History has a strange way of playing out old patterns in new forms by taking into account exigencies of the time. India and the UK concluded talks on a free trade agreement (FTA) on 6 May. Historically, the relationship between both countries has been predicated on trade, with the passage of time determining the necessary…
“The agreement text will be publicly released only after this phase is completed,” one of the officials said. “Both sides will review each chapter, and the FTA will not take immediate effect due to procedural formalities.” Legal vetting or ‘scrubbing’ is the final review of a trade agreement’s text to ensure legal clarity, consistency, and…
Canada’s Liberal Party has won a fourth consecutive national election in a race that largely came down to which party would better stand up to US President Donald Trump. “We are over the shock of American betrayal,” Mark Carney, a former central banker and the leader of the Liberal Party, said in a victory speech…
Almost 46 years after former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher privatized British Petroleum and embarked on a spate of privatizations, including British Airways, British Telecom and British Steel, during the 1980s and 1990s, the UK Parliament set the clock back. In an emergency session late last week, it passed a law allowing the government to…
Data for 2024-25 released this week shows a notable shift in India’s trade trends with its big partners. With the US, India’s merchandise exports jumped 11.6% to $86.5 billion last fiscal year, while imports rose 7.4% to $45.3 billion. As a result, our bilateral trade surplus widened to $41.2 billion. In contrast, our exports to…
The UK passed an emergency law on Saturday to stop the last British factory that can make steel from scratch shutting down, allowing the government to take control of the struggling Chinese-owned British Steel plant. The site in northern England had faced imminent closure and Prime Minister Keir Starmer said urgent action was needed to…
On the face of it, the chaotic action and frenetic pace of US President Donald Trump’s first 50 days in office lack cohesive thought and direction. Dig deeper and a picture emerges of a potential ‘framework’ or ‘grand design.’ Believers see two main reasons for a reset of the global trade order. The first is…
Climate change is a man-made problem, but campaigners and irresponsible politicians have distorted this out of all proportion and now falsely call it an existential problem that could lead to the extinction of humanity. This exaggeration grossly twists the science in the United Nations Climate Panel reports and is repudiated by the world’s leading climate…
It is estimated that a car has some 30,000 parts (counting everything from its engine block to nuts and bolts). The firm that provides a car’s marque (like Dodge or Toyota) manufactures only a fraction of these parts in plants spread around the world. Several intermediate parts like tires, windshields, seats and mirrors, plus hundreds…
In the last two weeks, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China conducted live-fire naval drills in the international waters off Australia, New Zealand and Vietnam, and shooting drills in the Taiwan Strait. This show of military might is a sign of China’s growing confidence as a maritime power. It’s also a signal to its…
