Tag Archives: united-states
Global Trade Likely To Remain Sluggish For Years, Says UN Report
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a3465b06-1bbe-11e3-94a3-00144feab7de.html#ixzz2f3WohxhE By Shawn Donnan in London Global trade is likely to remain sluggish for many years, and emerging economies that have depended on exports to fuel their transformation will have to find new sources of growth, says a UN report. The report, released on Thursday by the UN Conference on Trade and Development, makes clear that the effects of the 2007-8 financial crisis and the “great recession” that followed are still being felt in both the developed and developing world. The way the crisis has affected global trade patterns also calls into question the future value of the export-oriented growth model that fuelled the economic emergence of China and other developing world champions over the past three decades, Unctad’s economists wrote in their annual report. Unctad joins the debate at a time when many emerging economies – including Brazil, China and India – are facing slowing growth, and some, such as China, are working hard to rebalance their models towards more domestic sources of expansion. International trade has yet to return to the rapid growth rates seen before 2008, said Unctad economists, adding that growth is likely to remain subdued for years to come. Roberto Azevêdo, the World Trade Organisation’s new director-general, said this week that it would downgrade its 2013 growth forecast for global trade from 3.3 per cent to 2.5 per cent. Among rich countries, only the US had recorded a positive growth rate in its international trade in 2012, said Unctad. “Imports by all developed regions remain below their pre-crisis level,” its economists wrote, “and only the United States has managed to increase its exports to a higher level than their previous peak of August 2008.” Trade by developing economies had also “decelerated considerably” in recent years. Between 2002 and 2007, export volumes from those economies grew at an annual rate of 11.3 per cent. But that growth fell to 3.5 per cent between January 2011 and April 2013. The downward trend “highlights the vulnerabilities developing countries continue to face at a time of lacklustre growth in developed countries. It is also indicative of a probably less favourable external trade environment over the next few years,” Unctad economists wrote. While the pre-crisis rapid growth of exports from emerging economies to satisfy buoyant consumer demand in the rich world had been favourable for many developing countries, it “was built on unsustainable global demand and financing patterns”. “Reverting to pre-crisis growth strategies cannot be an option,” they wrote. “Rather, in order to adjust to what now appears to be a structural shift in the world economy many developing . . . economies are obliged to review their development strategies that have been overly dependent on exports for growth.” Encouraging greater domestic consumption and investment could come alongside the continuing development of exports. Bolstering domestic demand in emerging economies could also encourage the future development of “South-South” trade between developing countries, the report added. The share of South-South movements in international trade had increased from slightly less than 30 per cent in 1995 to slightly more than 40 per cent last year. The report also called for reform at the national and global levels to encourage more efficient financing of productive parts of the real sector such as industry, agriculture, services and infrastructure. Central and development banks needed to do more to finance productive investments, Unctad economists wrote. In the years since the financial crisis, credit had too often been directed to consumption rather than to investment. The result was that it was fuelling asset bubbles in sectors such as real estate “rather than innovation and production”. Continue reading
Kerry, Lavrov meeting UN envoy on Syria
Kerry, Lavrov meeting UN envoy on Syria (Reuters) / 13 September 2013 US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met the United Nations special envoy on Syria in Geneva on Friday as they worked on a deal that could avert US military action. Lakhdar Brahimi, who acts for both the world body and the Arab League, met Kerry and Lavrov together. He has been trying to broker a political solution to the Syrian civil war. The two powers are trying to flesh out Moscow’s plan to dispose of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons. Damascus formally applied to join a global poison gas ban – a move welcomed on Friday by Russian President Vladimir Putin . He called it “an important step towards the resolution of the Syrian crisis” and added: “This confirms the serious intention of our Syrian partners to follow this path.” China, too, hailed Assad’s decision. But Kerry underscored that Washington could still attack if it was not satisfied: “This is not a game,” he said on Thursday. * Kerry, Lavrov meet UN/Arab League Syria envoy Brahimi * Meeting follows