Textile Raw Material Price 2015-06-14
|
Item |
Price |
Unit |
Fluctuation |
|
PSF |
1258.9 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
VSF |
2030.5 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
ASF |
2489.2 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
Polyester POY |
1233.6 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
Nylon FDY |
3096.2 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
40D Spandex |
6388 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
Nylon DTY |
2684 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
Viscose Long Filament |
1442.2 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
Polyester DTY |
3340.7 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
Nylon POY |
5964.3 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
Acrylic Top 3D |
1491.1 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
Polyester FDY |
2900.7 |
USD/Ton |
-1% |
|
30S Spun Rayon Yarn |
2721.4 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
32S Polyester Yarn |
1988.1 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
45S T/C Yarn |
2982.2 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
45S Polyester Yarn |
2183.7 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
T/C Yarn 65/35 32S |
2493.3 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
40S Rayon Yarn |
2884.4 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
T/R Yarn 65/35 32S |
2737.7 |
USD/Ton |
0% |
|
10S Denim Fabric |
1.1407 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
|
32S Twill Fabric |
0.9615 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
|
40S Combed Poplin |
1.3526 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
|
30S Rayon Fabric |
0.7741 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
|
45S T/C Fabric |
0.7822 |
USD/Meter |
0% |
Source: Global Textiles
Note: The above prices are Chinese Price (1 CNY = 0.16296 USD dtd. 14/06/2015)
The prices given above are as quoted from Global Textiles.com. SRTEPC is not responsible for the correctness of the same.
The Indian textile and clothing sector, which registered 41 billion dollars worth exports last financial year, might not see high growth in exports this year, according to industry sources.The sources told The Hindu here recently that segments such as garments and home textiles had seen growth in exports. However, sectors such as cotton yarn had seen exports slowing down because of decline in demand from China.The sources said that China was one of the major markets for cotton and yarn exports from India. Though textile mills were now exporting to countries such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Cambodia, the demand from China was huge. This year, the industry expects export demand to be good for segments such as garments. However, the demand for yarn should increase in the overseas market. Hence, the export growth might be flat this year for the entire sector, the sources said.Nearly 35 per cent of the country’s annual textile and clothing production is exported. In some countries, the average import duty on these products is high and hence, the industry needs support to upgrade technology, improve its efficiency.
SOURCE: The Hindu
The report of an attempt by a bank recently to initiate the process of auctioning a textile unit in operation, which had suffered losses by purchasing the “exotic forex derivative” products sold by banks in 2007, has brought back the focus on the derivatives issue in the knitwear town.About 35 exporters in Tirupur had collectively lost Rs. 400 crore after purchasing the “exotic forex derivative products” offered by some banks to hedge against the risk of foreign exchange rate fluctuations.The exporters plan to approach the Enforcement Directorate seeking inquiry into the sale of the said derivatives and also on the steps taken up by banks subsequently on the exporters, say industry sources. “The Reserve Bank of India has slapped fines on 19 banks on April 28, 2011 for non-compliance of its instructions during the sale of derivatives,” C. Anand, an apparel exporter running Renaissance RTW Asia Private Limited told The Hindu.
Derivative losses
“In some instances, derivative losses were debited from exporters’ bank credit limit despite RBI’s instructions to park any amount related to derivatives in a separate account,” pointed out S. Dhananjan, consultant to Forex Derivative Consumers Forum, formed of aggrieved exporters.
SOURCE: The Hindu
With 'Make in India' vision remaining a distant dream, Ludhiana's garment machine manufacturers have joined hands to save the industry. "Ludhiana was once known to be one of the only manufacturers of flat machines and the situation turned from bad to worse and now we have negligible exports. Reason is simple that imports from China and Taiwan have increased and our industry is no where in a position to fight back," said Ram Krishan, who has been made the president of Garments Machine Manufacturers and Suppliers Association. He said 88 industrialists have joined hands and they will go for a multi-pronged policy to rescue the industry. Gurpreet Singh, an office-bearer of the association, said in an effort to give an exposure to the industry, they would organize an international expo in February in 2016. "The stalls would be spread on 6,000 square metre area and 1,000 products related to spinning, weaving, knitting, dyeing, finishing, printing, sewing machines and accessories would be displayed and these would be of 350 national and international brands," said Gurpreet.
