"In the short-run, we are taking steps to increase consumption so that anticipating that consumption, investment also goes up," he saidThe government plans to take more steps to boost consumer demand including injecting liquidity through banks and simplifying personal taxes, a top government economic adviser said on Friday, in a bid to raise economic growth from six-year lows. Krishnamurthy Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser at the finance ministry, said the government had slashed corporate taxes to attract investment and was looking for ways to boost consumer demand to support that investment. "In the short-run, we are taking steps to increase consumption so that anticipating that consumption, investment also goes up," he told Reuters in an interview. One of the measures on the table is aimed at easing personal taxation and making the whole tax administration simpler. The government is also considering the report of a task force to bring India's six-decades-old tax legislation more into line with those of other countries. Subramanian said the government planned to make public the recommendations of the task force. "The direct tax code task force has submitted its report," he said, adding that the steps that have already been taken to streamline the tax administration are likely to help in improving the tax buoyancy. Last month Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman cut corporate tax rates from over 30% to 25%, and to 15% for new manufacturing companies, putting it on a par or even ahead of some of its Asian peers. That landmark move has raised hopes that the government might consider similar cuts to personal taxes to put more money into the hands of consumers and especially the middle class who form the core of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling group. A source in the finance ministry said the task force's recommendations - which include cuts in the income tax rate by up to 10% - could be announced even before the presentation in February of the annual budget for fiscal 2020/21, which starts in April. "Timing of the implementation is a political call," said the source, adding that officials have already held discussions on the issue. Growth in April-June slipped to 5%, its slowest pace since 2013. The International Monetary Fund has cut its growth forecast to 6.1% for this fiscal year from an initial 7%, citing a slowdown in domestic and global demand. New Delhi has also been trying to boost domestic growth through an infrastructure package and a new loan program organised with the banking sector that has doled out loans worth over 800 billion rupees ($11.1 billion). Subramanian said the government has asked the banks to buy out assets from the crisis-hit non-banking finance companies to improve liquidity in the market. "The government will do all that it takes to take back the growth on the high trajectory." Referring to banking reforms, he said, the government was focussed on merger of some state banks, aiming to cut down number of state banks to 12 from 27 in 2017, and has asked them to take corporate default cases to bankruptcy courts only above a threshold limit.
Source: Business Standard
The Commerce Secretary has called a meeting of all the export promotion councils next week, to work out a strategy for reversing the current decline in exports and look for ways to accelerate growth, despite the bleak outlook for global trade. “Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan will meet representatives of all the export promotion councils on October 24. The councils have been asked to give details of the problems they are facing, and also give suggestions on how the government could help,” a government official told BusinessLine. India’s goods exports declined by 6.5 per cent in September 2019 to $26.03 billion, while in the April-September 2019 period, the decline in exports was 2.39 per cent at $159.57 billion, compared to the same period last year. Of greater concern to policy makers is the fact that apart from petroleum products, the fall in exports has taken place across labour-intensive sectors such as readymade garments, leather products, engineering goods and gems and jewellery. “There is a realisation among policy makers that if goods exports do not grow, it would be more difficult to put the Indian economy back on the high growth path. Recovery of export growth is vital for a recovery in manufacturing and growth in jobs. Therefore, the government is serious about taking measures that could boost exports,” the official said. The government has already started work on some sectors, such as engineering goods, based on past meetings. A short-term plan and a draft medium-term action plan is being considered for boosting exports in the sector and country-wise non-tariff barriers are also being identified with the help of the industry, the official pointed out. “The government wants to have action plans for reviving exports in all major sectors, be it readymade garments and textiles, gems and jewellery, or leather and seeks inputs form the industry for the same,” the official said. The Commerce Ministry is also working on a new foreign trade policy for 2020-2024, which will succeed the current policy, and consultations are being held with the industry for suitable incentive schemes and measures to boost exports. India’s exports posted an 8.7 per cent growth in 2019-20, with the value of outbound shipments touching $330 billion, growing beyond the 2013-14 level of $314.4 billion for the first time.
