Leuthard, who ended a six-day working visit to China on Sunday, had said that the feasibility study which began in 2009 had covered all potential areas of trade. Sun Xiaolan, assistant to the Commerce Department of the Swiss Embassy to China said on Monday the FTA talks had officially kicked off.

Although Sun did not disclose the detail of the initial talks but confirmed that Switzerland would soon be the first European country to conclude an FTA with China, as it was with Japan in 2009. Switzerland has the distinction of becoming one of the first Western countries to establish diplomatic relations with China, today to transform itself into a major trading partner from the region.

The top Chinese legislator Wu Bangguo, while he met Leuthard had said the two nations could explore new ways to better combine Swiss technology with the Chinese market. Similarly, the Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming said the country had ‘enormous demand’ for Swiss products relating to environmental protection, energy conservation and emissions reduction.

Switzerland is China’s ninth largest European trade partner, while China is Switzerland’s fourth largest global trade partner. In the first half of this year, bilateral trade jumped 127 percent, and China’s imports from Switzerland increased 180 percent compared to the same time last year.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, bilateral trade between China and Switzerland topped $11.3bn in 2008, and slightly dropped to $10.18bn in 2009, with $5.28bn of Swiss exports and $4.9bn imports from China.

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Nancy Reyes Lumen, Editor in Chief of Cook Magazine in her blog claimed that last week’s church sermons peppered the new government’s policy by making a clarion call – “No to Casinos, no to resorts, no to motels, no to Shabu (meth/illegal drugs).” While the Philippines Inquirer reported that “The lure of easy money is being promoted by some very powerful men”.

It is feared that these gambling centres may become focal point of other “shadow” industries common to casino culture. The blog added that illegal recruiters were on the prowl to lure hapless poor girls (and boys), offering jobs as maids or entertainers, eventually landing them in flesh trade.

Cristino Naguiat, chairman of the PAGCOR informed AFP on Tuesday “We are way behind Macau and Singapore in terms of the casino industry… (but) we would like to be positioned right at the top.” He also revealed that “Like other Asian gambling industries, the Philippines wants to tap into the vast mainland Chinese market.”

The new government of President Benigno Aquino, which took office on June 30, has suspended issuing fresh licenses to casinos giving free hand to existing operators in the country to monopolistically control the gambling industry. There are four licensees, and each is required to spend at least one billion dollars in developing the ambitious Entertainment City.

The four licenses to build the Entertainment City on reclaimed land along Manila Bay were awarded in 2008 under the former President Gloria Arroyo. The moment the government announced its decision to exploit revenue generation through gambling, the shares of the licensees hit new highs in the stock market.

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Brazilian agricultural exports reached $ 7.33bn in July, representing growth of 16.6 percent as compared to the same month last year. With a similar yardstick, the sales to the Arab countries grew by almost 40 percent, a growth rate second only to shipments to the Latin American Integration Association (Aladi) member states.

The data shows that four countries from the Arab region have featured in the list of leading 20 export destinations of Brazil. They are – Iran at 5th place behind China, the US, the Netherlands and Russia, and Saudi Arabia in the 10th position, Egypt at13th and the UAE at No.17 appeared on the new list.

Over the past few years’ trade between Brazil and Arab countries have witnessed enormous growth after Lula administration reached out to the Arab world in a stand out manner. It should be recalled the Brazil’s Minister of Agriculture Wagner Rossi informed last month that “President Lula holds the Arab countries in very high esteem. Our trade relations are increasing and will surely develop a lot, because we are complementary economies.”

Brazilian agribusiness exports to the Arab countries increased by 17.2 percent in the first half of 2010 over the same period of 2009, having gone from $2.9bn to $3.4bn. The most shipped products to the Arab region were sugar and meat, whose combined sales constituted 84 percent of Brazilian agribusiness exports.

Last month’s Brazilian exports of sugar and ethanol recorded growth of 44.3 percent, meat at 22.4 percent, forestry products 21.9 percent, coffee 32.4 percent, leathers 31.7 percent and livestock 65 percent. In the first two quarters, export revenues totalled $ 42.3bn, 12.1 percent more than of the same period of last year. The highlights pointed out by the ministry include greater exports to two Arab countries – Egypt 54.4 percent and the UAE 22 percent. While imports from the region, largely fertilizers, too recorded huge growth at $ 1.13bn, a rise of 42 percent over the same month of 2009.

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Already the recently concluded Canada-Columbia FTA has adversely impacted the US wheat exports. The agreement has given Canada an immediate price advantage over the US wheat, which hitherto enjoyed a dominant market share in Columbia. The thaw in Columbia-Venezuela ties with a visit by Santos to Venezuela signals that the number of players in the Columbian marketplace is bound to rise rapidly in the coming days.

