The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council

MARKET WATCH 24 MAY, 2016

NATIONAL

 

INTERNATIONAL

Textile Raw Material Price 2016-05-23

Item

Price

Unit

Fluctuation

Date

PSF

1023.16

USD/Ton

-0.15%

5/23/2016

VSF

2038.68

USD/Ton

0.07%

5/23/2016

ASF

1924.15

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

Polyester POY

1004.07

USD/Ton

-0.98%

5/23/2016

Nylon FDY

2229.57

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

40D Spandex

4398.05

USD/Ton

-0.69%

5/23/2016

Nylon DTY

2099.76

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

Viscose Long Filament

1112.49

USD/Ton

-0.55%

5/23/2016

Polyester DTY

2481.54

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

Nylon POY

5694.56

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

Acrylic Top 3D

1259.86

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

Polyester FDY

2069.22

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

30S Spun Rayon Yarn

2779.32

USD/Ton

-0.55%

5/23/2016

32S Polyester Yarn

1695.08

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

45S T/C Yarn

2443.36

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

45S Polyester Yarn

2932.03

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

T/C Yarn 65/35 32S

2229.57

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

40S Rayon Yarn

1832.52

USD/Ton

-0.83%

5/23/2016

T/R Yarn 65/35 32S

2137.94

USD/Ton

0%

5/23/2016

10S Denim Fabric

1.35

USD/Meter

0%

5/23/2016

32S Twill Fabric

0.81

USD/Meter

0%

5/23/2016

40S Combed Poplin

1.16

USD/Meter

0%

5/23/2016

30S Rayon Fabric

0.69

USD/Meter

0%

5/23/2016

45S T/C Fabric

0.68

USD/Meter

0%

5/23/2016

Source: Global Textiles

Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.15271 USD dtd. 23/05/2016)

The prices given above are as quoted from Global Textiles.com.  SRTEPC is not responsible for the correctness of the same.

Textile Ministry seek to build on its India Handloom Brand

Ministry of Textiles is looking to build on its India Handloom Brand (IHB) to remove the distress among the lakhs of underpaid weavers for which they has decided to totally exit from mass production of handloom fabric and focus on the premium segment, after fighting a losing battle with powerlooms in the mass segment for several years. This move is paying off in not just improving the earnings of the weavers but also in terms of sales numbers of the IHB, whose perception has changed with better quality, competitive pricing and easy availability. The ministry has spent Rs 2-3 crore till now on the promotion of the brand this year. It is looking to spend another Rs 20 in the current fiscal. Alok Kumar, development commissioner, handlooms, said that from the time the IHB was launched, in December 2015, to March this year, it garnered Rs 15 crore. He is projecting it to jump to Rs 100 crore by the end of this year.

According to Kumar, it is a revival of sorts for the fabric, which had lost the favour of consumers because of sheer neglect that had led to its quality slipping and prices being uncompetitive compared to powerloom textiles. Today two-third of weavers were distressed because their products were getting priced out by powerlooms. Mass segment space will have to be vacated sooner or later by handloom industry because the same cloth can be manufactured by private sector power-loom industry very competitively, said Kumar, who is spearheading the transformation of IHB. The government has undertaken to train these weavers to upgrade their skills for high-end handloom fabrics like Patola, Champa Silk, Chanderi, Ashawali Silk, Salem Silk, Uppada Jamdani, Kinnori Shawl, Kullu Shawl, Tangaliya Shawl, Kutch Shawl, Banarasi, etc. They have given weavers new designs and contemporary colour combinations and it has succeeded.

Over the last 10 years, the government has taught new weaving skills with contemporary designs and reliable dyes to 80-90,000 weavers. This has pushed up their earnings to Rs 800-900 per day from Rs 150 a day. The ministry will be training another 35,000 weavers this year. As per the last census, carried out in 2010, there were 43 lakh weavers in the country. Of this, around 65% were in the Northeast who produced handloom fabric for household consumption. Around 20 lakh weavers were involved in commercial production of handloom cloth. This number had been dwindling because of unviable pricing and dropping sales. However, recent government efforts at putting life back into the handloom sector have helped weavers return to it. Many weavers has returned to their villages in Chanderi of Madhya Pradesh with the resurgence of handloom's worth. Many weavers have left their jobs in Mumbai and gone back to Chanderi. According to weavers Rs 500 per day is good enough earning in their village. It is also more dignified than living in a Mumbai shanty. The transformation exercise started by the textile ministry after a recent market research done by Majestic MRSS Ltd on the dressing habits and fabric preference of youth in the age group between 20 years and 30 years. The survey revealed that for 58% of the target group quality of the fabric mattered when it came to formal wears. They leaned towards branded products for assured quality even if they were priced higher than non-branded ones. At the same time, it came out from the research that IHB was not easily available and was expensive, comfortable but sparsely available and expensive, said the executive summary of Majestic MRSS Ltd. However, Kumar has addressed the accessibility issue by boarding on to the e-commerce marketplace. IHB is already there on nine e-commerce platforms. Since then its revenues has surged significantly.

SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers

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Power loom Federation: thanks Chief Minister Jayalalithaa

The Tamil Nadu Power loom Federation has thanked the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa for coming out with an announcement on provision of 750 unit free power to the power loom industry. Hailing Ms. Jayalalithaa for assuming charge as Chief Minister once again, M. S. Mathivanan, president, Tamil Nadu Power loom Federation said in a statement here on Monday said that free power supply will be a great relief to the small power loom weavers, as power formed a major input in fabric weaving.

Gesture

This gesture of the Chief Minister will enable the power loom industry to strive well and produce textiles at a competitive price and pave way for fetching good orders from the domestic and international markets, Mr. Mathivanan added. He also hailed the provision of 200 units free power supply to handloom units.

