In 2007, Bush administration began negotiations on ACTA particularly to contain several developing countries engaged in piracy acts, and to protect the interests of leading US firms which lost their price competitiveness on account of counterfeiting. Incidentally, the ACTA effect will not be restricted to internet activities alone but extends to counterfeit pharmaceuticals, designer merchandise, music, movies, etc.

Surprisingly, the final draft will not have the endorsement of China, one of the largest counterfeit producers. Hence, looking back to past events on taking action against China in regards to infringements, the trade pact is expected to encounter similar stalemate while implementing a likely ratified deal. Participants in the negotiations included Australia, Canada, the European Union, represented by the European Commission, the European Union Presidency (Spain) and EU Member States, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore, Switzerland and the US.

Many ACTA dissidents blame the secretive or undemocratic nature of reaching the agreement by not revealing the details for public discussion. On the other hand, WIPO provides scope for public scrutiny with an added advantage of the inclusion of major counterfeiting countries in negotiations.

Meanwhile, the tech firms are understood to be apprehensive about ACTA’s secondary liability clause, which recommends the responsibility of copyright infringement behaviour of the user on the online service provider. The clause will possibly affect social networking sites, video-sharing sites and several other user-generated content sites including the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia.

Last month, a statement signed by senior trade-union officials from New Zealand, Australia, Singapore and the US raised the question of intellectual property rights becoming an element in the free-trade negotiations. However that fear is put to rest by officials at the eighth round of ACTA negotiations calling the deal as a ‘standalone’ one, and would not tinker with FTAs.

According to sources, the draft will leave out three-strikes provision that would require border agents to search the contents of electronic devices. Experts term three-strikes a preposterous idea as it would virtually bring every transit cell to a standstill.

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As per the latest updates on volcano, many of Europe’s busiest airline routes will remain closed until Saturday. Furthermore, if one goes by the volcanologists warnings, the eruptions could continue on-and-off for months, potentially meaning continued delays and closures. It is estimated just three days of air traffic closure alone will take months for the aviation industry to recover from the mammoth losses.

The Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation or CAPA figures show that some six million passengers could be affected world-wide if the closures continued for up to three days. The volcanic clouds spewed above 30,000 feet have forced air travel virtually impossible as the jet engines could be shut down if they sucked in volcanic debris.

High-flying volcanic ash consists of extremely fine silica particulates that could easily enter jet engines, which operate at temperatures of about 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. Silica melts at about 2,000 degrees, and at that point it fuses to turbine blades, nozzles and other critical engine parts, causing the engine to clog, overheat and eventually shut down.

It is now evident that the losses to the aviation industry and auxiliary ones would run into billions of dollars. London’s Heathrow Airport, which is the worst affected due to the second Iceland’s volcanic eruption, itself clearly supports to that logic since one of the world’s busiest airport manages more than 1,200 flights and 180,000 travelers per day. And any delay to the resumption of air travel and cargo movement is bound to create grievous financial problems to the industry which is showing some signs of revival along with global trade after the meltdown.

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During the meet, the Chinese premier announced that his country would continue to encourage its enterprises to invest and increase trade with Vanuatu primarily to improve the island nation’s business capabilities. Wen further added that his country was committed to proceed with comprehensive aid package to Vanuatu without any quid pro quo arrangements.

While Natapei reciprocated by saying his country would like to strengthen communication and coordination with China in addressing financial crisis and climate change. Both the premiers were present at the signing ceremony of bilateral agreements on economic and technological co-operation.

Wen observed that the developing countries, in particular, the least developed ones, small island states and African countries, have suffered a lot from global issues including financial crisis and climate change. And therefore he felt, the international community should give meticulous care to countries like Vanuatu to ensure a balanced and sustainable development of the world.

China has confirmed that it would co-operate and support technologically, technically and financially to improve Vanuatu’s citizens’ livelihood along with an accent on infrastructure and personnel training promotion, to enhance the country’s self-development capabilities. It said that it would try to create several platforms for people to make social exchanges to strengthen bilateral ties.

Vanuatu, an island nation situated in the South Pacific Ocean, off Australia also maintains strong economic and cultural ties with Australia, France, New Zealand and the UK, though it stopped direct aid since 2005. Australia continues to provide support to Vanuatu since its independence in 1980, the bulk of external assistance, including to the police force, which has a paramilitary wing.

Besides his visit to Beijing, Natapei would be covering cities including Changsha, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. He hopes to utilize china’s expertise in different fields for the development of his country through this trip.

