” and that the agreement signaled “the determination of both sides to embark on a fresh start in the relationship.”
New Delhi, Feb 6,2021: India and the European Union will hold regular talks to initiate a bilateral trade and investment agreement (BTIA), with an interim agreement to start with.
The two sides held their first High Level Dialogue (HLD), co-chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and EU Executive Vice-President & Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, on Friday.
“In a significant step forward, regular interactions for re-initiation of bilateral trade and investment agreements, with an interim agreement, to start with, were discussed,” the Commerce ministry said on Saturday.
Negotiations for a broad-based BTIA started in 2007 and were suspended in 2013.
The talks collapsed over certain EU demands such as greater market access for automobiles, wines and spirits, and further opening up of India’s financial services sector such as banking, insurance and e-commerce.
At last year’s India-EU Leaders Summit, the two sides agreed to explore the possibility of reviewing BTIA talks and decided to hold the HLD.
During the HLD, the Ministers emphasised on the importance of global cooperation and solidarity in the post COVID-19 era and agreed for further deepening of bilateral trade and investment relationship through a series of regular engagements, aiming at quick deliverables for the businesses in these tough times.
They also agreed to meet within the next three months, with an objective for reaching consensus on a host of bilateral trade and investment cooperation issues, such as a bilateral Regulatory Dialogue, and an India-EU Multilateral Dialogue, to explore further possibilities of co-operation.
The Ministers concluded the talks to work towards a renewed India-EU commercial and economic partnership, reflecting full potential of bilateral commercial relations, said the ministry.
Nov 30,2020:The European Union wants to forge a new alliance with the United States to bury the tensions of the Trump era and meet the challenges posed by China, the Financial Times (FT) newspaper reported, citing a draft plan.
The plan proposes rebuilding ties, with common fronts on issues ranging from digital regulation to tackling the COVID-19 pandemic, the FT said.
Relations between the US and Europe have been strained under President Donald Trump. The EU and most of the bloc’s states have congratulated President-elect Joe Biden following the November 3 election.
“As open democratic societies and market economies, the EU and the US agree on the strategic challenge presented by China’s growing international assertiveness, even if we do not always agree on the best way to address this,” the FT cited the draft plan as saying.
The plan, which will be submitted for endorsement by national leaders at a meeting on December 10-11, proposed the launch of a new transatlantic agenda in an EU-US summit in the first half of 2021, the newspaper added.
Earlier in November, the EU imposed tariffs on up to $4bn of US imports in retaliation for US subsidies for Boeing but said it was hopeful of an improvement in trade ties under Biden.
EU trade chief Valdis Dombrovskis earlier said the European Commission, which coordinates trade policy for the 27 EU member states, had made some informal contacts with the Biden team.
The draft paper, prepared by the Commission, says the EU-US partnership needs “maintenance and renewal” if the democratic world is to assert its interests against “authoritarian powers” and “closed economies [that] exploit the openness our own societies depend on”, according to the FT.
Under Trump, the US has been reluctant to coordinate its response to China with the EU, frustrating many in Brussels, and has even imposed its own trade measures against the EU.
NEW DELHI ,Nov 17,2020: India is considering a plan to allow up to 26% foreign direct investment from countries with which it shares a land border, including China, without government scrutiny for some sectors, the Economic Times reported on Tuesday, citing government officials.
In April, India had stepped up scrutiny of investments from companies based in neighbouring countries, in what is widely seen as a move to stave off takeovers by Chinese firms during the coronavirus outbreak.
The Indian government’s April 17 notification had said investments from an entity in a country that shares a land border with India will require government approval, meaning they can not go through a so-called automatic route.
The Economic Times report said that a panel of top government officials was discussing various options on easing rules for investment from neighbours and a decision is likely soon.
The commerce and industry ministry did not immediately reply to an email from Reuters seeking comment.
Tensions between India and China remain high with tens of thousands of troops deployed along the remote Himalayan border, even as the two countries are formulating a plan to end months of military standoff.
Russian and Ukrainian gas companies say they have finalised a slew of contracts ensuring uninterrupted transit of Russian natural gas to Europe.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hailed the agreements that were signed late Monday, saying they will allow Ukraine to get at least $7 billion in transit payments from Russia over the next five years.