SOURCE: The Hindu

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‘Indian merchandise exports to 6 Gulf countries down 18.7% in 2015-16’

Indian merchandise exports to six Gulf Cooperation Council countries declined 18.7 per cent in 2015-16. Rating agency Crisil said that this “decline has been led by falling oil prices”. Crisil Research said a quarter of the exports to the region are of petroleum products. “This has had a negative impact on remittances from the region, which declined for the first time in six years falling 2.2 per cent”, Crisil Research team pointed out in a note. Even at the lower current level of remittance of $36 billion from the GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, it, however, more than funded the trade deficit leaving a surplus of $22 billion, the rating agency mentioned. Exports to each of the GCC countries are different. While petroleum exports account for the largest chunk to Saudi Arabia and Oman, gems and jewellery dominate the Indian export basket for the UAE. The main exports to Kuwait are cereals, while iron and steel are the main metals of export to Bahrain. Exports to Qatar are dominated by the ship and floating structure industry. The fall in exports to GCC countries is directly related to the fall in crude oil prices. “Falling oil prices have had a sweeping impact on the oil producing economies of GCC, severely denting their oil revenues and spending by both governments and households,” explained the rating agency. Lower exports and remittances, however, has been balanced out by steep drop in import from GCC countries. “In fiscal 2016, imports from these countries fell at a faster clip of 34.5 per cent,” Crisil noted. “In fact, India’s trade deficit with the GCC has fallen a whopping $46 billion or 77 per cent, in three years, to $14 billion because of rapidly decling imports”, it said.

SOURCE:  The Hindu Business Line

 

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Commerce ministry, RBI to review regulatory norms for Exim Bank

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the commerce ministry will next week review regulatory norms for the Export Import Bank of India (Exim Bank) to enhance capital base, leverage and cap on single borrower exposure. This is part of efforts to push project exports. Yaduvendra Mathur, chairman and managing director, EXIM Bank, said it was seeking differentiated treatment in regulation and yet stay within RBI's regulatory ambit to imbibe best governance practices. At present, the banking regulator treats Exim Bank on a par with commercial banks for applying prudential norms. This would be for applying cap on single borrower exposure and leverage - the amount of borrowings linked to net owned funds. These issues would come up for discussion at meeting to be convened by the commerce ministry on May 30. One RBI governor is expected to attend the meeting which is a follow-up after the reconstitution of Board of Trade. The Government of India, which holds 100 per cent stake in the export credit agency (ECA), had infused Rs 1,300 crore as capital each year in 2014-15 and 2015-16. For 2016-17, the government has allocated Rs 450 crore. There is a growing emphasis on financing project exports, especially after a sharp slowdown in the global economy, which has hit demand both in the merchandise and services segment.

Senior Exim Bank executives said to support Indian companies to bid for big ticket projects, the ECA also needed to have a large capital base. Additional injection of capital of about Rs 1,300-1,500 crore each year for three years would help to reach the Rs 10,000-crore mark, up from the current capital base of Rs 6,500 crore. Closely linked to capital is the issue of leverage. At present, RBI allows the ECA to borrow 10-11 times its capital base. "This is lower than what fellow ECAs developed and emerging are allowed to borrow. At the lower end it is 15 times and above 50 times (in case of China). "There is need to allow us to leverage more, say 15 times," an EXIM Bank executive said.

Referring to the single borrower exposure limit, one banker said it was capped at 15 per cent of net owned funds. While limits were useful to maintain discipline, some leeway was necessary for taking exposure to Indian companies with a strong financial profile and risk management practices to compete abroad especially in the infrastructure space, officials said.

SOURCE: The Business Standard

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Govt’s fiscal deficit target may change to a ‘range’: Nomura Group

Government’s fiscal deficit target of 3 per cent by next financial year could be changed to a “range” post a committee’s recommendations on the country’s fiscal roadmap, says a Nomura report. According to the Japanese financial services major, the recommendations by a five-member panel could be implemented in the next budget. “Currently, the government has a fiscal deficit target at 3 per cent of GDP in 2017-18, but this could be changed to a ‘range’ post the committee’s recommendations, in our view,” Nomura said in a research note. The committee will submit its report to the government by October this year which implies that its recommendations could be implemented in the next budget. The government on May 17 formed a five-member committee under former revenue secretary N K Singh to review the working of the 12-year old FRBM Act and examine the feasibility of a fiscal deficit range instead of a fixed target. The committee will review the working of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act over the last 12 years and suggest the way forward “keeping in view the broad objective of fiscal consolidation and prudence and the changes required in the context of the uncertainty and volatility in the global economy”. The FRBM review committee will seek to settle the debate whether government can opt for higher fiscal deficit to boost economic growth. In the 2016-17 budget, the government announced it was setting up a panel to change the medium-term fiscal deficit target from the current absolute number to a range, to “give necessary policy space to the government to deal with dynamic situations.”

SOURCE: The Financial Express

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Economy on fast-track; need to boost infra, cut logistic costs: Gadkari

In an interview to Bloomberg TV India , Union Road Transport, Highways and Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari crystal gazes at what was missing in the earlier regimes and what has been achieved by the Modi government in the last two years. He also outlines the challenges and the road ahead for the fastest-growing major emerging economy. Starting with a stark slowdown, the NDA government has been able to pull up GDP growth to 7.5 per cent even as the global economy remains feeble and the neighbouring China is in a crisis. The Modi government is decisive, it has a vision and has fast-tracked decision making process, and this has changed the scenario, he says. Excerpts:

Two years have passed. . Before we get into some specific things, I want your big picture assessment. Two years down the line, are you satisfied with the overall performance of the government as well as your Ministry?

I feel that this is the first time a government is with a vision and a government has a commitment for gaon, gareeb mazdoor and kisaan (village, poor, worker and farmer). And that reflects in the policies. This is a decisive government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has a vision. The government has a fast-track decision-making process and definitely the scenario has changed. You talk about the coal sector, now we have a surplus there. You talk about the power sector, now we have a surplus. Now you talk about road sector. At a time when the government took charge, road construction was only 2 km per day. Today, it has reached 25 km per day. In the port sector and in inland water sector, things are progressing. In case of agriculture sector, there is no black marketing of urea. There is no lathi charge on farmers because of urea. From last year, urea production is in surplus. So a lot of things are changing. You have given a time period of 60 years to Congress and we are just completing two years. It will not be appropriate to compare our two years with the 60 years of the Congress. I am confident that we have basically changed the track of the economy.

Our economy is now on a fast track. We are going to increase employment potential. These will result in increase in GDP. When Manmohan Singh was Prime Minister, the GDP growth rate was 4.5 per cent in FY13 and 4.7 per cent in FY14. Today, the GDP growth is over 7.5 per cent. Agriculture growth has also increased. Still, we are facing a lot of problems. In the last two years, there were a lot of problems, challenges, and some negative things were there. But still our government has succeeded in giving a good vision to the country and we are moving fast. Infrastructure building in different fields, Digital India, Make in India, Start-up India — these are the new visions. Innovation, entrepreneurship, technology and research — these are the things we are focusing on. The way in which the Prime Minister visited different parts of the world, he is recognised as a world leader. There is a lot of respect for the country and for the Prime Minister in the whole world. There are great achievements. We have improved the relations with our neighbouring countries — Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. We have solved the land dispute issue with Bangladesh. But still there are many challenges.

