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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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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The Suez Canal Authority Chairman Ahmed Fadel announced at a press conference Canal’s revenue in the 2008-09 fiscal year which ended on June 30, crimped to $4.74bn from its all-time high of $5.1bn of the previous year. However, Fadel claimed it was the downturn that had resulted in lower revenues rather than the piracy as piracy remained a bane to many other parts of the world.

Fadel also indicated that the impact on shipping from piracy in the Gulf of Aden off the Horn of Africa had been exaggerated. The pirate attacks in the Gulf of Aden, a key route to the canal, had scared off many ship owners to divert their vessels through the old route of Cape of Good Hope.

The Canal’s revenue loss is cited has the major reason for the slower 4.7 GDP growth of Egypt as compared to 7 percent of the past three years. This fiscal, 19,354 ships passed through the waterway which connects the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea with regards to 21,080 in 2007-08. About 811.4mn tons of goods passed the canal during the same period, down 8.9 percent from 890mn tons of the previous year.

Fadel stated that the government had taken number of steps to attract higher traffic including keeping the toll unchanged and infrastructural improvements to accommodate all kinds of ships. The authority had almost completed work on dredging and deepening of the Canal which when finished would allow to handle ships over 240,000 tons, up from the current 200,000 ton limit. Besides, the deepening of the Canal from 62 feet to 66 feet is expected to pave way for 64 percent of the world’s oil tanks and 99 percent of the cargo ships to transit through the water way by this year end.

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Both producers and government are blaming each other for the shortfall. Producers claimed production troubles including shortage of labourers and rising cost and government’s low fixed price for the produce that triggered smuggling have played a critical role in pushing the industry to such a situation. On the contrary, the government argued a slew of issues such as lack of co-ordination among the sector, speculation by the growers and roasters and climatic conditions have rather played spoilsport to the industry.

According to sources, large scale smuggling is taking place across Columbian borders due higher prices. Though Venezuela produces very high quality Arabica coffee, but Colombia offers a quintal of green coffee beans at about $475, whereas the same in Venezuela fetched less than $220.

Venezuela has seen dwindling production for the last two decades with some green shoots for few years. In 2007-08, the harvest production was 996,000 bags (46kg/bag) and the same in this fiscal was 845,000 bags despite significant rise in domestic demand and consumption. Nelson Moreno, head of the small and medium-sized roasters told Reuters that the most likely place for fulfilling the domestic need with similar beans would be Brazil.

Pedro Vicente Perez, coffee director with the national agricultural federation, Fedeagro confirmed to Reuters that this would be the first time coffee to be imported by Venezuela. The Venezuelan coffee market is largely domestic; moreover, no significant legitimate exports have been recorded since 2004 even though smuggling is on the rise.

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The EFSA’s announcement of assessment in batches with pending 4000 other products for inspection has led to a flashpoint with the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries in the EU (CIAA). The industry organisation has informed the European Commission (EC) that assessment report in batches would damage the reputation of other products those are under inspection, and would not be assessed by the 31 January 2010 deadline. The organisation has requested to hold an immediate dialogue with EFSA to iron out differences.

The EFSA report affirmed several products of popular companies had deceived the consumers with health benefit claims ranging from improving immune system to brain growth in babies. Ocean Spray cranberry juice, Lipton black tea, fish oil supplements and some pro-biotic supplements came under severe attack for their unproven and unscientific health claims in the report.

Ocean Spray had claimed that drinking its cranberry juice could protect women against urinary infections. Similarly, Unilever was with a claim that Lipton black tea made people more alert and energetic. On the other hand, Equazen claimed its fish oil products could help the central nervous system development in foetuses and breastfed infants. EFSA’s findings rejected all such claims in its clinical trials.

The findings is expected to shake the fundamentals of marketing strategies of high-end food products which largely enjoyed and earned loyalty over many decades without any intervention by such agencies. Though various sources have always criticized the health claim advertising, this is the first time an inter-governmental organization coming out with such a finding which is as a result of the EU’s nutrition and health food regulation of 2006 that mandated manufacturers must substantiate health claims of their products.

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The ECLAC forecast shows that the South American economy will contract by 1.9 percent this year before looking up by 2010 at 3.1 percent growth. The contraction is expected to put further pressure on unemployment in the region at about 9 percent by the year end, adding more than 3mn people to the 180mn living below the poverty line.

