But Francis Chow, a local businessman who is blamed for restraining and stressing out eight dolphins in a tiny shallow pool for six months informed that his park was neither killing nor breaking any laws on dolphin trade rather exporting them to marine parks in Australia or the US. In response to the protest, Chow said the hypocrite protestors should stop driving Japanese cars, and should harass the Japanese whalers.

However, Chow seemed to be unaware of the fact the people behind the protest played a part to delay Japanese dolphin or whaling hunt last season. Renowned dolphin activist and member of Earth Island Institute’s Marine Mammal Team Ric O’Barry along with his son Lincoln O’Barry exposed the world to the shocking truth of slaughter of thousands of dolphins in Japan in an award winning documentary called ‘The Cove’ last year.

Despite opposition from both the Australian and New Zealand governments, Solomons dolphins are captured and sold to aquariums, marine parks and even hotels around the world, often fetching as much as $200,000. The Earth Island Institute’s effort to stop dolphin trade is believed to have converted the so-called ‘Darth-Vader’ of the Solomons’ dolphin trade, the Canadian Chris Porter from a seller to a savior.

Makili said the Solomons government once banned the trade but now, in the pursuit of much-needed revenue, ignored directives by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Though Solomons government allows about 50 from the earlier quota of 100 dolphins, the CITES recommends just 10 numbers.

Some Solomon Islanders still hunt dolphins for food and use their teeth for traditional ‘shell money’ but since 2003 they have also been hunted to exploit the lucrative live export market. The documentary ‘The Cove’ had exposed the senseless annual slaughter of approximately 20,000 dolphins at the remote Taiji, Japan.

The O’Barry father-son combine is showcasing another mini-series on massive ecological crimes happening worldwide. The Animal Planet on August 27, 2010 would be airing a three-part mini-series titled “Blood Dolphins”, and would highlight how the tiny nation of nearly 1,000 islands in the South Pacific has emerged as a major challenge in the blood trade of wild dolphins.

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Truss’ announcement gains prominence following a recent pre-poll survey gave a slight edge for the Coalition to form the next government of Australia. An opinion poll of Newspoll, a market research firm, commissioned by The Australian newspaper has found that the opposition Liberals leading 52 percent to 48 percent over the ruling Labour.

Truss was echoing similar trade plans which the Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott announced on Monday for the tourism industry of the country. Abbot declared a Coalition government would spend an extra AUD $90mn (US$82mn) to help attract visitors to Australia.

The tourism package includes an AUD $40mn (US$36mn) fund that would provide grants of up to AUD $100,000 to build infrastructure for tourism projects.

Another AUD $14mn fund would provide grants to tourism organizations in regional areas. Tourism Research Australia will also be provided with AUD $8mn to identify emerging trends and gaps in the market, to make the industry to become more sustainable.

The Coalition sees tourism a niche business to Australia as the industry employs close to 500,000 people and earns AUD $24bn in export earnings. The Opposition has also allocated AUD $27mn for Regional Medical Workforce Plan to increase the number of doctors, nurses and dentists in regional and remote areas of Australia.

Truss said the Coalition would appoint an ambassador for trade reform to promote global trade reform and re-establish the Trade Advisory Council abolished by the Labour. He clarified that the Coalition’s highest trade priority would be the Doha round of negotiations towards freer world trade, but it would vigorously pursue FTA with China, Japan, Malaysia, the GCC, South Korea and Indonesia.

All details on future plans for trade and industry by the Opposition were laid out during the election campaigns, and were loaded with the Ruling’s inefficiencies and inequities. Australia’s general elections will be held on 21 of this month.

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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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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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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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Nevertheless, both Smith and NZ Prime Minister John Key, at different occasions reiterated that the ETS would take effect on the energy and transport sectors in July despite calls from business groups, farmers and Act, an agro-friendly and anti-ETS organization. The business groups fear NZ firms bearing the cost of the domestic ETS will be competitively disadvantaged compared with rivals from countries with no effective carbon pricing mechanism, a view that is shared by the Federated Farmers and Act.

