This development has given rise to the market forces to flex its muscles in pushing up wages, and eventually eating up the profit margins. In addition, the narrowing of gap on the outlay of wages with other competing markets has also reflected up on the product prices, which have become higher as compared to other markets.

Surprisingly, though the total labour force of China is about 800mn, very few workers have the required qualifications. It should be recalled, C.P. Lee, Asia-Pacific human resources chief at Motorola Inc. had observed “The skills base does not meet the demands of a rapidly growing (Chinese) market.”

In a rising wages scenario, the Chinese Companies cannot survive in the global market without providing cheap products to its clients, which was the core competency of most Chinese manufacturers hitherto. With that, majority of the Chinese firms will be compelled to shift from the earlier strategy of producing cheap products to quality ones as the market for the cheap products may not exist in future. The absence of cheap goods market will leave the Chinese companies with only one option of leveraging through tapping the available ‘quality’ over a quantity product market.

Hence, to grab new buyers whom seek quality products, the manufacturing companies while dishing out higher wages will also be forced to retain or recruit competent labour force to produce superior quality products. The higher wages which trigger job losses will equip the existing companies the liberty to choose the best from the competitive labour market to cater to the new quality-preferred clientele.

Incidentally, it goes without saying cheap labour often adversely affects the efficiency of the workforce, and the China growth story is an example to that premise. China’s strategy to garner market share was always been associated with manufacturing more quantity while often blowing to the wind the standards of quality.

So as former chief Asia economist at Citigroup Inc., Huang Yiping’s contention, China may be heading for the so-called Lewis turning point, but the silver lining would be that the country would also be in the process of becoming a “quality global factory”. Huang was referring to the economic theory by the late Nobel Prize-winning economist W. Arthur Lewis where manufacturing competitiveness and the pace of growth begin to turn down as labour costs rise.

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Mark Maslyn, the Executive Director, Public Policy at AFBF apprised there would be over 600 trade deals worldwide this year, including a possible Australia-Korea deal, whereas the US would have just 20. The US agriculture which has largely benefitted from the FTAs with Australia and other countries are lately facing stiff competition from the Asian and the Latin American countries.

While Australia has struck an FTA with the ASEAN, the US bilateral deals have been delayed due to political quagmire. The farmers feel betrayed by the inactivity of the government on trade deals as it is difficult to assess the damage that could be caused by such delays to the agricultural industry.

The Obama administration refused so far, to send key trade deals to the Congress to be ratified. According to an ABC report, Maslyn observes, “Our competitors are striking deals with the same countries that we’re striking deals with and we can’t get ours through Congress.”
He also blamed the US labor unions for thwarting the deals, while the unions blamed ‘bad’ trade deals for sending the US jobs overseas.

As per the official website of AFBF, the climate change legislation, livestock care issues and social media tools will be at the forefront of topics to be discussed during the annual meet. Interestingly, some climate scientists have sent a letter requesting a meeting with the AFBF President Bob Stallman to discuss his federation’s “inaccurate and marginalized” position on global warming, claimed to be a larger issue than striking trade deals.

The Farm Bureau maintains that “there is no generally agreed upon scientific assessment on…carbon emissions from human activities, their impact on past decades of warming, or how they will affect future climate changes.” According to the letter, the federation’s stance completely ignores the overwhelming scientific evidence of climate change, a problem that puts Farm Bureau members at risk. The scientists’ letter stands in stark contrast to the opinions of climate change denier Christopher Horner, who will be the only scheduled speaker addressing climate at the federation’s annual meeting.

The AFBF or the Farm Bureau is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting, protecting, and representing the interests of farmers and ranchers in the US. It has about 2800, county farm organizations which in turn elect representatives to state farm bureaus.

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The Chilean-born Valenzuela’s statement enraged a slew of lawmakers and high level officials including Interior Minister of Argentina Florencio Randazzo and Argentine Ambassador to the US Héctor Timmerman. Nonetheless, the US envoy’s comments found favor with the Argentine Rural Society president Hugo Biolcatti and a Socialist stalwart and Santa Fe governor Hermes Binner.

Randazzo said that Argentina was no longer a country where foreign officials could lecture it as to its interests. Timmerman expressed concern and said that Argentina would have to analyze what were the underlying factors behind his words; whether there had been a change in stance or if the country was been demanded to state a new position.

Timmerman also described the US envoy’s comment as “a complete ignorance of Argentine reality”, and observed that they could be seen as a personal interest to block dialogue. Agustin Rossi, the head of the Victory Front bloc in the Lower House shared similar views by stating that he thought the time in which a foreign official came to give us lessons had passed.

On the contrary, Biolcatti seconded Valenzuela by saying that he was right; there was indeed an enormous legal uncertainty to invest in Argentina. While Binner said he agreed with Valenzuela’s comments as every businessman in his province was concerned about legal uncertainty.

Most lawmakers perceive the controversial statements as political posturing by the US despite Vilma Martinez, the US ambassador to Argentina making it clear that in spite of what might have been appeared in the newspapers, our relations remained very positive. Martinez also told that Argentina was a key ally in the fight against terrorism, drug trafficking and nuclear non-proliferation.