ECLAC’s head Alicia Bárcena was of the opinion that the downturn had bottomed up in March 2009 and remaining months in the year would inch towards a full recovery. At another occasion, the vice-president for Latin America, Pamela Cox said the unusual sum was allocated to the region since the governments did not have access to capital markets, or had some access but did not want to crowd out the private sector.

The projections show that the Mexican economy will be worst hit by plunging about 7 percent this year, and is expected to grow by 2.5 percent next year. On the contrary, Panama and Peru are likely to grow by 5 percent next year by doubling their growth from the current 2.5 percent.

It should be noted that the growth projections for especially Brazil, a member of BRIC is just 3.5 percent by next year whereas China and India are expected to grow above 7 percent. Interestingly, the region has to grow at least by 5 percent to accommodate freshers that are coming into the employment scene every year.

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The rice initiative undertaken by FAO, Benin-based Africa Rice Center (WARDA), various Benin’s governmental organizations and several local NGOs is likely produce better results through intensified production and marketing of high quality seeds to satisfy the increasing rice demand of the West-African nation. FAO experts claimed Benin so far had just 8 percent total productive land utilization leaving more than 322,000 hectares of rice-growing land uncultivated, which had the potential to produce $55mn if fully exploited.

The release stated that Benin to achieve this ambitious goal of becoming rice exporting nation it had to annually produce more than 2,200 tons of high quality rice seeds. It is estimated that if the target seed production is met then it would suffice to cover 70 percent of domestic demand. Experts believe the increase in rice production will bring better quality of life to the farmers and dependent families in view of higher revenue and secure food source.

Currently, Benin as well as other West African nations heavily relies on rice imports. FAO figures showed that the region imported rice of around 6mn tons in 2001, and is projected to reach about 11mn by 2010. The release further asserted Exploiting Benin’s rice production potential would not only enable the country to satisfy domestic demand but also position it to export surplus output to sub-regional and regional markets.

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A naturalisation program was first discussed in October 2004 when it was announced that expats with degrees in medicine, computer science, and other branches of science and technology would be given priority for citizenship. At the moment, there is no data available to estimate how many people would be eligible for the latest program.

The legislation to naturalization process would help many expats to get free iqamas (work/residency permits) or permanent resident status outside the sponsorship system. The announcement is a relief to 6mn migrant workers of Saudi Arabia particularly since Bahrain is planning to bring residency cap on unskilled workers for a maximum of 5 years in any of the GCC states by 2010. Such a law would force about 13mn expats out of the GCC nations, and majority of them with their families are socially and culturally integrated to these countries.

But Dalhan’s statement did not toe the line of Bahrain while he said “The GCC countries and Saudi Arabia cannot dispense with foreign manpower in the foreseeable future”. He admitted that the long-term expats were deeply rooted to the society, and foreigners working under the sponsorship of Saudis ran more than half of the small establishments in the kingdom.

The GCC member states are highly reliant on migrant skilled as well as unskilled work force since most states have more than 70% expat workers. On the occasion, Dalhan told ILO that his country was committed to approve all labour laws except anything contradicts Shariah.

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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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Until the disease was first detected in July 2007, the Chilean fish farming was booming with periodical expansion for the past one decade in view of rising global demand for particularly salmon. However, the industry that has grown by 20 percent since 2003 to 2006 has expanded by just 2 percent last year.

There are cancellations of orders and decline in imports of salmon from the US, the largest importer of about 75 percent due to fear among the consumers over getting infected through consumption despite experts ruling out any such possibilities. According to industry sources, the 2009 and 2010 will be the most difficult years for salmon farming with estimates of decline up to 50 percent on total output.

Similarly, the industry is reported to have lost more than 20 percent jobs to about 45,000 from a high of around 70,000 out of the direct and indirect employment. The rise in unemployment among salmon workers is of serious concern as some regions of southern Chile, the salmon industry accounts for as much as 90 percent of employment.

The Chilean salmon farming companies are blamed for the farming malpractices such as, excessive use of dangerous antibiotics known as quinolones and cramped farming cages that make the fish susceptible to diseases. The Chilean farmers allegedly use quinolones 300 times more than the amount used in Norway, where the virus originated in the 1980s, has implemented measures to control it, including vaccines and limiting fish numbers. The abuse of antibiotics among the fish has made the disease unresponsive to various prevention methods.

Chile exported $2.4bn of salmon and trout in 2008 but the industry is carrying a debt burden of about $4bn as the direct fallout of ISA attack on farmed salmon. Although the government in conjunction with the industry group, SalmonChile has intervened to save the industry through sustainable measures, the companies believe that the second largest producer of salmon and trout after Norway could only reach its peak level by a minimum of seven years.

