Women’s Bill recommends 33.3 percent or one-third of seats in the decision making bodies starting from the Lok Sabha, down to state and local legislatures. The sympathizers of the bill claim that such legislation will increase women’s participation in political affairs of the country by diluting gender inequality in the social system.

Though the draft has passed the first hurdle by getting a nod from the Rajyasabha, upper parliamentary house, underscores women emancipation and empowerment, it is believed to have constructed to serve a larger need of the country, i.e. population control. India’s policy makers envisages such a need as all inclusive growth in the past two decades have facilitated increased life expectancy and reduced infant mortality spiking population growth. They also perceive even 10 percent plus GDP growth would not suffice if the population growth is left untamed.

Nonetheless, there are many misgivings about as to how the bill would address the issues of women such as access to education, healthcare and even food, and above all the decision making rights including child-bearing. It should be noted that the Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh stated before the bill was put to vote in the upper house “What we are going to enact today is a small token of homage to the sacrifices our women have made in nation building, in the freedom struggle, in all other nation building activities.”

Incidentally, the government seemed to be hoping the benefits of the bill to trickle in over a period of time than in immediate future. The exercise of effecting a policy change is an effort to expedite women empowerment through a governmental process rather than awaiting a social change as many countries with higher women parliamentary participation have experienced. Rwanda ranks first among the list of countries with female representation in the decision making body followed by Nordic states including Sweden and Finland.

The bill has to undergo two more phases for its approval, one at the lower house of the parliament and other at the state assemblies. Reservation within the new bill for minorities and lower castes as demanded by the opposing parties will be discussed once again in the coming sessions.

Prior to the approval, it is hoped, rather than reserving fixed constituencies for women, a rotating system covering all constituencies should be included in the bill for the outreach of all sections of the country. The new legislation to bear the desired results needs to include well chalked out responsibilities to the female representatives for the upliftment of the women of each constituency they represent. Unless these key elements are not looked upon, the fourteen-year old proposal may not be able to fulfil its very goal.

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The $50mn solar photovoltaic (PV) plant that has been built and operated by solar firm Enviromena generates 10MW of clean energy for the Abu Dhabi municipal grid, and makes carbon savings of around 15,000 tons per year. The plant that got linked to the main grid in June comprises of 87,777 photovoltaic modules covering an area of about 23 hectares. It is expected to produce 17,500 MW of electricity per annum, enough to power some 8000 homes.

But the latest dust clouds that screened direct sunlight on to the PV panels are causing serious problems to the ambitious plant. The PV panels, thin-film variety supplied by the US-based First Solar and crystalline panels made by Suntech of China were able to produce just 60 percent of energy efficiently.

Though such snags were included during the feasibility study before installation of the plant, the dust formation in the atmosphere is said to have exceeded 10 times more than the normal dust build ups of the region. However, Director of Masdar, Khaled Awad said the plant’s panels had been cleaned up and output had become normal.

According to Masdar, it is looking at various options to overcome this barrier by installing automated cleaning devices and PV panel coatings, which will either eliminate or minimise dust settling on the panel surfaces. Solar power generation from the UAE is projected to produce 7 percent renewable energy target by 2020, perhaps, outdo the US and European targets by next decade or so.

Nevertheless, the plant authorities confirmed that the setback would not hamper the future of the solar power generation of the country. The Masdar plant is one of the most cost-efficient PV installations in the world in terms of its projected power output.

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India in January even had banned Chinese toys on the grounds that they contained toxic lead paints and flawed designs. Commerce and Industry Minister of India, Anand Sharma informed the parliament that the country had however lifted the ban two months later on the condition of permitting products those maintained WTO standards as India complied with WTO rules.

During the same parliamentary session, the state minister for commerce of India, Jyotiraditya Scindia said that Indian Embassy in China is in constant touch with the authorities to resolve this issue. The ban on milk and milk products, including chocolate from China will be effective till December 24 this year.

Nonetheless, China purportedly as a retaliatory measure has informed New Delhi that its food and safety organization, GAQSIQ had encountered food safety problems in imported food products like seafood and sesame oil from India. China further clarified its stand that if India insisted on extending the ban on milk and milk products till the end of the year, it would be forced to respond to the quality of the Indian food imports too.