The business team is understood to have held meetings with the Bogota Chamber of Commerce and the Ministry of Commerce; and would proceed to Cali, Medellin, Barranquilla, the coffee region, and other key industrial areas of the country. The US commercial representative in Colombia, Margaret Hanson earlier had expressed a desire to see the stalled FTA between Colombia and the US ratified since the Latin American nation already had open access to the US market for almost all its products but the US did not have backwards – so in terms of common sense, it was hoped that the FTA should happen soon.

Likewise, Colombia’s new ambassador to the US Gabriel Silva said that one of his first tasks would be to kick-start the FTA talks, and added that his country regarded itself as an economic force in the medium term as Colombia’s exports were put at $40bn. The trade deal, which involves the reduction of customs duties and other obstacles to trade, was signed by the former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe and the former US President George Bush in 2006. While Colombia’s Congress was quick to pass the treaty, the Obama administration has yet to ratify it.

During his presidential election campaign, Barack Obama opposed approving a trade deal with the Andean nation since crimes against the Colombian trade-union leaders remained unprosecuted. As president, Obama has expressed a willingness to push the deal through, provided that Colombia meets certain human rights conditions.

Colombia is believed to provide scope for investments in sectors including plastics, textiles and food stuff. According to Hanson, the delegation comprises of representatives from the security sector, construction, food, plastics, and also a financier who funds companies, particularly the SMEs.

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On Tuesday, the Cambodian police with riot gears thwarted a week-long strike sparked off by the suspension of a union official at a Malaysian-owned garment factory, which produced goods for international brands including Gap, Benetton, Adidas and Puma. It has been reported that the clashes between more than 100 armed police force and 3,000 garment workers in Phnom Penh had resulted in nine women being hurt, though authorities maintain the operations did not hurt anyone.

The BBC’s Guy De Launey in Phnom Penh says the unrest could be a symptom of a wider social malaise owing to dwindling orders in Cambodia’s crucial garment industry which resulted in tens of thousands of job losses. Early this month, government increased the minimum wage from about $50 to $60, but the double-digit inflation and the trade unions demands of above $80 seemed to be bogging down the effect.

Albeit the unions retracted from a three-day general strike in protest against the meagre rise, the union official’s suspension is believed to have aggravated the situation. But last week’s Huffington Post report interpreted these strikes as a knee-jerk reaction to irrational calibration of wages by the outsourcing firms or associated agencies.

Interestingly, in last week’s blog by Auret van Heerden, President and CEO of the Fair Labour Association visualizes firms that build strong Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes into their operations and culture would have the edge in many markets. Nevertheless, evidences show such practices by firms are beyond procurement principles as it solely reckons pricing and related aspects devoid of labour rights – especially post-meltdown.

Cambodia’s textile industry accounts for around 85 percent of exports, and is the country’s third-largest source of income after tourism and agriculture. The Southeast Asian state continues to be in the grip of labour problems particularly after the global economic crisis that bombed exports severely to create an economic landscape of joblessness – and desertion of production units by the employers.

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While responding to the GT reporter Li Yanjie’s query about the investment environment in N Korea, Gao said North Korea had low credibility. However, he admitted though in the short term there was a high level of risk, but in the long term Chinese companies might benefit from investing there.

The history of Sino-North Korean trade dates back to 1954 as China’s Ministry of Foreign Trade, as it was then known, approved border trade between both sides in regards to local residents’ demands for food items. At that time, China’s main exports to North Korea were clothes, paper, textile pigments and other light industry products, and China imported seafood and fruits from the North.

Between 1971 and 1981the trade was interrupted, it got revived since 1982 to hit a trade volume of about $540,000, and grew manifold to reach at around $52.08mn in 1989. According to the Dandong statistics department, the trade volume between Dandong, the main border province and North Korea increased from $15.39mn to $314mn between 1990 and 2004.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the bilateral trade accounted for only 11.6 percent of North Korea’s total foreign trade volume. But by mid-1990s, the border trade reached around 30 percent of North Korea’s total foreign trade volume. However, North Korea’s economy went through a recession during the latter half of 1990s, causing slide in trade.

Gao further added that since 2001, Sino-North Korean trade volume had grown rapidly due to two reasons, one being economic sanctions, and other as China needed the Korean mineral resources in exchange of food. According to the statistics from China’s Ministry of Commerce, by 2007, the two-way trade has reached 41.71 percent of North Korea’s total foreign trade volume.

Although the recent accidental killings of three Chinese by the North Korean border guards have earned nation-wide ire from the people of China, the ties seemed to be strong as North Korean administration is purportedly willing to reciprocate to any Chinese call amicably. Furthermore, Pyongyang has no option other than yield to any kind of Chinese pressure, if applied, as it is hugely dependent on China in diplomatic and trading needs.