Source: The Hindu BusinessLine
The US Department of Commerce on Thursday said the Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross during his recent trip to New Delhi stressed on the positive trends of the US-India trade relationship. Trade differences have been narrowing between India and the US, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman (pictured) has said, hoping that the countries will be able to enter into a trade deal soon. “I hope to have an agreement sooner. Obviously narrowing (of difference) is happening.” The commerce ministry is working on it and hope that the negotiations will get concluded sooner, she said. Sitharaman is in Washington to attend the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. “I know the intensity with which the negotiations are going on and a few issues on which there could be some differences are being sorted out. I hope there will be an agreement sooner,” she said.
‘India still fastest-growing economy’
Sitharaman reiterated that India remains among the fastest-growing economies of the world and efforts are being made to make it grow faster. The IMF has projected a reduced growth rate for India, but the country’s economy is “still growing as the fastest”, she said. Sitharaman said she is “certainly not risking a comparison” with China, even though the two countries growth rates have been projected at 6.1 per cent in a latest IMF report. “The IMF (in its latest projections) reduces the growth (rate) for all the global economies. It reduces the growth for India too. But even otherwise, even with that India is still growing as the fastest growing economy," she said.
‘Recalling what went wrong necessary’
Targeting former prime minister Manmohan Singh for accusing the NDA government of always trying to put the blame on its rivals, she said that recalling when and what went wrong during a certain period is absolutely necessary. Conceding that there were some “weaknesses” in his regime, Singh had on Thursday said the Modi government should stop blaming the UPA for every economic crisis, as five years were sufficient time to come up with solutions. “I respect Dr Manmohan Singh for telling me not to do the blame game. But recalling when and what went wrong during a certain period is absolutely necessary to put it in context, now that I’m being charged that there’s no narrative at all about the economy,” Sitharaman said on Thursday. The senior Congress leader’s comments at the press conference in Mumbai came after Sitharaman at an event at the Columbia University in New York held the Manmohan Singh-Raghuram Rajan combination responsible for subjecting public sector banks (PSBs) to their “worst phase”. “I had to recall that. So, it’s not so much with the sense of wanting to put the blame on somebody,” the finance minister said.
Source: Business Standard
The Northern India Textile Mills’ Association (NITMA), one of the largest textile industry association of north expressed concern over the rising competition from China and other neighbouring countries in cloth purchase. The association has a combined turnover of approximately 50,000 crores (USD 8 Billion). Sanjay Garg, president of NITMA said, “We are currently facing a very tough situation, as all the neighbouring countries are doing what it takes to hit the textile exports from India. To tackle this members have sent several suggestions to Union ministry of commerce & Industry and ministry of textiles.” They have suggested that imports under certain conditions should only be permitted against advance license so that the dumping from Indonesia, Vietnam and China can be harnessed to increase India's exports while at theGarg also added, “It is very urgent that these steps are taken particularly in the wake of Indonesia’s forthcoming steps to tighten textile import rules which say that all textile importers from that country need to gain approval from the government before they can ship in textile goods.same time protecting the domestic manufacturers from unfair competition.
Source: Times of India
The Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) has said that Indian exporters should export value added products to Japan in order to utilise the full potential of the East Asian country. “The current export does not reflect the true potential of trade between India and Japan. The untapped export potential for Japan is more than $3 billion in sectors such as pharmaceuticals, gems & jewellery, marine products, rice, bovine meat, knitted t-shirts, ferro silicon, aluminium,” said S K Saraf, President, FIEO addressing a session on Trade & Business Opportunities between India and Japan on Friday. FIEO said that Indian exporters should look into value added segment of exports which account for major imports into Japan. In many of the products, the share of India is extremely low. India’s share in electric and electronic components (0.09%), machinery (0.36%), pharmaceutical (0.24%) and medical & surgical equipment (0.38%) requires massive improvement as combined imports of these products in Japan is over $250 billion, according to FIEO director general and CEO Ajay Sahai. The apex exporters body has launched the India-Japan Business Group, an online platform, to promote interaction between business communities of India and Japan for promoting exports, imports and investment between the two countries. FIEO also signed an MoU with Japan-India Industry Promotion Association (JIIPA), a Tokyo based NPO affiliated to Tokyo Metropolitan Government, to promote trade between India and Japan. “The MoU will pave the way for greater cooperation and interaction between the two premier institutions,” it said in a statement.
