WTO Ministerial 9th Conference concluded at Bali,
Indonesia
1. 9th WTO Ministerial Conference was concluded on
6 December 2013 at Bali, Indonesia. The Ministerial Conference has agreed on
the revised draft of Bali Package.
2. The Ministerial Conference was held in Bali,
Indonesia from 3 to 6 December 2013 and attended by 159 WTO Member countries
representatives.
3. The World Trade Organization (WTO) agreed to
allow countries to provide subsidy on staple food crops without any threat of
punitive action.
4. In this regard, the WTO has issued a revised
draft of the Bali Package which addresses India's concerns on food security.
The draft proposes an interim mechanism to safeguard minimum support prices to
farmers against WTO caps till a permanent solution is adopted.
5. The deal allows nations such as India to fix a
Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farm produce and to sell staple grains to the
poor at subsidised rates.
6. It also permits countries to store food grains
to meet contingency requirements.
Trade Facilitation Agreement ----
1. The 159-member WTO also agreed on the Trade
Facilitation Agreement (TFA), which is aimed at making international trade much
easier by simplifying and streamlining custom procedures across the globe.
2. The pact is billed to bring in gains worth 1
trillion Dollars for global trade.
3. The TFA(Trade Facilitation Agreement) would help
countries cut transaction costs.
4. The trade facilitation will also help developing
countries including India to reduce transaction cost and improve
competitiveness of domestic industry
India Point of view
1. Food Security Law may push India’s Minimum
Support Prices (MSP) above WTO limits, but interim mechanism provides
safeguards till WTO rules are corrected.
2. WTO Agreement on Trade Facilitation could boost
India’s exports
3. India gains global leadership by getting a
crucial poor-rich country imbalance corrected on a multilateral forum
4. Support subsidies to poor farmers across all
developing countries get safeguards against WTO rule.
About Ministerial Conferences
Ministerial Conference
is- the topmost decision-making body of the WTO. The Ministerial Conference,
usually meets every two years.
It brings together all
members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions.
The Ministerial
Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral
trade agreement.
World Trade Organization
1. WTO was established with the signing of the
Marrakesh Agreement/ Marrakesh Declaration at Marrakesh, Morrocco in 1994.
2. WTO came up as a replacement of the General
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT).
3. GATT was overseeing the rules of commerce since
1948. GATT covered trade in goods, whereas WTO deals with trade of inventions,
designs and services too.
4. The World Trade Organization (WTO) deals with
the global rules of trade between nations. Its main function is to ensure that
trade flows as smoothly, predictably and freely as possible
·
Headquarter: : Geneva,
Switzerland
·
Established: 1 January
1995
·
Membership: 159
countries on 2 March 2013
·
Head: Roberto Azevêdo
(Director-General)
Ahmet Uzumcu re-appointed as OPCW Director General
1. Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu has served as OPCW
Director-General, since 25 July 2010.
2. He was appointed to the position in December
2009 by the 14th Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the
Chemical Weapons Convention
3. He graduated from Foreign Relations Department
of the Faculty of Political Science, Ankara University.
4. He was consul at the Consulate General in
Aleppo, Syria and ambassador to Israel from 28 July 1999 to 30 June 2002
5. In 2008, he became chair of the Conference on
Disarmament
6. He received an Honorary Doctorate for Lifetime
Achievements in Arms Control and Disarmament from the Geneva School of
Diplomacy in 2010
7. Ambassador Ahmet Uzumcu on December 2013 was
re-appointed as the OPCW Director General at the 18th Session of the Conference
of State Parties.
8. This will be his second term.
9. The Director-General called 2013 a truly
historical year in his statement during the opening of the conference as the
year has witnessed an unprecedented challenge for the OPCW in the form of
eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons in the
midst of an active war.
10. The Nobel Committee in recognition of 16 years
of achievement of the OPCW has awarded it the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize.
Reserve Bank of India
hits the dollar deposit scheme
1. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)’s out-of-the-box
move to woo dollar deposits by protecting banks from currency risks has been a
big hit.
2. Banks have managed to mobilised $34 billion in
foreign currency deposits since the special swap scheme was flagged off in
September.
3. This is much higher than the sums raised by the
Resurgent India Bonds (RIBs) of 1998 ($4.2 billion) and the India Millennium
Bonds ($5.5 billion).
4. The inflows have given the rupee a much-needed
breather from its steady slide over the past year.
5. Hence, both the bank and the depositor benefit
from such returns. “In effect, the annualised profit rate of the overdraft
amount invested in India by the bank may be close to 10 per cent.
6. Additionally, the NRI investor earns an
annualised return up to 17-18 per cent on his initial investment.
7. But since banks have always had the option of
raising FCNR (B) deposits, what has made them so attractive now? The low cost
of this option was the major reason.
8. Usually, an interest rate of 400 basis points
over Libor is paid on dollar deposits to NRIs.
9. To service the deposit, the bank would have to
buy a currency hedge, paying about 7 per cent a year.
10. But with the RBI subsidising the hedging cost at
a fixed 3.5 per cent, the effective cost of funds for FCNR deposits has
plummeted to 8.75- 9 per cent.
11. This made it an attractive option, similar to
raising domestic deposits.
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