SOURCE: The Global Textiles
High interest rates have hit the export credit portfolio of banks. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data show banks’ export credit as of April had fallen by 8.7 per cent from the Rs 48,200 crore a year before to about Rs 44,000 crore. In the same period a year ago, export credit had shown 13.4 per cent growth, from Rs 42,500 crore as of April 2013. Among all sectors, export credit saw the sharpest decline in deployment of gross bank credit as of April this year. After the government withdrew the three per cent interest subvention scheme for exports in April 2014, the cost of rupee credit has gone up significantly, say exporters. The government withdrew rupee export credit to the MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) sector and from almost all engineering export products. Getting bills discounted from a foreign bank which have a tie-up with the importer’s bank has become a much more viable option. However, the window is available to only large export houses, based on their counterpart importer’s credit record with their respective foreign lender. “We’re getting rupee credit at around 11 per cent from domestic banks. However, if we get our bills discounted from foreign banks which have a tie-up with importers, the rate of interest is less than two per cent per annum. In addition, we are getting payment in dollars, a win-win situation for us from the point of view of the present rupee pricing,” said P K Shah, director, Nipha Exports. “We have written to the government to introduce the interest subvention scheme on rupee export credit, as the rising cost credit is a major issue for exporters,” said Rajan Sundaresan, executive director of All India Rice Exporters Association.
According to banks, the low offtake of export credit is linked to production stagnation and rupee movement. “Generally, the cost of credit is coming down for all businesses. The real problem with export is linked to the rupee, slightly overvalued at present,” said Sanjay Arya, executive director, United Bank of India. “There has been a decline in export credit. We have also seen that in the past few months, there had been some impact (of lower demand) on export of basmati rice, iron and steel, and coal. There are also issues related to dumping from the Chinese market, which has also taken a hit on exports, particularly iron and steel,” said an official of UCO Bank. Recently, Arundhati Bhattacharya, head of State Bank of India, had said dumping of foreign products in the iron and steel sector was an area of concern for banks. “We see that of the total iron and steel demand of 21 million tonnes (mt), nearly 12 mt is getting imported, and we believe dumping is going on from China, Russia and Ukraine. That is an area of concern,” she had said here last month.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
The Southern India Mills' Association today called upon Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa to announce a comprehensive textile policy to ensure financial viability and competitiveness of existing manufacturing facilities in the state and encourage value addition. "The state urgently needs a comprehensive policy to sustain viability of huge manufacturing facilities and also attract investments for modernisation and value addition to make Tamil Nadu a global hub for textile manufacturing," SIMA chairman T Rajkumar told reporters here. Textile policies of other cotton-growing states are stealing a march, he said.
A steep increase in transportation cost is hurting as the industry procured 95 per cent of cotton from other states, Rajkumar said. Stating that SIMA has been closely working with the government to draft the policy for the entire textile value chain, he said it had already submitted its proposal and had several rounds of discussions with the authorities concerned. He suggested that the government should consider, among other things, issues like VAT reduction on cotton textiles to 2 per cent from 5 per cent and removal of one per cent market committee cess on cotton and cotton waste. The government should also set a separate power tariff for the textile industry based on load factor and cost-to-serve basis, he said. Rajkumar made out a case for various incentives for new investments on the lines of the Apparel and Textile policy of Andhra Pradesh. Tamil Nadu accounts for one-third of textile manufacturing facilities in India and earns over Rs 60,000 crore as forex earnings annually, Rajkumar said.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan today expressed concern over the “increasing trade deficit” between India and China during a meeting with a delegation of Chinese leaders and said the issue needed to be addressed to make mutual trade more sustainable and beneficial. Welcoming the Chinese Parliamentary delegation in Parliament House here today, Mahajan said that while GDP is important, cultural humanitarian qualities (CHQ) should also grow and develop. The delegation was led by Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China Zhang Dejiang. Mahajan told the delegation that India attaches a lot of importance to the visit as it is taking place after a gap of over 14 years, and added that relations with China figure among the highest priorities in India’s foreign policy. Noting that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to China marked a milestone in India-China relations, she said that bilateral relations are moving in the desired directions. India-China ties could be the most significant bilateral partnership of the 21st century, she said as she observed that both nations were the fastest growing economies in the world. Mahajan said she was happy to note that bilateral trade between India and China was going in volume and quantitative terms. However, she felt that the issue of increasing trade deficit needed to be addressed to make mutual trade more sustainable and mutually beneficial. In this regard, she referred to two important initiatives Modi ‘Make in India’ and ‘Skill India’ and felt that these initiatives offered immense opportunities to Chinese companies to come and invest in India.