China's March exports shrink 15% y/y in shock fall Reuters

sob

Mod
Joined
May 4, 2009
Messages
6,425
Likes
3,805
Country flag
I see this as a small bump on the economic highway of PRC. As recent article in Economist has pointed out that China last year was able to generate urban employment to the tune of 13 million jobs due to boom in service sectors. this is a huge figure and augurs well for the future.

Second China is slowly loosening it's Iron grip on Interest rates and also allowing more flexibility to the movement of Yuan.
The third reform is going be in the Fiscal front, with the Government putting lot of focus on this.

We can expect the results to start showing sooner rather than later.
 

sgarg

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2014
Messages
3,480
Likes
986
The world is moving to the so called "post-industrial era" where improvement in robotic technology makes labour redundant.

This is a time of change. There will be pressure on countries (including India) that survive on cheap labour.
 

no smoking

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Messages
5,000
Likes
2,302
Country flag
I am sure the Chinese will howl that this is a West sponsored propaganda to do down the greatness of China.
Ray, that is why I love you so much. You can always make false assumption without bothering to check the fact. When somebody points out your error, you can always find a way to shut them down.

Now I understand how Nehru made that big mistake in 1962-people like you did a great job for CCP.
 

Ray

The Chairman
Professional
Joined
Apr 17, 2009
Messages
43,132
Likes
23,834
Ray, that is why I love you so much. You can always make false assumption without bothering to check the fact. When somebody points out your error, you can always find a way to shut them down.

Now I understand how Nehru made that big mistake in 1962-people like you did a great job for CCP.
Check facts?

What are you expecting as facts?

Govt memos, minutes of meeting, kiss and tell stories?

You cannot even go beyond what the CPC tells you and their vassal media.

Remember how you howl every time Epoch Times does and expose on China?

Remember how you expel journalists who write negatively about China like the poor chap of Al Jazeera (and Qatar owned channel) who did a TV expose on the Laogais in China?

So, you had better check your facts, beyond the ones you are trained and mind controlled to spout like beached whales.
 

sorcerer

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2013
Messages
26,920
Likes
98,472
Country flag
Obama, Republicans Push Anti-China Trade Pact

Both the US Senate and House of Representatives have begun action on legislation to grant President Obama Trade Promotion Authority, also known as "fast-track" authority, which would enable the US government to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade agreement with 11 other countries in Asia and the Americas.

The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday, in a 20-6 vote, approved the measure and sent it to the Senate floor, where it will likely face stronger opposition in advance of a vote in the coming weeks. Five Democrats and one Republican on the committee voted "no."

The Finance Committee vote followed an agreement last week between Republicans and a section of committee Democrats on the terms of the TPA legislation after protracted talks between the committee chairman, Orrin Hatch of Utah, and the ranking Democrat, Ron Wyden of Oregon.

The House Ways and Means Committee was to begin work on the legislation Thursday, its chairman, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, announced. Ryan participated in the talks with Hatch and Wyden and signed off on the deal.

The bill would give the president authority to negotiate trade agreements under provisions for fast-track congressional approval–the House and Senate would each have up-or-down votes without amendments or procedural delays–for the next three years.

As a practical matter, congressional approval of Trade Promotion Authority is both necessary to reach a trade deal and tantamount to approval of it. No country will sign a trade agreement with the United States if Congress can amend it at will or filibuster it. Congress has never rejected such an agreement in a straight up-or-down vote.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is an economic and trade component of the Obama administration's pivot to Asia, which involves the mobilization of US military, political and economic assets against the rising power of China.
The 11 other nations now engaged in the TPP talks include Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Canada.

If the 12-nation trading area is established, it will be the world's largest; comprising 40 percent of the world's economy- a bigger proportion than is covered by the European Union. Other Asian countries are expected to sign on if the TPP materializes. South Korea has indicated interest and the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia are also potential candidates.

Discussion of TPP in official Washington has proceeded on two separate tracks, one for the corporate elite and its military-intelligence apparatus, and one for those posturing demagogically–and entirely falsely–as defenders of American workers.