According to latest reports, apart from the Federated Farmers and Act and nine other business groups including Major Electricity Users’ Group, the Employers and Manufacturers Association (EMA) has also joined the side in exerting pressure on the government to delay international commitment on carbon reduction. The EMA chief executive Alasdair Thompson said “Our financial situation is far too fragile to absorb the extra $255mn the government calculates the ETS will cost all of us.”

Though Smith claims an average NZ family could expect a meagre 165 NZ dollars (US$116) annual increase in expenses from July, it is estimated, particularly since the ETS would be covering transport and energy, the annual family expenditure would be manifold than his assumption. The ETS would be introduced in come July on the energy, transport and industrial sectors with a 50 percent obligation.

The NZ ETS legislation allows for a formal review of the scheme in 2011 along with an increase in obligations from Jan 1, 2013. The ETS is effective on forestry from 2008; and agriculture, which makes up the half of NZ’s emissions, will be included in the scheme in 2015. Some of the major reasons for growing opposition in NZ against the ETS are cited as the absence of consensus among many nations on paucity of time on implementation, trade disadvantages, cost escalation on essentials and stringent NZ ETS norms on all sectors.

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In 1996, Australia was forced to impose ban on beef imports from the UK and later in 2001 for countries including the US and Canada after these beef exporting nations reported cases of mad cow disease or the BSE. People could contract this disease if they consumed portions of brains or spinal cords of infected animals.

Under the new importation laws, only imports of muscle meat, or products of muscle meat, that is not infected with the BSE will be allowed into Australia. The country of origin must apply to the Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) for permission to export beef to the region. The minimum period for the application assessment is fixed at 20 weeks, and if situation warrants, the applicant has to undergo an in-country inspection that could even delay the process beyond the normal time frame.

However, the major exporting nations such as the US and Canada do not meet the Australian stringent safety standards. But the Agriculture Minister of Australia Tony Burke said the country’s strict quarantine standards for beef and other products must not be an excuse for protectionism.

On the contrary, Queensland Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce and NSW Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan stated they would move a private bill proposing that exporting countries installed the Australian-equivalent testing regimes and traceability standards to protect citizens from eating contaminated beef. Likewise, Nationals Leader Warren Truss as well as Page Nationals candidate, Kevin Hogan voiced similar concerns over the non-labelling of the origin of beef as they felt consumers should have the option to choose what was safe for them.

According to sources, supermarkets including Coles and Woolworths have shown solidarity with the domestic beef industry by declaring that they would only sell the Australian beef. Nevertheless, a spokesman of Woolworths admitted that it would be beyond its control to identify what beef went into processed foods, such as meat pies and canned products.

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The Trade and Industry Senior Undersecretary Thomas Aquino led the team to Australia, and were able to gain a first hand knowledge on the best practices of Australia’s halal meat processing system. Aquino observed that the visit gave in depth knowledge about how proper halal procedures on the slaughter of cattle, sheep, goats and chicken were conducted.

The term ‘halal’ means goods or actions that are ‘permissible’ as per Islamic laws. The halal standards are complementary with other food standards, such as the Good Manufacturing Practice and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards.

However, the team was of the opinion that all features of the Australian system could not be adopted as the Australian government’s regulation was centered on halal meat exports to gain access to overseas markets. It has been recommended that an export certificate for halal products by introducing a modified veterinary quarantine certificate of the National Meat Inspection Service (NMIS) would strengthen the acceptability of halal certification issued by Philippine Islamic organizations.

The Philippine delegation had sought technical assistance from the Australian counterparts in acquiring the knowledge on halal certification process. The Philippines is expecting to start the certification program through the training of Filipino Muslim butchers and the workforce involved in the meat industry.

