Can Russia and India replace American dollar in bilateral trade?

Yevgeny Ivanov & Ashish Singh

Countercurrents | January 20, 2023

After the World War II, the role of the dollar has grown significantly in global trade. Since then, the American currency has been used not only for transactions in foreign markets but also for transactions within countries. The collapse of the USSR has made the dollar an informal tender (vs legal tender) across the territories of the former Soviet republics for many years. The similar situation happened in Zimbabwe when its national currency underwent severe inflation. Zimbabweans preferred the US dollar and other foreign currencies for their private purposes.

World Of Trade: South Korea Signs $2.25 Billion Deal With Russia Nuclear Company

Countercurrents | August 26, 2022

The world of trade is having interesting developments.

An AP report from Seoul said:

South Korea landed a 3 trillion won ($2.25 billion) contract with a Russian state-run nuclear energy company to provide components and construct a turbine building for Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, officials said Thursday.

The South Koreans hailed the deal as a triumph for their nuclear power industry, although it made for awkward optics as their American allies push an economic pressure campaign to isolate Russia over its war on Ukraine.

South Korean officials said the U.S. was consulted in advance about the deal and that the technologies being supplied by Seoul for the project would not clash with international sanctions against Russia.

Our House: Why China’s New South Asian Trade Deal is Making Washington Sweat

REGIONAL COMPREHENSIVE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP

Raul Diego

MintPress News | November 17, 2020

For most Americans, the mention of Hanoi elicits memories of the Vietnam war and the peak of the antiwar movement in the United States. Nearly half a century later, unexploded ordnances  (UXO) left behind by U.S. soldiers are still killing and maiming Vietnamese people, but a new day has arrived for the long-suffering southeast Asian country along with fourteen regional countries, including powers China and Japan, with a blockbuster trade agreement that is sure to spark controversy in Washington, which was excluded from the 15-nation Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

How US Aggression on China will Destabilize Global Trade and Tech

WORLD POLITICS AND ECONOMY 

Newsclick | September 20, 2020

Newsclick’s Prabir Purkayastha talks about the recent developments in the US-China ‘trade war’ which has escalated following a number of recent aggressive US measures against China in the trade and tech sectors. He talks about how these steps by the US will lead to a sundering of the global trade and technology sectors and talks about the various forms of pressure the US is deploying against China

Winners and losers in the global trade in food

by Martin McKee and May van Schalkwyk

Lancet | August, 2020

The first pineapples seen by Europeans were objects of wonder. Everyone who heard of them wanted one. The problem was that almost no one could manage to grow them and the few that did, such as Louis XIV at Versailles, only succeeded by enormous investments in heated greenhouses.

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Today, pineapples, in some form, can be found in shops in almost all parts of the world, with the Hawaiian pizza, initially greeted with horror by Neapolitan restauranteurs, becoming a symbol of the fusion of the world’s foods. However, even in the richest countries in the world, while the wealthy can obtain fresh pineapples easily, the poor, who might live close by, might depend on stores where fruit of any sort only comes in tins.

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In these ways, the global spread of the pineapple exemplifies the expansion of international trade in food and the uneven flow of benefits arising from it.

China plans to ban the trade in wild animals, believed to be behind the coronavirus as racism spreads worldwide

Countercurrents | February 04, 2020

Countries with confirmed coronavirus cases. Photo: ABC News. The photo is used here in public interest.

China said it would ban illegal wildlife markets and trade in light of the Wuhan coronavirus or 2019-nCoV, which has killed at least 426 people and infected more than 20,000. Beyond China, at least 169 cases have been confirmed in 25 countries.

It is widely believed that the Wuhan coronavirus likely started in a wet market, where live and dead animals are often sold in poorly regulated conditions.

The ban on wildlife markets is just one of a number of initiatives China is taking in response to the novel coronavirus.

Dumping Dollar? Russia and China agree to bilateral trade in national currencies

Countercurrents | June 06, 2019

The all-powerful U.S. Dollar is not that lovely thing now-a-days. Significant moves are on to dump the U.S. Dollar.

Media reports said:

Russia and China took another step away from the U.S. Dollar after the two countries agreed to develop bilateral trade using the Ruble and the Yuan.

It was one of the major deals reached after Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, the presidents of the two countries, held talks in Moscow on Wednesday.

Trump’s trade war—Who is it good for?

by Stephanie Luce

People’s World | October 16, 2018

A worker looks on from behind coils of steel at ArcelorMittal Steel’s hot dip galvanizing line in Cuyahoga Heights, Ohio. Trump says his steel and aluminum tariffs will be good for workers in the metal industries. | Mark Duncan / AP

Donald Trump voiced the real concerns of many Americans when he spoke of the need to bring jobs to communities and to end unfair trade deals. By blocking the Trans-Pacific Partnership, pushing a re-negotiation of NAFTA, and increasing tariffs on a range of imports, Trump has appeared to finally take seriously the needs of unemployed and underemployed workers.

Some unions have been calling for tariffs for years, most notably the United Steelworkers. While Obama ran in 2008 on a promise to renegotiate NAFTA, he never did so, and in fact became a relentless proponent of expanding “free trade.”

EU’s ‘aid for trade’ policy towards Africa

by Daouda Cissé

Pambazuka News | December 07, 2017

Getty

Africa’s share of global trade remains insignificant because it faces numerous challenges: customs procedures, a lack of infrastructure and information as well as poor market integration. While there are expectations that the EU trade policy and the WTO negotiations could improve Africa’s trade, there is an increasing need for African countries to consider other alternatives for trade performance.

Both access to resources and market expansion have been at the forefront of Africa-EU trade relations, and closer trade activities are particularly developed between resource-rich African countries and the European Union. In 2012, mineral products accounted for 67.8% of the EU imports from African countries, while machinery (24.2%) dominated EU exports to Africa (Beets, 2013). The EU has been an important market for Africa’s exports, particularly during the colonial period. Countries like England, France, Belgium, Portugal and Spain had close trade ties with Africa due to colonisation, and trade activities between those European countries and Africa remain significant even after the African countries’ independence. African countries still primarily export raw materials to Europe and provide markets for European finished goods (Kohnert, 2008). Oil, mineral products, agricultural products, fish and to a lesser extent manufacturing products constitute African exports to the EU. On the other hand, the EU exports processed food, vehicles, machinery and pharmaceutical products to African countries.

NAFTA’s Dirty Secret: It Lets U.S. Control Canada’s Oil

by Linda McQuaig

the star | June 08, 2017

In the wake of Donald Trump’s fiery threats to end the trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, the subject of NAFTA has become much more interesting to Canadians than before, when it mostly consisted of talk about softwood lumber and the dairy industry. Boring.

In fact, Trump or no Trump, NAFTA has always been a potential firecracker of an issue, if only the public knew what was in the deal.

But for more than 20 years, Canadian politicians have largely managed to keep the focus on lumber and cows, distracting us from the truly outrageous aspects of NAFTA: the surrender of Canadian sovereignty in a couple of key areas.