by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Economy, Interviews, Large Enterprise, News, Politics
By Vishav and Manish Gupta,
New Delhi : India is fully prepared to deal with any fallout of the US sanctions on Iran and has made necessary provisions for every possible scenario, says a top government adviser.
However, he said, it was better to wait till the actual events happen and react quickly to them, rather than pre-commit to a certain sequence of actions.
Sanjeev Sanyal, the Finance Ministry’s Principal Economic Adviser, told IANS in an interview that while the economy was gathering pace, there were several external factors which were a concern — including the US-China trade war, tightening of US monetary policy and rising oil prices, apart from the trade sanctions on Iran.
“We have already weighed our options… various scenarios have been thought about and in each one, certain series of sequences have been planned. Provisions have somewhat been made where necessary. In many cases, you just have to do it when it happens. The key is to react fast.
“So rather than predispose ourselves to a particular line of response, what we can do is have a whole bunch of options and then as things evolve, we know which option to take. The point is to maintain optionality rather than pre-commit to a certain sequence,” Sanyal said.
Last month, the Trump administration reimposed the first batch of Iran sanctions since Washington withdrew from the 2015 nuclear deal, with sanctions on oil sales coming into force from November.
Sanctions against Iran are not the only external factor which is a concern for the Indian economy. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, in his first address after resuming office after a long absence due to his kidney transplant, had also said that the challenges to the Indian economy were mainly from external factors such as rising oil prices and the US-China trade war.
Sanyal agreed and said: “There is the trade war looming. We have oil prices which we need to look out for. And the US is tightening its monetary policy. These are not new concerns; they have been building up for some weeks now, if not months. But these are concerns that will have an impact on us.”
He said while the impact of these events is “non-quantifiable”, the best option for India is to “watch carefully what happens, how systems evolve and to respond quickly to protect national interests”.
“The point is that since we don’t know how the trade war and many of these things will pan out, or oil prices for that matter, so we will have to wait,” Sanyal said.
On domestic concerns, the economist said while all evidence showed that the economy was gathering pace, it was important to maintain that momentum. He said the government’s focus was to clean up the banking system, ensure credit flow to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and simplify the GST.
(Vishav and Manish can be contacted at vishav@ians.in and manish.g@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Washington : The US military has announced that it was cancelling $300 million in aid to Pakistan over what it calls Islamabad’s failure to take action against militant groups, a new blow to worsening bilateral ties between the two countries.
“Due to a lack of Pakistani decisive actions in support of the South Asia Strategy, the remaining $300 million was reprogrammed,” Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Kone Faulkner said in a statement on Saturday.
“We continue to press Pakistan to indiscriminately target all terrorist groups,” Faulkner said, adding that the $300 million aid, which had earlier been suspended, would be now aimed at spending on other “urgent priorities” due to “a lack of Pakistani decisive actions” in tackling the issue.
The move, which needs to be approved by US Congress, is part of a broader suspension announced in January when Washington had announced that it was cutting almost all security aid to the Islamabad, reports the BBC.
Saturday’s announcement comes before US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s scheduled visit to Pakistan this week and meet the country’s newly-elected Prime Minister, Imran Khan.
The US State Department has criticised Pakistan for failing to deal with terrorist networks operating on its soil, including the Haqqani network and the Afghan Taliban with President Donald Trump also accusing Islamabad of deceiving Washington while receiving billions of dollars.
Washington has long complained that Pakistan provides a safe haven to militant groups, including the Afghan Taliban, Haqqani Network and Al Qaeda, allowing them to carry out cross-border attacks in Afghanistan.
Pakistan has denied these claims.
Since 2002, Pakistan has received over $33 billion in US assistance, including $14 billion in Coalition Support Funds, a US Defence Department programme to reimburse allies that have incurred costs in supporting counter-insurgency operations.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Washington : The fate of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) became uncertain when the US and Canada failed to come to a consensus on rewriting the three-nation trade pact.
“We know a win-win-win agreement is within reach and that’s what we’re working towards,” said Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs Chrystia Freeland at a press conference on Friday.
The US Trade Representative’s office said talks with Canada would continue on Wednesday and that President Donald Trump has formally notified Congress of the trade deal he struck with Mexico earlier this week, reports CNN.
“Today the President notified the Congress of his intent to sign a trade agreement with Mexico — and Canada, if it is willing — 90 days from now. The agreement is the most advanced and high-standard trade agreement in the world,” the statement said.
Talks came to a head on Friday as officials rushed to beat a US-imposed deadline that would allow them to sign the deal before Mexico’s president-elect, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, takes office on December 1.
The US and Mexico announced a preliminary bilateral deal earlier this week after resolving an issue over auto manufacturing. Canadian officials rejoined the talks this week.
Officials from both the US and Canadian negotiating teams confirmed on Friday that they will continue working towards a trilateral deal, and that good progress has been made over the past year at revamping the 24-year-old trade deal.
“The government of Canada will not sign an agreement unless it’s good for Canada and good for Canadians,” Freeland said Friday.
At issue is Canadian concessions on agriculture.
Trump has said he wants Canada to end its steep tariffs on US dairy products, claiming they hurt US farmers. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has pledged to protect his country’s dairy industry.
The White House must give Congress an official 90-day notice before entering into a new trade deal. Since administration notified Congress on Friday, Trump will be allowed to sign the deal by November 30, reports CNN.
Even then, Congress could still block the deal. It’s unlikely any rewrite of NAFTA would come up for a vote until 2019.
The text of the agreement does not have to be submitted to Congress until September 30.
The governments of Canada and Mexico must also ratify the agreement and if they don’t, then there’s no deal.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert
Washington : The US has said that North Korea should denuclearise before Washington signs a war-ending declaration with Pyongyang.
In a press briefing on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency quoted State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert as saying: “We believe that denuclearization has to take place before we get to other parts.”
US media had reported earlier that the signing of a joint declaration to formally end the Korean War was one of the verbal agreements between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un when they met on June 12 in Singapore.
But besides the pace and scale of denuclearization, Washington and Pyongyang have disagreed on whether to issue a war-ending declaration.
North Korea has argued that such a document is the first step towards peace on the peninsula, whereas US has said it is too early to discuss the topic.
At the conclusion of the historic Trump-Kim summit, the two sides issued a joint statement in which they agreed to improve bilateral relations and work together to build a lasting and stable peace regime on the peninsula.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
By Yusuf Hatip,
Brussels: The EU will respond immediately if the U.S. decides to go ahead with new tariffs on EU-origin products, European Commission spokesman Daniel Rosario said on Tuesday.
Speaking at a daily briefing in Brussels, Rosario said: “The EU is ready to respond immediately if the U.S. decides to go ahead with the new tariffs on EU-origin products.”
In March, American President Donald Trump imposed a 25-percent tariff on imported iron and steel, and a 10-percent tariff on aluminum — since then the issue has been discussed heatedly among the U.S. and its major trade partners.
After that, the EU placed a 25-percent tariff on American products and Trump threatened to impose more tariffs on all European cars.
Last month, Trump hosted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Washington.
—IANS