In 2008-09 fiscal, India-China bilateral trade has witnessed a significant jump of about $51bn from its previous year’s $38bn. China has become the largest trading partner of India in 2008-09 by replacing the US. But if China sets for a trade war with India by imposing restrictions on Indian imports as well, the growth in two-way trade is likely be in for drastic decline.

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It should be recalled that China, the largest investor with about $1 trillion in the US treasuries has begun trial trade in its own currency since this month with its trading partners to cut down its losses in international trade. On sixth of this month, three Shanghai companies became the first to conduct cross-border trades with yuan/renminbi. The new Chinese rule allows using yuan instead of USD to settle trade accounts with merchants in Hong Kong and Southeast Asian countries on trial basis.

Though Geithner during his visit to China last month gave assurance on the safety on its investments, China did not seem to be convinced by the economic developments in the US lately. Nonetheless, Geithner during his Middle East visit is likely to stick on to Obama administration’s commitment to protect the value of the dollar and maintaining investor confidence in the US financial system.

Geithner is scheduled to hold high-level meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday with top government officials and leading business executives in Saudi Arabia and the UAE before leaving to visit Britain and France with similar goals. According to sources, Geithner is also expected to apprise the leaders of the US administration’s plans to bring down the deficit the moment the economy starts looking up.

However, it is not known how Geithner would defend the talks over the second economic stimulus package and the rising figures of the federal budget deficit for this fiscal year to nearly $1 trillion. Last week, one of Obama’s top allies in Congress had said that the lawmakers must be open for additional stimulus to overcome the economic uncertainties prevailing in the nation if the injection of $787bn to the economy in February was not providing desired results.

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The customs authorities across the 27 member states have seized 79mn diskettes of pirated DVDs and CDs which has been ironically the exact number of ‘total’ fake items seized in 2007. The seizures of DVDs have witnessed the highest growth at around staggering 2600 percent.

The EU officials said that they found some of the fake items such as toys contained highly toxic substances that could cause severe health hazards. The counterfeit goods including toys, medicines and electronic items do not meet the EU standards.

Cigarettes at 23 percent and clothing at 10 percent are other fake items seized. Fake cigarettes mainly from the UAE recorded a rise of 54 percent while Indonesia has been found to be the largest source of fake food and beverages.

Fake medicines including Viagra, anti-cholesterol, anti- osteoporosis and blood pressure stabilizers also showed 118 percent growth allegedly originating from India. Last month, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria had announced that a large consignment of fake anti-malarial generic pharmaceuticals labelled `Made in India’ were, in fact, found to have been produced in China. Therefore, it is not clear whether China has been responsible for the pharmaceuticals share of the EU counterfeit pie.

The Commission report stated that at the moment it had no mechanism to ascertain the value of counterfeit trade in the EU. However, the latest figures are excluding the losses to industry from pirated music or films traded over the Internet. The officials expressed satisfaction in containing the fake goods through seizures that has helped to stop some of the losses of legitimate trade.

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The European initiative has to be envisaged of its strong ambition to counter climate change goals such as, the reduction of CO2 emissions not only for Europe but also for other parts of the world. The new initiative is expected to provide 15 percent of the energy needs of Europe in a decade from the time it starts producing energy, and is likely to act as an alternative energy option to the Russian supplies which currently top the European needs.

The new concept of generating and transmitting of solar power called Desertec was developed by a network of scientists and politicians of the Trans-Mediterranean Renewable Energy Cooperation (TREC). The founding meeting of the Desertec Industrial Initiative (DII) will be held on July 13, 2009 by invitation from Munich Re and the Desertec Foundation. The major objective of DII would be to provide clean, safe and cost effective energy to the global needs.

Gloser stated the Desertec solar energy plants could produce 20 giga watts of concentrated solar power (CSP), equivalent to that of 20 large conventional power plants once it was fully operational. The Desertec project would be employing a technology that uses mirrors to harness the sun’s rays to produce steam and drive turbines to produce electricity rather than an array of high-tech photovoltaic cells. The Desertec Foundation claims that in just 6 hours, deserts receive more energy from the sun than humankind consumes within a year.