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The trade deal is likely to be concluded with the fifth round of negotiations at the sidelines of Mercosur summit in Buenos Aires at the end of this month which the Trade Minister of Egypt Rachid Mohamed Rachid would be participating. The Mercosur is a free trade region of South America comprising of Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.

A reliable source from the Egyptian Ministry of Trade and Industry is reported to have informed the Egyptian daily that it had agreed with Mercosur to implement the deal in a phased manner by setting up five categories for specific commodities and products.

The first category, which includes intermediate goods and raw materials, will be tariff-free from the effective date of the FTA. The second group’s duties will be removed over a period of four years, the third one’s over eight years, and the fourth over ten years. However, the time period for the fifth category has yet to be worked out as it includes highly sensitive products, and feared to negatively affect the local businesses.

Egypt is understood to have requested Mercosur to include textiles, clothes, construction materials, and engineering and chemical products among the first category. Egypt’s main exports are petroleum, aluminium, raw cotton and leather, whereas it mainly imports poultry, oils, sugar, soya beans and meat. Once the accord is signed, it will become the second FTA that the Mercosur is signing with a non-Latin American nation after Israel.

Last month, Evandro Didonet, the head of the Department of Foreign Negotiations at the Brazilian foreign office (Itamaraty) observed that the FTA with Egypt was “of the greatest importance”, as Egypt was one of the countries with the greatest weight in the Arab world. In his evaluation, it should grant “great visibility” to the South American bloc and open a “gateway” into the Middle East and North Africa.

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The shutting of doors to Indian exports is seen as a retaliatory measure, or as to garner more items on the negotiating table while both sides meet again in the ongoing bilateral talks. The case in point for the payback is that India does not allow transit facilities to Pakistan’s exports to Nepal and Bhutan.

At a glance, the accord hugely favours Pakistan as its goods gain access through Afghanistan to Central Asian countries including lucrative markets of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The amended trade deal was signed by Pakistan Commerce Minister Amin Fahim and his Afghan counterpart Anwarul Haq in the presence of Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Islamabad has for long resisted pressure from Kabul to allow the export of Indian goods by land through Pakistani territory. However, this long-standing demand by both Afghanistan and India seemed to impact more the poor of the region than the governments of the nations involved.

The failures of protracted farcical talks between India and Pakistan continue to push every possible event to be used as a tool to blatantly demonstrate displeasure with one another’s actions. Lately, while Islamabad refuses to give India the Most Favoured Nation status, Delhi has raised both tariff and non-tariff barriers to restrict Pakistan’s exports.

It is yet to be seen whether Clinton would be able to play a meaningful role in the region to re-weld the two nuclear states for ushering in peace and prosperity to the region. But given the frequent border tensions and unrest in Kashmir after a respite indicate that any time in near future it is unlikely the two governments giving in to allow each other land transit rights.

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During the visit to the Portugal’s capital Lisbon, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met with his Portuguese counterpart Luis Amado for the signing of the deal as well as to hold diplomatic talks. Davutoglu while signing the accord stated the bilateral trade between Turkey and Portugal had reached $826mn last year, and there was great prospect of improving from the current value.

Now the deal will go through a formal ratification process by both the countries’ parliaments. The effective date will be declared once the deal is approved by the respective houses.

The similar facilitation of the new deal has been a longstanding demand of Turkey with the EU as agreements signed by the EU and Turkey necessitate that Turks be exempted from visas. However, the EU’s recent nod to three Balkan states including Macedonia, Serbia and Montenegro for visa-free travel to their nationals has heightened the Turkish demand for such relaxation is extended to its citizens too.

It should be recalled, last year, the European Court of Justice has issued a ruling paving the way for Turkish businesspeople providing services in the EU member states to enter the EU without having to obtain visas first under a 1973 deal called the Additional Protocol to the Ankara Agreement. While speaking at the occasion, the Portuguese Foreign Minister said that Portugal hoped the membership negotiations would be concluded as soon as possible.

At the sidelines of his official visit, the Turkish Foreign Minister also met up with the visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to discuss bilateral co-operation and trilateral agreements on exchange of fuel for the Tehran research reactor. A tripartite agreement on the exchange of uranium was reached May 17 between Iran, Turkey and Brazil.

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Myanmar and Viet Nam have similar history and share almost identical culture and religion. While Viet Nam suffered boycott by the West in the past Myanmar continues to be ostracized by the US and the EU as well.

Phung who is active in Myanmar for some time with humanitarian aid became confident about its market following the back to back success of two trade fairs held to promote Vietnamese products in Yangon last September and April. Although the two-way trade between both sides last year was a meagre $74mn, the first half of this year is showing an uptick by recording $58mn.