US-Russia talks in Geneva on Thursday * Putin welcomes Assad commitment on chemical weapons * Kerry warns that US could still strike if not satisfied The talks were part of a diplomatic push that prompted President Barack Obama to put on hold plans for US air strikes in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus on Aug. 21. The United States and its allies say Assad’s forces carried out the attack with sarin nerve gas, killing more than 1,400 people. Putin and Assad have blamed rebel forces. The United Nations said it received a document from Syria on joining the global anti-chemical weapons treaty, a move Assad promised as part of a deal to avoid US air strikes. The move would end Syria’s status as one of only seven nations outside the 1997 international convention that outlaws stockpiling chemical weapons. US Warning The United States immediately warned Syria against stalling tactics to avoid military strikes. Assad told Russian state television in an interview broadcast on Thursday that he would finalise plans to abandon his chemical arsenal only when the United States stops threatening to attack him. Kerry expressed some optimism about the talks in Geneva, saying, “We do believe there is a way to get this done” and that the United States was “grateful” for ideas from Russia. But he and Lavrov differed sharply on US military threats. “We proceed from the fact that the solution of this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic,” Lavrov said during the appearance with Kerry. Along with other world powers, Moscow and Washington see the instability in Syria as fuelling wider security threats, but differ sharply on how to respond. Western powers say that Assad is a tyrant who should be overthrown. Russia, like Assad, highlights the presence in rebel ranks of militants. In an audio recording released a day after the 12 th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, Al Qaeda leader Ayman Al Zawahri referred to fighters in Syria among other battlegrounds as he urged supporters to carry out attacks in the United States to “bleed America economically”. “As we defeated it in the gang warfare in Somalia, Yemen, Iraq and Afghanistan, so we should follow it with …war on its own land,” Zawahri said. “These disparate strikes can be done by one brother or a few of the brothers.” Putin’s Russia has been Assad’s most powerful backer during the civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, delivering arms and – with China – blocking three UN resolutions meant to pressure Assad. “President Obama has made clear that should diplomacy fail, force might be necessary to deter and degrade Assad’s capacity to deliver these weapons,” Kerry asserted. “Only the credible threat of force – and the intervention of President Putin and Russia based on that – has brought the Assad regime to acknowledge for the first time that it even has chemical weapons and an arsenal, and that (it) is now prepared to relinquish it,” Kerry added. Kerry said any agreement must be comprehensive, verifiable, credible and implemented in a “timely” way – “and finally, there ought to be consequences if it doesn’t take place.” Kerry called a peaceful resolution “clearly preferable” to military action. A version of the Russian plan that leaked to the newspaper Kommersant described four stages: Syria would join the world body that enforces a chemical weapons ban, declare production and storage sites, invite inspectors, and then decide with the inspectors how and by whom stockpiles would be destroyed. ‘Legally speaking’ Syria has agreed to a Russian proposal that it give up its chemical weapons stocks, averting what would have been the first direct Western intervention in the civil war. “Legally speaking, Syria has become, starting today, a full member of the (chemical weapons) convention,” Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari told reporters in New York after submitting documents to the United Nations. Several UN diplomats and a UN official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that it was not yet clear that Syria had fulfilled all the conditions for legal accession to the treaty. Dressed in a white shirt and dark suit and seated in a wood-panelled office, Assad said in his TV interview that Syria opted to cede control of its chemical weapons because of a Russian proposal and not the threat of US military intervention. Assad said in comments translated into Russian: “When we see the United States really wants stability in our region and stops threatening, striving to attack, and also ceases arms deliveries to terrorists, then we will believe that the necessary processes can be finalised.” Syria is already bound by the separate Geneva accords that have banned the use of chemical weapons in warfare for nearly a century, but it had never been required before this week to disclose whether it possessed them. Western nations believe Syria has hundreds of tonnes of toxic weapons material. Assad said Syria would provide an accounting of chemical weapons stocks in 30 days, standard practice under the treaty. Kerry