25 US lawmakers urge Trump admin not to cancel GSP trade benefits to India

International News

A group of 25 influential American lawmakers has urged the US Trade Representative not to terminate the GSP programme with India after the expiry of the 60-day notice on Friday, saying the country's companies seeking to expand their exports to India could be affected.

The Generalized System of Preference (GSP) is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme and is designed to promote economic development by a
llowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries.
On March 4, President Donald Trump announced that the US intends to terminate India's designations as a beneficiary developing country under the GSP programme.The 60-day notice period ends on May 3.

On the eve of the end of the notice period, the 25 US lawmakers made a last-ditch effort to convince the Trump administration from going ahead with its decision.

The 25 members of the US House of Representatives in a passionate letter urged US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to continue negotiating a deal that protects and promotes jobs that rely on trade both imports and exports with India.They argued that terminating GSP for India would hurt American companies seeking to expand their exports to India.


 "India's termination from GSP follows its failure to provide the United States with assurances that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets in numerous sectors," Trump had said in a letter to Congress, providing a notice of his intent to terminate the designation of India as a beneficiary developing country under GSP programme.In his letter, Trump said that he was determined that New Delhi had "not assured" the US that it would "provide equitable and reasonable access" to the markets of India...Read More

Berkshire Hathaway finally bought shares of Amazon, says Warren Buffett

International News

Warren Buffett said Berkshire Hathaway Inc has bought shares of internet retailing giant Amazon.com Inc for the first time, though he has not been the one doing the buying, CNBC reported on Thursday.

Buffett said the purchase was made by one of his investment managers, Todd Combs or Ted Weschler, and details would be disclosed later this month in Berkshire's quarterly report of its US stock holdings.The purchase marks a U-turn for Berkshire, where Buffett has long praised the leadership of Amazon Chief Executive Jeff Bezos.

"Yeah, I've been a fan, and I've been an idiot for not buying," Buffett told CNBC.Buffett's assistant did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Amazon did not immediately respond to a similar request.

Shares of companies often rise when Berkshire reveals its support through new stakes, even when the purchases are believed or known to have been made by Combs or Weschler, who together invest about $26 billion.

The initial impetus of the portfolio managers has in the past heralded Buffett's eventual forays into some of their investments, often in big ways.

It was Combs who in 2012 began investing in industrial and aircraft parts maker Precision Castparts Corp. Four years later, Berkshire completed its purchase of that company for $32 billion, in what remains Buffett's largest acquisition.


 More recently, it was either Combs or Weschler who in 2016 began investing in iPhone maker Apple Inc.But it was Buffett who ramped up that stake into Berkshire's largest common stock investment, more than 255 million shares, now worth roughly $53 billion.The Amazon purchase adds an additional bond between Buffett and Bezos, whose companies teamed up last year with JPMorgan Chase & Co to form a new venture, Haven, to reduce employee healthcare costs...Read More

Pakistan issues order to freeze assets of Masood Azhar, impose travel ban

International News

Pakistan has issued an official order to freeze the assets and impose travel ban on Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar after the United Nations declared him a "global terrorist".

In a notification issued Wednesday, the foreign ministry said, "the Federal Government is pleased to order that the Resolution 2368 (2017) be fully implemented" against Azhar.

The government directed officials to take actions "as appropriate for the implementation of sanctions" against the JeM chief, according to the notification.

Azhar is also banned from selling or purchasing arms and ammunition.

In a major diplomatic win for India, the United Nations designated Pakistan-based Azhar as a "global terrorist" after China lifted its hold on a proposal by the US, the UK and France to blacklist him.
The US, the UK and France had moved the proposal to designate Azhar as a "global terrorist" in the UN Security Council's 1267 Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee in February, just days after the deadly Pulwama terror attack carried out by the JeM in Jammu and Kashmir.


 Pakistan foreign office spokesman Mohammad Faisal on Wednesday said that Pakistan would "immediately enforce the sanctions" imposed on Azhar.

Global gold demand up 7% in Q1; gold jewellery demand in India at 4-yr high

Market News

The overall demand for gold at the global level surged 7 per cent to 1,053.3 tonnes, led by buying by central banks and exchange traded funds (ETFs), says the latest report on gold demand trends for the first quarter of calendar year 2019 (Q1CY19) by World Gold Council (WGC).

Central banks bought 145.5 tonnes of gold, the largest Q1 increase in global reserves since 2013. “Diversification and a desire for safe, liquid assets were the main drivers of buying here. On a rolling four-quarter basis, gold buying reached a record high for our data series of 715.7 tonnes,” the WGC report said.

India’s demand for gold jewellery hit a four-year high in Q1CY19 at 125.4 tonnes. This, WGC said, helped the overall gold demand for jewellery at the global level inch nearly one per cent higher to 530.3 tonnes, worth $22.2 billion during the recent concluded quarter despite a 2 per cent decline in China’s demand for gold jewellery, estimated at 184.1 tonnes.

