May 25, 2010 - The Automation Subcommittee of the Advisory Committee on Commercial Operations of Customs and Border Protection (COAC) has issued the results of its survey of trade community views of the financial benefits of the current release and functionality of the Automated Commercial Environment. The Automation Subcommittee found that its survey indicates that more outreach, similar to the outreach for the Importer Security Filing (ISF, 10+2), may be needed to communicate the benefits of ACE.

May 25, 2010 - (TAIPEI) China and Taiwan will add 100 direct passenger flights and 20 more cargo flights a week to keep up with two-way trade worth an annual US$109 billion and growing since hostilities began to ease in 2008, officials said yesterday.

A weekend deal that boosts direct flights to a total of 370 and cargo flights to 48 from mid-June reflects increases in Chinese tourists as well as growing demand by Taiwanese investors bound for China, the island's civil aviation authority said.

Markets are expected to look favourably at the flights as a sign that business between the political rivals of 60 years is picking ahead of a free trade-style deal due to be signed next month.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since the end of the Chinese civil war in 1949 and has vowed to bring the island under mainland rule, by force if necessary.

The two sides had banned direct flights on security concerns for decades but began opening routes from 2005 as Taiwan investors sighted economic powerhouse China as a manufacturing and sales hot spot despite political tensions.

'New flights will be a reflection of economic interaction, as for Taiwan certainly China is one of its fastest-growing markets,' said David Cohen, director of Asian economic forecasting with Action Economics in Singapore.

'It does appear to be one of the fastest-growing relationships anywhere on the planet,' he said.

China, for its part, seeks to help Taiwan's US$390 billion economy as part of a charm offensive that it hopes will lure the island into political unification. 

Negotiators meeting in Taipei over the weekend also agreed to open six new airports for passenger or cargo flights, including one near central Shanghai seen boosting tourist traffic.

ECHA plans this month to sign an accord with Canada's national chemicals regulator Environment Canada (Ottawa) to collaborate on chemicals regulation, Dancet says. The accord will feature an agreement to exchange non-confidential data and for ECHA and Environment Canada, Canada's federal regulatory body, to share best practices on data management. Other areas of potential collaboration include the use of IT tools developed by ECHA to manage the huge volumes of chemicals data generated by the Reach process.

Chemweek Online

May 24, 2010 -  (SEOUL) Trade ministers from China, Japan and South Korea yesterday praised efforts to explore a potential joint free trade deal to boost commerce among three of Asia's biggest economies.

South Korean Trade Minister Kim Jong Hoon, Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming, and Japanese Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Masayuki Naoshima met in Seoul for one day of talks.

The three countries, which represent 18.6 per cent of the global economy as measured by gross domestic product, have been holding trilateral meetings at the trade minister level since 2002. Japan is Asia's largest economy with China close behind. South Korea ranks No 4, behind India.

South Korea, China and Japan earlier this month in Seoul held the first meeting of a joint committee consisting of representatives from government, business and academia to study a free trade agreement.

Mr Kim, Mr Chen and Mr Naoshima said in a statement that they hoped the study, targeted for completion by 2012, would 'contribute to deepening the already mutually beneficial economic interactions among the three countries towards the realisation of economic integration of the region in the long term'.

As that language suggests, achieving such an ambitious deal would likely take years. Efforts by South Korea and Japan, for example, to reach a bilateral free trade agreement have gone mostly nowhere largely because of disagreement over how to handle trade in rice.

South Korea has been the most aggressive among the three countries in pursuing bilateral free trade agreements.

Seoul has pacts in force with Chile, Singapore, India, the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and the European Free Trade Association, which comprises Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

It has signed a deal with the United States and concluded negotiations on one with the European Union, though the agreements remain unratified. The country is also negotiating eight other agreements with Australia, Canada, Mexico, Turkey and others.

Yesterday's meeting came as concerns grow over the state of the world economy amid Europe's debt crisis, which has shaken financial markets and raised fears over a possible broader impact on commerce.

Global trade, which plummeted in the wake of the worldwide financial meltdown in late 2008, is expected to rebound in 2010, the World Trade Organization (WTO) said in March.