questioned the offer. “We believe there is nothing standard about this process at this moment because of the way the regime has behaved – not only the existence of these weapons but they have been used,” Kerry said. “And the words of the Syrian regime, in our judgment, are simply not enough.” Kerry and Lavrov flew to Geneva with delegations of chemical weapons and nonproliferation experts to begin to hammer out how to identify, secure and neutralise Syria’s chemical weapons. A draft UN Security Council Resolution submitted by France this week demands that Syria declare its chemical weapons holdings within 15 days, and holds out the threat of sanctions or military force if it fails to disarm. While the diplomats met in Switzerland, the war ground on relentlessly. Activists said Syrian warplanes bombed on the main hospitals serving rebel-held territory in the north of the country, killing at least 11 civilians including two doctors. Continue reading
Apple unveils two new iPhones, starting at $99
Apple unveils two new iPhones, starting at $99 (AFP) / 11 September 2013 Apple unveiled two new iPhones on Tuesday in its bid to expand its share of the smartphone market, including one as low as $99 with a US carrier contract. “The business has become so large that this year we are going to replace the iPhone 5 and we are going to replace it with two new designs,” Apple chief Tim Cook announced at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. Apple will begin taking orders on Friday, and on September 20 the two devices will go on sale in the United States, Australia, Britain, China, France, Germany, Japan and Singapore. The iPhone 5C is part of Apple’s bid to counter the flood of low-cost smartphones from rivals, most of which use the Google Android operating system. Apple designer Jony Ive said that despite the low cost, the polycarbonate iPhone 5C with a steel frame “is beautiful.” “We took the same fanatical care with how the iPhone 5C feels in your hand,” Ive said. The iPhone 5C with 16 gigabytes of memory will sell for as low as $99 with a US carrier contract — half the cost of earlier iPhone base models. Analysts were keenly focused on the promise of an iPhone 5C to win over buyers in China and other developing markets where there is fierce competition from low-priced smartphones powered by Android. The top-line iPhone 5S, which starts at $199 with a contract, “is the most forward thinking phone we have ever created,” said Apple vice-president Phil Schiller. “It is the gold standard in smartphones.” Schiller said the 5S model includes a speedier chip which brings up the computing power from 32 to 64 bits. “It has over a billion transistors in it,” he said, adding that the device will be “about twice as fast in graphics and computing power and about 40 times faster than the original iPhone.” The 5S will also have improved battery life, with some 10 hours of talk time, or 40 hours of music listening, Schiller added. Apple also introduced a fingerprint sensor for the iPhone 5S, as a new security measure in place of passwords. “You can just press the home button to unlock your phone,” Schiller said. “You can use it to authenticate iTunes purchases.” Schiller added: “We have so much of our personal data on these devices, and they are with us almost everyplace we go, so we have to protect them.” Apple also broadened its color palette, announcing the low-cost phone in blue, white, pink, yellow and green, and the top-line model in silver, gold and a new “space gray.” Apple also said its iOS 7 software will debut September 18. It includes a free iTunes Radio Service featuring more than 200 stations “and an incredible catalog of music from the iTunes Store,” Apple announced earlier this year. The two new handsets keep the four-inch screen of current iPhones, despite some speculation Apple would boost the size to compete with larger phones from rivals like Samsung. Apple announced separately a deal with Japan’s biggest mobile phone carrier NTT DoCoMo to bring the two new iPhones to that country. “NTT DoCoMo has built an impressive network, the largest in the nation with over 60 million customers,” said Cook. “We’ve enjoyed tremendous success with iPhone in Japan, in fact it’s the top selling smartphone in the country, and we look forward to delivering iPhone into even more customers’ hands through NTT DoCoMo.” The smartphone market is now dominated by Android devices, with roughly three-fourths of all handsets, but a forecast by research firm IDC suggested Apple will increase its share this year to 17.9 per cent from 16.9 per cent. Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian White said the new low-cost device will help Apple broaden its appeal. “Since Apple’s iPhone family focuses on the higher-end part of the smartphone market, we estimate the company has been unable to address approximately 60 per cent of the smartphone market,” he said in a note to clients. “We believe today’s event will prove to be part of a larger string of events over the next year as Apple enters a year of innovation.” Continue reading
