(Xinhua) -- China's envoy to the WTO on Saturday called for global efforts to overcome difficulties in times of the world financial crisis, warning trade protectionism would have no winner. "If certain countries take the lead in exercising trade protectionism, they will arouse a war of retaliation which will hurt all sides concerned at last," said Sun Zhenyu, China's ambassador to the WTO. Sun urged all countries in the world to learn the lessons of the Great Depression in the 1930s, saying the policy of one country to seek its benefits at the expense of others could not help the world economy to recover earlier and would exacerbate the recession. Sun, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, is here attending the ongoing annual session of the advisory body. Citing the Great Depression, Sun said, the United States at that time doubled the import tariffs of more than 2,000 varieties of commodities and European countries in retaliation hiked import tariffs on American products, which led to a more than 60 percent drop in world trade volume in 1933. "This shows that protectionism could only backfire," he said. As a responsible member of the WTO, China opposes trade protectionism and has earnestly followed its commitments to the organization, he said. According to Sun, China witnessed an average annual trade growth of more than 25 percent since it joined WTO in 2001, and foreign direct investment increased remarkably. China has also lowered the level of import tariffs to 9.9 percent from 43.2 percent before its WTO entry, which resulted in a net increase of imports by more than 100 billion U.S. dollars per year since 2001. "All this has contributed greatly to the world economy," Sun said. On the exchange rate of the Chinese currency, Sun said "our policy is to maintain a stable yuan as big fluctuations of the exchange rate would bring great harm to both trade and investment."

G-20 summit must make enduring pledge to free trade: British envoy William Hollingworth Kyodo News LONDON, March 6 -- A strong commitment to free trade must be one of the priorities for the forthcoming Group of 20 meeting in London amid creeping signs of protectionism, Britain's envoy to the financial summit said Friday. Foreign Office Minister Mark Malloch-Brown told reporters that despite anti-protectionist pledges at the group's first summit in Washington last November, not all nations had honored this commitment. Speaking about the aims of the April 2 summit, Malloch-Brown said, ''The language (on free trade) has to be more credible than in Washington.'' There has to be some way of monitoring the situation after the summit so there is no backsliding, he added. Britain also wants a recommitment to restarting the Doha Round multilateral trade negotiations on reducing trade barriers in the latter half of this year. Noting progress is being made on the plans for the high-level meeting of international leaders, the minister said, ''Ambitions of the meeting are growing as the crisis grows.''

S. Korea opts for dialogue in computer chip trade dispute with Japan GENEVA, March 6 -- South Korea has withdrawn an earlier complaint it filed with the WTO seeking the elimination of a punitive tariff imposed by Japan on computer chips produced by Hynix Semiconductor Inc. of South Korea, sources close to the matter said Friday. The withdrawal of the complaint came after Japan commenced examining whether to lift the punitive tariff, paving the way for a possible settlement through talks between the two countries, they said. The WTO's arbitration panel effectively ruled in favor of South Korea in November 2007 and urged Japan to lift the barrier. Following the recommendation, Japan cut its 27.2 percent countervailing duty on imports of Hynix dynamic random access memory chips, or DRAMs, to 9.1 percent. Dissatisfied with the move, South Korea filed the complaint in September, calling for the duty to be scrapped. The WTO has set up a compliance panel to assess whether Tokyo has acted on the body's earlier decision. The bilateral trade dispute was sparked when Japan imposed the countervailing duty in January 2006 after calling into question whether financial support for the chipmaker provided by a South Korean bank in 2001 and 2002 constituted government subsidies.