The ministers did not mention current financial unease in their statement, though said they 'support the open and fair multilateral trade regime of the WTO' and highlighted the need to 'fight against protectionism in any form'. They also vowed to work towards an 'ambitious, balanced and early conclusion' of a stalled global trade agreement within the WTO, the so-called Doha round.They also said they would cooperate ahead of summits this year of the Group of 20 - scheduled for Toronto in June and Seoul in November - 'to ensure that the G-20 delivers its promise to strengthen the international financial system and lay the foundation for strong, sustainable and balanced growth of the world economy'.

 

 

 

 

May 20, 2010 -  (PIRAEUS, Greece) The giant container cranes lie still in the haze of a warm spring afternoon in the port of Piraeus near Athens - a vital commercial hub for the economy since the days of ancient Greece.

Business for the local dockworkers is badly down these days as a result of the deep economic crisis that Greece has been plunged into due to spiralling debts and the harsh austerity measures that it has been forced to adopt.

'The freight has reduced dramatically,' said Giorgios Ganos, a soft-spoken 37-year-old worker, looking out over the sprawling commercial port laid out along the Saronic Gulf from which ancient Athens once launched its warships.

'If before we were working every day, now it can be 15 or 20 days without a job,' said Mr Ganos.

When there were no ships to load, workers had to survive on a daily minimum wage, he added - and even that has been cut.

Greek imports have fallen sharply because of a prolonged recession.

The Piraeus Port Authority, the state-controlled company that operates the commercial port, slumped to a loss of 33.6 million euros (S$58 million) last year from a profit of 5.6 million euros in 2008.

Ironically, however, Greek shipowners are doing well due to a recovery in international trade. They may even benefit from Greece's crisis because of lower salaries during the current downturn, observers said.
Ship orders from the sector are up and some major Greek shipowners have reported healthy profits in the first quarter - largely due to rising demand for raw materials in the booming markets of China and India.

'Luckily for us, Greek shipping is not a domestic business, it's an international business,' Michael Bodouroglou, chief executive officer of New York Stock Exchange-listed Paragon Shipping, told AFP.

'Virtually all our counterparts are based abroad, our revenue stream relies 100 per cent on counterparts that are international companies . . . our financing activities are also based on banks that are non-Greek banks,' he said.

'This may sound a little bit tragic . . . but the sector is actually benefiting as far as competitiveness is concerned when there is pressure on salaries,' said Mr Bodouroglou, who is based in the port of Voula near Athens.

Paragon Shipping, which is registered in the Marshall Islands in the Pacific Ocean, has reported profits throughout the economic crisis. Earlier this month, it ordered eight more ships to add to its fleet of 11 vessels.

Theodoros Vanos, project manager for Posidonia, one of the world's biggest shipping conferences, due to be held in Athens next month with a record number of visitors, said that Greek shipping - the second biggest chunk of the economy after tourism - was doing well despite difficulties in financing because 'the international shipping market is rebounding'.

Critics complain that shipowners could do more to boost the economy.

Under a long-established tradition, shipowners do not pay corporate tax - a concession left intact in the government's recent austerity drive.

'They are based in Greece but none of what they do is related to Greece,' said Dimitri Sofianopoulos, director for Greece at Norton Rose, a law firm.

'If you start taxing the Greek shipowners, they will go somewhere else', such as Singapore or Dubai where they would pay little or no tax, he said.

The industry argues that it is doing its part to help the economy.

'Shipping can help soften the impact of the austerity measures' through investment in the Greek economy and the creation of jobs, said Mr Vanos.

But there is little sign of that windfall trickling down to the graffiti-strewn streets of Piraeus - a town of some 200,000 people.

The daily minimum wage for dockworkers has been cut to 42 euros from 47 euros previously and - like all Greeks - they have lost the thrice-yearly bonus payments that many relied on to supplement their incomes.On top of that, unionised dockworkers are being moved to a smaller terminal next month after a Chinese state-owned company, Cosco, won a 35-year concession from the government to manage two terminals at Piraeus.