According to German reinsurer Munich Re which is heading the Desertec consortium, the project involves about 20 firms including Siemens, Deutsche Bank, and energy companies like RWE and E.ON. The project would be largely funded through private investments, and the complete details on the companies and their stakes would be available only after the upcoming meeting.

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Kroll is the world’s leading risk consulting company which provides a broad range of investigative, intelligence, financial, security and technology services to help clients reduce risks, solve problems and capitalize on opportunities. The firm in its report has drawn data from Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption to corroborate its findings on global stimulus fund distribution process.

Transparency International has reported that the economic crises had given rise to a new wave of corruption through the current stimulus program. The corruption can raise procurement contract costs by at least 10 percent in a stable economy – an equivalent of $500bn in corrupt gains – but in emergency situations these costs could rise up to as high as 30 percent of the overall cost of the $5 trillion contract. The report comes hot on heels to FBI director Robert Mueller’s call to brace for potential crime wave involving fraud and corruption related to bank bailout money and the economic stimulus package.

Richard Abbey, MD in Kroll’s Financial Investigations practice stated all crimes needed motive, means and opportunity and in the current economic environment, it provided all the three. He further added that the huge pledged sum by governments across the world had lured fraudsters to grab the life-time opportunity to make easy money.

Blake Coppotelli, senior managing director in Kroll’s Business Intelligence and Investigations suggested that the governmental agencies which oversee the distribution of these funds should enforce robust anti-corruption policies or look for independent experts to supplement their efforts. He further clarified by saying that the nature of the projects – large sums of investment coupled with complex procurement processes have created a perfect setting for fraudsters to cash in on.

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Export based economy of Japan has been devastated recently by the global economic crisis. The Japan’s exports dropped by 50 percent triggering a 5.4 percent plunge in its GDP due to falling demand for its merchandise from the US and the EU, its major trade partners.

During the meet, Iran invited Japan to set up branches of their banks in Iran, and apprised of the opportunities in fields such as, marine transportation system, oil projects, and construction of marine structures. Another major area of investment brought to the notice by Iran was national railway network project including construction of railroads for express trains and other related projects.

Currently, Japan is the third largest importer of Iran’s industrial and mining products, and about 22 percent of its total oil output is exported to Japan. The two-way trade between both countries is about $20bn in 2008.

With renewed ties, Iran is expecting to triple the trade volume in the coming years through increased economic participation by Japan. Iran’s non-oil exports to Japan include carpets, pistachios and dry fruits.

After concluding the Tokyo visit, Nahavandian informed he had assurances by several Japanese authorities including Japan’s MP, Kotaro Tamura that a Japanese delegation would soon visit the country to review the trade possibilities in Iran. Tamura is one of the strong supporters in fostering better ties with Iran that extend to all spheres of bilateral co-operation. Iran’s anti-American stance and Japan’s US ally status often vexed the relations between both countries for the past several decades.

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A free trade deal with ASEAN member states has strategic importance to India since the country exports 12 percent to these states and imports 10 percent. The FTA is expected to increase the trade from the current $40bn to $50bn by next year.

Indian officials said that there were plans to even sign the India-South Korea Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) along with the ASEAN FTA. The South Korean representatives are expected to attend the upcoming summit to engage in talks with the ASEAN members as well as concluding the formalities on CEPA with India.

Both trade deals require Indian cabinet approval, and would be the first such approval by the United Progressive Alliance after returning to power consecutively for the second time. The FTA had earlier missed the April date due to parliamentary elections in India.

The talks between India and ASEAN were stalled several times as the association insisted on cuts in tariff twice a year. But in the recent talks, India was able to convince the ASEAN members on duty cuts once in twelve months, and the same will be reviewed every January. As per the deal, duty to be cut for the highly sensitive products including tea, coffee, pepper, crude and refined palm oil is between 30 and 45 percent by Dec 31, 2019.

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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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Lula’s proposal seemed to be very genuine since early this year China became the largest trading partner of Brazil by displacing the US. Brazil’s exports to China, which primarily consist of iron ore and soy products, jumped to $5.6bn earlier this year, up from $3.4bn for the same period in 2008. The most significant agreement out of the 13 accords signed by Brazil and China was $10bn loan to Brazil in exchange with up to 200,000 barrels of oil per day for the next decade.

