BEACON

India’s new Foreign Trade Policy (FTP) which released today has provided incentives to labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, handicrafts, leather and gems and jewellery. The policymakers had to shift their focus on these sectors particularly due to lower demand, the direct fallout of the global slowdown which in turn triggered huge job losses.
Last month, Anand [...]

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson after meeting up with the top political and trade representatives of Cuba to promote agri-business has stated the exchanges among them were ‘very positive’. Richardson in an interview told that he had discussions with Ricardo Alarcon, the leader of the National Assembly, Pedro Alvarez, the president of the Chamber of [...]

Serbian President Boris Tadic’s trip to China which began on last Wednesday has culminated in the signing of a strategic partnership deal between both countries. During his visit he discussed political and bilateral trade interest with the Chinese President Hu Jintao, Premier Wen Jiabao and China’s top legislator Wu Bangguo.
Hu admitted the closer ties with [...]

According to the UN press release, a scheme intended to improve food security of Haiti and thereby lower food prices has come to fruition with considerable increase in the income of the country’s farmers. At the Haitian government’s request, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had executed a $10.2mn plan to distribute and multiply [...]

The European Union (EU) and Malaysia are planning to conclude the bilateral Voluntary Partnership Agreement (VPA) to promote trade of the legitimately produced and harvested Malaysian timber by end of this year after four years of protracted negotiations. The pact is designed with safeguards to redefine the perception of the sustainability and legality of timber [...]

The significant increase in acreage of coca cultivation and production of Peru will likely usurp Columbia from its throne as the largest coca producer in the world by 2011. In recent times, Colombia has witnessed huge slide in coca production and acreage, whereas Peru showed enormous growth in both areas.
An analyst Jaime Garcia Diaz told [...]

Jamaica’s poor payment culture is causing severe problems to all businesses, reported Jamaica Observer newspaper. The daily itself has fallen to the crisis with about 40 percent of its revenues overdue, and the majority of the Observer’s revenues come from the credit to advertisement agencies.
Many companies have either adjusted credit terms to facilitate delinquent clients, [...]

During a seminar held at St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Carl Francis, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Trade and Industry of T&T said the trade partnership with Canada would make the country better off. The seminar was organized by the Trinidad and Tobago Coalition of Industries (TTCSI) as a run-up to the upcoming [...]

According to the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) of Iran, the country’s non-oil exports to Ecuador have witnessed remarkable growth during the past four years; from less than $1mn in 2005 they have surged to $223mn during last year. The Deputy Director of TPO, Babak Afqahi stated the trade surplus was hugely in favour of Iran [...]

Palestinian Customs in partnership with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) had fully adopted the latest version of ASYCUDA’s web-based application to expedite the international trade processes of its country, said the UNCTAD press release. ASYCUDA, the Automated System for Customs Data is a software designed to strengthen Customs administrations across the [...]