India takes up yarn duty issue with Turkey ; The commerce ministry has started consultations with the government of... Rituparna Bhuyan New Delhi 8 March 2009 Business Standard The commerce ministry has started consultations with the government of Turkey on the protectionist measures taken by it against import of cotton yarn. The ministry has also started an investigation into the additional duty imposed by Egypt on the product. Turkey had in July 2008 imposed safeguard duties on cotton yarn imports. As a result, the effective import duty on natural yarn in Turkey now ranges between 13 and 20 per cent, whereas Turkey’s bound import duty rate (its commitment to the World Trade Organization, or the WTO) is 5 per cent. Egypt imposed a safeguard duty of 30 per cent on natural yarn in January 2009 as against its bound duty rate of 15 per cent. Safeguard duty is an emergency levy to restrict imports.

US initiates probe against India's measures on agri imports New Delhi, Mar 8 (PTI) -- Concerned over low share in India's farm sector imports, the US has initiated an investigation into protectionist measures undertaken by New Delhi and their bearing on American exports. "The US International Trade Commission (ITC) has launched an investigation into the effects of tariff and non-tariff measures on US agricultural exports to India," ITC said on its website. The investigation follows a complaint by the US Senate Committee on Finance, which highlighted the issue of "disproportionately low US share in India's agricultural imports". "While US exporters can provide individual examples of trade measures that prevent their sales to India, the extent to which trade and investment measures account for the disproportionately low US share of India's agricultural imports remains largely undocumented," the Committee on Finance said in the letter to ITC. As per the Economic Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), the India-US agricultural trade has been expanding at 9 per cent every year since 1990, reaching USD 17 billion in 2007. However, as per estimates, India maintains a large positive agricultural trade balance with the US as its exports to America was USD 1.2 billion, while Washington's exports to India stood at USD 475 million. An Indian agricultural trade expert Vijay Sardana said, "It is well known that the US is heavily subsiding its agricultural products for exports and if the Indian government is building safeguards within the given provisions of the WTO, it should not be considered as trade barrier."

Congressman Moves To Lift Ban On Online Gambling 8 March 2009 CMP TechWeb With the Democrats in the U.S. Congress drafting legislation to repeal a controversial three-year ban on online gambling, Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) said he will work to see the legislation passed. Frank has been an outspoken critic of the ban from its inception. "I'm going to be pushing it," he said at a press conference where he presented his agenda for reforming U.S. financial regulation. Opponents of the ban estimate that its elimination could, over a decade, raise more than $50 billion through taxes on online Internet gambling, provided it is regulated. The controversial legislation to ban online gambling was passed three years ago amid complaints it would be too difficult to regulate and might even be unconstitutional. Various foreign interests have complained that the existing law could be a violation of WTO regulations and various countries have initiated complaints with the WTO.

Vietnam: Packaging makers plea for help 9 March 2009 Thai News Service Manufacturers of paper for industrial packaging have pleaded to the Government to save them from bankruptcy. Many of them are sitting on huge stocks of finished products as well as raw materials as imports have been flooding the country and demand falling at the same time, the Industrial Packaging Paper Association says.

New Zealand disappointed at U.S. postponement of trade talks WELLINGTON, March 8 (Xinhua) -- New Zealand Prime Minister John Key said on Sunday that the Government was deeply disappointed that the United States was postponing trade talks involving New Zealand that were scheduled to get underway at the end of the month. U.S. President Barack Obama is yet to appoint a U.S. Trade Representative as his nominee. Ron Kirk has not been approved by the Senate. Kirk is scheduled to appear before the Senate's finance committee in the near future, where he will outline trade policy and his plans in order for them to confirm his appointment.

Schedule of talks on Russia’s WTO entry to be approved Mar 26-27 MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - The schedule of further talks on the final version of the report of the working group on Russia's accession to the WTO will be approved at consultations in Geneva on March 26-27. The consultations will be conducted under the chairmanship of working group head Stefan Johannesson, said Maxim Medvedkov, the head of the Russia delegation at the WTO talks. The Geneva consultations will also touch on support for agricultural and veterinary and phytosanitary measures, he told Interfax.