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has sought Rs 3,000 crore allocation under the technology upgradation fund scheme (TUFS) to boost investment into the industry and restore the health of the spinning sector, according to media reports. “The Government should provide Rs.3,000 crore additional allocation for the scheme for 2015-16. Textiles is a capital intensive industry and the two per cent to five per cent subsidy on interest available through the scheme helps the industry improve its competitiveness,” Prem Malik, chairman of CITI told media persons in Coimbatore recently. Malik also said that around Rs 30,000 crore were invested in the sector despite several challenges over the past three years, and if no funds were released, the investment in the spinning sector would be minimal, since the sector was capital intensive. Industry sources say that nearly 35 per cent of textile and clothing production in the country is exported. TUFS helps the industry improve its efficiency and competitiveness by upgrading technology.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
Sutlej Textiles and Industries, the flagship company of KK Birla Group, has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for purchase of Birla Textile Mills, the textile division of Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd., located at Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. In a filing to the BSE, Sutlej Textiles said, “The Competition Commission of India has communicated to us their approval of the Proposed Combination.” In March this year, the Board of Directors of Sutlej Textiles had approved the purchase of Birla Textile Mills, which works out to Rs 232 crore, including net current assets. Birla Textile Mills produces around 9,600 metric tons of yarn annually, including synthetic, cotton blended and acrylic yarns, 40 per cent of which are exported to global markets, according to the company’s website. Sutlej Textiles operates three units—Rajasthan Textile Mills, Chenab Textile Mills, and Damanganga Home Textiles located in Rajasthan, Jammu and Kashmir, and Gujarat respectively—and has a textile value-chain from yarns to home textiles.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
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$ 61.76 per barrel (bbl) on 15.06.2015. This was lower than the price of US$ 62.83 per bbl on previous publishing day of 12.06.2015.
In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket decreased to Rs 3958.20 per bbl on 15.06.2015 as compared to Rs 4023.00 per bbl on 12.06.2015. Rupee closed weaker at Rs 64.09 per US$ on 15.06.2015 as against Rs 64.03 per US$ on 12.06.2015. The table below gives details in this regard:
|
Particulars |
Unit |
Price on June 15, 2015(Previous trading day i.e. 12.06.2015) |
Pricing Fortnight for 16.06.2015 (May 28 to June 11, 2015) |
|
Crude Oil (Indian Basket) |
($/bbl) |
61.76 (62.83) |
62.08 |
|
(Rs/bbl |
3958.20 (4023.00) |
3966.91 |
|
|
Exchange Rate |
(Rs/$) |
64.09 (64.03) |
63.90 |
SOURCE: PIB
The government is now in a position to take up the challenges faced by the textile industry and facilitate it through incentives, access to potential markets overseas and zero taxes on exports, said Federal Minister of Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan.“I will personally pursue the case of textile industry with the authorities concerned and with the premier, but we can only provide help within the fiscal space of our economy,” Khan said while talking to members of the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA). APTMA Chairman SM Tanveer apprised the minister of the precarious condition of the industry, saying it was operating much below capacity because of a lack of global orders, the cause of which was the high cost of doing business. APTMA Group Leader Gohar Ejaz, while briefing the minister of the incentives offered by competing economies to their textile sector, said, competitors, particularly Indians, have a much better market access and facilitations than Pakistan. The 15% non-refundable duties the exporters are forced to pay on zero-rated exports have made Pakistan’s products uncompetitive in the global market, he added. Khan acknowledged that the industry was in dire straits because of delayed tax refunds and policy flaws and promised a regular monthly meeting with the sector. “The progress made on issues discussed in earlier meetings would be assessed,” he said, adding the government was negotiating free trade agreements (FTA) with Turkey, Thailand and South Korea. He said the FTA with China was being renegotiated and claimed that the government would ensure that all FTAs are in the interest of Pakistani businesses.
