Today Trends

Author: Kristen Hopewell, University of British Columbia Beijing’s trade practices have come under intense scrutiny amid its ongoing competition with Washington. Yet with the United States and other rich countries dominating the debate, the effects of China’s trade policies on poorer countries have been largely ignored. The United States has complained about China’s use of subsidies and other protectionist trade measures to promote its advanced manufacturing and other high-tech industries. But Beijing is also making use of heavy subsidies and trade-distorting policies in agriculture and fisheries — two sectors of critical importance to the developing world. Agricultural subsidies in richer countries give their farmers an unfair advantage in global markets, depressing prices and undermining the livelihoods of farmers in the developing world. Historically, the United States and the European Union were the chief culprits but China’s agricultural subsidies now vastly exceed those of

Author: Ken Heydon, LSE Trade is a key multiplier in spreading the technology vital to the climate transition. But protectionist tendencies embedded in the implementation of the climate transition pose a major threat to the global trading system.  Technological innovation — backed by a carbon tax to make it competitive — is the essential requirement for transition to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. And trade, by stimulating competition, is a catalyst of innovation.  Three areas of technological transformation stand out. Australia and its Asia Pacific neighbours have a stake in each of them. The first is solar photovoltaic technology that uses solar panels to convert sunlight into electricity. Over the past decade, solar photovoltaic has become a pillar of the low-carbon sustainable energy system with installed capacity increasing 100-fold and costs declining by 77 per cent. Some 40 per cent of the decline in the cost of solar photovoltaic modules since 2001 is attributable t

Author: Eugene Mark, Nanyang Technological University With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine constricting the global supply of edible oils, demand for palm oil has spiked. But as the war continues, supply remains uncertain. Indonesia’s export ban on crude palm oil, palm kernel oil and cooking oils added further strain. Indonesia’s export ban was initiated in April 2022 to bring down persistently high domestic prices that have been on an upward trajectory since mid-November 2021. Although Indonesia lifted the export ban on 23 May 2022 , exporters and traders are awaiting clarity from the government concerning exporting rules. Malaysia aims to take advantage of the global edible oil shortage and regain its market share of palm oil. It is considering lowering its 8 per cent export tax on palm oil to boost exports. But the broader impacts of rising inflation on palm oil production costs must be better considered — particularly their disproportionate effect on smallholders who produce

Author: Nir Kshetri, University of North Carolina-Greensboro Blockchain is transforming supply chains and facilitating cross-border transactions. In 2020, Anglo-Australian mining, metals and petroleum company BHP completed its first trade with Chinese iron and steel company Baowu on MineHub Technologies’ blockchain-based platform. China Minmetals and BHP have also used MineHub’s platform to share inter-company and cross-border data, such as information related to emissions and metals assay. Likewise, Japanese manufacturer Toyota tracks auto parts across various countries, factories and suppliers, sharing information on a real-time basis with manufacturers, finance companies, insurers, service providers, regulators and customers through the use of blockchain technology. Toyota expects to reduce recall rates and increase safety through the adoption of these platforms. Most supply chains are long and complex. In addition to physical goods, supply chains involve non-physical flows of

Author: Editorial Board, ANU The costs of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine continue to mount, not only in terms of lives lost and cities and villages reduced to rubble. The war in Europe has loaded big costs on the global economy, especially developing economies already under stress from the COVID-19 crisis, and is shaking the foundations of the global economic and political order on which post-war prosperity and security were built. Prosecution of the war has meant not only high-powered NATO materiel support for Ukraine but the imposition of comprehensive economic sanctions to target a clear Russian violation of international law. The sanctions, however effective in diminishing the Russian economy and disconnecting it from the world economy, come at the considerable cost of squeezing world energy and food markets and also undermine systemic trust in the international trade regime. Russia’s blockade of Ukrainian grain exports piles on additional pressure to world grain supplies

Author: Peter Timmer, Harvard University In just over two months, the world food situation has gone from bad to worse. Calls to not panic fell on deaf ears, even as the Ukrainian military put up stiff opposition to the Russian onslaught. If Ukraine somehow wins the war, it will be decades before its economy and agricultural exports return to their previous levels. Many countries have panicked in the face of global shortages. China banned the export of agricultural chemicals, Indonesia banned the export of palm oil and India banned the export of wheat. The United States has expanded its commitment to maize-based ethanol, raising the mandated amount in gasoline supplies in order to lower the cost of driving. That maize could have been diverted to human consumption, to help substitute for wheat shortages. Malaysia seems ready to lift its mandate to blend palm oil into diesel fuel supplies. That palm oil supply can now re-enter the global food supply chain. Although many long-term, st

Author: Niky Brugnatelli, University of Catania Technological innovation is one of the main fields of US–China competition. Competition in the semiconductor industry is a significant point of tension where the continued interference of US bureaucracies in the industry is a source of contention between the superpowers. For Beijing, closing the technological gap with the most advanced countries is seen as a pathway to recovering great power status or the ‘Chinese Dream’. As the geopolitical context surrounding it becomes increasingly hostile, technological upgrading could guarantee China’s greater strategic autonomy by decreasing its technological dependence on more advanced countries. Semiconductors have become a prime example of China’s search for technological independence. Semiconductor production has increasingly shifted away from the Integrated Device Manufacturer model, which involves vertical integration at every phase of production, to the Fabless–Foundry model where compa

Author: Ömer Faruk Yildiz, Anadolu Agency Malaysia’s Barisan Nasional is pushing for an early snap general election and preparing for electoral triumph. The coalition has recovered its swagger after a political reshuffle returned it to power — with Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the country’s 9th Prime Minister in August 2021 — and landslide victories in the Melaka and Johor state elections. The eagerness of the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the biggest constituent party of Barisan Nasional, to contest an early election signals to voters that the party has regained its trust in their leader. Widening divisions within the opposition also help further explain why UMNO is pushing Ismail Sabri to call the election this year, before the scattered opposition has a chance to recalibrate. Surveys indicate that UMNO, which won 54 seats in 2018, is expected to succeed in its traditional constituencies and win back some constituencies currently held by former prime minister Muhyiddin

Author: Arif Rafiq, Vizier Consulting When a suicide bomber killed three Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver several weeks ago in Karachi, China–Pakistan relations were already being tested by Pakistan’s economic troubles and political instability, as well as the broader US–China rivalry . The attack — claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army , a secular, ethnic Baloch separatist organisation seeking to secede from Pakistan and eliminate China’s economic and diplomatic footprint in the region — may be an inflection point in the two strategic partners’ relationship. Pakistan’s new Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif reacted swiftly, visiting the Chinese embassy in Islamabad hours later to express solidarity. But Beijing was incensed. An editorial published in the state-run Global Times ‘strongly demand[ed]’ better protection for Chinese citizens and entities in Pakistan and warned that those targeting Chinese nationals will be hit hard. Beijing’s anger is not entirely unp

Author: Sreang Chheat, UQ Cambodians will go to the polls to select their local councillors on 5 June 2022. The main contestants are the ruling Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) and the Candlelight Party. To many observers of democratic development in Cambodia, the dissolution of the main opposition party in 2017 makes this election less of a democratic vehicle to peaceful power transfer and more of a political tool for the ruling CPP’s legitimacy. The last elections were in 2017, when the Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), a merger between the long-time opposition Sam Rainsy Party and the relatively new Human Rights Party, performed well. The election was followed by the government dissolving CNRP. Cambodia’s democracy emerged from the Paris Peace Agreement in 1991 but has never been consolidated. Democratic institutions remain lacking in terms of their representation, independence and accountability. The state of human rights and liberties have fluctuated over the years. The