In June, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) of Nigeria had announced that a large consignment of fake anti-malarial generic drugs labelled `Made in India’ were seized by the customs which found to have been produced in China. India had then complained its concerns to NAFDAC, and later, the agency had promised that they would send a delegation to jointly formulate models that would avoid the occurrence of fake drugs in future.

India is likely to use resources from the ‘challenge India fund’ maintained by the commerce ministry to protect the reputation of the Indian generic market, and will also try to improve its sales. A major decision would be to open retail pharmacy outlets across Nigeria in collaboration with Indian government to counter the unregulated medical stores which often become the conduit for fake medicines.

The proposed talks is expected to review the possibilities of Indian drug companies to set up manufacturing units in Nigeria and explore whether Indian public sector drug makers could supply low-cost quality drugs to the Nigerian government. India views Africa as one of the fastest growing markets for its generic drugs, and Africa accounts for over 15 percent of India’s total generic exports worth $6bn annually.

The total two-way trade between India and African nations stood at around $30bn in 2007-08. Almost half of the amount came from Indo-Nigerian bilateral trade at about $14bn during the same period, and the trade between the two saw almost a jump of $5bn from its previous year.

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The BRIC Summit is understood to have discussed the need for an alternative monetary trading system to save their earnings getting devalued due to the likely US dollar slide in the market triggered by over printing of the greenbacks. In a last week’s address, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev proposed that countries must begin to encourage a mix of currencies in bilateral trade to reduce over-dependence on US dollar.

Medvedev had also proposed to give greater emphasis on the IMF’s Special Drawing Rights. Russia further indicated that $400bn in the US Treasury would be relocated to the IMF. Reserve rich nations including China and Russia have huge holdings in the US Treasury.

BRIC member states hold a total of $2.8 trillion in international reserve assets excluding gold, 42 percent of the world’s total. BRIC nations also account for 15 percent of the $60.7 trillion global economy.

Last month, China and Brazil have signed an agreement to integrate respective currencies in their bilateral trade to reduce transaction costs incurred while currency exchange. It should be recalled that China’s central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan had had suggested few months ago to dump US dollar as the global reserve currency and replace it with a different standard run by the IMF.

The summit is learned to have discussed various global issues including climate change and economic crisis besides the reliance on USD. Though it is unlikely to seal a concrete deal on the use of local currencies in bilateral trade, the member nations are expected to reach a tacit understanding in phasing out USD from future trade.

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A major chunk of Indian chocolate market is ruled by Cadbury and it enjoys holding more than 70 percent of market share. Nestle, the Swiss leaders in packaged food with 25 percent share is the only other major competitor for Cadbury in India.

Cadbury India’s Cocoa Department produces over 2.5mn hybrid seedlings annually and distributes it among farmers. India as compared to other cocoa growing countries, its farmers use cocoa as an inter-crop between areca nut and coconut trees.

Cadbury believes that it can persuade 20 per cent of Indian farmers to plant cocoa and thereby bring more acreage under cocoa plantation. The co-ordination with the farmers and producers is expected to increase country’s production of the beans from 10,000 tons to ambitious 150,000 tons per year or 3 per cent of global production by 2020.

India’s Cocoa Development board is also understood to have undertaken a similar initiative to increase the production to 16,000 tons in two years’ time. India’s annual consumption of the beans is about 18,000 tons, and more than 40 percent of its total requirement is still met through imports.

India’s import of cocoa beans and cocoa products in 2007-08 fiscal has increased by four-fold at about 8,000 tons, the same was just 2,000 tons in the beginning of the decade. According to Cadbury’s India forecast, cocoa demand is growing around 15 percent annually and will reach about 30,000 tons in the next 5 years. Industry observers said India through public-private partnership was attempting a cocoa revolution once again in the country to become a bellwether state of the beans in the region.

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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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According to Pakistan’s food and agriculture ministry, bringing higher acreage of land under cultivation and perfect climatic conditions have helped the country to hope for a higher yield this year around. Pakistan consumes about 22mn tons of wheat per annum, farmers are expecting a bumper crop this year at about 24mn tons.

On the other hand, bumper harvests consecutively for the second year have assisted India to augment its stockpiles for about 30mn tons until early this month, increasing by two-thirds from a year ago. India procures its wheat from farmers for a minimum floor price of $225 per ton. The floor price is fixed for wheat and several other crops to the farmers to avoid incurring losses in case of lower yields or crop failures.

While India offloads 2mn ton surplus wheat, about half a million ton of Pakistani wheat would be heading to the Gulf region and Afghanistan. Pakistan is allowing wheat exports after the procurement of the same reached 8mn tons this year, the highest in seven years.

Indian traders are expecting a subsidy from the government to sell wheat and wheat products for a competitive price as international wheat prices is lower or about equal including cost and freight to the Southeast Asian region. Nevertheless, the wheat traders will export to their neighbouring countries including Bangladesh and Nepal since they are closer to the wheat procurement sites of the bordering Indian state, Bihar. Trade Secretary G.K. Pillai said exports would be allowed through select ports to keep a check on how much wheat was being exported.

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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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Turkey has also imposed similar duties on Indian goods during the same period. Indian governmental agencies involved in the exercise of getting the tariff rolled back appeared confident as Egypt’s decision was likely to prompt Turkey to follow the same steps to avoid any confrontation with India in this regard.

Ever since Egypt and Turkey imposed these additional duties, India had taken up the cause to both governments to have a relook at the issue and warned that they would challenge this at the WTO. The imposition of such tariffs is in direct violation to the WTO rules unless it proved that the imports are causing serious damage to its domestic industry.

Egypt’s move is likely to act as a disincentive to other countries that are planning to slap such duties on Indian goods. However, The Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) said the tariff roll back would have only marginal impact on the exports since the global economy had not recovered yet.

The tariff imposed by Egypt in January on Indian goods was for a period of one year which included half a dollar on every kilogramme of cotton textile, and every kilogramme of processed sugar attracted $1. India is the largest exporter of cotton yarn to Egypt and the exports stood at about $115mn in 2007-08 fiscal. The two-way overall trade during the same period between both countries was about $3.5bn.

Indian exports have recorded a negative growth for the past five months, and the country is leaving no stone unturned to get them back on track. According to the Ministry of Commerce of India the talks are progressing to get a similar decision from the Turkish government.

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