Source: Economic Times
India needs to catch up in MMF apparel products to grow in US markets, according to the Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF). For that, the government needs to bring GST duty rationalisation immediately for MMF fibre & value chain. This will help the country's textiles sector to focus more on MMF and blended products and reach out better to US markets. The structural reform in GST will also address the liquidity issues in the MMF value chain manufacturing, says the report. In spite of its large base, US apparel imports are still growing further. Total apparel imports by the United States stood at $57.308 billion in the first 8 months of 2019, showing an increase of 5.76 per cent over imports of $54.184 billion in corresponding period of 2018. China continued to be the main supplier with 30.6 per cent share of all apparel imported by the US last year. However, imports from China grew by a marginal 1.99 per cent to $17.551 billion. In contrast, imports from Vietnam, the second-biggest supplier to the US, shot up by 12.14 per cent to $9.063 billion. Vietnam’s share in the US clothing imports also grew to 15.8 per cent, the data showed. Vietnam is the largest gainer in the US-China trade war, followed by Bangladesh. Bangladesh, the world’s second largest garment exporter, saw its supplies to the US increase by 11.81 percent in the first 8 months to $4.083 billion during the year. Similarly, US apparel imports from Indonesia, Mexico and El Salvador dropped by 0.37 per cent, 3.58 per cent and 0.57 per cent from Jan–August 2019, to $3.003 billion, $2.170 billion and $1.242 billion, respectively. Among the top ten apparel suppliers, India, Honduras and Cambodia saw their exports increase by 8.19 per cent, 11.91 per cent and 8.58 per cent respectively to $2.940 billion, $1.836 billion and $1.728 billion, in the first 8 months of the year. During the first 6 months of this year, India had achieved double digit growth; but looking at the recent 8 months’ period, there is small dip in per cent of growth. Of the total apparel imports made by US, cotton apparel imports grew 3.85 per cent to $26.813 billion, whereas man-made fibre (MMF) apparel grew 7.01 per cent to $27.485 billion. Thus MMF apparel products are selling more than cotton apparel products in US markets. India achieved double digit growth in cotton apparel products and is commanding 7.6 per cent share. At the same time, in MMF apparel products, India is just having 2.7 per cent share in comparison with 36 per cent share of China and 18 per cent of Vietnam.
Source: Fibre2Fashion
UP and Bihar accounted for the largest number of migrant workforce in India
The central government was preparing an index of skilled labour that will give national and international markets a database for hiring, said union minister Mahendra Nath Pandey on Friday. Pandey, minister for skill development and entrepreneurship, said the ‘Labour Management Information System’ will have labour data categorised according to industry and geography. “We have already working on this idea at the central level and have asked the state governments to also take it forward for optimising the skill development mission,” he said. Pandey said after his ministry was formed, more than 5 million youth had been trained and more than 1.2 million provided with jobs. “Now, we will track these jobs for six months from the current duration of 3 months to ensure there is continuity of employment for the skilled youth. He said Uttar Pradesh and Bihar accounted for the largest number of migrant workforce in India and stressed upon providing them with new skills so that their earning potential is enhanced. “India cannot realise Prime Minister’s (Narendra Modi) vision of $5 trillion economy without the requisite skill development of youth.” Meanwhile, UP MSME and export promotion minister Sidharth Nath Singh said India was currently passing through a phase of “disruptive economy” and “structural unemployment” which was getting reflected in slowdown and joblessness. “Disruptive economy occurs when new technology, innovation and knowledge economy permeates the economic sphere and junks the old stereotypical employment format, such as the blue collar 9-to-5 job profiles,” he observed. Singh said the slowdown being reported by the media was actually the ramifications of the same disruptive economy and structural unemployment rather than real slowdown even as he reminded that slowdown had hit the global economy as well. “Prime Minister had targeted India’s erstwhile parallel economy with steps like demonetisation. Now, the strong focus on digital economy will also create new types of jobs across the urban and rural areas.” Stressing on skilling the youth, Singh said while investors can spend on creating the basic infrastructure, but skilled workers would be needed to run these factories. “When we have adequate number of skilled youth, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would grow at multiple digits and not just single digit,” Singh said.
