In The News

China Eases Foreign Entry into Bank Sector

James Kynge December 1, 2003
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao and Liu Mingkang, chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), announced a loosening of regulations on foreign banks and finance companies on Monday. These changes are largely assumed to be a response to US and EU accusations that China engages in unfair trading practices, which violate their commitment to the WTO. Wen Jiabao is traveling to Washington...

WHO Unveils Plan to Fight HIV and AIDS

David Brown December 1, 2003
A program that was deemed "too ambitious" two years ago is set to be implemented by the World Health Organization (WHO). By providing instruction, expertise, and written documents, as well as calling for the training of 100,000 workers for 10,000 clinics, the WHO hopes to provide 3 million people with AIDS treatment by 2005. The WHO will not pay for the treatment itself, but it hopes...

Bush Dropping Steel Tariffs to Avert Trade War

Mike Allen November 30, 2003
In response to a WTO ruling that was finalized three weeks ago, the Bush administration has indicated they are likely to drop the 8-30% steel tariffs imposed in 2002. The US faces a trade war with the European Union and Japan if it keeps the tariffs, which target imports from these nations as well as from South America. EU countries are threatening tariffs on products like Florida citrus fruits...

Japan Has Some Bold Ideas for Talks with ASEAN

Anthony Rowley November 26, 2003
After China's president made his successful ASEAN trip last month, Japan is now gearing up for December's ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit meeting in Tokyo, as well as a meeting of Asean+3 finance ministers early next year. To push further for a common Asian bond market is one of the priorities for Japan at these meetings, says this article in Singapore's Business Times, but Prime...

Difficult Times for Coffee Industry as Demand Falls

Tony Smith November 25, 2003
The international market for coffee is not good for the world's millions of coffee farmers. Facing prices at a 30-year low and production increases that outstrip demand, hundreds of thousands of coffee farm workers in Central America and Brazil are being forced off the land or into production of more profitable, yet harmful, coca production. Some former farmers are moving north to find work...

America's Vulnerable Imperialism

Jonathan Schell November 24, 2003
'American imperialism' has become a common refrain for people seeking to understand the glue holding together the current international order. A variety of scholars and commentators claim authority on the topic, says author Jonathan Schell. But, he cautions, in their rush to proclaim the rise or decline of an American empire, they consistently overlook a crucial aspect of true empire...

Asia Worries About Growth of China’s Economic Power

Erik Eckholm November 24, 2003
As China continues to move from a planned toward a free market economy, several of its neighbors are finding foreign investment dwindling. The world’s most populous nation has successfully harnessed its great industrial power, and this has attracted hundreds of thousands of high-tech jobs and millions of dollars in investment that formerly went to countries such as Malaysia, Singapore and...