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The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) stated in its annual report that the global arms race had accelerated, most dramatically in South America and South-east Asia, despite the economic meltdown. The Swedish institute, which conducts independent research on arms trade and its implications, said global defence transfers in the last five years had risen by 22 percent, with Asia and Oceania the biggest recipients with 41 percent of the total.

According to the head of the report, Paul Holtom, resource-rich countries were setting the trend by using their earnings to build out their combat aircraft fleets, and neighbouring rivals had reacted to these acquisitions with orders of their own. Furthermore, he questioned the rationale of these countries’ defence procurement policy in the allocation of resources in regions with high levels of poverty.

The study pointed out that it was able to witness a significant demand for combat aircrafts, and warned that deliveries of combat aircraft could fuel an arms race in the Middle East, north Africa, South America and south Asia. It said combat aircrafts accounted for 39 percent of major US weapons sales over the past five years, and about 40 percent of Russian arms exports.

Without any surprise, the US continued to top the chart with 30 percent of the total arms exports, followed by Russia at 23 percent, Germany (11%), and France (8%). It should be recalled that the study period was inclusive of more than two years of global economic contraction. However, the report was not in a position to provide the cost of the arms trade as most governments no longer released the figures.

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Sharma who was in China to attend the eighth Joint Economic Group dialogue urged the host country to remove tariff and non-tariff barriers on import of Indian rice, fruits and vegetables. He also requested to facilitate landing rights for Indian TV channels in China, and the import of more Indian films.

Sharma informed that New Delhi had doubled its foreign workers visa quota to 40, a decision that likely to help more Chinese firms than any other. However, the number of immigrant workers is still not allowed to exceed more than one percent of the total number of workers employed in any project. While China’s Commerce Minister Chen Demin reciprocated by saying that Indian workers would also get visas on liberal basis.

During the meet, Wen showed keen interest in improving bilateral ties with India and said that only if India and China shared common development platform that they could translate this century into an Asian one. Similarly, Sharma said the time for exclusivity in the international governance structure was over; and both nations would have to be at the front of a new global governance architecture.

After meeting several Chinese leaders, Sharma claimed the meet was very positive and substantive as it covered every component of the bilateral ties. He said that he received assurance from Beijing to encourage the Indian firms in the information technology, pharmaceutical and construction sectors to work with local partners to have ‘more presence and access’ in China.

In 2008–09, China exports to India stood at about $27bn while India’s remained around $11bn. China and India plan to take advantage of its vast consumer base of about 2.5bn people which could be larger than any bloc or region excluded of these two nations.

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The last week’s announcement also underscores that it would no longer recognize the two existing certification authorities in New Zealand, Islamic Meat Management and the Federation of Islamic Associations. In response, the FIANZ argued Indonesian halal certification company setting up shop here did not have the resources to inspect meat plants and slaughterhouses.

Reza Khedmati, director of Al-Rasoul Halal Certification, said the company had been set up to offer New Zealand exporters an “internationally accepted halal certification” as a result of problems encountered with Islamic countries. The federation vice-president Javed Khan says “These people who are setting up their own certifying companies here have got no infrastructure to inspect the plants and all that … and still they are certifying.”

Khedmati claimed that it had been certifying for all the organizations throughout the world including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Malaysia. The chief executive of the Iran-based Islamic Chamber Research and Information Centre, Abdolhossein Fakhari, while he was in New Zealand last month said Al-Rasoul Halal Certification had the backing of the centre, which was set up with the support of the governments of Islamic countries.

The Indonesian plan would restrict $100mn worth of New Zealand beef and $450mn of dairy products entering that country. The global halal market is valued at around $150bn with about 1.6bn consumers from 112 countries and Indonesia with 212mn is the largest consumer of halal products among Muslim nations.

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However, the Australian premier Kevin Rudd’s call for a broader Asia-Pacific region that includes the US was a dampener to the proposal of single currency as the US cannot approve another party spoiler to its currency besides the euro. The US always maintained and expressed that it desired to be part of the bloc which would become the largest group above the EU especially since the Asian economies are tipped as economic recovery agents by the WTO and other financial institutions.

A new EU-styled common currency community which likely to include Australia and New Zealand is an ambitious project though the bloc face far more problems than the EU in respect to border issues among members, political instability, human rights violations and so on. The ASEAN bloc is already committed in establishing a single market and manufacturing base by 2015, but Japan and China are keen to increase the size of the market to include the EAS countries including Australia and New Zealand.

Japan’s new Prime Minister, Yukio Hatoyama, has reportedly initiated the call for the single currency, which experts felt would change the global balance of power, if it ever happened. Hatoyama’s proposal immediately received support from China, which said it was ready for discussions.