Within decisive circles of the ruling elite, the main discussions have revolved around the strategic value of TPP as a means of putting pressure on China and forestalling its rise to a preeminent economic position in the Asia-Pacific region. The central question is the incorporation of Japan, the world's third-largest economy, into the future bloc, since without Japan the TPP would be little more than an expanded NAFTA: the US, Canada and Mexico, plus a handful of second-tier Asian economies.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is due in Washington April 28 for talks at the White House. He will also address a joint session of Congress. The Obama-Abe talks are expected to deal with the main roadblocks to completion of the TPP, particularly US-Japanese conflicts over agricultural and automobile trade.

The Washington Post, in an editorial that left no doubt about the real purpose of the TPP talks, called on the Obama administration to make sure the deal is finalized with Japan and Congress. The newspaper declared that "the TPP is about geopolitics as well as economics." It added, "The key here is Japan. Aging and economically troubled, the Asian giant is looking to forge a deeper political and security commitment with the United States to offset a rising China."

The editorial concluded with this warning: "If the TPP fails, there won't be much left of the Obama administration's pivot to Asia."

Vice President Joseph Biden made a similar argument April 17, addressing a group of 29 right-wing congressional Democrats, most of whom are expected to back Trade Promotion Authority. "China is a gigantic force sitting on top of all nations smaller, except India, in the region and is able to do what Russia is able to do in Europe with regard to oil," he said. "They have significant economic power to deny access to their markets or open access to their markets for all of those regional powers."


Promotion of the TPP is thus tied to the increasingly frenzied efforts of American imperialism to provoke regional conflicts with China and North Korea, effectively a client state of Beijing: with Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyou islets; with the Philippines and Vietnam, among others, in the South China Sea; on the Burmese border with China; and between India and China.

In the media coverage of TPP, however, such considerations have been overshadowed by the fake-populist posturing of a large section of the congressional Democratic Party, along with Democratic Party-aligned groups, including the AFL-CIO, environmental groups, the Nation magazine and the pseudo-left International Socialist Organization.

These forces are opposing the trade pact on the basis of anti-Chinese chauvinism and American nationalism, seeking once again to promote the lie that US workers' jobs and wages can be defended at the expense of the jobs and conditions of workers of other countries. Their attempt to divert working class anger over unemployment and wage cuts along reactionary nationalist channels is linked to the promotion of militarism.

On April 15, four congressional Democrats addressed a rally of more than 1,000 union officials and their supporters, chaired by United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard, fresh from his betrayal of the strike by oil refinery workers.

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts performed her fist-pumping ritual, shouting into the microphone, "No more secret trade deals! Are you ready to fight? No more special deals for multinational corporations! Are you ready to fight?"

Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who may carry out a token challenge to Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, declared that Congress was "totally owned by billionaires and their lobbyists."

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, another veteran of countless betrayals of struggles of the working class, both as president of the nearly defunct United Mineworkers of America and now as head of the labor federation, testified against the trade agreement at a hearing Tuesday before the Senate Finance Committee.

Trumka had previously announced a "massive" six-figure ad campaign to lobby Congress against fast-track authority. "We can't afford to pass fast-track, which would lead to more lost jobs and lower wages," he declared.

"We want Congress to keep its leverage over trade negotiations- not rubber-stamp a deal that delivers profits for global corporations, but not good jobs for working people."

This demagogic rhetoric covers up the AFL-CIO's long record of helping corporate America impose "lost jobs and lower wages" on millions of workers. The unions are not defending the interests of the working class, but rather the profits of less competitive sections of the American capitalist class, particularly in manufacturing, which fear they will lose out to foreign rivals in Japan, Mexico and other countries in the TPP talks.

As for the opposition by congressional Democrats, it is largely for show, to keep the campaign dollars flowing from the unions. When push comes to shove, a sufficient number of Democratic votes will likely be found in both the Senate and the House to offset any potential Republican defections.

Obama is playing his part in the charade, highlighting opposition among congressional Democrats while declaring them wrong on the issue. Like Warren and Sanders, Obama claims to be defending the interests of working people. "I would not be doing this trade deal if I did not think it was good for the middle class," he said in an interview Tuesday with MSNBC.