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According to Yonhap News, the government has plans to link its trading countries electronically with Korean business houses to streamline the whole trading process to cut costs and boost competitiveness. Thus the up-gradation of the present pan-national e-trade infrastructure is expected to provide faster and efficient services to its trading nations as well as its own exim firms. Towards this the government would set aside about $2.3mn every year to support the project along with its venture partner, the Korea International Trade Association (KITA).

The uTradeHub is the final product of a joint venture by the South Korean Ministry of Knowledge Economy and the KITA. It is developed and designated to be operated by KTNET, a leading e-company of Korea that has specialised in electronic trade services.

As part of transforming the cumbersome conventional trade practices to e-trade, the Korean government had enacted a policy way back in 2001 in this regard, and as a result today the majority of Korean companies have radically departed from paper-based trading system. Today, the Korean e-commerce formula is not only regarded as the best but also has been adopted by several countries.

South Korea is the pioneer in the field of e-commerce, and is the first in the world to open an e-L/C service in 2005. Linking up of the uTradeHub system with its trading overseas partners is likely to help the country’s ambitious goal of making Korea the global e-trade hub of the world.

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Transport Minister of Jordan, Sahel Majali said the consensus among the representatives and ministers in selecting Jordan for such a project was a big leap before making concrete moves towards inter-Arab co-operation in the transportation sector. All the 22 nations of the Arab League spread across the Gulf and African region is expected to take part in the Arab transportation and related projects.

“As part of the proposal, we have discussed several issues, including custom procedures between Arab countries, visa and movement of people, goods and services, in addition to the establishment of a railway network to connect regional markets,” Majali stated while addressing the joint press meet along with Twaijri. Majali said that he was confident of achieving the ambitious goal particularly because of the determination demonstrated by ministers in overcoming any obstacles.

Twaijri informed that the feasibility report on integration of Arab transportation should be submitted to the Arab leaders by 2011. A proposal to this regard was prepared by the Jordanian government and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA).

After the meeting, the ministers and representatives had an audience with the Prime Minister of Jordan, Nader Dahabi to apprise him about the developments. Dahabi pledged support and cooperation for the project, and promised that he would work in removing all roadblocks towards this end.

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According to AMDER report, the traces of Uranium found 12 years ago were further prospected by digging multiple bore-holes over a seven-acre field, and has now confirmed that the earth below Gogi village is abundant with hi-grade Uranium deposits. The institute is understood to have approached the Karnataka state government to release 100 acres of land in and around the village which is likely to displace the whole population. Karnataka is one of the few states in the country that has good track record in managing rehabilitation for such projects in the past.

AMDER is already inviting tenders from qualified miners to develop an underground mine. The project is estimated to cost about $3mn, and expected to be completed in 36 months which is tipped as most economically viable uranium mining undertaking.

Prior to the Gogi find, the institute was involved in 10 such discoveries in the past including uranium deposits in Singhbum district (Bihar), West Khasi hills (Meghalaya) and Nalgonda district (Andhra Pradesh). It is also instrumental in finding thorium deposits in the coasts of Kerala and Orissa.

In addition to nuclear deals with countries including France, Russia and the US, India can now expect to produce indigenous uranium to feed its existing and upcoming reactors in the near future. India has world’s largest thorium deposits and the country boasts of building its first ambitious thorium power plant at Kalpakam near Chennai.

To run the proto-type thorium plant, India needs to ensure uninterrupted plutonium supplies, a discharge mineral from uranium which helps thorium to generate power. India holds the distinction of developing the novel Fast Thorium Breeder Reactor (FTBR) technology that uses both thorium and plutonium within the same reactor.

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During Singhania’s visit along with a bi-partisan delegation of parliamentarians he pointed out that North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) among the US, Canada and Mexico was signed without agriculture because Canada objected to the inclusion of it. He expressed confidence in letting the Indo-US FTA to happen soon particularly on the basis of concordance shown by the US lawmakers and several US government officials to have it without agriculture for the time being.

India is looking forward to the next month visit of the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in ironing out differences on all outstanding issues with the US, which saw last July the collapse of Doha Round talks. The Doha Development Round broke down after India, China and Brazil objected to the US farm subsidies that would inundate their markets with imports of farm and industrial goods. Thawing of Indo-US trade ties on agricultural issues is key to the success of forthcoming Doha Round talks in Geneva later this year.

