The handsome stone edifice that serves as the headquarters for the World Trade Organization rises like a fortress over Lake Geneva, projecting an air of impregnability. But lately the institution looks vulnerable, sowing worries that global commerce itself may be in jeopardy.
A new Trans Pacific Partnership agreement has been signed in Santiago, Chile, on 8 March. The original TPP agreement, comprising US plus 11 countries (Japan, Chile, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam), was signed in 2016 but was not ratified because US President Donald Trump withdrew from it.
The world economy became more interconnected in the 1990s and 2000s, delivering immediate pain to rich countries, along with benefits that only now are starting to be more apparent.
Stock markets took a plunge this week as President Trump announced a slew of tariffs and penalties against China, which according to Trump could amount to tens of billions of dollars.
With protectionism pursued by the Trump administration, Vietnam’s exports, especially seafood and steel, to the US will face challenges in the time to come.
Representatives of 50 countries met this week in New Delhi for an informal World Trade Organization ministerial amid what can only be described as trade chaos, with US President Donald Trump threatening a global trade war from Washington, DC and the WTO facing increasing irrelevancy.
India’s WTO agenda, of addressing the unresolved issues in agriculture and development multilaterally, risks being sidelined by the collaborative efforts of the US, EU, Japan, Canada, Norway and Singapore on intensifying plurilateral work on e-commerce trade rules.
Việt Nam’s explosive growth is no secret, but investors may have to look a little closer to fully appreciate all the investment opportunities underlying the broader stories. Here, our expat financial expert Brian Spence dissects just a few.
Together with the Vietnam-European Union (EU) Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), the newly signed Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is expected to bring about huge economic benefits for Vietnam and generate millions of jobs, including jobs in small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
On March 5th, Wilbur Ross, the US Commerce Secretary went on record to say that he had no reason to believe that President Trump would reverse his tariff plan.
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