On the contrary, the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key deflected the idea by saying currency union was normally the last step for any community of countries, and a lot of progress had to be made on regulation and trade barriers before moving on to currency union. However, he admitted there was no question about a growing appetite for a broader consensus on this issue, and his country was committed on the progress of a pan-Asia free-trade area.

Kavi Chongkittavorn, former assistant to the ASEAN secretary-general, said the group was divided along “ideological and generational lines” that had left it polarized on issues like human rights, political intervention and territorial disputes. The Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the host and current chair of the ASEAN presidency, urged ASEAN countries to get closer to become more influential in the international community.

The resurfacing of the need for a common trading unit indicates that the countries have realized the need to initiate a feasibility study on this matter. Three years later, thus the summit clears the air on working on a plan to evolve a common currency unit.

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Both countries have maintained steady link with each other through top level talks and exchanges ever since Nazarbayev assumed office in 1990. The countries have always extended their co-operation in all spheres within the multi-lateral frameworks of the UN, Shanghai Cooperation Organization and Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia.

Nazarbayev is a known ally of China in issues related to the Tibet and Taiwan. Even before the meet, the Kazakh president had reiterated his support for China in safeguarding its sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Kazakhstan and China share a borderline of more than 1,700 km, and bilateral ties got a boost especially after a rail link was established in the early 1990 through the Allah Mountain pass. The China-Kazakhstan Good-Neighborly Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation signed in 2002 has also helped both parties to improve their relations and do away with all outstanding border issues.

The Chinese president suggested four-pronged formula to Nazarbayev during the talks to boost and expand both countries’ bilateral co-operation to all areas. The Kazakh president not only agreed to the formula but also commended China’s effort in tackling the global economic crisis. On the other hand, Hu expressed gratitude to Kazakhstan for backing China on several occasions including issues related to Taiwan and Tibet, and while Beijing Olympics and Paralympics.

The Kazakhstan–China oil pipeline is China’s first direct oil import pipeline and will be 3000 km long once completed. The first stage of the pipeline became operational since 2003 is the major economic co-operation achieved by both countries so far.

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The summit happens to be the first forum after the North Korean satellite launch which has been widely criticized by Japan, South Korea and the western world as an attempt to test its ballistic prowess. As a result, many ASEAN members are concerned about the summit getting reduced to a forum for finding ways to penalise N. Korea for their action rather than meeting region’s economic problems. Earlier, despite the US and its allies headlining the Korea’s satellite launch as rocket launch and urging the UN to impose sanctions, China and Russia had called for patience.

The ASEAN summit was originally planned for last December and postponed with two phases in late February and April respectively this year due to anti-government protests that shut down Bangkok’s main international airport for several days during the scheduled period. Usually the summit is an annual gathering of representatives or leaders from ASEAN group, but the global economic crisis have compelled the group to include the economic powerhouses of the region in the forthcoming summit.

According to sources, the Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd will once again appeal the participants to review his proposal in last May for an Asia-Pacific Union (APU) in the line of the EU. Rudd’s proposed APU member states account for more than half the population of the world and is worth about half the global economic output. His call is likely to have more takers this time around since the summit has plans to formally denounce any form of protectionism to tide over the current economic mess quickly.

The ASEAN leaders will make sure that the focus is on climate change, which dominated the last summit, will be followed by trade, energy, food security and disaster management. They also hope the meet will include the finer points of the recently concluded G20 Summit to aid struggling economies get out of the present economic quagmire left behind by the global financial and economic crisis.

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The renewed interest in uranium has taken the mining companies around the world towards the African continent. The countries of Africa currently engaged in mining are Niger, Congo, Malawi, Zambia, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa. The demand for uranium has increased the prices by manifold in the early half of 2007 to $136 per pound before falling back to $93. Most mining companies bet on the African nations because they provide cheap labor and high grade output.

African Energy Resources Ltd., an Australian-owned mining outfit, is drilling on the southern border of Zimbabwe. Canadian-owned mining outfit, Equinox Ltd. is active in the Zambia’s northwestern region. Another Australian firm Paladin Energy Limited is successfully able to mine in the border region of Botswana.

Nuclear energy currently dishes out 16 percent of the world’s electricity need. The percentage is expected to grow as nations invest in alternatives that are cheaper and cleaner than fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas.

There are currently about 440 nuclear reactors around the world. Sixteen are due to retire by 2013, 33 are under construction, 94 are planned and another 222 proposed. As more electricity is produced using uranium, the prices are too expected to rise. Yet uranium will remain one of the cheapest sources of energy until thorium becomes technologically viable.

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