In The News

Boeing Suspends 737 Max, Hits Supply Chain: FT

Sarah Provan and Archie Hall December 18, 2019
Boeing announced a temporary suspension in production of its 737 Max airline. Regulators and airlines grounded the plane after two crashes within five months. The world's largest aerospace manufacturer depends on a deep global supply chain for the plane’s many parts, and the suspension in production hits suppliers. Safran, based in France and the world’s third largest aerospace supplier, had...

Wrecking the WTO: Times of India

Nayan Chanda December 18, 2019
US President Donald Trump seeks partners in his push to rebalance global trade, reduce global agreements with environmental and other constraints, and build US influence based on power rather than cooperative alliances. He views the UK’s Boris Johnson as a likeminded leader, after an overwhelming victory in parliamentary elections all but ensures Britain’s speedy exit from the European Union....

UK to Leave EU Before Jan 31: MacMillan

David Cameron December 17, 2019
The Brexit ball is in the hands of conservatives after an overwhelming win in the UK parliamentary election. The new government plans to meet Brexit deadlines, rejecting further extensions, including for the transition period that ends with the year 2020. So the United Kingdom takes on the challenge of negotiating a complex relationship with its major trade partner in 11 months. A revised...

OPEC Cuts Production: Wall Street Journal

Summer Said, Benoit Faucon and David Hodari December 11, 2019
Saudi-led OPEC and Russia and its allies, 24 nations in all, agreed to implement an additional collective oil production curb of 500,000 barrels a day, pushing the Brent crude price up by 1.2 percent. The original pact was to hold back about 1.2 million barrels per day. Some analysts express doubt about the new pact’s effect because based on some independent estimates, Saudi Arabia’s production...

China-Russia Gas Pipeline: Wall Street Journal

Georgi Kantchev December 3, 2019
A new 1800-mile pipeline called the Power of Siberia has begun delivering Russian natural gas to China, a crucial link between the two countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping presided over the launch via video. The project is a tangible symbol of the Beijing-Moscow economic and trade partnership in economics as well as mutual political support for...

Go Back to RCEP: Times of India

Nayan Chanda November 18, 2019
As strong emerging economies, India and China understand smaller Asian markets. For example, India manufactures more than 90 percent of the three-wheel auto rickshaws sold in 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations Despite such success and high expectations for the Modi government, India resists opening its economy to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, or RCEP. “After seven years...

Vietnam’s Human Trafficking: Diplomat

Thoi Nguyen November 16, 2019
Human trafficking and slavery continue in poor and advanced nations alike, with people forced into situations they would never choose. Only a fraction of these horrific cases are exposed, as when 39 Vietnamese people were found dead in a freezer truck in England. “Traffickers take children and adults for labor or sexual exploitation from Vietnam to countries such as Russia, Germany, or France...