Category Archives: Trade and development

Hong Kong is global trade hub for world’s most brutal regimes, report says

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Pro-democracy campaign group finds exports of goods to Russia, vital to its war efforts, roughly doubled in a year

Hong Kong has become a global trade hub for “the world’s most brutal regimes”, according to a report examining the city’s role in facilitating the flow of goods to countries under sanctions by the west, including Russia, Iran and North Korea.

A report published on Monday by the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation, a campaign group, found that between 2021 and 2022, exports of semiconductors from Hong Kong to Russia roughly doubled to $400m (£310m), second only to shipments from mainland China. Semiconductors are vital to Russia’s war effort as they are a component in weaponry such as drones and cruise missiles.

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G20: EU and US back trade corridor linking Europe, Middle East and India

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Joe Biden describes ambitious rail and sea plan to counter China’s Belt and Road project as a ‘really big deal’

The US and the EU have backed an ambitious plan to build an economic corridor linking Europe with the Middle East and India via rail and sea, a project the US president, Joe Biden, described as a “really big deal”.

The Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the project during a Saturday afternoon session at the G20 leaders’ summit, being held in Delhi this weekend.

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Rishi Sunak faces fresh conflict of interest row over India trade talks

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Exclusive: Labour has called for more financial transparency after it was revealed the prime minister’s wife’s shares could benefit from the agreement

• Read more: trade deal with Indian could be double-edged sword for Sunak

Rishi Sunak faces a new conflict of interest row before a G20 summit in New Delhi next month over claims that his family could stand to benefit financially from a post-Brexit trade deal that he is negotiating with India.

MPs and trade experts say there are concerns at the highest levels of government over potential “transparency” issues relating to his wife Akshata Murty’s shareholding – worth almost £500m – in the massive Bengaluru-based international IT services and consultancy company Infosys.

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EU to invest €45bn in Latin America and Caribbean

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Package includes projects to extract minerals, electrify bus fleets and help protect Amazon rainforest

EU leaders in Brussels have announced €45bn (£39bn) in investments to Latin America and the Caribbean, some of which will speed the shift to clean energy, but made little headway thawing a frozen trade deal that critics say will further degrade the Amazon rainforest.

The EU-Celac summit, the first of its kind since 2015, aimed to bring the EU closer to Latin American and Caribbean countries. Disagreements over how to refer to the war in Ukraine in the final text soured negotiations.

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Kyiv opens Grain from Ukraine scheme to get food to Africa’s poorest countries

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Programme to subsidise exports of grain to poor and hungry countries launched on anniversary of Ukraine’s Holodomor famine

Up to 60 Ukrainian grain ships can be sent by the middle of next year to some of the world’s poorest countries in Africa, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the Ukrainian president, said in a statement released to the Guardian.

In a move that challenges the Russian narrative that the west’s response to its war on Ukraine has aggravated pre-existing food shortages in Africa, Zelenskiy said ships moving out of the Ukrainian port of Odesa can reach humanitarian hotspots such as Sudan, Yemen and Somalia, but only so long as international funding comes forward to subsidise the grain.

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Sunak hints he will slow down progress on India trade deal

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Prime minister says UK should not sacrifice quality for speed as he seeks to improve terms at G20 talks

Rishi Sunak has hinted he will slow down progress on the India trade deal to improve its terms, saying the UK should not “sacrifice quality for speed”.

The comments, which preceded talks with the UK prime minister’s Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, at the G20 on Wednesday, suggested a marked change of approach from Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, who prioritised speed and hard deadlines, having pledged a “deal for Diwali” that did not materialise.

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‘We need bread’: fears in Middle East as Ukraine war hits wheat imports

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Aid agencies warn of ‘ripple effect’ as soaring wheat prices hit countries already facing inflation, food insecurity and conflict

Concerns are growing across the Middle East and north Africa that the war in Ukraine will send prices of staple foods soaring as wheat supplies are hit, potentially fuelling unrest. Russia and Ukraine supply a quarter of the world’s wheat exports, while Egypt is the world’s biggest importer of wheat.

In Tunisia, like many people queueing for bread in Tunis’s sprawling medina, or old town, Khmaes Ammani, a day labourer, said the rising cost of living was leaving him squeezed. “There’s never any money at the end of the month,” he said. “I even have to borrow some. Everything is getting more expensive.”

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End trade barriers to help tackle climate crisis, says WTO chief

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Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala calls for changes to ensure developing nations are resilient to affects of extreme weather

Removing trade barriers around the world would help to tackle the climate crisis, enable a “just transition” away from fossil fuels and make developing countries more resilient to the impacts of global heating, the head of the World Trade Organization has said.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who took over as director general of the global watchdog last March, said: “Trade is part of the solution, not part of the problem … We need a global effort to climate-proof the supply chains and infrastructure of the most vulnerable economies or risk undoing hard-won economic progress and development.”

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Palm oil land grabs ‘trashing’ environment and displacing people

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Growing rush for land is destroying ecosystems and disrupting lives to satisfy global demand for goods, study warns

Businesses and governments must stop the growing rush of commodities-driven land grabbing, which is “trashing” the environment and displacing people, says new research.

Palm oil and cobalt were extreme risks for land grabs according to an analysis of 170 commodities by research firm Verisk Maplecroft published last week. It also warned that, alongside cobalt, other minerals used for “clean” technology, including silicon, zinc, copper, were high risk and undermined the sector’s label.