 

You are not only a Union Minister, but also have been the BJP president. And now that the Congress seems to have been restricted to just a few states, what changes, as far as the political discourse in the Parliament, do you perceive? Although the Bankruptcy Bill has been passed, what about some of the pending reforms? Is the climate likely to change? Do you feel the Congress will continue to remain the way it was? Do you expect an improvement in relation with the Congress and other parties on the floor of the Parliament?

Poverty and unemployment are two very important issues for the country. I sincerely feel that these are still the issues only because of the wrong economic policies, bad and corrupt governance and the visionless leadership of the Congress party. I have serious reservation about the economic policies created during the Congress rule. Now we are facing drought. No drinking water is available in villages. There is no water available for farmers. But the Congress government purchased aircrafts worth Rs. 70, 000 crore. I never understood what the priority was. When there were a lot of private players who were ready to invest in the aviation industry, what was the need for the government to invest Rs. 70,000 crore in purchasing aircraft? This is a wrong economic policy. The country needed a development-oriented government, a transparent government, a corruption-free government and a government with a vision for development. Our government has these qualities. There is no charge of corruption against our government. That’s why the economy is changing. But still there are challenges.

World economy is under recession now. China is facing economic crisis. In such a scenario, it is difficult for us to work in our country also. We have to increase our exports, we have to increase investments and foreign investments across sectors. These are the challenges before us. But I always have faith. There are some who convert problems into opportunities and there are some people who convert opportunities into problems. But our government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is confident that we can convert problems into opportunities and we can make India socially and economically strong.

I want to request you to tell us about water-bone transport. Since India is a mainland country we continue to get stuck at red lights and we forget that there is no red light in rivers or seas. In the future what is the plan?

You are absolutely correct. This sector was totally neglected by the previous government. In China, 47 per cent of passenger goods traffic is on water. In Korea and Japan, it is 43 per cent and 44 per cent, respectively. In European countries — France, Germany, Italy and the UK — it is more than 40 per cent. And in India it is only 3.5 per cent. In the last two years, it has come to 6 per cent. Unfortunately, the successive governments have never given attention on water-based and coastal traffic. Now, going by road cost Rs. 1.55 per km, going by rail it is Rs. 1.00 and going by water is just 20 paisa. The logistic cost in our country is 18 per cent. In China, it is 8 per cent. In European countries it is 12 per cent. So we have to reduce logistics cost. I am giving you an example which pains me. For taking any material from Mumbai to London or Mumbai to Dubai is cheaper and easier than taking any material from Mumbai to Delhi, which is more costly and complicated. So we have to change the decision. Basically the most important thing in the policy of our government is to reduce the logistic cost from 18 per cent to 12 per cent. That is the reason why we are giving highest priorities to ports.

SOURCE: The Hindu Business line

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India Inc to govt: Focus on GST, ease of doing biz

Building political consensus for the goods and services tax (GST) Bill and sustaining the momentum on the ease of doing business should be the government's focus in its third year in office, industry leaders said on Monday as the Narendra Modi government nears its second anniversary on May 26. Implementation of GST is expected to increase the gross domestic product (GDP) of the country by about 1.5 per cent. Industry leaders had complained on numerous occasions in the past on the hold-up in passing the GST Bill in Parliament, which they have blamed on politicking between the ruling party and the principal opposition party, the Congress, which wants the GST rate to be a part of the constitutional amendment. Foreign investors, too, have stated concern over the fate of the GST Bill. Minister of state for Finance, Jayant Sinha, however, had recently said the GST bill would be passed in the upcoming Monsoon session of Parliament.

THE PROMISES

  • Implementation of GST is expected to increase GDP growth by 1.5%
  • Industry leaders laud government's focus on ease of doing business and incentivising new entrepreneurship
  • Centre's foreign policy initiatives get the thumbs up
  • Industry lauds the rural and infrastructure focus, especially the commitment to double farm income in 5 years
  • Simplification of tax regime a positive

However, the government's focus on ease of doing business and incentivising new entrepreneurship apart from its focus on the new economy of start-ups got support from industry.  "We are optimistic that India's ease of doing business ranking can be among the top 50 within the next two years," said Chandrajit Banerjee, director-general of CII. India ranks 130 out of 189 countries in ease of doing business, according to the World Bank's Doing Business Report 2016. Industry was also hopeful about the general condition of the Indian economy. "Indian economy has improved and is more stable than it was two years ago. This reflects sound and strategic macroeconomic management to tackle inflation, keep the fiscal deficit on the target path, and curb volatility," said CII President Naushad Forbes.

On the international front, the government's foreign policy agenda has been in tune with economic requirements, said Harshavardhan Neotia, president of Ficci. A slump in global commodity prices, coupled with a slowdown in China and slow economic revival in developed economies have resulted in Indian exports going down for the 17th straight month in April. The government's rural and infrastructure focus in particular was also commended by industry. Economists have pinned their hope of fast economic revival on the back of increasing rural demand. The commitment to double farm income in five years has been highlighted in this regard. Rajiv Memani, country managing partner, EY, said the finance ministry has in the past two years taken several measures to simplify and rationalise the tax regime and improve the dispute resolution mechanisms.

SOURCE: The Business Standard

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India, Iran and Afghanistan sign historic three-way transit accord

India, Iran and Afghanistan signed trilateral pact on Monday for the strategically located Chabahar Port that would give New Delhi much-needed access to Kabul, Central Asia and beyond in absence of transit rights through Pakistan. "The agenda for economic engagement is a clear priority for us. We stand together in unity of our purpose," Modi said at the trilateral summit of Iran, India and Afghanistan held in Tehran, with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani also flying down in a show of solidarity. "Today, we are witnessing a creation of history," the Indian PM said as he pitched to carve out "new routes of peace and prosperity" for the three countries. Modi said Afghanistan would get an "assured, effective and a friendly route to trade with the rest of the world"."The Chabahar agreement will expand trade, attract investment, build infrastructure and create jobs for our youth...It is a place to realise the importance of curbing radicalism, removing the shadows of terror and spreading the sweetness of familiarity between our people," the PM said.

