The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) remains the best way to promote regional integration, prosperity, peace and economic cooperation. This was stated by the Maldives Ambassador Ahmed Saleem recently while addressing a seminar organized by the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SAARC). The ambassador highlighted that the SAARC charter calls for the welfare of people living in ...

The EU’s trade deal with four South American countries will not be ratified in its current form because it contradicts Europe’s plans to confront the climate emergency, a leading MEP has said. Pascal Canfin, a Frenchman who chairs the European parliament’s environment committee, said he could not vote in favour of the EU trade deal with Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and ...

Despite India’s decision to exit of the ASEAN-led 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Free Trade Agreement last month, officials from India’s Indo-Pacific partners Australia and Japan are still discussing the issue in the hope that the government will rethink the decision. Japanese trade minister Hiroshi Kajiyama will discuss the terms with Piyush Goyal today under which India can get ...

A newly approved U.S.-Japan trade deal is being called a win for farmers. The agreement will lower tariffs for U.S. beef and pork exports and completely eliminate tariffs for other agricultural goods. Japan’s Parliament approved the deal Dec. 4, after being agreed upon by President Donald Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September. It’s being lauded by U.S. ...

Africa is still heavily dependent on traditional export crops and commodities, reducing the scope for mutually beneficial trade. Yet this paints an excessively simplified view of trends in regional trade. Patterns of trade are changing rapidly. The traditional export market outside the continent of Africa (Europe, the United States and, increasingly, India and China) are of primary commodities, but the ...

To achieve the objective of enhancing trade through efficient movement of goods, persons and services, the Rwanda-DR Congo border of La Corniche, popularly known as Grande Barrière, recently started operating as a One Stop Border Post (OSBP). Grande Barrière is one of the busiest border crossings on the continent. An OSBP is a border facility that combines two stops for ...

The bilateral trade between New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates witnessed a 29 per cent increase during the past one year. The bilateral trade for the year ending October 2019 went up to NZ$4.08 billion ($2.62 billion) from NZ$3.16 billion ($2.03 billion) during the year ending October 2018, witnessing a 29 per cent increase. New Zealand’s trade with the ...

Japan is not considering signing a Chinese-backed regional trade pact without India, the top Japanese negotiator revealed ahead of a series of diplomatic exchanges in the coming weeks that include a visit to Delhi by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. India announced earlier that it was withdrawing from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, citing the deal’s potential impact on the livelihoods ...

The European Union has been hit hard by the slowdown in international trade, with the UK suffering the most. Global trade continued to slide in the third quarter, the OECD said, approaching two-year lows as the US-China trade war and Brexit uncertainty took a heavy toll. Exports from the EU fell 1.8 per cent while imports dropped 0.4 per cent. ...

Vietnam has seen an influx of economic activity as companies seek to avoid tariffs on Chinese imports. U.S. companies that do business overseas are looking to diversify their business because of uncertainty about the U.S. relationship with China. Vietnam’s exports to the United States were 35% higher in the first nine months of 2019 compared to the first nine months ...