Mr. Zelenskiy said on Facebook the documents ensured Ukraine’s “energy security and well-being” and let “Europe know that we won’t fail it when it comes to energy security.”
The deal that comes just 24 hours before the current transit contract expires on Tuesday will ease European fears of an interruption in Russian gas supplies. Russia ships about 40% of its European gas deliveries through pipelines that cross Ukraine.
Russia’s Gazprom state-controlled gas giant and Ukraine’s Naftogaz energy company described the agreements signed in Vienna late Monday as a hard-won compromise that followed five days of strenuous talks.
The agreements formalized a tentative deal reached earlier this month that envisaged shipments of 65 billion cubic metres of natural gas through Ukraine in 2020 and annual shipments of 40 billion cubic metres thereafter.
Those amounts are smaller than what Russia has sent through Ukraine in previous years. Russia has been working intensively to build new delivery networks that bypass Ukraine.
They include the prospective Nord Stream 2 undersea pipeline between Russia and Germany. Russian officials vowed that it would be completed next year despite the US sanctions that forced a Swiss company laying sections of the pipeline to suspend work. They said that Gazprom has its own assets to complete the construction.
The Russia-Ukraine gas agreements come as the two neighbours remain locked in a tug-of-war that followed Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea and Moscow’s support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine.
It follows the December 9 talks in Paris between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, France and Germany on settling the conflict in the east. The negotiations marked Zelenskiy’s first encounter with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which they talked about the gas issue, paving way for the deal.
The Ukraine-Russia gas deal envisaged payment by Russia of $2.9 billion to settle an arbitration claim resulting from previous transit disputes and waived any other claims related to the 2009 transit contract.
Kolkata, Nov 19 : The sanitation economy in India is a $14 billion market which is expected to double to an estimated US $62 billion by 2021.
The increased toilet construction, operations and maintenance including cleaning are successfully providing universal access to sanitation in the country. There is an emergence of new markets for treated water, renewable energy, organic compost, proteins and nutrients as well.
The digitization of sanitation systems to capture data will further enable the monitoring of human health and behaviour, thus generating more opportunities for businesses across sectors to ensure sanitation access, to contribute their toilet resources to sanitation economy and to achieve zero waste targets.
It will also allow operators to leverage new business models to enable cost-effective benefits. For governments, it will mean delivering sanitation services faster with the generation of revenue and promotion of new markets for private sector engagement and investment.
On the occasion of World Toilet Day, Geneva-based Toilet Board Coalition (TBC) hosted the Global Sanitation Economic Summit in Pune, from November 18 to 21
The summit was a platform for business leaders, investors and sanitation experts, who are at the forefront of the global sanitation economy, to deliberate upon ‘Sanitation Economy’ solutions for various industries, citizens and development agendas.
Toilet Board Coalition – The India Chapter, which will go online in January 2020 was also launched at the summit. Introduced as a result of demand from local Indian companies, who would join a global coalition but wanted to have their coalition in the country, the Chapter will be TBC’s first office outside of Switzerland.
The summit’s inauguration featured eminent keynote speakers including Secretary P. Iyer, Ministry of Water and Sanitation, Government of India; Cheryl Hicks, Executive Director and CEO, Toilet Board Coalition; and Rajendra Jagtap, CEO, Pune Smart City. Other important delegates included representatives from prominent institutions such as Tata Trusts, Unilever, Kalyani Group, LIXIL, Kimberly-Clark, Veolia, Firmenich and USAID as well as Indian Smart Cities.
BANGKOK : Talks to agree what could be the world’s biggest trade bloc were conclusive and an announcement on their success will be made later on Monday, Thailand’s commerce minister said on Monday.
The prospects of reaching agreement on the 16-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which is backed by China, were thrown into doubt by last minute demands from India ahead of meetings in Bangkok.
“The negotiation last night was conclusive,” Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit said.
“There will be an announcement together on the success of the RCEP agreement by the leaders later today. India is part of this as well and will jointly make the announcement. The signing will be next year.”