Viet Nam exports steel products, cement, processed foods, plastics, pharmaceuticals, and electrical goods and other appliances. On the other hand, Myanmar’s main exports to Viet Nam are wood and forestry products, natural rubber and seafood.

According to the Association of Vietnamese Investors in Myanmar, Vietnamese enterprises have pledged investments of nearly $1bn in Myanmar this year, well short of their investments in the neighbouring Laos and Cambodia of about $6bn each. But Phung believes that the coming years will witness a greater interest among Vietnamese businesses to tap the new market as there is huge demand for their products in Myanmar on account of their quality, range and reasonable prices.

Nevertheless, Phung admitted that the businesses would have to undergo challenges such as tortuous import licensing procedures and difficulties in getting payments, major reason being the US and the EU embargo against Myanmar. But he advised Vietnamese enterprises to strictly follow the guidelines of the Vietnamese embassy in Myanmar and the Ministry of Industry and Trade, and do financial transactions only through designated banks.

Under British colonial era, Myanmar was the second-wealthiest country in South-East Asia but the country is one of the poorest in the region today. Viet Nam aspires to make Myanmar as developed as itself through exchanges as the former too emerged from the shadows of prolonged sanctions from the West.

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Uganda branch manager Joshua Ng’ang’a of Nakumatt, a Kenyan supermarket chain said at least commodities in the Ugandan supermarkets would see about 20 percent cut as the imports were overpriced to the tune of same percentage. Besides discounted prices, improvement in quality and increase in variety of items is also anticipated from the start of the common market since producers will have to compete with similar business entities among the EAC member states.

Ng’ang’a argued that one of the other reasons for price reduction apart from competition would be the elimination of middlemen from the procurement scene, allowing the supermarkets to directly source from the producers or manufacturers. According to East African Business Week, the leading supermarkets in Uganda are tight-lipped about the future developments in the retail sector.

Last November, the member states of the EAC signed a common market protocol, aimed at expanding the existing customs union. It is commonplace to economies those form blocs to envisage increased competition along with the free movement of services, capital, entrepreneurship and labour across the member states.

In the absence of trade barriers, the architects of the common market expect the businesses in the region to flourish across borders. All five countries have already adopted a common external tariff, an identical tax applied to imports from outside the bloc, and allowed duty-free regional trade with the exception of Kenya, the largest economy. The EAC also has plans of floating a common currency within two years.

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Albeit the renewable power generation is relatively new to the mountainous south Asian country, it is upbeat about the commencement of the project by early next year. Mewang Gyeltshen, chief engineer from the Ministry of Economic Affairs of Bhutan told Recharge that energy demand was increasing by 12 percent, and country had sufficient supplies but remote households needed a sustainable standalone off-grid system.

On the other hand, India’s energy fund is aimed at developing a South Asian regional power grid, with focus on renewable sectors such as hydro, solar and wind. It will comprise of Bhutan with investment of about $850mn (3,000 MW), a 400-kv transmission line at $50mn with Nepal, a 1,000 MW HVDC link with Sri Lanka costing $415mn and a 1,000-MW HVDC back-to-back link with Bangladesh at $220mn.

It should be recalled the Tala Hydro power project in Bhutan, a joint venture by Indian firms, has been successfully commissioned in September 2006 and transmits power to North India. The project has mutually helped, Bhutan to jack up its economy while India to reduce power shortages in its northern parts.

The success of Tala has prompted other Indian energy firms to foray into Bhutan. Last month, the THDC India Ltd, a Govt. of India undertaking, has signed a MoU with Bhutan for the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of 180 MW Bunakha hydroelectric project in Bhutan. The Bunakha project is a part of the Indian government’s initiative to develop 10,000 MW of hydro power in Bhutan by the year 2020.

Bhutan sells hydropower to India at a price of $0.04 per kW, making 100 percent profit from a production cost of $0.02 per KW. Since it is estimated that for every one percent GDP growth more than the same percentage of energy production is required, Indo-Bhutan energy co-operation is likely to be a long-term one.

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The cheese which was made in Germany, by the firm Milchwerk Jager Gmbh & Co has been blamed for exporting sub-standard versions by mimicking Italian sounding brand names such as Fattorie Torresina, Lovilio and Monteverdi. Although the mozzarella was marked as made in Germany and did not receive any complaints of illness linked to the ‘blue’ mozzarella at that time, the farmers regard the incident has harmed the reputation of Italy as a quality food-maker.

Preliminary analyses at Turin’s Zooprofilattico (veterinary preventative medicine) Institute analyses showed it to be bacterial rather than toxic contamination. Besides bacteria, the blue colouring could also indicate elements of copper, nickel or lead in the milk or the aqueous solution used to preserve the cheese.

