Posts tagged ‘Trade pact’

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16/04/2015

The Statesman: Roadmap for India-Canada free trade pact by Sept: Modi

India and Canada on Wednesday expressed commitment to have a free trade pact, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying a roadmap will be laid for the market opening agreement by September.

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Modi said the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) will also be concluded soon.

“I am confident that we can conclude the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement very soon.

“We will also implement the roadmap to conclude the Comprehensive Economic Co-operation Agreement by September 2015,” he said at a joint press conference with his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper.

He said Canada has the potential to partner India’s economic transformation and “it exists in a new environment in India which is open, predictable, stable and easy to do business in”.

“Prime Minister Harper and I are absolutely committed to establishing a new framework for economic partnership. I am pleased that we have made rapid progress on long-pending agreements,” Modi said.

On the free trade pact, Harper said there are many issues in this to be resolved, but “we are committed to see it through”.

Harper further said there was no reason why Canada should not have a free trade pact with India which “is a vibrant democracy. Nothing precludes that”.

The Canadian Prime Minister said while the trade between the two countries has increased, “it is still not as much as it should be”.

He expressed confidence that nuclear agreement signed today with India will raise the bilateral trade volume further.

The bilateral trade increased to USD 5.18 billion in 2013-14 from USD 4.83 billion in previous year.

via The Statesman: Roadmap for India-Canada free trade pact by Sept: Modi.

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02/04/2015

India says will shake up trade tariffs to compete globally | Reuters

India plans to pull its tariff regime closer in line with global norms to prepare for new regional trade pacts being negotiated by advanced economies, the government said on Wednesday.

A man walks past steel rims and parked cars at a dock yard at Mumbai Port Trust in Mumbai November 17, 2014. REUTERS/Shailesh Andrade/Files

India has not been invited to join pacts such as the U.S.-led 12 country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and is “not in a position to join,” partly because its tariffs are not competitive, a top official said at the unveiling of a new five year trade policy.

“If the country is to stand up to these agreements, it’s important that we start to address these issues,” Trade Secretary Rajeev Kher said, adding that India’s access to markets was likely to erode when such pacts take effect.

Kher said India needed lower tariffs for intermediate goods to help it further integrate with global supply chains, and that these industries would have to come more competitive. He did not give more details.

Regional trade pacts are being promoted by advanced economies after years of failure to negotiate a global agreement under the World Trade Organisation.

via India says will shake up trade tariffs to compete globally | Reuters.

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13/06/2014

China’s top Taiwan official to make first visit to island | Reuters

China’s top official in charge of relations with Taiwan will make his first visit to the island later this month, state media said, following large-scale protests there against a controversial trade pact.

Head of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office Zhang Zhijun (4th R) meets with Wang Yu-chi (4th L), Taiwan's mainland affairs chief, in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, February 11, 2014. REUTERS/China Daily

Zhang Zhijun, director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, will become the first head of the body ever to visit the self-ruled island, the official Xinhua news agency said late on Thursday.

He will spend four days in Taiwan, Xinhua said, and apart from visiting capital Taipei will also go to three other places, including Kaohsiung in the heavily pro-independence south of the island. China says it will not countenance an independent Taiwan.

 

China and Taiwan have been ruled separately since Nationalist forces, defeated by the Communists, fled to the island at the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949. China considers Taiwan a renegade province and has never ruled out the use of force to bring it under its control.

But in recent years the two sides have built up extensive economic ties, and in February they held their first direct government-to-government talks, in China, a big step towards expanding cross-strait dialogue beyond trade.

Yet booming trade has not brought progress on political reconciliation or reduced military readiness on either side. Many in Taiwan fear autocratic China’s designs for their free-wheeling island.

Protesters occupied Taiwan’s parliament and mounted mass protests over a three-week period starting in March in anger at a trade pact between China and Taiwan, which they fear will benefit wealthy companies with Chinese links and undermine Taiwan’s cherished democratic institutions.

via China’s top Taiwan official to make first visit to island | Reuters.

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07/04/2014

Taiwan anti-China protest exposes island’s nationalist divide | Reuters

A chaotic sit-in to protest against a trade deal with China has shut down Taiwan’s parliament and exposed deep divisions over the island’s identity after seven decades of living apart from its vast, undemocratic rival across the strait.

A protester sits in front of a pile of chairs used to block the door, inside Taiwan's Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's parliament, during protest to oppose the controversial trade pact with mainland China, in Taipei April 5, 2014. REUTERS/Pichi Chuang

The mainly student protesters, who proffer sunflowers as a symbol of hope, denounce the pact as an arrangement suiting Taiwan’s wealthy. They say it will lead to mass encroachment by China, and its one-party mindset, on the island’s cherished democratic values and institutions.

Its advocates, including Taiwan’s president and his government, say it is a vital step to normalizing relations with Beijing and will provide jobs and improve living standards.

Protesters demand the repeal of the trade deal, which was only one step away from parliamentary ratification before the sit-in began.

They also demand lawmakers pass an oversight mechanism of trade pacts with the mainland before they pass the current trade deal – a move the government has agreed to in principle and could potentially pave the way toward an end to the stalemate.

“The government has fallen into the palm of big money here in Taiwan,” said Miles Lin, 25, the main protest leader. “That, combined with pressure from Beijing, drove them to ram this pact through the legislature.”

via Taiwan anti-China protest exposes island’s nationalist divide | Reuters.

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