According to sources, Bank of China (BOC), the world’s third largest bank by market value, will open its first branch in Brazil in two or three months, purportedly a quick response to Lula’s call. In September, Brazil and Argentina signed a similar pact under which traders from both countries could trade in local currency with the US dollar as secondary option. The figures from the Brazilian central bank and trade ministry in last month showed, the two Latin American nations traded $22.6mn in local currency out of more than $1.6bn of total trade.

China is promoting the yuan as an international currency after signing 650bn yuan ($95bn) in swap agreements with Argentina, Indonesia, South Korea, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Belarus since December. Though there are many sceptics to the practicality of the idea, Shi Lei, an analyst in Beijing at the nation’s largest foreign-currency exchange said trading yuan or local currency would be a reality with the agreeing nations in a couple of years’ time. The emphasis should be to first start yuan settlement with Hong Kong and build an offshore yuan center to expand channels for yuan use, he added.

China holds $1 trillion investment in the US government debt, the world’s largest such holding, and the country is worried that the US’ ‘spending’ program to counter the recession will weaken the US dollar and eventually devalue the Chinese holdings. This fear has prompted China with the support of likeminded trading partners to minimize over-dependence on the US dollar as the ultimate invoicing currency.

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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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The US Trade Representative Ron Kirk revealed about the stalemate on the FTA at the sidelines of the inauguration ceremony of the Jacob Zuma presidency. However, he claimed there was still room for growth as South Africa was by far the largest beneficiary of trade under Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA). He later added that it was possible to think of a new start with the new government at the helm since the US had very good foundation in South Africa with over 600 US business investments in various sectors.

Even though the central reason for the disinterest is not spelled out by the US authorities, the possibilities to this action seemed to be the same old ones. The old demand of the US particularly the intellectual property rights, and protectionist strategy could have checkmated the deal as of now.

South Africa is one of the SACU members that has largely benefitted by the Generalised System of Preferences that allows certain products to enter the US duty-free. South African clothing and selected textile products have duty-free access to the US market through the AGOA, an initiative of the Clinton administration.

According to the Department of Trade and Industry of South Africa, the US is the largest market for its merchandise. On the other hand, South Africa’s third largest imports are from the US.

South Africa’s trade analyst Peter Draper admitted that the US government’s move did not come as a surprise “for a number of reasons”. In his opinion, the failure to clinch FTA with the US is a huge blow to SACU.

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Chile and India has signed a PTA in January 2005 aimed at increasing bilateral trade. There are 144 products as per the 2005 agreement, and two-way trade reached more than $2bn in 2007-08 fiscal. At the moment there are huge trade imbalances in favour of Chile as India was able to export just about $250mn worth of products to Chile. Higher taxes in Chile have put Indian products at a disadvantage but a FTA with Chile could bring the taxes to zero on many products.

Lately, Chile has entered into FTAs with several countries including the US, Canada, Australia, China, Japan, South Korea, and many Latin American and the EU countries. It should be recalled, the continuance of free market policies was one of the election campaign promises of the incumbent center-left President Michelle Bachelet.

A FTA between India and Chile is likely to provide India to look at other countries in the region to engage in similar trade ties in the future. Indo-Chilean FTA was likely to multiply bilateral trade in copper, wine, aquaculture products, processed food and forestry products indicated the Chilean Ambassador.

Navarro also said that the Indian exports to Chile would substantially increase when the deal was through. He was of the opinion the talks between both countries were delayed due to the Indian elections, and he hoped to hold talks by August to add more products to the list and reduce the tariffs.

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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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The White House formally announced a program under which lenders will voluntarily freeze interest rates for certain homeowners with adjustable-rate loans. This aims to help the home owners to get a chance to hold on to their properties. The government hopes this temporary arrangement will bear the desired result soon. Even though this will make losses on the returns of mortgage-loan investors, many widely believe this is for the good of the overall economy.

The banking and financial institutions too partook in the process of putting the economy back on track by reducing interests. The average rate on 30-year fixed-rate mortgages slipped below 6% this week to the lowest level in two years. The Bank of England reduced its interest from 5.75% to 5.50% and the Federal Reserve is expected to cut at-least by quarter points on the short term rate. The government’s corrective measures to overcome the threat perception of economic recession, is good news for the US as well as the world economy.

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