During the protest, Italy’s main farm lobby Coldiretti argued that the citizens had the right to know what they were buying and origin of those products. Similarly, Agriculture Minister of Italy Giancarlo Galan told that he would press for new legislation requiring milk producers to give more details about the provenance of their milk and related products.

Mozzarella is the most favourite variety of cheese in Italy, and about 60 percent of Italians consume 164mn kilograms (360mn pounds) per annum. With this German trade infringement, Italian cheese producers feel the original mozzarellas may lose their brand value among the consumers. Tuesday’s protest saw border police inspecting trucks bringing milk, meat and other products into Italy.

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Slobodan Radun, the owner of Nectar, the leading Serbian juice and soft drinks producer, told “Their (Croatian) products have solid treatment here, their companies are buying ours, and we do not have access to their market. We offer products of top quality for lower prices than their producers, but it’s not working. Sometimes a company with a special connection can do it, but it’s generally impossible.”

The Politika opined that though the government agencies claimed the economic relations had improved, “not even the contemporary trends and sacred international rules of market economy – the free flow of goods and capital – are being respected”

According to the data from the Croatian National Bank, the Croatian companies invested in $641.7mn by the end of last year in Serbia, making Serbia the second largest destination for the Croatian foreign investments. The bilateral trade between both sides has increased manifold from $40mn in 2000 to $1bn in 2009. In the past seven years the trade has gone against Serbia registering a trade deficit of $716.6mn, and Serbia is one of the rare European countries with which Croatia has trade surplus.

It should be noted that, in a recent conference, Economy Ministry State Secretary Nebojsa Ciric admitted that only one Serbian investment was able to succeed in Croatia, when the Swisslion Takovo bought the Croatian Euro Food Market but otherwise most efforts bombed. It is yet to be seen whether the last month’s accord between both nations to remove political bottlenecks and simplifying business processes would translate into equilibrized economic co-operation.

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Last week, Mehmet Simsek, Finance Minister of Turkey told that his country’s GDP would grow 12 percent in the first quarter of 2010. He had claimed that the economy was recovering quickly from the backlash of the global meltdown in view of country’s several internal crisis management programs.

The 2nd TWTB meet, which is expected to become a venue for 7bn of trade deals, is held between 14th and 20th June. According to sources, the meet has been able to attract nearly 2,200 businessmen from 135 countries and 1,200 Turkish traders as well. About 1,600 translators are interpreting the forums into 38 languages, and the participants would form delegations to visit 62 provinces of Turkey.

The primary objective of the meet would be to include and optimize small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Turkey to tide over the challenges from the monopolistic-oriented economies. Moreover, Turkey has no intention to endlessly wait for the EU membership to shape its economy to usher in growth particularly at a time when Europe is facing a volatile economic climate.

Through the TUSKON, a confederation with a strong base in Turkey and abroad, the country will be assisting entrepreneurs to overcome the language barrier by providing language courses, and in some cases even translations. The Turkish business confederation along with its affiliations across the world would be working together by simplifying and expediting business processes for country’s SMEs to make the export engine move forward rapidly.

The TUSKON has sister organizations in 135 countries across the world, and these institutions are set up by the Turkish entrepreneurs and volunteers to integrate its members to the international business environment. The Indo-Turkish Business Association, Thai-Turkish Business Association, South Africa Turkish Business Association and the Turkish and Cameroon Business Association are some of the business organizations affiliated to the parent confederation.

Turkey as an emerging export-oriented economy is paying vital importance for the TWTB meet as its trading history indicates those Turkish international business entities monetized significantly better than the domestic ones. A number of government agencies and companies including the Foreign Ministry, the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM), Turkish Airlines (THY) and Bank Asya are joining force with the TUSKON to make the meet successful.

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Botswana also signed a MoU to engage Cuban medical personnel every two years with a clause not to re-employ them after the completion of their service. Minister of Health, Dr John Seakgosing who accompanied the President said that his country was looking forward to Cuba’s new offering in the treatment of diabetes through co-operation in providing medical care to its growing diabetic population.

Botswana will also be seeking the Cuban know-how in controlling vector menace through the use of biolarvicides chiefly to mitigate debilitating diseases such as malaria, filariasis and Onchocerciasis. Some studies have indicated the vector-spread diseases had seriously impacted the progress of the African countries by lowering productivity through prolonged sicknesses to their working citizens or their relatives.

On the diplomatic front, the Foreign Minister of Botswana, Phadu Skelernani termed the US embargo against Cuba as “unnecessary”, and appealed for revocation of the sanctions. He was maintaining the rhetoric of his president, who said on the first day of his visit, “Sometimes, in Africa, we receive millions of dollars from rich countries. However, proportionally speaking, Cuba gives us a lot more than anybody else”.