Manmohan Singh’s second term sans Left Front has seen some major changes including the Left’s consensual candidate, Kamal Nath being replaced by Anand Sharma as Commerce and Industry Minister of India despite the former doing a fairly good job during his term. Last month, Sharma on the sidelines of Cairns Group’s, a coalition of agricultural exporting nations summit, while he met his US counterpart Ron Kirk has jointly agreed to take forward the multilateral negotiations and review the Indo-US bilateral ties.

However, the Indian business houses as well as the government is well aware of the fact the delayed Monsoon which is likely to play havoc to the country’s agricultural trade will thereby prevent them from engaging in any trade talks on agri-based issues for the time being. FICCI president’s words must be seen as an indicator that India is ready to conclude FTA with the US in consensual goods, and could include other items only in , the course of time.

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The illegally mined diamonds get its name conflict/blood diamonds after the rebel or government forces employed inhuman methods by enslaving the common population to mine these precious gems. The KPCS is currently chaired by Namibia, and was established in 2003 which also serves as a deterrent to blood diamonds getting into global market.

As per KPCS norms, the rough diamonds must be sealed in tamper-resistant containers and required to have forgery-resistant, conflict-free certificates with unique serial numbers each time they cross an international border. But the Namibian Deputy Minister of Mines, Bernhard Esau during his opening speech in the meet admitted that fake Kimberley Process certificates were a growing concern and had to find ways to stop them.

Taking into account several blatant violations on human rights and illegal trade practices in countries including Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Brazil and Venezuela despite KPCS being in effect, a coalition of civil society groups stated that KPCS was failing to achieve its primary goal. Similarly, Global Witness which exposes the corrupt exploitation of natural resources and international trade systems said “The clock is running out on Kimberley Process credibility”.

In October last year, Zimbabwe government forcefully took charge of the Marange fields, the high diamond yielding region on the pretext of widespread illegal mining. As a result, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses in April banned the sale of diamonds from the Marange fields. Yet illegal trade of blood diamond from Zimbabwe is still rampant.

On the other hand, Venezuela despite agreeing in 2008 that it would suspend its diamond trade until new control systems could be established, a civil society investigative visit to Venezuela in May this year found that diamonds are still being mined and smuggled into the global legitimate market with complete impunity. With such glaring examples at hand, KPCS had to put in place some tough measures to curb blood/conflict diamonds being traded in any market.

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It should be noted that despite the three-decade old sanctions in effect, during the Bush administration, since 2001 the US has exported goods worth $546mn to Iran till 2007 until it dwindled down last year. In comparison to $8.3mn of Bush’s first year of the first term in 2001, the US exported goods valued at $146mn in 2007 to record a tenfold growth in exports to Iran. Under the US sanctions, only exporting of goods pertaining to basic humanitarian needs such as medical supplies and food items are allowed.

Going by the Obama’s soft diplomatic stance on the dispute over the re-election of Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran and the ongoing unrest one has to assume that the new US administration does not want to tamper with their business opportunities anywhere in the world. Though the trade with Iran is of negligible amount as compared to its chief trading partners, the US is well aware of the fact there are several countries more than willing to do business with Iran. Moreover, it does not make business sense as it is common for Iran and other sanctioned countries to use trans-shipment points such as the UAE to obtain US goods undetected.

China with $8bn, Germany with $5.7bn, Italy with $3.2bn, France with $2.6bn and Japan with $1.9bn are major exporters to Iran. Exports from the US were largely agricultural products and medical supplies, but brassieres, fur clothing, sculptures, perfume, musical instruments and military apparel were also other merchandise which found their way to Iran. However, a sizeable decrease in cigarette exports, a major product of export from the US to Iran in the last decade has been witnessed owing to the increased presence of the American cigarette companies in Iran and Turkey.

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It should be recalled the UK was the world’s largest defense exporter in 2007, accounting for a third of global defense exports. Britain was able to achieve the whopping figures of about $31bn worth of exports in 2007 particularly by the orders for Eurofighter Typhoon jets from Saudi Arabia. The jets are expected to be delivered to the Royal Saudi Air Force by this weekend.

DSO in its latest release said, as there was not any significant slide in defense demand as compared to previous years, the defense and security sectors are weathering the recession better than many other sectors. Nevertheless, Chris Baker, the DSO operations director acknowledged that 2009 wouldn’t be an easy year for the more resilient defense industry.

The DSO list show that the US retaining the highest rank followed by the UK and France in defense sales. However, according to another list issued by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute in April showed that while the US remained the world’s largest defense exporter, Russia, Germany and France came next in order followed by the UK at the fifth place.