Source: Business Standard
Many companies could face a stress on their working after a Goods and Services Tax (GST) regulation may lead to hundreds of crores stuck in input tax credit claims. A government regulation that disallows companies to take input tax credit if vendor invoices are not uploaded on the GST network is creating problems for the companies, said people in the know. According to the GST law, invoices have to be uploaded on the GST IT network for every transaction for it to be complete and eligible for tax credits. Companies are claiming that since the rule does not specify the time period of this calculation, it is creating a situation where some companies may end up losing input tax credit if the vendor has not supplied an invoice. “Restrictions on input tax credits in case of invoices that have not been uploaded by the supplier to 20% of the eligible credits appear to be an anti-evasion measure driven by revenue considerations. However, this means that businesses would need to establish a real time reconciliation mechanism to avoid working capital blockages," said MS Mani, Partner, Deloitte India. Tax experts are also complaining that the credit is restricted on the basis of supplier uploading without giving change to the taxpayer to add to details which suppliers have not reported and this could lead to problems during reconciliation. The last date for claiming the input tax credit is October 20, said industry trackers. Many companies are claiming that they would not be able to reconcile the statements as many vendors are not able to give the invoices. Many companies are also asking the government to extend the date for claiming input tax credit as it could lapse after the due date. “The governance can extend the date or give a clarification around this since this problem is intensified due to the slow IT platform of the GST,” said a tax expert. “This is unilateral amendment wherein the credit is restricted on the basis of supplier uploading without giving change to the taxpayer to add to details which suppliers have not report. This will be applicable to all the taxpayers,” said Manoj Malpani, senior advisor with Bizsolindia Services.
Source: Economic Times
Any industrialist who has land in Madhya Pradesh (MP) does not need any government approval for starting a unit, said Kamal Nath during his first investment summit as MP chief minister on Friday. Addressing the media after the Magnificent MP Summit, Nath said: "For industrialists, self-certification is sufficient. The government will inspect them only after three years of commencement. The basic idea is to provide industries a hassle-free environment to work and grow in MP." He also said that state government is enacting a law so that industries operating in Madhya Pradesh will mandatorily have to employ 70 per cent native employees. The chief minister announced that an Israel-based firm has committed to investing Rs 1,200 crore in the state, while India Cements is going to invest Rs 2,500 crore in next three years. Nath gave the example of Tiruppur which is a leading textile hub. He said that he has helped the Tiruppur industrialists when he was textile minister and the city's industrialist are now ready to invest in MP. Asked about the economic slowdown, the chief minister said there was no slowdown in his state. Nath said he wants to bring in more jobs, increase economic activity and leverage the locational advantage that MP offers in the post-GST era. He listed many steps of his government which are helping industries. Some of them are reduction in property guidelines to boost real estate, land pooling for industries and separate discom for industrial units. Others include development of satellite townships, Engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) contracting for major projects, incentives for branded hotels and easier norms for resorts. The chief minister also said his government has provided additional incentives to micro, small and medium enterprises and start-up sectors. A good number of leading industrialists, including Adi Godrej (Godrej Group chairman), Vikram Kirloskar (Toyota Kirloskar Motor vice-chairman), Sanjiv Puri (ITC chairman), Dilip Shanghvi (managing director of Sun Pharma), Rakesh Bharti Mittal (vice-chairman of Bharti Enterprises) and Rajendra Gupta (Chairman of Trident Group) attended the conference. The biggest announcement came from Reliance Industries (RIL) Chairman Mukesh Ambani, who addressed the gathering through webcast. Ambani said, "MP is the most suitable place for doing business. RIL has invested around Rs 20,000 crore in the state in the past few years and it is one of the leading job providers after the state government." He said that because of its geographical location, MP is a natural choice for a logistics hub. "RIL will invest in various sectors in the state. The group is planning to develop 45 distribution centres in 10 million square feet area across the state." He also said he has plans to boost agricultural activities as well as health care and government services in the state. Declaring that MP is the largest data-consuming state, Amabani said, "MP consumes more data than South Korea, the UK and Germany." N Srinivasan, vice-chairman and managing director of India Cements, praised Nath, saying he never met a leader with such vision and clarity. He also indicated that India Cements is planning to have its first production plant in North India (Madhya Pradesh). Shanghvi said MP has many quality pharma colleges which provide skilled workers for Ranbaxy's production units in Malanpur and Dewas. He said these plants produce medicines which are exported to countries like the the US, the UK and Canada. Mittal said Bharti invested Rs 8,500 crore in Madhya Pradesh and is planning more in the future. He praised the government's latest reforms, including land bank and land pooling. Gupta said that the Trident group is investing Rs 3,000 crore in the state in next 24 months.