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A large portion of animal imports to the UAE come from the European countries including the UK, Portugal and Austria. There are several cases reported in the last one year from countries such as – Germany, Italy, Norway, Greece, Spain, Israel, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Algeria and Austria.

Blue-tongue virus is non-transmittable to humans and non-contagious among animals. The disease is characterised by changes to the mucous membranes of the tongue and nose, and certain types of midges are vectors of this animal disease. The ruminants including camels, cattle and sheep are chiefly susceptible to the virus.

According to new regulation, every animal arriving from blue-tongue affected countries will be individually inspected. Prior to the directive, only a random sample of about 10 per cent of each shipment had undergone inspection.

Besides, the animals should not be stung by the midges for a period not less than 28 days from the date of shipping. Regarding import of sperm, embryos and ova, the donating animals should be immunised against stings of midges for a period not less than 60 days before and during the process of collecting the sperm, ova and embryos.

However, OIE is surprised by the timing of the UAE’s move to clamp restrictions to animal imports particularly because these strains have been reported for more than a decade in Europe and the Mediterranean. Glaieul Mamaghani, deputy director of communications at the OIE asserted that the virus could not be transmitted to humans. The UAE ministry said that the effective date for the new regulation would be made known in a few days’ time.

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However, the quick response from the Obama administration indicates that they are in no mood to strain the relationship with its neighbour. It was very evident in the words of Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary while he said they did not want to create any barrier to the trade relations with Mexico especially in a time of economic crisis.

A week ago, Obama annulled the pilot programme that allowed the movement of some Mexican long-haul rigs or trucks through the US roads. Under NAFTA, in force since 1994, the Mexican trucks should be permitted to ply up to the north of the border as early as January 2000. But the Mexican vehicles are widely blamed for not complying with the safety standards of the US and also eating into the US truckers’ jobs.

Subsequently, Mateos rebutted the argument by stating that the Mexican trucks never violated safety norms despite there were about 46000 crossings during the 18 month old pilot programme as no noticeable accidents were being reported. Nonetheless, he further added that Mexico was open to talks and expressed confidence in resolving the issue soon.

It has been learned that Obama has instructed his officials concerned to have talks with Mexican officials to arrive at a solution as early as possible. The new tariff is likely to affect $2.4bn worth of American agricultural and industrial products from 40 states.

Nevertheless, the re-permission to the Mexican trucks are likely invite the ire of labour unions who gave support to Obama in the 2008 presidential election on a promise that NAFTA will be re-negotiated and modified to preserve the US jobs. The US is estimated to have spent $500mn for the pilot programme since its inception.

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But today international trade is at the cross roads, beset with varied issues, including climate change, ever rising prices of essential commodities and energy, etc. And for all the ills emanated from globalization, World Trade Organization (WTO) is pilloried by most critics, as usual without providing viable solution. WTO was persistently blamed for its failure to make suitable changes to the needs of the times. WTO policies delved deep into politically sensitive domestic regulations and delayed the process of striking an early inevitable solution. It has had to withstand the pressures of different internal government differences, protectionism and even, anti-market NGO’s. The initial carrots offered by developed nations, during the early stages of globalization, turned out to be a steroid treatment for rabbit economies which transformed themselves into predators, which gradually devoured the lion share of the market pie. In the process WTO was left high and dry, clueless about its road ahead.

Before losing its core competency, WTO should wake up to the challenges of 21st century to live up to the expectations of its very existence. It has to accept that lopsided trade agreements have no place in the world today since every country can afford and has the intelligence to rope in expert international negotiators for favorable trade agreements. If it could provide ample scope for domestic products and services, to equally succeed in the world business arena, the organization will be able to fulfill its goal.

Preferential Trade Agreements (PTA) or any such are still designed for developed economies, flouting the laws of level playing field. Such deals should address the needs in a partner-specific manner and there by should facilitate the interests of both parties evenly. The pacts signed in a hurry, in future, may have to spend years in courts for implementation, due to domestically ever changing political scenario and other unexpected issues. Accords with complex and discriminatory regulations cannot expedite the process of implementation in present circumstances. Besides, red tapism and high gestational business costs also could be prevented, if proper care is given while signing deals. Businesses engaged in global supply chain, need simple, transparent and non-discriminatory models to derive the best out of tailored pacts.

At this juncture, WTO is with grievous limitations, if repair measures are not made quickly, perhaps it will lose its relevance. Most of the developing countries of Asia and South America have already latched on to the unilateral liberalization programs. China, the unilateral engine of free trade has started this way back in 1990 before joining WTO. Other East and South Asian nations are engaged in replicating China model to supersede the international institution to gain larger clout, and for doing more business. It is high time for a trade policy to be less of a foreign policy, and it should be solely the one which is attached within the framework of domestic economic needs. Therefore, the global trade body must give utmost care to address these needs in subsequent rounds of negotiations to avoid unnecessary stalemate.

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