Earlier in the day, following the Indo-Iran bilateral summit in Tehran, the two sides signed 12 pacts, including two agreements for India's participation in the expansion and operation of the Chabahar Port. Modi said the bilateral agreement to develop Chabahar, in southern Iran, and the "availability of about $500 million from India for this purpose is an important milestone" in relations between the two countries. The two countries also signed a number of agreements in technological, petrochemical, cultural and railways sectors as Modi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani held consultations on defence partnership and combating threats of terrorism, radicalism, drug trafficking and cyber crime. The two sides agreed to enhance interaction between defence and security institutions on regional and maritime security, including Afghanistan.

SOURCE: The Economic Times

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Global Crude oil price of Indian Basket was US$ 46.67 per bbl on 20.05.2016

The international crude oil price of Indian Basket as computed/published today by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was US$ 46.67 per barrel (bbl) on 20.05.2016. This was higher than the price of US$ 45.51 per bbl on previous publishing day of 19.05.2016.

In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket increased to Rs. 3145.62 per bbl on 20.05.2016 as compared to Rs. 3059.64 per bbl on 19.05.2016. Rupee closed weaker at Rs 67.41 per US$ on 20.05.2016 as against Rs 67.23 per US$ on 19.05.2016. The table below gives details in this regard:

Particulars

Unit

Price on May 20, 2016 (Previous trading day i.e. 19.05.2016)

Pricing Fortnight for 16.05.2016

(28 Apr to 11 May, 2016)

Crude Oil (Indian Basket)

($/bbl)

46.67                (45.51)

43.00

(Rs/bbl

3145.62            (3059.64)

2859.50

Exchange Rate

(Rs/$)

67.41                (67.23)

66.50

SOURCE: PIB

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Shipments of new textile machinery fall in 2015

The global economic slowdown has hit the textile machinery industry with shipments in some of the textile machinery segments experiencing declines in 2015. Deliveries of new short-staple spindles fell by nearly 8 per cent from 2014 to 2015. Shipped long-staple spindles and open-end rotors decreased by 61 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively. The number of shipped draw-texturing spindles fell by 26 per cent and shipments for new circular knitting machines by 6 per cent year-on-year. In contrast, deliveries of shuttle-less looms increased by 14 per cent in 2015 and shipments of flat-knitting machines rose by 52 per cent. These are the main results of the 38th annual International Textile Machinery Shipment Statistics (ITMSS) released by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF). The report covers six segments of textile machinery, namely spinning, draw-texturing, weaving, large circular knitting, flat knitting and finishing. The 2015 survey has been compiled in cooperation with over 140 textile machinery manufacturers, representing a comprehensive measure of world production. This number does not include the numerous Chinese companies that are represented by the so called “District”. The number of participating companies is likely to be around 200.

Shipments of new short-staple spindles fell by nearly 8per cent year-on-year in 2015, the second decrease in a row. The level of short staple spindles declined to about 9 million spindles, the lowest level since 2009. Most of the new short staple spindles (92 per cent) were shipped to Asia, whereby shipments fell by 7 per cent year-on-year. Thereby China, the world's largest investor of short-staple spindles, experienced a decline of 26 per cent, whereas deliveries to Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam rose by 97 per cent, 4 per cent and 31 per cent, respectively. All of the five largest investors for short-staple spindles in 2015 originate from Asia and include China, India, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Indonesia, ITMF said in a press release. Global shipments of long-staple (wool) spindles decreased sharply by 61 per cent from around 138,000 in 2014 to nearly 54,000 in 2015. Deliveries to Turkey, one of the main investors of long-staple spindles in the last few years, fell by 83 per cent from 67,000 in 2014 to over 11,000 spindles in 2015. The majority of long-staple spindles (58 per cent) were shipped to Asia. Nearly 41 per cent of long-staple spindles were shipped to Europe. In 2015, Iran was the largest investor with 14,200 spindles, followed by China with over 13,000 spindles.

SOURCE: Fibre2fashion

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Japan April Trade Surplus 823.5 Billion Yen, Beats Estimates

Japan’s exports fell for a seventh consecutive month in April as the yen strengthened, underscoring the growing challenges to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s efforts to revive economic growth. Overseas shipments declined 10.1 percent in April from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said on Monday. The median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg was for a 9.9 percent drop. Imports fell 23.3 percent, leaving a trade surplus of 823.5 billion yen ($7.5 billion), the highest since March 2010. Even after coming off an 18-month high earlier this month, the Japanese currency has gained 9 percent against the dollar this year, eroding the competitiveness of the nation’s products overseas and hurting the earnings of exporters. Concern about the impact of the yen was on show over the weekend as Finance Minister Taro Aso and his U.S. counterpart disagreed over the seriousness of recent moves in the foreign-exchange market. “Exports are getting a hit from the yen’s gains and weakness in overseas demand, especially in emerging nations,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance Co. in Tokyo, who added that last month’s earthquakes in Kumamoto also will likely slow exports. “There’s a high chance that Japan’s economy will return to contraction in the April-June period as domestic consumption and exports look weak.”

Monday’s report also shows that:

  • Exports to the U.S. fell 11.8 percent in April from a year earlier, while shipments to the EU rose 9.9 percent.
  • Exports to China, Japan’s largest trading partner, dropped 7.6 percent.
  • Imports fell 23.3 percent, the biggest decline since October 2009. Oil and liquefied natural gas contributed the most to the decline. The petroleum and coal tax was raised in April, which also could affect declines in energy imports.

Impact of Quakes

The tremblers hit the southern island of Kyushu in April, bringing a halt to production at factories of companies including Sony Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. They disrupted parts suppliers, including Aisin Seiki Co., delaying production of Toyota vehicles. Exports of cars to the U.S. fell 4.4 percent in April from a year earlier, declining for the first time since November 2014. The disruptions from the earthquakes could further hurt auto exports, according to the finance ministry. Supply chain disruptions may affect shipments of auto parts and electronic components, slowing Japanese exports to China and elsewhere in Asia in the April-June period, according to Yoshimasa Maruyama, chief market economist at SMBC Nikko Securities in Tokyo. Gross domestic product expanded by an annualized 1.7 percent in the three months ended March 31, after a 1.7 percent contraction in the previous quarter. The leap year provided an extra day of production and spending to bolster the data.

SOURCE: The Bloomberg

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Pak, Ukraine to boost trade volume by exploring non-traditional avenues

Ukrainian Ambassador to Pakistan Volodymyr Lakomov on Sunday said that Ukraine was in the process of signing about a dozen agreements with Pakistan thereby providing a level playing field to the investors from both the sides, besides enhancing science and technologies, education, cultural and trade relations. The current trade volume between the two countries was $500 million and steps were in hand to enhance the same. Pakistan and Ukraine can easily boost their existing trade volume to new heights by exploring non-traditional avenues. Pakistani businessmen have the opportunity to explore Ukrainian market for their products like textile, handicraft, leather goods and other products. Similarly, Ukraine could export metallurgy items, wheat, cargo and aviation and aerospace technologies, besides military hardware.