Skelernani and the Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcelino Medina signed agreement on co-operation and Seakgosing and his Cuban counterpart, Jose Ramon Balaguer signed pact on development of a comprehensive health care system. The trip to Cuba is the Botswanan President’s second one, the last time he visited the island was in 2007 as the Vice-President of his country.

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The Trade Minister’s words were marked by clear ideas on which the country’s economic path would be paved in the coming years regardless of its size. He said NZ started its reform process 30 years ago with very high protectionist barriers but now was solidly centred on reciprocal trade liberalisation.

Groser shifted his focus from the FTA talks to WTO negotiations and expressed dismay over the inertia at the WTO. He said the WTO negotiating process was suffering from sclerosis, and criticized the WTO Director General’s use of the metaphor of having done 80 percent of the negotiation. He added that but last 20 percent or whatever number one chose to illustrate the remaining negotiating gap – was proving elusive.

He arrayed data on NZ trade policies including the collective effort in the early 1990s that it would not put all its eggs in the then GATT or now WTO basket. He pointed out since then, while emphasising multilateral trade policy, successive NZ Governments had aggressively and successively pursued a bi-partisan strategy of developing FTAs with economies which were either major trading partners or promised to be – i.e. the emerging economies.

“All projections suggest that in even twenty to thirty years’ time, the countries with the largest populations will have the largest economies. We will be living in a truly multi-polar world in which we are highly likely to have four economic super-powers with huge populations (China, India, the US and the hybrid model of the 27 Member EU) plus a range of very significant economies on a second tier including Japan, Korea, Indonesia and, of course the other of the so-called ‘BRICs’ – the formulation that includes not just China and India but also Brazil and Russia”, claimed Groser.

The gist of the address disclosed that NZ current FTAs including China, Thailand, Singapore and Chile and future FTAs or any other trade deals were and will be designed to follow an extreme application of what is called ‘first mover advantage’ strategy – getting in first, to avoid the possibility of being left to last.

NZ is the first developed country to have established a comprehensive FTA with China. Besides, NZ has negotiated a parallel FTA with Hong Kong – NZ is the only country in the world so far, other than China itself, to have such a relationship.

At a glance, the NZ-Russia FTA opens up business opportunities for not only the NZ dairy industry but also extend to other areas such as agro-tech, tourism and education. New Zealand’s exports to Russia are worth NZ$187mn ($127mn) last year, of which about two-thirds are dairy products. That’s just a fraction of the more than the $30bn of food Russia purchases annually.

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Ahead of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s visit to India next month, hundreds of protesters took to the streets against the proposed trade pact, claiming it would hugely benefit the neighbouring country by forcing the domestic industry into appalling risks. The CEPA which was supposed to be signed two years ago is likely to come to fruition during Rajapaksa’s visit to New Delhi on June 8.

Many highly educated, including doctors and engineers who were part of the recent protest along with businessmen fear that the island could be dominated by cheaper and skilled Indian services at the expense of the domestic industry. But this argument is unfounded as India’s educated unemployed were largely jobless because their reluctance to work for less or in remote places. Moreover, Sri Lanka being a country less than half the currency value of India would not have to panic about the products or services from India going cheap rather can ensure superior quality which could help the country build its economy on a firmer footing.

The Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (ISFTA) signed in 1998 and which is effective since March 1, 2000 has been able to boost trade between both nations significantly with near equal opportunity for the Sri Lankans. The ISFTA that is confined to the trading of only goods pushed country’s exports by manifold from $55.7mn in 2000 to $516.4mn in 2007.

On the contrary, in 2002, the traded volume between China and Sri Lanka totalled about $350mn, of which China’s exports accounted for $340mn providing room for Sri Lankan exports at about a meagre $10mn. Although Sino-Lankan trade witnessed tremendous growth over the years with bilateral trade crossing $2bn in 2009, imports from China remained predominately greater than the efflux.

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Today, the international trade committee of the Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry has signed a MoU with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and World Business Chicago, in an attempt to promote economic activity between the two nations with an accent on industry, trade and technology. Similarly, GE too renewed its seven decade old business ties by signing a MoU with Ministry of Commerce & Industry to fuel Kingdom’s vision for sustainable economic growth and job creation.

Saudi Arabia is planning economic diversification through industrialization, and will launch the $16bn National Industrial Strategy in May 2010 to strengthen the Kingdom’s manufacturing sector and double the industrial output of the GDP. Saudi ministers are of the opinion that the Kingdom’s future will be focused on knowledge-based initiatives and infrastructure development, emphasizing that “Saudi Arabia no longer wants to be the gas station of the world.”