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Australia wants deeper energy ties to help Taiwan decarbonise, amid China tensions

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Trade minister Dan Tehan sees ‘real opportunities’ to help Taiwan, as he hopes relationship with China has not become permanently adversarial

The Australian government says it wants to help Taiwan decarbonise its economy, flagging this as the next area of cooperation with the democratically ruled island, amid ongoing tensions with China.

The trade minister, Dan Tehan, said he saw “real opportunities” to deepen energy ties with Taiwan, while arguing there was bipartisan recognition in Australia of “the greater assertiveness that we’re seeing from China”.

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Greenpeace stops fish oil tanker in Channel in protest over African food insecurity

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Fishmeal exports to EU from west Africa have grown sharply, depleting stocks and posing threat to livelihoods

Greenpeace activists have intercepted a 96-metre tanker in the Channel carrying fish oil from west Africa to Europe, to highlight the threat they say industry poses to food security and to livelihoods in the region.

Trade figures analysed by Greenpeace Africa show that fishmeal and fish oil exports from Mauritania alone have grown by an “alarming” 16% during 2020. Activists and locals say the industry pushes up prices and depletes stocks of fish eaten by local people across poor communities in Mauritania, Senegal and the Gambia.

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Australians urged to plan ahead for Christmas shopping amid ‘dramatically bad’ global supply chain crisis

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Covid shutdowns of major international ports are putting extreme pressure on retailers to fill orders and keep shelves stocked

Australians have been warned not to leave their Christmas shopping until the last minute with the global supply chain crisis leaving retailers struggling to fill orders and keep shelves stocked.

The “dramatically bad” global supply chain situation in Asia could also see major Australian retailers dumping Black Friday sales as they are left with limited stock.

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Israel establishes ‘formal diplomatic relations’ with Bhutan

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Himalayan kingdom is latest country to recognise the Jewish state in a normalisation deal

Israel established diplomatic relations with the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan on Saturday, the Israeli foreign ministry said, in the latest of a string of normalisation deals agreed by the Jewish state.

“The circle of recognition of Israel is widening,” the Israeli foreign minister, Gabi Ashkenazi, said in a statement. “The establishment of relations with the Kingdom of Bhutan will constitute a new stage in the deepening of Israel’s relations in Asia.”

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‘Race against time’ to prevent famines during coronavirus crisis

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UN calls for international solidarity to ease effects of Covid-19 on food security

Vulnerable parts of the developing world, particularly in Africa, are at risk of sliding into famine as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, while humanitarian relief efforts are being hindered by lockdowns and travel restrictions, according to the UN.

Experts raised the spectre of unrest similar to that seen in 2007-08 when food price rises sparked riots around the world, destabilising fragile states and fuelling conflict in ways that are still being felt. They told the Guardian that the world could still avoid such a crisis, but time was running out.

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Coronavirus could double number of people going hungry

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Exclusive: multinationals write to G7 and G20 urging leaders to keep borders open to trade and avert global food crisis

Food supplies across the world will be “massively disrupted” by the coronavirus, and unless governments act the number of people suffering chronic hunger could double, some of the world’s biggest food companies have warned.

Unilever, Nestlé and PepsiCo, along with farmers’ organisations, the UN Foundation, academics, and civil society groups, have written to world leaders, calling on them to keep borders open to trade in order to help society’s most vulnerable, and to invest in environmentally sustainable food production.

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Global trade will be vital to economic recovery from Covid-19

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As crisis rages, governments must plan for its aftermath, says WTO’s director general

As country after country is compelled to shutter non-essential businesses and order people home to curb the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ongoing public health crisis is becoming an economic and social crisis that demands a policy response.

Millions of people already afraid for the health of their loved ones now confront the prospect of unemployment and prolonged economic misery. Dozens of emerging economies face financial and humanitarian distress as commodity prices and export earnings plummet, foreign investors flee and remittances from overseas workers decline.

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UK could tap into Africa’s $24bn market for off-grid solar power

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Rapidly growing sector could prove lucrative as Britain seeks post-Brexit trade opportunities

UK investors could seize a $24bn investment opportunity by helping to connect millions of people without access to electricity to off-grid home solar power systems.

The market for pay-as-you-go home solar packages is expected to boom in Africa, where millions of homes are using mobile technology to rent low-cost solar panels.

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France and Ireland declare opposition to trade deal over Amazon fires

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Brazil’s handling of forest fires set to top agenda of G7 countries at meeting in Biarritz this weekend

Amazon fires: what is happening and is there anything we can do?

France and Ireland have said they will oppose an EU trade deal with South American countries unless Brazil takes action to stop the burning of the Amazon.

On the eve of a meeting of the G7 nations in Biarritz, an Élysée source said Emmanuel Macron thought Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, “lied” to him at the G20 meeting in Osaka in June about his climate commitments and therefore France would oppose the Mercosur treaty.

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US-China soy trade war could destroy 13 million hectares of rainforest

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Study suggests Brazil likely to rush to fill China’s sudden soy shortfall by boosting farming

The Amazon rainforest could be the greatest casualty of the trade war between the United States and China, warns a new study showing how deforestation pressures have surged as a result of the geopolitical jolt in global soy markets.

Up to 13m hectares of forest and savannah – an area the size of Greece – would have to be cleared if Brazil and other exporters were to fill the huge shortfall in soy supply to China that has suddenly appeared since Donald Trump imposed hefty tariffs, according to the paper published in Nature.

US exports of the commodity, primarily used to feed livestock, to China plummeted by 50% last year, which the authors say is an unusually sharp level of decline between two trading partners outside wartime.

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