As previously reported, the head of China’s Food and Agriculture minister was executed for corruption and dereliction of duty earlier this year. That sets the tone for measures that will be taken in in China to maintain standards. But it is more extreme than one would like. So, with the spate of product quality issues …
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Category:Trade and FDI
Cost of food rising fast, driving inflation and hurting the poor
The cost of food is rising fast. We had been expecting this because of variations in weather patterns which we feared would upset cultivation. However, the sudden interest in corn for ethanol, since the warnings last year by the Stern Review, An Inconvenient Truth and IPCC, has also contributed to an increase. The chart here …
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APEC for climate change and trade
The principal messages from leaders meeting at the APEC summit recently concluded in Sydney Australia are to prioritise action to reduce climate change and to successfully conclude the WTO Doha round trade talks. These are entirely appropriate prime objectives. Unfortunately, the US, which is the largest per capita carbon emitter and world superpower, and Australia, …
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Hype over Chinese toys exaggerated
Recent hype about problems with Chinese manufactured goods was used as an excuse by some protectionist politicians and lobbies in the US to push for trade sanctions and even used as a tool to push for revaluation of the Chinese renminbi. The greatest hype surrounded the recall of more than 20 million toys by Mattel. …
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World Investment Prospects to 2011: Foreign Direct Investment and the Challenge of Political Risk
The Columbia Program on International Investment and the Economist Intelligence Unit published World Investment Prospects to 2011: Foreign Direct Investment and the Challenge of Political Risk. The report contains the first authoritative data on FDI flows for 2006 and forecasts flows until 2011, with 2007 set for a new record. It pays special attention to …
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