The global halal market has about 1.6bn consumers from 112 countries, and is valued at around $150bn. Indonesia with 212mn is the largest consumer of halal products among Muslim nations followed by Pakistan with 158mn, Bangladesh with 127mn, Egypt with 69mn, Iran with 67mn, Turkey with 66mn and Nigeria with 64mn. The non-Muslim countries with sizable Muslim consumers include India with 174mn, China with 38mn, Russia with 11mn, the US with 7mn, the Philippines with 5mn and Thailand with 4.5mn.

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In his weekly economic note, Swan used an analysis of national accounts data, released last week, to highlight the strength of the economy. He largely depended on the data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) which stated that the Australian economy expanded by 1.1 percent in 2008-09 while most advanced nations experienced deep recession.

It is observed that the Labour government’s fiscal stimulus package to the tune of Aus$70bn helped to a great extent to leapfrog the crisis at a faster pace in comparison to other advanced nations. In stark contrast, the major advanced economies contracted by 2.9 percent over the same period, including contractions of 2.2 percent in the US, 3 percent in the UK and 5.1 percent in Japan.

On the contrary, a Reuters survey finds most market watchers now believe the ABS will report that growth actually went backwards in the September quarter – despite rising employment and booming house prices. The survey said the second quarter recorded 0.6 percent growth whereas just 0.4 is expected of the September quarter with annual growth unchanged at 0.7 percent.

Chief economist Craig James of CommSec, largest stockbroking firm of Australia shared similar views by adding that key spending components of GDP, such as inventories and net exports, were pulling in opposite directions. However, he expressed confidence that growth would rebound this quarter and pick up pace through 2010, underpinned by housing and engineering construction.

In the wake of relative growth projections, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) lifted the cash rate this month by 25 basis points to 3.75 percent. The forthcoming minutes of the RBA will give a better picture which way the interest rates will go.

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Mulcahy said that findings from an ABARE survey showed a 3 percent fall in vegetable farm incomes on average in 2007-08 were an indication that rising farm input costs and competition from China were affecting the bottom line of Australian vegetable farmers. He pointed out China’s input costs such as labour was significantly lower, and apart from Chinese imports, New Zealand imports too posed serious threat to processed vegetable growers.

ABARE, a professionally independent government economic research agency highlighted in its survey that besides high input costs, marketing costs, low vegetable prices and availability of irrigation water as other impediments to future viability. However, compared with the previous survey, access to and cost of labour was no longer regarded by the majority of vegetable growers as an impediment facing future viability.

The report which was commissioned by Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL) informed that despite adverse seasonal conditions the vegetable growers were able to maintain farm incomes. Although adverse seasonal conditions in many vegetable growing regions in 2007-08 led to a fall in average yields and lower vegetable production, average farm cash incomes of vegetable farms declined by only 3 percent.

ABARE Deputy Executive Director, Dr Terry Sheales while releasing its report stated despite a rise in average prices received for vegetables in 2007-08, overall receipts from the sale of vegetables had fallen by 6 percent on average as seasonal conditions had resulted in lower yields and production. Though input costs have sunk the confidence of 86 percent of vegetable growers, the mood seemed to be upbeat with 72 percent expecting to be still engaged in vegetable growing in five years’ time and 31 percent planning to expand vegetable production in the next three to five years.

The gross value of production of the vegetable industry is estimated about $3.5bn in 2008-09, contributing around 8 percent to Australia’s gross value of agricultural production. Mulcahy felt that to compete with China the country must ensure that input costs were kept down wherever possible, and the benefits of local production for the consumer, such as safer, fresher produce, and a strong local economy that supports Australian jobs, were better understood.

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Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is the technology that allows user to navigate the internet wireless. It is a telecommunication technology that can carry data to long distances either by point to point links or full mobile access. The key feature of this technology is that it operates on the same Broadband Wireless Access Standard of IEEE 802.16, which was set up in 1999. WiMAX also has the ability to extend local Wi-Fi networks over larger expanse of coverage area by up to 50 kilometers and its backed by Intel, world’s largest semiconductor company.