For enhancing bilateral trade the two countries had recently inked an agreement to do away double taxation. The two countries could sign memorandums of understandings for cooperation in various fields. He appreciated that the democratic system had deepening its roots in Pakistan after passing through a series of tests and trials. In a recent meeting of Ukrainian Foreign Minister with Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, both the leaders discussed ways to enhance bilateral cooperation.

SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers

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South Korea to hold fresh round of FTA negotiation with six Central America

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between S.Korea and Central America were launched in September 2015 after the two sides noted a need for a comprehensive free trade pact that will promote trade in goods and services while also boosting their cross-border investment and cooperation. South Korea to hold a fresh round of negotiations for a free trade agreement (FTA) with six Central American countries this week which will be held in Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras, from Monday through Friday, said the trade ministry said Monday. At this week's talks, the countries will discuss all major elements of the proposed FTA, including the rules of origin, intellectual property rights and ways to remove technical barriers to trade, the ministry said in a press release. South Korea especially seeks to gain greater access for its textile industries and automobile to the Central American market, a ministry official noted. South Korea's top FTA negotiator Yeo Han-koo said that they will work to reverse the downward trend in shipments to and from the Central American region through the Korea-Central America FTA that will also boost their firms' investment and exports to the region. The trade volume between the six Central American states and South Korea, asia's fourth-largest economy in 2015 came to US$4.1 billion. The six Central American countries include Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Panama. They, along with Honduras, belong to a regional economic bloc known as SIECA, and make up the fifth-largest market in Central America.

SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers

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2016 State of The U.S. Technical Textiles Industry

Smart textiles are the new exciting products everyone is talking about. They represent the next generation of textiles anticipated for use in apparel, home furnishings and technical textile applications. The vision of the smart textile is a material with added functionality. There is a common misconception that smart textiles are the same as e-textiles. The fast definition is that e-textiles should be considered within the smart textiles market segment, but not all smart textiles are e-textiles. Besides the electronic component, smart textiles can be passive with the fiber, yarn or fabric as a whole reacting to physical changes such as moisture, temperature, physical force and light differences. Commercial application success, especially in the e-textile segment, currently is most likely to be found in medical, sports and protection applications. At least in the near future, the fashion apparel market will be difficult for e-textiles to penetrate because of issues with laundering, lack of good conductive threads and ways of connecting to electronic equipment. A game-changer would be for a company to develop and introduce a viable yarn made using a conductive polymer.

Unlike market segments such as geosynthetics and airbags, the smart textile industry is still in the early developmental stages. There are many companies coming up with innovative products. Most of these companies are small start-ups, but there are some notable heavy hitters investing in smart textile technology including Microsoft and Google. There are a number of smart textile startups coming out of the Silicon Valley region. The primary driver in smart textiles growth is how well textile technology can blend with the trends and current technology in the market it is trying to penetrate such as electronics, fashion and healthcare. Still, the market is extremely tempting. One market research company estimated that the global smart textiles market was valued at $795 million in 2014, and is expected to grow to $4.2 billion by 2020. Geotextile applications include reinforcement for road construction.

Infrastructure, Environmental Protection Opportunities

While the demand for geosynthetics globally has almost doubled in a decade from $3.2 billion to $6.1 billion, the U.S. market, particularly for roads and bridges, was slow in 2015. Growth increased only about 3 to 5 percent last year. The passage in November of the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act will provide $325 billion over the next six years to repair the nation’s crumbling roads and bridge infrastructure. FAST will be a boon for the geosynthetics industry, particular for those products used in road construction. On top of the Federal outlay of transportation funds, there are many states increasing their own funding. The U.S. market for geomembranes has been helped by increased U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations for coal ash storage, gas fracking recovered polluted water storage, and the Water Resources and Development Act of 2014. Thus, the market driver over the next few years for the geosynthetics industry will be focused on both government regulations and government funding.

Trade And Trade Agreements

One of President Barack Obama’s key legacy objectives was to increase U.S. exports. In 2010, President Obama announced the National Export Initiative (NEI), with the goal of doubling U.S. exports from December 2009 to December 2014, which would result in U.S. jobs and an overall boost to the economy. While it is debatable whether the doubling occurred, the NEI did lay the groundwork for trade agreements such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP). The dominant trade issue in 2015 was the passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the conclusion of the TPP talks. The final version of the TPP was signed by all 12 participating countries in February 2016. It is still not a done deal because each nation must go back to its constituents for passage. In the United States, it is doubtful if the agreement will be discussed before the Congressional session after the national elections in November. Therefore, any impact of TPP will not be felt until 2017.

 TPP likely will have little substantial impact on the technical textiles industry. The United States already has very low tariffs on coated fabric products involving many of the TPP nations. The TPP inclusion of the yarn forward rule of origin is good but the United States already has a strong domestic technical fabric yarn industry. The restrictions of the Berry Amendment have been preserved in TPP.

The greatest impact of TPP will be on exports to Malaysia and Japan where the United States is the second largest supplier of technical fabrics, behind only China. U.S. exports currently face tariffs of up to 8.2 percent in Japan and 20 percent in Malaysia. Under TPP, nearly all these tariffs will be eliminated immediately once the agreement is enacted. Still under negotiation is T-TIP. The negotiations remained largely out of the headlines in the United States because of the TPP activity in 2015, but it potentially has a much more devastating impact on the U.S. domestic technical textiles industry. A stated objective of the European Union in the agreement is gaining access to the U.S. military and other government markets currently protected by the Berry Amendment and Buy America Act.

Government Research Initiatives

Perhaps the most exciting seed that was planted in 2015 for the technical textiles industry was the development of the government funded innovation institutes. In March 2015, President Obama announced that the Department of Defense (DoD) would provide funding for the organization of a Revolutionary Fibers and Textiles Manufacturing Innovation Institute. The DoD launched a competition for leading manufacturers, universities, and non-profits to form a new manufacturing hub focused on fiber and textile technologies (See “Textile News,” TW, this issue). The DoD is providing an initial $75 million in funding over three years, with the expectation of a matching $75 million raised by state and local governments, and private industry. Two other government initiatives also were announced in 2015 that are of interest to the technical textiles industry. The Flexible Hybrid Electronics Manufacturing Institute — for wearable smart products — is located in San Jose, Calif. It also is funded by the DoD. The Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation is located in Knoxville, Tenn., and is funded by the Department of Energy.