SOURCE: The Tribune
The First Technical Textile Resource Centre (TTRC) is being established at the National Textile University (NTU) to provide support for the development of the textile sector, said NTU Faisalabad Rector Dr Arshad Ali.While addressing a seminar attended by industrialists and other stakeholders, Dr Ali said that funds have been provided for work on the centre, which will be completed within the time limit.Terming TTRC as the ‘future of Pakistan textiles’, Dr Ali added that technical textile has the potential to earn more than conventional textile. “Per metre cloth prepared by conventional methods is only Rs10 to Rs20 per metre, but this sky rockets to Rs300 for technical textile in some cases,” he said.He said that it was very encouraging that stakeholders, including the government, industry and academia are fully aware of the importance of technical textile and are making efforts for the promotion of this emerging sector.He said that NTU is ready to play its role to lay down a comprehensive and viable roadmap to achieve a notable target of improvement within a timeframe.He further said that the separate and dedicated sub-sectors of technical textile would also be established in this proposed TTRC. He admitted the importance of on-job training of the textile engineers and said that NTU will take initiatives to start refresher courses for the graduates working in different industries.
Ministry of Textile Joint Secretary Neelofar Hafeez underlined the importance of the textile sector in the economy. She highlighted the fact that developing countries are concentrating on high-value technical textile, which is more profitable than the conventional method.She assured that sector-specific seminars would be arranged regularly to sensitise the industries and academia on different aspects of the textile sector.Responding to a question, she said that certification of technical textile producers would not be an issue as NTU will provide globally acceptable certificates. She also said that textile ministry officials have been directed to retrieve study on contamination-free cotton, done previously by Smeda.
SOURCE: The Tribune
The US House of Representatives has voted overwhelmingly (397 votes for 32 votes against) to adopt the Trade Preferences Extension Act of 2015 (HELP/HOPE) last week, the media has reported. The US Senate had passed the Act last month. The House approved the trade preferences bill, retroactive renewal and an update to the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program and an extension (of 10 years - until 2025]) the Haiti HELP/HOPE program. The House also approved the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). "Extension of the AGOA and the Haiti preferences program allows clothing and shoe companies to maintain business in those regions without disruption and with certainty that these key trade platforms will not expire," American Apparel and Footwear Association president and CEO Juanita D. Duggan said in a statement. “The trade preferences legislation will provide immediate benefits to clothing and shoe companies. We are pleased to see the House pass the package today with overwhelming support and urge the Senate to follow suit promptly so that the legislation can be quickly signed into law,” Duggan said. US Congressman Pat Tiberi stressed, "This will encouraged investment in Haiti and support its economic development and recovery efforts." Another Congressman Adrian Smith declared that "Trade with Haiti. it is an important first step as we address trade today and tomorrow." The government of Haiti and the Investment Facilitation Center (CFI) say they are proud to have actively supported the successful efforts of the Association of Industries of Haiti (ADIH), for the extension of the Preferential Trade Agreement of 2015 (HELP/HOPE).
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
The export of woven garments to the US registered a negative growth in the first 10 months of the current financial year though the export earnings from the market started to rebound from the beginning of this calendar year. Exporters and analysts said there were various reasons for the negative growth that included decreasing demand for the items on compliance issue, reluctance of exporters for high duty in the market and grabbing market share by the competing countries. The export of woven garments to the US market in the July-April period of the FY 2014-15 decreased by 1.62 per cent to $3.18 billion from $3.23 billion in the same period of the FY 2013-14, according to Export Promotion Bureau data. The export of knitwear to the market, however, grew by 5.85 per cent to $1.03 billion in the period.
Following the Rana Plaza building collapse a number of US buyers shifted orders from Bangladesh and good number of buyers decreased their volume of orders due to safety concern, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association vice-president Shahidullah Azim told New Age. ‘At the same time, some of our competing countries like Vietnam and India gained their capacities in the market and Bangladesh lost its space,’ he said. On the other hand, a number of exporters were looking for the alternative markets in the period and expressed their unwillingness to export to the US market due to higher duty, Azim said. A recent report launched by the Centre for Policy Dialogue stated that in the first 10 months of the FY15, the growth of export earnings was only 2.6 per cent and such performance was realised amid a number of challenges the export sector faced that included a violent and uncertain political environment, uneven developments in major export destination, falling global commodity prices and the volatile exchange rate of the euro. The report said that the export of woven garments was shifting from the US market to the EU market in recent years.