Saudi Arabia to support Kazakhstan’s WTO accession ‘ Kazakh MFA 8 March 2009 The Times of Central Asia ASTANA, March 8 (TCA) -- First round of Kazakhstan-Saudi Arabia negotiations on accession of Kazakhstan to the WTO took place in Riyadh during the period of March 1-5, 2009. The Kazakh delegation was headed by Vice minister of Industry and Trade Zhanar Aitzhanova. The Saudi side was represented by heads of ministries of trade and industry, oil and mineral resources, finances, telecommunications regulation agency and the central bank of the Kingdom. In the course of the visit the RK delegation members met Vice Minister of Oil of Saudi Arabia, Prince Abdel Aziz Ibn Salman who expressed readiness for assistance in early completion of the bilateral talks and support organization at multilateral negotiations on Kazakhstan’s joining the WTO.

IMF conference to mull strategy as global crisis hits Africa Jean-Marc Mojon 8 March 2009 AFP--With the full force of the global financial crisis starting to hit Africa, leaders will gather Monday in Tanzania for an International Monetary Fund conference convened to tackle the issue. When what many consider the worst economic crisis since the 1930s Great Depression erupted last year in the West, analysts initially believed Africa had a chance of weathering the financial storm with only a few scratches. African banks invested little in the so-called "toxic" assets that sparked the crisis, shielding the continent from the credit crunch. But with no hope of recovery from the global downturn before 2010, a bitter cocktail of dwindling remittances, shrinking export markets and looming investment cuts is threatening to poison the world's poorest continent. Presenting a study last week in Washington, IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn painted a bleak picture of Africa's immediate future. "After hitting first the industrial countries and then emerging markets, a third wave of the global financial crisis is now hitting the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries, and hitting them hard," he said.

World Bank predicts global economy will shrink this year for first time since World War II By SAMANTHA BOMKAMP AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) - The World Bank said Sunday that the global economy will shrink this year for the first time since World War II and that the global financial crisis will make it tougher for poor and developing nations to access needed financing. Trade is forecast to fall to its lowest point in 80 years in 2009, as economic hardship ripples across the globe, the bank said. The most drastic trade slowdowns are expected in East Asia, where growth had been robust, the bank said in a paper prepared for a meeting of finance ministers and central bank officials next week. The impact on the poorest countries will be severe, the bank said, predicting that a group of 129 countries face a shortfall of $270 to $700 billion this year. The bank, which offers low-interest loans and grants to developing nations, warned international financial institutions will not be able to cover even the low end of that estimate. Only one-quarter of those vulnerable countries will be able to ease the economic downturn through job creation or "safety net" programs, the bank said. The ramifications of the growing financial crisis on the world's poorest nations will likely remain for some time, the bank said. Because richer nations are borrowing more, developing nations are being squeezed out and many financial organizations that have provided financing to lower-income countries "have virtually disappeared." (END)

Bangladesh could feel impact of world financial crisis: WB DHAKA, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Visiting vice-president of World Bank for South Asia Isabel Guerrero Sunday said Bangladesh could feel an impact of the global economic recession and the country needs to prepare social safety net program to face the impact. "So far Bangladesh has not felt the impact of the financial crisis...But it is possible in the future through Bangladesh's manpower exports and remittances," she told reporters here after meeting with Bangladesh's Foreign Minister Dipu Moni.

ANALYSIS-Iceland warms to EU but accession no certainty By Wojciech Moskwa REYKJAVIK, March 8 (Reuters) - Shaken by financial crisis, many Icelanders believe European Union membership could help restore economic stability, but entrenched opposition to entry suggests membership is far from a foregone conclusion. The anchor of EU membership and a clear path towards the euro zone would seem an easy sell in Iceland, whose banks and independent currency collapsed last year, yet membership is rejected by powerful constituencies such as the fishing lobby. Work is already under way to prepare the ground for a referendum on whether Iceland should start accession talks, an attempt to reach over the heads of politicians and win a wide public mandate for entry negotiations across party lines. (END)