Forecast For 2016

In 2016, major market drivers for technical textiles include:

  • Weather conditions for those supplying technical textiles for outdoor applications such as awnings, marine products, signage and outerwear;
  • Government regulations and funding availability in major impact areas including military, environment, transportation and protection;
  • Production costs including fuel, labor and equipment;
  • Technology transfer such as the ability to adapt applications for technical textiles to exploit emerging market applications; and
  • Trade agreements.

Overall, the technical textiles segments account for 37 percent of domestic textile manufacturing, a sharp transition from the 25 percent it accounted for in 1998. The domestic market growth for technical textiles in 2015 is estimated at 2.7 percent. The estimated U.S. market value of technical textiles in 2015 is $32.5 billion.

SOURCE: The Textile World

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The Trans-Pacific Partnership as a set of international economic rules

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement was finally signed in February 2016 in Auckland, New Zealand. The negotiations involved only 12 countries, but had to go through many twists and turns because of a crisscross of confrontational relationships — large advanced economies versus emerging economies; exporters (“Cairns group”) versus importers (“G-10”) in agricultural trade; and market economy countries versus state capitalist countries. Despite such difficulties, at a time with no evident signs of hope for the Doha Round of negotiations under the World Trade Organization (WTO), the successful conclusion of the TPP negotiation, an ambitious trade liberalisation initiative, is surely an event worthy of celebration. About half a year after the release of the full text of the TPP Agreement, we have been gradually “deciphering” what the tons of documents all really mean, but most of the task remains to be done. In this short piece, I would like to attempt to outline, offer a perspective on, and share my brief impression of this new set of rules.

What is a 21st century FTA?

At the conclusion of the TPP Agreement, leading figures, including Akira Amari, Japan’s then state minister in charge of the TPP, repeatedly called it a “21st century agreement.” By this definition, the TPP is an agreement that facilitates trade in parts and intermediate goods, as well as the accompanying international movement of services, capital, data, people, and know-how, going beyond trade in finished products predicated on the division of labour based on the theory of comparative advantage. Trade in parts and intermediate goods has been growing with the advancement of information and communications technologies (ICTs), prompting more companies to unbundle their production processes and leading to the development of international supply chains. Richard Baldwin calls this chain of factors a “trade-investment-services-intellectual property nexus,” and an agreement designed to facilitate the formation of such nexuses is what is meant by a “21st century agreement.” The WTO Agreement has critical shortcomings in provisions for facilitating the development of business operations in overseas markets that accompany the unbundling of production processes. As it stands today, it does not cover the liberalisation and protection of direct and indirect investments, fair competition in host countries, or the smooth cross-border deployment of human resources, for example. The liberalisation of services has been achieved only to a limited extent because the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) takes a positive list approach. In order to foster the cross-border outsourcing and international mobility of intermediate goods and parts, the provision of simple and transparent customs clearance procedures is now becoming all the more important, which is another area of weakness for the WTO. The TPP Agreement includes a series of provisions that are necessary for the development of supply chains but which are not provided for in the WTO agreements, such as those governing investment, competition, state-owned enterprises (SOEs), electronic commerce, cross-border mobility of business persons, and regulatory coherence. It also calls for establishing a uniform set of standards for intellectual property protection at the highest possible level. Furthermore, in line with the requirements under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and the GATS, the TPP Agreement sets out rules governing market access for goods and services as a way to liberalise “substantially all trade” within the affected region.

Is the TPP a 21st century agreement or just an expansion of a US-style FTA?

Can we call the TPP a 21st century agreement? After reviewing the full text over the past few months, I find that the agreement surely has some innovative aspects in it, while my initial impression that it might be a bit of an overstatement still has some truth to it.

First, from the viewpoint of supporting and promoting the development of supply chains, some chapters successfully facilitate trans-border logistics across the TPP region. For example, the National Treatment and Market Access for Goods chapter (Ch.2) not only eliminates almost all tariffs in trade in goods, but also ensures free movement of goods after repair and alteration, commercial samples, and remanufactured goods. The Customs Administration and Trade Facilitation chapter (Ch.5) also provides for the expeditious release of imported goods, within 48 hours of arrival for normal shipments and within six hours in the case of express shipments. Service trade will be liberalised through a positive list approach, where each Party in principle must open up its service sector to foreign players with some reservations. On the other hand, the TPP Agreement falls short in terms of enhancing the formation of global supply chains by eliminating regulatory impediments. The Regulatory Coherence chapter (Ch.25) simply calls for “cooperation” and “efforts” to introduce best regulatory practices in terms of their coherence and impact assessments, meaning that whatever commitments made under this chapter are not subject to any dispute settlement procedure. The same holds true for the Competitiveness and Business Facilitation chapter (Ch.22) and the Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises chapter (Ch.24), both of which are intended to support enterprises of TPP Parties to take part in global supply chains.

Second, my impression is that the TPP Agreement, in terms of its structure and items included, is an expanded and improved 12-country version of FTAs and investment treaties recently concluded by the US (in particular, FTAs with Australia, South Korea, and Singapore). Those bilateral FTAs are quite ambitious in their own right, and there are some areas in which the TPP Agreement surpasses them in the level of ambition. However, in the basic framework for rules, there is no significant difference between the TPP Agreement and the existing US FTAs. A chapter-by-chapter comparison reveals the great number of similarities that the TPP Agreement has with some of them. The substantive standards for the liberalisation and protection of investments in the Investment chapter (Ch.9) generally follow those set forth in the 2012 US Model Bilateral Investment Treaty, except for certain elements in prohibition on “performance requirements.” The State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) and Designated Monopolies chapter (Ch.17) also follows the recent FTAs of the US in requiring SOEs to ensure non-discrimination and act on the basis of commercial considerations in their conduct of business. In addition, the TPP Agreement architects successfully developed a set of very detailed provisions to regulate the adverse effects of non-commercial assistance to SOEs. Yet, the SOE chapter is still less ambitious in that it adopted a narrow definition of SOE and failed to mandate a gradual reduction in government ownership and involvement in SOEs. In these respects, the SOE provisions of the TPP hardly match up to those of the US-Singapore FTA. The chapter also includes various sorts of exceptions.