Source: Business Standard
This comes at a time when Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal has gone public on foreign majors. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is planning a policy advisory for the e-commerce industry to address the all-round concern over deep discounting and predatory pricing across online platforms, a top official has said. Confirming that the CCI would issue a ‘“soft policy advisory’’, Chairperson Ashok Gupta told Business Standard, “nobody can deny that online is here to stay... Many sellers have benefitted from the platform and there are efficiency factors as well.’’ However, Gupta added that e-commerce firms should not distort the ...
Source: Business Standard
It may be hard to square data with the revival being forecast, but economic soothsayers may well be right when they predict 5.8% growth for Q2, 6.4% for Q3 and 7.2% for Q4, T N Ninan explains why. The corrections to growth forecasts have come thick and fast, from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), rating agencies, investment banks, and sundry others. Almost all of them now place gross domestic product (GDP) growth for India this financial year at 6 per cent, give or take a decimal point or two. These are seen by most observers as downbeat numbers, given that previous forecasts not long ago were close to or at 7 per cent — in the Economic Survey, RBI reports and elsewhere. Certainly 6 per cent is a big climbdown from last ...
Source: Business Standard
Beijing has stepped up support for the economy with major tax and rate cuts and has scrapped foreign investment restrictions in its stock market. China's economy expanded at its slowest rate in nearly three decades in the third quarter, hit by cooling domestic demand and a protracted US trade war, official data showed Friday. The Chinese economy grew 6.0 percent in July-September, compared with 6.2 percent in the second quarter, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The reading — in line with an AFP survey of 13 analysts — is the worst quarterly figure since 1992 but within the government's target range of 6.0-6.5 percent for the whole year. The economy grew at 6.6 percent in 2018. "The national economy maintained overall stability in the first three quarters," said NBS spokesman Mao Shengyong. "However, we must be aware that given the complicated and severe economic conditions both at home and abroad, the slowing global economic growth, and increasing external instabilities and uncertainties, the economy is under mounting downward pressure." Services and high-tech manufacturing were the key areas of growth, while employment was "generally stable", he added. Beijing has stepped up support for the economy with major tax and rate cuts and has scrapped foreign investment restrictions in its stock market. In its latest measure to shore up growth, the central bank said Wednesday it was pumping 200 billion yuan ($28 billion) into the financial system through its medium-term lending facility to banks, which is designed to maintain liquidity in the market. But the efforts have not been enough to offset the blow from softening demand at home. The trade conflict and weak domestic demand prompted the International Monetary Fund to lower its 2019 growth forecast for China from 6.2 percent to 6.1 percent on Tuesday. The long-running trade war with the US has also chipped away at the Chinese economy. This week, China reported weaker-than-expected import and export figures for September after Washington imposed new tariffs that month, triggering a tit-for-tat response from Beijing. There were mixed signals for the economy in September. Industrial output rose 5.8 percent, from 4.4 percent in August, led by a surge in demand for solar panels and electric vehicles, according to the NBS. But fixed-asset investment slid to 5.4 percent on-year in January-September, from 5.5 percent in January-August, as the government warned against risky borrowing to build roads and bridges that could artificially pump up GDP in the short run. China's army of consumers were slowly starting to open their wallets again, with retail sales edging up 7.8 percent on-year in September, compared with 7.5 percent in August. A "phase one" deal announced by US President Donald Trump last Friday after he met China's top negotiator Liu He in Washington offers a temporary reprieve from further tariff hikes. But it did not roll back any of the stinging tariffs already imposed on hundreds of billions of dollars in trade between the economic powers, nor did it address another round of import taxes planned for December. "A limited agreement will not resolve the underlying areas of disagreement between the two sides as long-term divergence in US and China national interest remains across trade, technology, investment and geopolitics," said Michael Taylor, a managing director for Moody's Investors Service. "We expect further rounds of negotiation to remain challenging, with further potential for financial markets volatility." China's commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng said Thursday that its negotiators have "accelerated efforts" to hammer out the details of this mini-deal, and the two sides were aiming for an "early agreement".Trump had said Wednesday that he hopes to sign the deal with his Chinese counterpart President Xi Jinping at the APEC summit in Chile next month. But Gao declined to offer details on whether the text of the partial deal, or a full agreement, would be ready before the mid-November deadline.