Similarly, High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) too boasts of superior technology akin to that of WiMAX. In a nutshell, it is a collection of mobile telephony protocols that provide better performance over existing radio bandwidth. Equipped with state of the art 3.5G technology, it can touch amazing download speeds of up to 7.2 Mbps. HSPA should be proud to get the support from leading equipment vendors including Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nortel, Alcatel and Lucent. Its proven ability to perform extremely well in any condition and download speeds has helped the technology to be absorbed across several countries in a short span of time.

Unfortunately, WiMAX was not without its own problems, in Australia, first WiMAX operator had to shut down its operation due to poor reach to long distances, contrary to its claim. On the other hand, HSPA service was able to produce the desire result in over 50 countries and 150 networks. For example, in some places subscribers could already watch streaming High Definition movies at 1Mbps. HSPA has also got a cost advantage over the other, per month charges as of now is in the realm of $30, whereas one has to shell out $10 more to get the same service from WiMAX.

Since majority of the people spend time outside their workplaces, e-mobility has become an inevitable tool in communication and business. Whether the winner is WiMAX or HSPA, wider expanse of area under internet connectivity through wireless services will enhance people to do day to day business, being anywhere in the world. High speed internet access through wireless technology will propel growth in all areas including business, education and healthcare.

Global internet wireless connectivity will also give an advantage for an entrepreneur who is away from the main markets to get reasonable remuneration for one’s products or services. Real time e-mobility effects coupled with long distance internet coverage for one’s communication suggests, E-Commerce will be the biggest gainer and is likely to increase its share in the world of business.

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The US action comes after the EU re-introduced its export subsidy program in early this year. Many industry observers felt these moves would only trigger more protectionist measures from countries those are affected by this action. Though these declared subsidies are within the WTO limits there would be political pressure within the affected countries to retaliate and prompt them to reverse their decision.

Trade Minister Simon Crean and Agriculture Minister Tony Burke of Australia in a joint statement said that they would try to garner support from other countries to pressurize the US to reverse its decision at the Cairns Group Ministerial meeting in Bali in early next month. The Cairns Group is a coalition of 19 agricultural exporting nations which account for over 25 percent of the global agricultural exports that aims to liberalise trade in the respective sector.

New Zealand Trade Minister Tim Groser said dairy farmers the world over were under pressure, but the US move was a short-sighted response while the international dairy market had recently been showing signs of stabilising. New Zealand is the largest dairy merchandise export earner and second largest meat export earner with nearly 24 and 12 percent share respectively in total goods exported. The price advantage enjoyed by New Zealand dairy products will get diluted in the global market with the re-introduction of US handout to its dairy exports.

Nonetheless, the president of the Australian National Farmers’ Federation (NFF) David Crombie warned the US handout would only shore up domestic jobs in the short-term but undermines the possibilities of faster global economic recovery. Similarly, Fonterra, the world’s largest dairy exporter echoed the sentiments of the NFF, contending that the US decision had the potential to damage a world dairy market which remained fragile.

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The new network is expected to provide fibre to the premise (FTTP) technology to 90 percent of the population with a staggering speed of 100mbps and the remaining 10 percent who are in remote areas will be offered wireless connectivity with 12mbps. Australia is one of the few advanced countries that have slower internet services. After delivering the plan, the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said “This is a huge enabler for the Australian economy for the 21st century”.

The broadband network public-private venture is the largest nation-building project in the history of Australia. It is the most ambitious and long term nation-building infrastructure project ever undertaken by an Australian government.

Earlier, the government had dumped its national broadband network policy of tendering the project to private companies after failing to derive reasonable value, and fearing delay in the project due to the current global financial situation. Nevertheless, the major players including Telstra and SingTel are learned to have pledged their support to the project.

The government plans to finance the state’s majority stake through Building Australia Fund and then through issuance of Aussie Infrastructure Bonds (AIBs) that will allow retailers and institutions to invest in the mega project. However, after five years of completion, the government will likely divest its majority stake.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull warned the public that the new project was likely to be three times costlier than the present internet services. An Australian subscriber on an average pays $30 to $40 per month for broadband services.

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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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