Third, some major chapters of the TPP Agreement are substantially WTO equivalents. The Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Measures chapter (Ch.7) and the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) chapter (Ch.8) include some WTO-plus elements in the procedural and transparency aspects. However, in terms of substantive provisions for preventing SPS measures and technical standards from turning into trade barriers, these chapters merely incorporated or referred to the relevant obligations set out in the WTO Agreement. The Trade Remedies chapter (Ch.6) also failed to include binding WTO-plus provisions such as those requiring notification to initiate, and consultations prior to initiating, an antidumping investigation included in the US-South Korea FTA and Japan’s economic partnership agreement (EPA) with India. Indeed, for Australia and New Zealand, which had long abolished antidumping duties between them, the 12-country TPP Agreement is a backward step in this regard.

However, the significance of the TPP as a 21st century agreement should be found in the fact that an agreement designed to support and promote the formation of supply chains has expanded its membership to cover an extensive geographic area including major economies such as the US and Japan, rather than in the level of ambition and the substance of specific provisions. For instance, suppose that Japan is to conclude a bilateral agreement separately with each of the other 11 TPP countries. Automobiles, which are deemed to be of Australian or Japanese origin and exempted from import duties under the Japan-Australia EPA, would continue to be subject to import duties in the US. Likewise, a Japanese auto parts manufacturer as a covered investment under an EPA would be entitled to different levels of protection depending on where it constructs a factory, for instance, whether in Vietnam or Australia. The conclusion of the TPP Agreement is meant to significantly reduce such constraints affecting the choice of how and where to form supply chains within the scope of the 12 countries.

Seen under a different light, the TPP Agreement has some noteworthy novel aspects in non-economic issues. The Labour chapter (Ch.19) is supplemented with three bilateral side letters agreed between the United States and Brunei, Malaysia, and Vietnam respectively, thereby securing specific commitments from the latter three countries to safeguard fundamental labour rights — such as the right to organize a union and the right to collective bargaining — as well as to eliminate child labour. All of those bilateral commitments are subject to the bilateral review mechanism as well as the dispute settlement mechanism under Chapter 28. Also, it is notable that the TPP Agreement sheds a light on some human right issues. The aforesaid bilateral labour letter between the US and Malaysia addresses anti-human trafficking policy. The Development chapter (Ch.23) calls for gender equality in economic activities, referring to the enhancement of women’s inclusion as a means to fully access and benefit from the opportunities created by the TPP Agreement.

The comprehensive Environment chapter (Ch.20) is groundbreaking as well. It imposes — albeit to a limited extent — disciplines on fisheries subsidies, an issue listed on the agenda of the WTO Doha Round negotiations but not yet agreed upon. Furthermore, non-compliance with this chapter is referred to the dispute settlement procedure in Chapter 28, and, to that extent, the implementation of the chapter is guaranteed by means of trade retaliation such as the suspension of tariff concessions. The TPP Agreement can be defined as a 21st century agreement in the sense that it has made a full-fledged attempt to solve global issues with trade linkages that have been discussed over the past quarter century.

Significance of the dispute settlement procedure: Blowing life into the 21st century agreement

Undoubtedly, the TPP Agreement as a whole is a highly ambitious agreement that includes areas left unaddressed by WTO disciplines. The TPP Agreement is highly complex, including not only rules but also complicated schedules of concessions that list product-specific tariff elimination schedules and country-specific low-tariff quotas, accompanied by product-specific rules of origin. In particular with respect to textiles, automobiles, and agricultural products, these market access commitments comprise various exceptions and special rules. As exemplified by the WTO, a dispute settlement procedure is what guarantees the effectiveness of a highly ambitious trade agreement. However, those under FTAs including the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have hardly been used. This is probably the result of various factors such as: 1) bilateral FTAs by necessity prioritise consultations; 2) an alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanism, such as a business environment improvement mechanism included in most of Japan’s EPAs (e.g., Ch.12 of the Japan-India EPA), has been utilised; and 3) some bilateral FTAs do not include ambitious WTO-plus rules as their emphasis is more on the expansion of market access. However, as the TPP Agreement differs greatly from those conventional FTAs, the role of its dispute settlement procedure is far more important.

Moreover, circumstances surrounding the conclusion of the TPP Agreement spell the possibility of its dispute settlement procedure becoming all the more important. First, after the final agreement was reached in October 2015, there was only a limited period to complete the “legal scrub” of the TPP Agreement, a process to clean up the text to ensure consistency of terms and resolve any inconsistencies between the chapters and clauses therein, and certain defects in the finalised legal text may remain. Second, as exemplified by the patent protection of biological drugs (Art.18.51), an issue that posed a major bottleneck in the final stage of the TPP negotiations, there are some areas that were left ambiguous on purpose. These suggest that the exact content of the TPP Agreement must be left to ex post facto interpretation by third parties.

The current US political climate surrounding the presidential and congressional elections and the ratification of the TPP Agreement also portends the possibility of disputes in the future. The conclusion of the TPP Agreement has been greeted with criticisms from a series of leading politicians for what they consider unsatisfactory outcomes in some key areas including biological patents, as discussed later. Under the NAFTA, controversial issues that had posed an obstacle to the ratification of the treaty later evolved into two major US-Mexico disputes, one over the cross-border trucking services and the other over access to the sugar market. Similar disputes may arise under the TPP Agreement, and, if so, the success or failure of this 12-country pact rests ultimately on the dispute settlement procedure.

The TPP Agreement is indeed a 21st century FTA. However, unless the dispute settlement procedure functions properly, it would be like ploughing the field and forgetting to sow the seeds. How will things turn out for the TPP Agreement? The dispute settlement procedure under Chapter 28 will be applicable to almost all of the other chapters, with only limited exceptions. Taking lessons from the NAFTA, under which a refusal to nominate a panelist could prevent the proceeding of the dispute settlement process (as seen in the sugar market dispute), the TPP procedure was expected to ensure the automatic composition of a dispute settlement panel. It might be premature to predict the effectiveness of the dispute settlement procedure at this stage, when the TPP Agreement has not yet entered into force. However, given the extreme complexity and ambiguity of the panel composition process, my impression at this point is that it is questionable whether the process will be as automatic as it is supposed to be. Weak institutional support for the panel process including the absence of a permanent secretariat and legal officers therein could be another obstacle to effective and prompt dispute settlement.