During the first 10 months of the FY15, the export of woven products to the United States declined by 1.6 per cent, while a relatively strong growth rate of 7 per cent was attained in the EU market, the report said. The CPD, a local think-tank, said that this was perhaps a sign that the woven exporters in Bangladesh were gradually diverting products from the US market to the EU market due to the relaxation of the rules of origin requirement in the generalised system of preferences. Since the relaxation of the rules of origin the export of woven products has been on the rise to the European Union market. The report mentioned that the US imposed high customs duty on imports of woven products and the US government charged customs duty of $392 million on imports of woven products from Bangladesh in 2014. Abdus Salam Murshedy, president of the Exporters Association of Bangladesh, said that Bangladesh had been facing many type of challenges including compliance, deprecation of the euro, appreciation of the local currency and rising cost for doing business. These things have put pressure on the efficiency of the country’s readymade garment sector and competitor countries have grabbed the market share, he said. Salam said, ‘The key problem for the garment sector is that our competitive edge is doing down.’
According to the CPD statistic, to some extent Vietnam, India, Honduras and El Salvador registered higher growth in exporting woven products to the US in the first 10 months of the FY15. Bangladesh’s export earnings from mens/boys shirts in the July-April period of the FY15 registered 6 per cent growth while Vietnam registered 13 per cent growth. In exporting boys’ trousers and shorts of synthetic fibres, Bangladesh posted 9.40 per cent negative growth while Vietnam registered 5.4 per cent, Honduras 18.80 per cent and El Salvador 33.30 per cent growth.
SOURCE: The Global Textiles
China is adopting a more welcoming attitude toward the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a US-led free-trade agreement now being negotiated by 12 countries, the official media has reported. Zhang Jianping, director of the department of international economic cooperation at the Institute for International Economic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission, said China's attitude is clear, the China Daily has said. "We are very happy to see that those TPP members can reach a consensus - because we think the TPP will be a possible approach for promoting Asia-Pacific economic integration," Zhang said at a seminar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington recently. While saying that the TPP might be a possible approach to the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, Zhang said that countries such as China and Indonesia may not feel so comfortable with the agreement. The TPP's high standards and strict regulations to some extent may surpass the development stage for some developing economies in the region, Zhang said. "That's why now we are making efforts to promote the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP)”, he said, adding that developing economies may prefer the RCEP approach.
Zhang said he believes the third possible track to the Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific will be for the TPP and RCEP to work together to form a new deal. China actively promoted a road map for the FTAAP when it hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in November. Zhang, acknowledging that China needs to reform and open up further to meet the TPP's high standards, said that China is making an effort to promote and create a regional trade network. China is now the world's largest exporter, the second-largest economy and a global manufacturing hub. In the past few months, it concluded free-trade agreements with Australia and South Korea.
SOURCE: Fibre2fashion
Bangladesh and India will fix the transit fees as per WTO rules in exchange for facilitating connectivity for India's land-locked northeastern states, Finance Minister AMA Muhith has said."During the visit of the Indian Prime Minister, the issue (transit fee) was discussed...the two countries will now finalise the arrangement over the fees in line with the WTO rules," Muhith said yesterday.Speaking at a business conference here, he said the transit fees would include the infrastructure development costs as well for the sub-regional connectivity involving Bhutan and Nepal in line with talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his counterpart Sheikh Hasina.According to the summit outcome, Bangladesh could have direct routes to Nepal and Bhutan while India would get access to its isolated northeastern region, virtually opening a new horizon of sub-regional economic connectivity.Muhith's comments cleared speculation among foreign policy experts and business analysts about the connectivity arrangements reached between Dhaka and New Delhi during Modi's maiden tour to Bangladesh early this month.Meanwhile, former premier and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chief Khaleda Zia said Dhaka must impose transit fees in exchange for providing the neighbour the connectivity facility to its North-East using Bangladesh territory.