The DSO authorities have admitted that their yardstick of assessment is based on deals signed in any one given year, while all other major players use actual deliveries to arrive at their figures. The DSO was formed last year after the Defence Export Sales Organisation was controversially moved by Prime Minister Gordon Brown from Ministry of Defence ownership to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform.

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The proposal broadly aims at managing grain reserves and prices; and also to improve necessary infrastructure including developing rail network and port capacity through creation of a pool. The Ukrainian Agriculture Policy Minister Yuriy Melnik and the Kazakh Deputy Agriculture Minister Arman Yevniyev welcomed Russia’s proposal during the first such forum.

The US has already come out with a statement saying a cartel in the line of OPEC would only delay Russia’s decade-old ambition of joining the 153-member WTO. Michael Michener from the US Department of Agriculture said Russia the third largest wheat exporter was jeopardizing its chances of becoming the WTO member since such a formation is against the WTO guidelines.

Russia is planning to bring more land under grain cultivation in the coming years as they have 10 percent of world’s arable land that has turned fallow after the collapse of the former Soviet Union. Russia has millions of hectares of chernozem (black earth), an ideal soil for agricultural purposes which are formed by partially decomposed organic matter.

If the new grain union takes shape, it would become the largest exporter and producer of global grain market. In the next 10 to 15 years, Russia plans to produce up to 135mn tons of wheat annually and export 40 to 50mn tons of it, Skrynnik later added. Last year’s bumper harvest made Russia the fourth largest grain producer in the world.

While food prices skyrocketed, Medvedev first proposed such an idea last July to augment food security. It should be noted that a report from London-based think-tank Chatham House early this year stated the climate change, water scarcity and competition for land would make it hard to meet an expected 50 percent rise in demand for food by 2030. Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov told that some of Russia’s 9.6mn tons of grain stockpiles would be set aside to provide humanitarian aid through the UN World Food Program to countries facing starvation as the fallout of global economic crises.

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In November 2008, the state-owned airlines had signed an agreement with Bombardier Aerospace to purchase eight Q400 NextGen turboprop airliners. Wake said that they had placed orders for more airliners due to the expectation of higher traffic in 2010. He acknowledged that Bombardier’s performance including longer range, higher payload and lower operability cost were the major factors which compelled them to opt for the same airliner once again.

EA saw a turnaround in profits ever since it won Best African Airline Award in 2006. The airlines recorded just about $16mn profit in 2006-07 fiscal but the profits soared ever after its sustained efforts on marketing Ethiopia began in large scale since early last year.

EA is one of the largest airlines from the African continent, and one of the few flight operators that has made profits in the current global financial mess. It should be noted, EA’s profit story came especially after last year the International Air Traffic Association (IATA) predicted major downward shake-up in the profits of many air carriers from the region.

Several African air carriers suffered losses owing to decline in traffic from Europe last year. Africa being described as the major growing power in aviation industry saw close to 9 percent slide in total traffic and flights to Europe registered around 10 percent decline.

EA feels if the fuel prices remained stable; it would not be a problem to generate same kind of profit this fiscal too. The air carrier is embarked on a massive marketing drive in the US to attract tourists to its country including roping in the services of NBA legend Manute Bol as brand ambassador of the airline.

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Apart from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are also seemed to have impressed by livestock farming opportunities in Thailand. The southern provinces, the Andaman region of Thailand have been chosen for the proposed mega livestock farms.

The climatic conditions and geographic placing of Thailand are claimed to be the most suited in Southern Asia for livestock production and paddy cultivation. However, the UAE’s interest in rice production would not be possible due to shortage in suitable lands.

The UAE already has ambitious plans to establish agricultural production centres in Sudan and Pakistan. The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development aims to develop 70,000 acres of land for food production in Sudan alone.

Similarly, Saudi Arabia has also invested in overseas agricultural farms including Pakistan to ward off any potential food shortage threat like that which confronted the globe last year. The desert nations are showing keen interest in developing agricultural and livestock farms outside their region since engaging in similar activities in the region would require manifold expenditure, and also not sure of the results.

To cater to the burgeoning Middle East market, Thailand has made several plans for investing in the production of halal meat and dairy products in countries such as, Pakistan and Bangladesh. According to Thai government sources, Charoen Pokpand Foods, the largest agri-business firm of the country is preparing to develop mega livestock farms in Russia as part of its expansion plans to fulfil its export shortfalls.

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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 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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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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