Source: AFP/PTI
The Indonesian government is mulling a plan to impose temporary additional duties on imports of textiles and textile products (TPT) as a safeguard measure to protect the domestic upstream industry from a recent surge in imports. The Finance Ministry’s fiscal policy head Suahasil Nazara said the government had identified 121 products, including yarn and curtain fabric, that would be subject to the safeguard measure. Lately, Indonesia has seen a jump in imports of TPT. In line with the existing rules, the Finance Ministry is considering the impose of a safeguard measure, he said, adding that safeguard measures were expected to be discussed on October 17 to determine the rates, among other things, following a quick assessment by the Trade Ministry. The move was taken only more than one month after the government imposed antidumping duties for polyester staple fiber imports from India, China and Taiwan as well as Chinese imports of spin drawn yarn following an investigation by the Indonesian Antidumping Committee (KADI). The Indonesian Trade Safeguard Committee (KPPI) recently launched an investigation into the upturn in fabric imports after a complaint was filed by the Indonesian Textile Association (API). From the preliminary evidence put forward in the complainant, KPPI found a sharp increase in fabric imports. Moreover, there was a preliminary indication of serious damage or potentially serious damage to the domestic industry.
Source: Vietnam News Association
Responsibility is the theme of 11th Bangladesh Denim Expo to be held from November 5-6 at International Convention City in Bashundhara, Dhaka. The event, now established as one of world’s leading denim trade shows, will run alongside Bangladesh Sustainable Apparel Forum. Mostafiz Uddin, founder and CEO of Bangladesh Denim Expo, will be organiser of the expo. Around 100 exhibitors from 11 countries, including host Bangladesh, will participate in this year’s denim expo. Other participating countries are China, Japan, Italy, India, Singapore, Brazil, Spain, Pakistan, Turkey and Germany. H&M Group is collaborating with Bangladesh Denim Expo for the forthcoming 11th edition of the event and a number of guest speakers will be present from the company, including Pierre Borjesson, head of sustainability, global production. Other guest speakers will include Andrew Olah, the founder of Kingpins Denim show; Alice Tonello, R&D director with the Tonello Group; world renowned denim designer, Piero Turk and Jordi Juani, Asia regional director with Jeanologia. Through a series of product displays, presentations, seminar sessions and panel discussions, the Expo will encourage healthy debate and interaction among exhibitors and visitors to champion a more responsible denim industry. One of the product displays will be sustainability and within this will sit the issue of responsibility – an overriding theme of this year’s event. Denim manufacture faces huge challenges with regards to social and environmental responsibility, with production techniques having potentially far-reaching ramifications for the environment as well as people involved in the production process. However, the industry and its supply chain are making impressive progress on these issues with Bangladesh – now the world’s largest producer of denim – leading the way in terms of addressing some of the sustainability challenges relating to denim production, including excessive use of water and chemicals. “The way that business and product development is conducted can have far reaching consequences on the environment, on the people that make the product and the product’s end use & life-span," said Uddin. “It is the duty of all stakeholders in the apparel industry to acknowledge this responsibility and to analyse our business practices, for the benefit of all.” Emphasising the theme of responsibility within Denim Expo is the fact that revenues from the expo support the running and presentation of the Sustainable Apparel Forum. The Sustainable Apparel Forum (SAF) is the biggest annual sustainable apparel event in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE) along with Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) as co-organiser will jointly carry out the 2nd edition of the SAF on Nov 5, 2019. This will be the second edition of the Sustainable Apparel Forum, with the first-ever forum held in 2017 in Dhaka. The objective of this year’s forum is accelerating the momentum of sustainability in Bangladesh apparel industry. The forum will see more than 50 speakers gathered from Bangladesh and overseas sharing expert opinions across five panel discussions covering current issues in the country’s apparel industry. These include human resources, transparency in business, water conservation, purchasing practices, sustainable chemical management, waste management, circular