According to Saudi Gazette, the meet will see the signing of several agreements covering almost all areas of trade ranging from agriculture to science and technology to financial markets. Fatin Bundagji from the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry pointed out that his country’s priority would be to draw expertise beyond oil sector particularly about venture capital and business incubation in the US.

As per the figures provided by the National US-Arab Chamber of Commerce (NUSACC), the US exports to the MENA region are expected to rebound to nearly $75bn this year, up from $63bn in 2009, and out of the total about $17bn will be Saudi’s contribution. Saudi Arabia is the second largest export destination of the US in the region after the UAE.

The trade outlook indicates that US exports to the MENA region are likely to be more than double by the year 2015, an important boost to US President Barack Obama’s National Export Initiative. He had said early this year that exports were the key to job creation and the plans of doubling exports to $3 trillion over the next five years could create two million new jobs in the US. Besides, enhancing trade with Saudi Arabia is also seen as an initiative to deepen ties with the Muslim world which the US president reiterated this week after Cairo summit.

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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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According to a Business Line report, the mission, led by Mr Marten van den Berg, Deputy Director-General for Foreign Economic Relations, brings 40 delegates from 27 companies, and will cover New Delhi, Chennai, Pune and Mumbai. Although majority of the group comprised of heads from the agro and automotive industries, the mission will also be exploring trade opportunities in areas such as, the life sciences and health, logistics and infrastructure, IT, tele-communications and innovative other sectors.

Last week, the Netherlands Ambassador to India Bob Hiensch has said that his country was eyeing greater bilateral trade between the two countries in coming years. He added that the Netherlands was hoping bilateral trade to reach €10bn by 2014.

Currently exports from India are valued at about €2.5bn and imports stood around €1.6bn. India and the Netherlands began their trading alliance since more than 400 years ago when the Dutch trading ships visited South and East coasts of India in search of spices and textiles.

The Holland delegation is mainly visiting India to showcase its prowess in various spheres including IT, agro-tech and water management systems to attract Indian companies whom desirous of entering the European market. It should be recalled that last month, Oedith Jaharia of the Netherlands India Chamber of Commerce and Trade told Radio Netherlands Worldwide that 25 percent of India’s fruits and vegetables were wasted in the absence of viable food processing technology. He suggested that India could use the Netherlands expertise in food processing to avoid such colossal waste.

The present economic outlook of the Netherlands is very attractive since the country is able to weather the recent global meltdown by bringing in foreign investments more than €3bn or about 30 percent of its GNP in 2009. Ms Jolanda van der Aart, who runs the India Desk at the Amsterdam Foreign Investment Office told Business Line that information, communication and technology was one of the five largest export revenue earner for the Netherlands, and has been growing at 4-5 percent every year, and this offered the Indian firms a huge opportunity by way of outsourcing and export and import of computer parts and systems.

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The Secretary to the Nigerian Government of the Federation, Alhaji Ahmed Yayale is leading a delegation comprising of top government officials and private company heads to the US to sign the agreement as well as to interact with their counterparts to explore areas of interest and profit. While speaking to THISDAY, the Nigerian Ambassador to the US, Professor Adebowale Adefuye said Yayale would sign the accord on behalf of Nigeria and the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would do the same for the US.

Nigeria envisages this pact as an important milestone in trade ties with the US especially after the country failed to take advantage of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) enacted in 2000, which enabled the country to penetrate the US market. Similarly, through the Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) which is in effect again from 2000, both countries have not been able to achieve the desired results despite an uptick in some of the trade areas. However, in the wake of the restoration of democracy in 1999, the Nigeria-US relations have shown tremendous improvements in diplomatic co-operation and regional peacekeeping efforts.

According to Adefuye, the pact will cover several spheres including trade and energy, Niger Delta; electoral reforms, and peace and security. In addition, the first US-Nigeria Business Forum will be held between April 12 and 20 in three US states – Georgia, Texas and Illinois.

The Forum is expected to discuss the trade prospects for both countries in the fields of tourism & hospitality, mining, telecommunications, aviation & transport, and the SMEs development. Other areas such as banking, infrastructure, construction, agriculture, health, oil & gas, maritime, environment and insurance are also expected to be featured in the Forum.

Nigeria is the largest trading partner of the US in sub-Saharan Africa. About one million Nigerian nationals and Nigerian-Americans are believed to live, work and study in the US as against around 25,000 US citizens who live and work in Nigeria.

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Agriculture Minister of India Sharad Pawar is reported to have informed his Russian counterpart Yelena Skrynnik that his country had the capability to meet those demands as and when they emerged. While both ministers met at the sidelines of the BRIC Agriculture Ministerial Meet, Skrynnik told that though abundant stocks of poultry products were available at the moment, we would turn to India whenever a requirement sprang up.