He went so far as to claim that his six-year record in office was proof that any trade deal would be good for working people–as though the slashing of wages in the auto industry, the destruction of millions of decent-paying jobs, and an economic "recovery" based on low-wage, part-time labor, enforced by drastic cuts in social benefits, had never happened.

Both factions in the ruling class "debate," the advocates of "free trade" and the advocates of protectionism, represent sections of the capitalist class. Both are implacably hostile to the interests of working people.
Obama, Republicans Push Anti-China Trade Pact | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization
 

sorcerer

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2013
Messages
26,920
Likes
98,472
Country flag
China Fines Mercedes-Benz, Not Domestic Firms


China's Jiangsu Province has imposed a 350 million RMB ($56 million) fine on Mercedes-Benz for price fixing and monopolistic behavior. The provincial government's Price Bureau found that Mercedes-Benz fixed floor prices of E-class and S-class cars through various verbal transactions with dealers. Mercedes-Benz is the latest target in a string of antitrust cases involving foreign firms, while domestic firms have faced less fire.

Mercedes-Benz has catered to China's growing elite and overseas customers. The expansion of Mercedes-Benz in China reflects an overall trend in which China may soon become the world's largest luxury auto market, even in the face of the administration's corruption crackdown. Despite its popularity with Chinese consumers, the luxury automobile maker has been under scrutiny, along with other foreign automakers, for anti-competitive behavior, since last year. Daimler, Mercedes' parent company, vowed to ensure full compliance with the anti-monopoly law.

Other foreign firms have been investigated for anti-competitive behavior, including Microsoft, Qualcomm, and GlaxoSmithKline. More than 1,000 automakers, suppliers, and dealers were caught up in the investigation. Chrysler and Audi were among the automakers under scrutiny. Fines levied on foreign firms have prompted some analysts to assert that non-Chinese firms are being unfairly targeted.

So how is the anti-monopoly law enforced? Three government agencies are responsible for enforcing anti-monopoly law: the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), the National Development Reform Commission (NDRC) and the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC). The NDRC and SAIC, both responsible for violations, have cracked down on monopolistic behavior among American, European, and Japanese firms in recent months. While in some cases, only the foreign partner company in joint ventures have been subject to fines, China asserts that it does not discriminate between foreign and domestic firms in its enforcement of anti-trust law.

The interpretation of China's anti-trust law will inevitably be aligned with state interests, as state-owned enterprises (SOE) hold monopoly positions in some industries. It is notable that the Anti-Monopoly Law states that in industries vital to national economic and security interests, monopolies can be protected, supervised and controlled. While the interpretation of the clause could mean that SOE monopolies can be reined in, this has not happened. SOE-dominated sectors contribute the lion's share of SOE profits. This is particularly so in the tobacco, oil extraction, and electricity supply sectors.

In fact, China's socialist-market economy is unique, and monopolization of particular sectors is a major characteristic of the nation's industrial organization. As Duan and Saich (2013) find, Chinese laws actually effectively help to maintain China's state monopoly in certain sectors: a monopoly in energy resources is protected by the Mineral Resources Law through the use of controlled franchises and restricted competition; a monopoly in the telecommunications industry is aided by the permit system, which lays out restrictions on foreign participation in the sector. Government pricing also sets prices on goods and services such as tobacco and railway transportation. The dominance of SOEs in certain sectors is reinforced by asset monopolies, in which the state holds company shares, and other manifestations of state control.

We can conclude, then, that the NDRC and SAIC have not found against SOE monopolies because state monopolization, under most manifestations, is legal, even though foreign monopolization is not. This is simply a characteristic of the Chinese economy that must be accepted, and Mercedes-Benz-cum-Daimler already has. State monopoly may decline as reforms progress, although how and to what degree non-state actors will be allowed is unclear. Until then, we can expect more fines levied on large foreign firms, and perhaps on more well-heeled automakers.
China Fines Mercedes-Benz, Not Domestic Firms | The Diplomat
 

Latest Replies

Global Defence

New threads

Articles

Top