Quo vadis, TPP Agreement?: A rocky road ahead in ratification

While being subject to much public attention and heated debates, the TPP Agreement as it stands today is merely a humongous pile of words and paper, not a legally binding document. The ratification process is still in the pipeline in all of the 12 signatory countries and appears to have hit a snag in Japan and the US. In Japan, the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) and Komeito holds a majority in both chambers of the Diet (a two-thirds majority in the lower house, in particular). Despite such strong representation in the national parliament, the coalition decided to postpone a TPP vote to an extraordinary session expected to be held in autumn 2016. TPP foes believe that Japan conceded too much, particularly in agriculture market access, in achieving what they suspect to be an uneven deal. And their voices are getting louder. The revelation of a bribery scandal involving the former TPP minister’s staff, the government’s refusal to reveal negotiation documents, and the attempted publication of a tell-all memoir of the TPP negotiations by the chairman of the Lower House’s Special Committee on the TPP fueled their anger, and then came the disastrous earthquakes in Kumamoto. Also, as it appears, the government and the ruling coalition might have avoided forcible voting out of concern for the possible impact on the forthcoming upper house election in July, as the TPP involves some controversial market access issues, in particular, those regarding agricultural products. However, despite all of these twists and turns, the TPP ratification bill will pass the Diet eventually, unless the July election turns out to be a fiasco for the majority coalition.

In the US, the process is tougher going with election year politics at play. Whether a Democrat or a Republican, none of the major presidential candidates — Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, or Donald Trump — support the TPP deal as is. Even key congressional leaders of pro-free trade GOP, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, and House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Dave Reichert, reserve their support due to some controversial aspects of the final deal, such as patent exclusivity for biologics, failure to ban local server requirements in financial services, and the carve-out of tobacco from the ISDS. The administration of President Barack Obama, which originally aimed to obtain congressional approval in spring 2016, now acknowledges that it is unrealistic to expect the pre-lame duck TPP vote. The key congressional members and the presidential candidates have been repeatedly floating the possibility of seeking to renegotiate the final deal or exchange additional bilateral letters to fix the problems. Those who have looked at the US history of FTA negotiations for the NAFTA and thereafter would know that this is a fairly likely scenario, in which case it may be quite a long time — possibly three or five years — before ratification. It should also be noted that twists and turns in the past FTA ratifications occurred in connection with presidential and/or congressional elections and the resulting regime change and/or congressional power shift. Article 30.5 of the TPP Agreement precludes the possibility of its entry into force without both the US and Japan ratifying it. Given the current political circumstances especially in the US, it seems that we still have a long ride home.

SOURCE: The E15 Initiative

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The 6th Bangladesh Fashion Carnival to begin on May 25

The 6th Bangladesh Fashion Carnival, a five day international exhibition of branded clothing and fashion products will begin on Wednesday May 25 where over 45 companies from 5 countries are participating in this exhibition. Redcarpet365 is organizing the event with the theme ‘Do Your Eid Shopping with Us’. Ahmed Imtiaz, CEO of the organizer said that their main purpose of this exhibition is to showcase quality products to the visitors. The exhibition was targeted to Eid Ul Fitr shopping and every year visitors await to come to the expo. Day by day the international exhibition is getting good response from other countries – in this edition, they have companies from Bangladesh, India, Iran, Philippines, Pakistan and Turkey participating. Designer kurtis, original lawn, salwar kameez and especially designer sarees are doing great business than any other time. Even gems and jewelry having a good craze liking by Bangladeshi consumers, Imtiaz maintained. An array of quality products will be put on display in the fashion carnival. The products include Sarees, home textile, knitwear, Original Lawns, salwar-kameez, 3-pieces, cosmetics & beauty products, Kitchenware, ladies Bags, Footwear, Irani Melamine and other services. Pakistani brand Gul Ahmed a network of composite textile mills which manufacture everything from yarn to finished products is going to participate and showcase quality collection at the 6th Bangladesh Fashion Carnival. The international exhibition of branded clothing and fashion will be held at Emmanuell’s Banquet Hall at Gulshan-1, Dhaka – Bangladesh.

SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers

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Euro zone business growth slows, but Germany, France robust

Business growth across the euro zone dipped to a 16-month low in May but stronger showings from Germany and France suggest it is the smaller member countries that may be struggling. Offering the latest evidence that a strong acceleration in growth in the first three months of the year was only temporary, Markit's flash Composite Purchasing Managers' Index edged down to 52.9 from April's 53.0. While essentially stable - and still indicating growth - the reading was the lowest since the start of 2015. It ran against expectations in a Reuters poll, which had predicted a tick up to 53.2 in one of the earliest reported broad indicators of growth during the month. Markit said the PMI pointed to quarterly GDP growth of 0.3 percent, in line with forecasts in a Reuters survey published earlier this month, but short of 0.5 percent in the first quarter, which was initially reported as 0.6 percent.

 

Individually, surveys showed growth in Germany's private sector accelerated to hit the fastest rate so far this year. French business activity also grew faster than expected, returning to a rate not recorded since before the Nov. 13 attacks in Paris. "That suggests that the PMIs for the other major euro zone economies such as Italy and Spain will be soft when released next week," said Stephen Brown at Capital Economics. Germany and France are the only individual euro zone countries for which Markit publishes flash PMIs. May surveys for other euro zone members will be published early next month. Despite evidence of a slowdown, consumer confidence in the currency bloc rose for a second month in May, climbing more than expected to reach its highest level since January. Markets were unmoved after Monday's data as they were still digesting last week's surge in expectations for a rate hike in the United States following a more hawkish tone from the Federal Reserve.

 

MAY JUNE BE BETTER?

 

While the headline composite PMI was above the 50 mark that separates growth from contraction, the index measuring prices businesses charge remained below it at 49.0, although that was an increase from last month's 48.3. This may concern policymakers at the European Central Bank who have been battling to get inflation up to their 2 percent target ceiling. Consumer prices fell 0.2 percent in April, despite the Bank's ultra-loose monetary policy. Even with price discounting, new order growth slowed and there was no acceleration in activity in the bloc's dominant service industry. A Reuters poll had predicted an increase to 53.3 but the PMI held steady at April's 53.1. The manufacturing PMI fell to 51.5 from 51.7, missing the median Reuters poll forecast for 51.9, while an index measuring output dropped to 52.4 from 52.6. Details in the data hint that there may be little or no improvement in June. Optimism among service firms fell to a 10-month low, with the sub-index plummeting to 61.7 from 64.5, and factory recruitment slowed. The manufacturing employment index fell to 51.4 from 51.6. "The flash PMIs provided slight disappointments to the markets," said Tuuli Koivu at Nordea, who expects 0.3 percent growth in Q2. "However, the negative surprises were only minor ones and do not cause any changes to our GDP growth forecast."

SOURCE: The Reuters

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