A sudden demand for poultry in Russia has resulted due to the ban imposed on the US and Brazilian poultry as imports from these countries did not meet Russian poultry standards. According to sources, Russian sanitary standards are quite stringent than internationally accepted ones. The Russian poultry imports from the US at some point of time had even risen up to 80 percent in the past but the new sanitary requirements enforced since Jan 1 have completely stopped all imports from the US.

It should be recalled that India too faced several import bans including the existing one from Russia on its meat and poultry products. Nevertheless, a Russian expert group is expected to visit India shortly to review this long-standing export ban.

Pawar said India was exporting bovine meat and poultry products to 60 countries, including Europe, and there was “enormous potential” for exports to Russia as well. Likewise, Skrynnik apprised that Russia last year had imported 600,000 tonnes of poultry and one million tonnes of meat.

However, it is not known that the good news to the poultry and meat industry of India would turn sour to domestic consumers like that of Turkey as it has been feared in Turkey that the export approval for 500,000 tonnes of white meat to Russia could jack up domestic poultry prices significantly. Besides, the Turkish consumers are worried that the new orders from Russia would even cause severe poultry shortage in the country even though Turkish Agriculture Minister, Mehdi Eker argues that production for exports and domestic needs are met separately.

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Peru’s National Institute of Culture (INC) informed that the local authorities were taking all precautionary measures to ensure the safety of the tourists. Early this year, the Peruvian government declared the whole region as an emergency zone after an Argentine tourist and a Peruvian guide were killed, the fallout of torrential rains. It had to evacuate by helicopter some 4,000 stranded tourists at Machu Picchu when part of the railway was buried in landslides.

The Lima Chamber of Commerce (CCL) is foreseeing 10 percent growth over last year’s 1mn visitors. More than two months’ closure of this historical wonder is reported to have increased bookings for flight tickets and hotels from across the world.

The President of the Tourism Committee of the CCL Alvaro Benavides said “there are a lot of expectations for the Holy Week this year we can see that bookings are increasing.” The government estimates the heavy rains of January and February has inflicted Peru’s tourism sector around $160mn in lost business.

Along with the local traders, who largely relied on revenues through tourism, the hotels are also believed to have braced for the upcoming season. The Trade and Tourism Ministry says Peru in 2009 boasts of 1,784 hotels, up from 1,358 in 2001. The number of four and five-star hotels has nearly doubled to 63 from 34 in the same period, with another seven hotels expected to be up and running by the end of 2011. The occupancy levels have considerably increased particularly because of the stupendous growth of the tourism industry.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) ranks Peru as the fifth fastest growing country for business travel and tourism, out of 20 in Latin America. The WTTC estimates the real impact of travel and tourism in Peru will be worth almost $10bn this year, rising to $18bn by 2020.

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Starting from the arrest of 10 US missionaries who tried to kidnap children after the quake in Haiti down to the recent apprehension of another man linked to the US missionaries by the Dominican police are seen as a prelude to exploitation and predation yet to jolt the Haitian coast. The quake that has killed more than 200,000 people has left thousands of children orphaned, and consequently vulnerable to being preyed upon by child sex traffickers.

Although millions of dollars have flown into Haiti in Aid and another $11.5bn expected to be spent by the UN in the next three years for socio-economic reconstruction of the country, an Al Jazeera report shows there are widespread misgivings among the Haitians about the rich nations’ participation in the whole re-building process. In a feature presented by Sebastian Walker in Al Jazeera elaborates that many Haitians see the expansion of foreign companies as a way to take advantage of the rampant poverty plaguing the nation, where the unemployment rate is up to 80 percent.

Miguel Angel Torres, a factory manager of one of the largest garment factories of the famous American brand, the Levi Strauss & Co told Al Jazeera that Haiti’s competitive factor of growth was its lowest salary. In the feature, Walker said with the promise of economic incentives for Haiti many multi-national companies were exploiting the cheapest wages in the world to make extra bucks, or in other words, “profiting from poverty”.

Walker pointed out that the sale of just one pair of jeans could pay off two weeks of a Haitian garment worker’s salary, $4 per day. It has been noticed that these low wages would not bring needed change to the Haitian economy unless stricter rules to raise the wages were enforced. He blamed the US president Barack Obama and former presidents, Bill Clinton and George Bush for their plans of promoting the US clothing companies in Haiti which took all the profits back home.

Yannick Etienne, a garment worker said the clothing firms were helping themselves under the garb of shaping the future of Haiti. She added that she couldn’t see any improvement in the economy through these projects rather than reproduction of poverty.

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