economy in textiles and climate change to name a few. Additionally, the conference will host several knowledge building technical presentations from renowned organisations which will cover different issues relating to sustainability, including waste management, protection of the environment and better working conditions. Speakers at the show will include Shahriar Alam, MP, state minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bangladesh; Benoit Pre´fonatine, high commissioner, High Commission of Canada, Bangladesh; Dr. Rubana Huq, president, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers’ and Exporters’ Association; Sheikh Fazle Fahim, president, Federation of Bangladesh Chamber of Commerce & Industries; Pierre Börjesson, head of sustainability – global production, H&M Group; Tuomo Poutiainen, country director, International Labor Organization; Peter McCallister, executive director, Ethical Trading Initiative; and Winnie Estrup Petersen Ambassador, Embassy of Denmark, Bangladesh. Prior to this year’s conference, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Bangladesh and the Sweden Embassy in Bangladesh will also co-host two roundtable discussion in collaboration with BAE and in association with BGMEA on November 4, 2019, while H&M, Better Work Bangladesh and C&A Foundation will be partners in the event. The conference will be followed by showcasing different innovative, sustainable and best work practices in RMG manufacturing factories in Bangladesh. Following the discussions, a series of recommendations will be made, and a Sustainability Roadmap for the Bangladesh apparel industry will be formulated. "The title for this year’s Sustainable Apparel Forum is enabling sustainability through policy and leadership. The time for talking on sustainability issues is over. It is now time for actions. That’s why the focus of this year’s show is on practical, pragmatic actions the textile industry can adopt to improve its environmental footprint," added Uddin
Source: Fibre2Fashion
IMF and World Bank meetings were expected to be dominated by the trade disputes which were triggered by the Trump administration's get-tough policies aimed at lowering America's huge trade deficits. The leaders of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank appealed to their 189 member countries on Friday to resolve widening disagreements on trade and other issues, warning that the divisions threatened to make the consequences of a global slowdown even worse. IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said a variety of factors were taking a toll from a trade war that has engulfed the world's two biggest economies, the United States and China, to spreading weakness in Europe linked to Brexit and rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. "Trade tensions are now taking a toll on business confidence and investment," she said in her opening address to the finance officials. World Bank President David Malpass said the slowdown in global growth was hurting efforts to help the 700 million people around the globe mired in extreme poverty, especially in nations trying to cope with a flood of refugees from regional conflicts. "Many countries are facing fragility, conflict and violence, making development even more urgent and difficult," he said. In her remarks, Georgieva, a Bulgarian economist who had been the No. 2 official at the World Bank, recognized the accomplishments of her IMF predecessor, Christine Lagarde, the first woman to head the IMF, who was in the audience for the speech. "As someone who grew up behind the Iron Curtain, I could never have expected to lead the IMF," Georgieva said, noting that she had personally witnessed the devastation of bad economic policies when her mother lost 98 per cent of her life savings during a period of hyperinflation in the 1990s in Bulgaria. She said the world was currently caught in a synchronized slowdown with nearly 90 per cent of the global economy experiencing weaker growth this year. Because of this, the IMF projected earlier this week that global growth would only reach 3 per cent this year, the weakest performance in a decade. The IMF and World Bank meetings were expected to be dominated by the trade disputes which were triggered by the Trump administration's get-tough policies aimed at lowering America's huge trade deficits and boosting US manufacturing jobs. So far those efforts have made little headway. In addition to the battle between the United States and China, higher US tariffs went into effect Friday on USD 7.5 billion in European goods coming into the United States in a dispute involving airplane subsidies. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told reporters at the IMF on Friday that the real winner of a trade war between the United States and the European Union would likely be China. He said the EU was ready to negotiate a settlement to avoid the tariffs but so far the United States has rejected those efforts. "From the very beginning, we have made it very clear that we want to avoid a trade war," Le Maire said. "The response from the US administration has always been a closed door." Georgieva said on Thursday that a tentative US-China trade agreement announced last week should lessen slightly the damage done by the trade wars but until the two nations resolved their differences, it would not remove enough uncertainty to return the globe to solid growth. "Our hope is to move from a trade truce to a trade peace," she told reporters. She said she hoped this week's talks would focus on ways to ease trade tensions and begin the groundwork to update the rules of world trade. The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, saying it is biased against the United States. "We have been reaching agreements on trade based primarily on the past," she said. She noted that global commerce has been transformed in recent years by advances in technology, and those advances need to be acknowledged in new trade rules. In the announcement last week, Trump said he was suspending a tariff increase on USD 250 billion of Chinese products that had been scheduled to take effect this week. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters Wednesday that the US and Chinese negotiators were working to hammer out details on this "phase one" agreement with a goal of having a deal that Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping can sign at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in mid-November.
Source: AFP/PTI
British manufacturers of products ranging from Scotch whisky to biscuits and Savile Row suits are braced for a significant financial hit after US tariffs came into effect in retaliation for subsidies given to aerospace manufacturer Airbus. Tariffs of 25% came into effect at midnight on the US east coast (5am BST), damaging small businesses with few links to a 15-year aerospace industry battle between Airbus, the European champion, and American rival Boeing. A broad variety of products across the EU have been hit by the tariffs, including French wine, Italian parmesan and Spanish olives. Small British manufacturers with little interest in the rivalry between two of the world’s largest companies expressed consternation at being dragged into the row. “It feels exceptionally odd that we’re caught up in a dispute about aircraft,” said Simon Cotton, chief executive of Johnstons of Elgin, a Scottish manufacturer of cashmere woollen knitwear. He said the Moray company, which employs more than 700 people, will now have to reassess whether to continue to target sales growth in the US market, after seeing sales grow by 40% last year. The disadvantage for Johnstons will be compounded because rival cashmere producers in Italy – another centre for high-quality cashmere clothing – will not be affected by the tariffs. Some British cashmere products will face total US tariffs of more than 40%, according to the UK Fashion & Textile Association. Liz Truss, the international trade secretary, on Thursday said the government had urged Donald Trump’s administration to drop the tariffs, after meeting British manufacturers. “The UK has complied fully with the WTO’s ruling on the Airbus dispute and we do not believe our industries should be subject to tariffs,” she said. The US announced the imposition of the tariffs on 3 October, after the World Trade Organization (WTO) ruled that EU nations gave illegal state aid to Airbus for the development of its A380 superjumbo jet and the smaller A350. The WTO is also preparing to rule in the first half of 2020 on what tariffs the EU can impose in retaliation to separate US state aid given to Boeing. Commercial aircraft from Germany, Spain, France and the UK – the major manufacturing locations for Airbus – will be subject to US tariffs of 10%. “The only way to avoid the negative effects of the tariffs is for the US and EU to find a negotiated settlement,” said a spokesman for Airbus. “We are working with all our customers to try to mitigate the impact by all possible means.” The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) calculated that whisky products – long feted as one of the UK’s most impressive export stories – will be hit by more than 60% of the UK’s total tariff bill. Karen Betts, SWA chief executive, said: “Alongside American whiskey companies, we have called on the UK, US and EU governments for many months now to find a negotiated solution to the trade disputes that have given rise to these tit-for-tat tariffs, and to ensure that duty-free trade can resume between the UK and the US to the benefit of whisky producers, their employees, the communities we work in, and consumers everywhere.”
Source: The Guardian