Muhith, however, explained Bangladesh's position as regards the calculations on the fee saying referring to Bangladesh-Bhutan connectivity "as an example"."In this case the road has to be reconstructed alongside installing power-transmission line. There is some cost involvement here. With this a charge will be included," he said.Asked by a businessman whether Chittagong and Mongla seaports were ready to be used as transit, Muhith said the south-eastern Chittagong port was already in use for the transit and "we are developing the (south-western) Mongla port for importing coal. Nearly one year will be needed for visibility of transit activities."Transit through Bangladesh for India was earlier seen as a contentious issue as BNP and its rightwing allies were opposed to providing the facility for "security and economic concerns".But during Modi's Dhaka visit the party appeared to have be softened its stubborn stance on transit to India saying "we have no objection to giving transit to India, but India should pay fees for using Bangladeshi territory". BNP, known for its anti-India stance, had welcomed Modi's Dhaka visit and after much speculation the BNP chief Khaleda Zia made a courtesy call on him at his hotel suit.Hasina, who is now on a visit to UK, today told a civic rally in London that it is vital for Bangladesh to be on good terms with its neighbours and speed up development efforts."Our goal is to take the country forward cashing in on the importance of Bangladesh's geographical position in South Asia," she said.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
The G-20 economies witnessed a "slight deceleration" in application of new trade-restrictive measures, with average number of such steps imposed per month falling to the lowest since 2013, a WTO report said today. However, the report called for continued vigilance and reinforced determination towards eliminating the existing trade restrictions. "G-20 economies between mid-October 2014 and mid-May 2015 implemented fewer trade-restrictive measures per month than at any time since 2013. At the same time, the introduction of trade liberalising measures among the G-20 members remained stable. "These positive developments confirm that G-20 economies have shown some restraint in introducing new trade restrictions while continuing to introduce measures that facilitate the flow of trade," the WTO's 13th trade monitoring report on G-20 trade measures said. It has covered the period from 16 October 2014 to 15 May 2015. G-20 is a grouping of developed and developing economies. Its members include the US, Japan, Germany, the UK, France, China and India.
The report said that despite these recent trends, it is not yet clear that the deceleration in the number of measures introduced will continue in future reporting periods. "Therefore, continued vigilance and reinforced determination towards eliminating existing trade restrictions remains an important priority," it added. Trade restrictive measures include mandatory local source requirement and others. Further, it added that the long-term trend remains one of concern with the overall stock of trade-restrictive measures introduced by G-20 economies since 2008 continuing to rise. "Of the 1,360 restrictions recorded by this exercise since 2008, less than a quarter have been eliminated, leaving the total number of restrictive measures still in place at 1,031. Therefore, despite the G-20 pledge to roll back any new protectionist measures the stock of these measures has risen by over 7 per cent since the last report," it said. The report also said that among the emerging nations, China and India have continued to outpace other major economies. "GDP growth remained positive in China (7 per cent), Brazil (1 per cent), and India (7.8 per cent) in the second half of last year," it said.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
For more than six years, the short walk from the Oval Office downstairs to the Situation Room has all too often meant bad news or grim choices. Whether it was war in West Asia, Russian aggression in Ukraine or the hunt for terrorists around the globe, President Obama's foreign policy has felt consumed by guns and drones. So the 12-nation trade deal Obama has been negotiating in Asia took on special meaning for a president eager to change the world. It was a way to leave behind a positive legacy abroad, one that could be measured, he hoped, by the number of lives improved rather than by the number of bodies left behind. And if the Pacific really is the future, Obama wanted to position the United States to lead the way. As it turned out, the biggest challenge to securing that legacy has been at home, and not overseas, as Obama's fellow Democrats last week shot down legislation crucial to finalising the trade agreement on the grounds that it would hurt rather than help America. Unless he can convince scores of Democrats to change their votes in the coming days, the centrepiece of his much-touted re-engagement with Asia will slip away along with one of the last chances he has to leave his imprint on the world before leaving office. "If the president cannot get" trade promotion authority "through Congress, it is a disaster for his Asia policy," said Michael J Green, a former Asia advisor to President George W Bush and now at Georgetown University and the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "The administration will be dismissed as lame duck at a time when China is flexing its muscles."