“A lower rupee gold price in late February/early March coincided with the traditional gold-buying wedding season, lifting jewellery demand in India to 125.4t up 5 per cent year-on-year – the highest Q1 since 2015,” the WGC report says.

The first half of the quarter, according to WGC, was subdued. The month-long inauspicious period of Kharmas / Malmas ended in mid-January and was followed by a sharp rise in the local gold price, hitting Rs 33,730 per 10 gram by the third week of February 1. Prices then slipped to Rs 32,000 per 10 gram by the first week of March. This price correction, WGC believes, got consumers rush to make wedding-related buying.


 At the global level, though the demand in the US continued to expand, the pace of growth slowed as the prolonged government shutdown hit demand in January.

Clogged Jakarta: Does Indonesia need a new capital?

International News
Even as he awaits official confirmation of his election to a second term, Indonesian President Joko Widodo appears to be thinking about his legacy. He’s proposing a $33 billion plan to relocate the capital far away from clogged Jakarta. The idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds. That doesn’t mean it’ll work.
Jokowi, as the Indonesian leader is known, is right to question Jakarta’s long-term viability as a capital city. The population has swollen to 30 million people and, while a new subway system offers some relief at the margins, Jakarta’s roads are plagued by chronic congestion and flooding. Indonesia’s planning minister has even warned about the potential for a pandemic, given poor sanitation. That’s not to mention the earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and tsunamis that periodically beset the country.

The president’s team is also correct that as a member of the G-20, Indonesia should have an administrative capital that functions well and can accommodate the country’s predicted rise as a major economic player. Building one from scratch would help boost Jokowi’s plans to increase infrastructure spending. The government also wants to spread development beyond Java, the island on which Jakarta is located and the source of about 60 percent of gross domestic product.
Other countries — from Malaysia to Australia, Pakistan, Myanmar, South Korea and Brazil — have created new, purpose-built centers for the machinery of government. Their example, though, illustrates the pitfalls Jokowi needs to fear.


 It’s one thing to build a more efficient capital. (The plan is for the executive branch, legislature and ministries to shift; Bank Indonesia and investment functions will remain in Jakarta.) It’s another to construct monuments to national vanity...Read More

How China uses a mass surveillance phone app to track its citizens

International News

A mobile app used by police to track citizens in China’s far west region of Xinjiang shows how some of the country’s biggest technology companies are linked to a mass surveillance system that is more sophisticated than previously known, according to a report from Human Rights Watch.

The app uses facial recognition technology from a firm backed by Alibaba Group Holding to match faces with photo identification and cross-check pictures on different documents, the New York-based group said on Thursday. The app also takes a host of other data points -- from electricity and smartphone use to personal relationships to political and religious affiliations -- to flag suspicious behavior, the report said.

The watchdog’s report sheds new light on the vast scope of activity China is monitoring as it cracks down on its minority Muslim Uighur population in a bid to stop terrorism before it happens. The U.S. State Department says as many as two million Uighurs are being held in camps in Xinjiang, a number disputed by Chinese authorities even though they haven’t disclosed a figure.

Human Rights Watch said that so-called data doors at checkpoints may be vacuuming up information from mobile phones from unsuspecting citizens.

Some Xinjiang residents who suspected their phones were being used as monitoring devices even buried them in the desert, a move that could later hurt them if the system loses track of their phone, according to Maya Wang, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch.

“The political reeducation camps are one pen, but then you have a series of bigger pens that are like virtual fences,” Wang said.


 China’s State Council Information Office did not reply to a request for comment sent by fax. The government has said the surveillance measures in Xinjiang are necessary to prevent terrorism and grow the region’s economy.

Azhar's listing shows int'l commitment to root terrorism out of Pak: US

International News

The UN declaring Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist demonstrates international commitment to rooting out terrorism in Pakistan and bringing security and stability to South Asia, the Trump administration said Wednesday, expressing hope that Islamabad will take sustained and irreversible action against terror groups operating from its soil.

Welcoming China's decision to lift its hold on the proposal to blacklist the Pakistan-based JeM chief, a senior Trump administration official during a conference call with reporters said after 10 years China has done the right thing by lifting its blockade.

"I think China seems to have understood that it was increasingly important that it's actions on the international stage on terrorism matched it's rhetoric, the White House official said on the condition of anonymity.

Pulwama attack, the official noted was just the latest in the terrorist attacks that this deadly group has conducted.

"Designating Azhar demonstrates international commitment to rooting out terrorism in Pakistan and bringing security and stability to South Asia," the official said, adding that this designation is critically important and it was a long time coming.

This designation, the official said, is in line with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's stated commitment to crackdown on militancy inside Pakistan and his acknowledgment that prosperity and development in Pakistan is contingent on maintaining regional stability.

 So we acknowledged that this designation is a good step forward and we look forward to how Pakistan would use this international designation press forward on its own stated commitment, the official said...Read More