Moreover, Green and other analysts said, a failure to follow through on the trade deal would lead to Japan, Vietnam and other putative partners reversing course on economic reforms or tariff concessions required to join the multilateral trade zone with the US, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP And momentum may shift to economic institutions and agreements that do not include the US, including the new Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank that China is creating over American resistance. "Domestically we tend to view trade through a political prism by way of winners and losers," said Jon Huntsman, a Republican former governor of Utah who served as Obama's ambassador to China before mounting a campaign to challenge his re-election in 2012. "In Asia, it's seen as directly tied to our leadership and commitment to the region. A failed TPP would create an influence vacuum that others, primarily China, would fill."
The trade agreement, about a decade in the making, would stitch together the United States with 11 other nations along the Pacific Rim, including Canada, Mexico, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Australia, creating a free-trade zone for about 40 per cent of the world's economy. It would lower tariffs, while setting rules for resolving trade disputes, setting patents and protecting intellectual property. China is not part of the group. Obama, congressional Republicans and business groups argue that it will unlock foreign markets to American goods and level the playing field by forcing Asian competitors to improve labour and environmental standards. But House Democrats, labour unions and environmental groups argue that it will benefit big corporations, further bleed American manufacturing jobs and fail to adequately enforce the workplace standards it promises.
The administration tried making a foreign policy argument over the last few weeks, maintaining that if the United States does not seal the trade pact, it will be leaving the field to China, which has been exerting its clout in recent years, whether by investing in energy supplies in Africa and West Asia or by asserting claims over disputed waters and islands. But some on the left argue that the administration is using China to scare lawmakers and exaggerating the competition. "I just don't buy this China boogeyman stuff," said Jared Bernstein, a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and a former economic adviser to Vice-President Joseph R Biden Jr. "If anything, I see China as being more inward looking, devoting less resources to mercantile-type trade and more to internal investment, consumption and developing human capital."
Supporters of the trade pact hope to hold a new vote this week on the part of the trade package rejected by the House on Friday but will need to secure 90 more votes. Representative Paul D Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who has worked with the White House to secure trade negotiating authority, said on Sunday that if Obama wanted to avoid being a "very lame-duck president," he would have to win over members of his own party. "I think that this can be salvaged because I think people are going to realise just how big the consequences are for American leadership," Ryan said on Fox News Sunday.But there was little indication over the weekend that many minds had been changed on the political left. "We need to regroup and come up with a trade policy which demands that corporate America start investing in this country rather than in countries all over the world," Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, said on "Face the Nation" on CBS.
The Pacific trade pact was meant to be one of three major foreign policy achievements Mr. Obama wanted to secure before leaving office; all three are on the line this summer. He faces a June 30 deadline to seal an agreement with Iran to scale back its nuclear program and he hopes to follow through on his reconciliation with Cuba by formally restoring diplomatic relations.Those three initiatives take on even more significance for Mr. Obama as he confronts the reality that he is likely to turn over the White House to his successor without having defeated the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq or resolved the conflict with Russia over Ukraine. He still plans to leave office as the president who ended the American war in Afghanistan, but the security situation there remains fluid.Amid all those wartime issues, the Asia initiative was to be the long-term investment that would pay off years later. The White House has deployed more military forces to the region and made it a focus. But the trade pact was to be the most tangible element of the policy.
The trade talks have reached a decisive turning point. Negotiators have drafted the bulk of the agreement but other countries are holding back to see if Mr. Obama wins the authority he needs from Congress before completing the pact. With Asia on his mind, Mr. Obama plans to host Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Xi Jinping of China at the White House in coming weeks, meetings that will be coloured by his failure to achieve his trade goal should he not turn House Democrats around."There is no Asia pivot without an economic component, and that component is tied up in T.P.P.," said Walter Lohman, director of the Asian studies program at the Heritage Foundation. The challenge for Mr. Obama, he added, is that no matter how important the trade pact may be to his foreign policy, Congress will consider it through an economic lens. "Geopolitics gets it very few votes."
Peter A. Petri, a professor of international finance at Brandeis University, said he just returned from a trip to Asia. "Many people there are dismayed by our political impasse," he said. "They simply don't understand or want an America that is defensive and distant." He said that was actually true of China as well, despite the competitiveness between the two countries."The pivot makes no sense without American economic partnerships," he added, "and taking economics out of the relationship would leave only zero-sum strategic competition."
SOURCE: The Business Standard
