The Canadian Parvasi-issue 64

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The International News Weekly Edit 06 October 19, 2018 | Toronto The w w w . canadianparv asi. c o m Publisher & CEO Associate Editor Editor (India) Online Graphic Designer Official Photographer Contact Editorial Sales Rajinder Saini Meenakshi Saini Gursheesh Kshitiz Dalal Naveen Bashir Nasir editor@canadianparvasi.com sales@canadianparvasi.com Sabarimala For All SC allowed women to enter, now Kerala government must uphold law and order Because of the climate of fear and intimidation created by those opposing the historic Sabarimala verdict, very few women ventured to the hill shrine on the day it opened for the first time since the historic Supreme Court judgment allowing women between 10 and 50 to pray there. As for the few who came, the gauntlet put up by belligerent bhakts, many ironically decked up in bermudas and bandanas, proved too much. Even journalists weren’t spared, as the protesters took out their ire on several mediapersons, especially women reporters. But it’s still early days. Depressing as it is, there is no reason that what happened on Wednesday should necessarily happen on Thursday or in the days to come. More women are bound to come and some of them will definitely overcome the heckling, booing and even manhandling, to reach the sanctum and get darshan. When that happens – surely sooner than later – it will become a red letter moment in India’s evolution as a modern and progressive society. This is because Sabarimala is unique in that it demands its devotees transcend the usual barriers of caste, class, creed and even religion – the trademark all black attire of Ayyappa pilgrims symbolises the renunciation of all such divisions. That the only division which has persisted – and that too with all the force of a taboo – is that of gender, reveals the extent to which patriarchy is entrenched in Indian society. It is this patriarchy, and its ability to insinuate itself even in a modern context through dubious notions of ‘purity’ and ‘pollution’, that has now been struck a body blow. While Kerala’s LDF government has maintained that it is committed to women’s rights and has resisted pressure to file a review petition in SC, it has not exactly been proactive. It has sought to open back channels with agitators, has not put in place special facilities for women that would make it easier for them to make the pilgrimage and, worse, has of late been taking an occasional ‘soft Hindutva’ line that sends confusing signals. Of course, those protesting against the entry of women are not an insignificant number, and the fanatic self-righteousness of ordinary bhakts in their hundreds and thousands cannot be underestimated. One calamitous incident is all it may take to turn the clock back. TNN India’s Self Inflicted What keeps its textile industry from taking off even as China moves away from low cost manufacturing Ritesh Kumar Singh We Indians love to compare ourselves with China. However, when it comes to textiles and clothing, India’s export of $40 billion lags far behind China’s $269 billion despite its long history and obvious advantage in raw material and labour. Forget China, India is now behind Bangladesh and Vietnam. Between 2000 and 2010 China doubled its global export share in apparels from 18.2% to 36.4%, but India’s share inched up from 3% to 3.2%. Again, between 2010 and 2016 China was able to retain its global market share at 36%, Bangladesh could increase it from 4.2% to 6.4%, Vietnam almost doubled it from 2.9% to 5.5%, but India managed to raise it from 3.2% to 4%. Many argue that industrial wages in China have been rising, so it’s time for India to move decisively and seize the global opportunity of $284 billion of textiles and another $443 billion of clothing that’s knocking on its door. But India may not grab it unless it addresses the regulatory mess that successive governments have created over the years. A series of imprudent regulations on fibre, wages and trade policy have made India mainly a supplier of raw material, ie cotton fibre and yarn. It’s no surprise that India’s apparel export accounts for 40% of its total textile export which has been hovering around $40 billion for the last five years. The apparel export of developing countries be it Bangladesh, China, India or Vietnam is primarily a commodity business where the exporter is merely a contract manufacturer. It thrives on cost arbitrage and thin margins. India’s apparel export is dominated by SMEs which lack not only pricing power but also cheaper institutional credit, technical know-how and skilled manpower. Any additional inefficiency due to raw material, logistics or border and customs procedures is bound to result in loss of orders. There’s a limit to how much export incentives can make up for such inefficiencies even if such incentives are not challenged at WTO. A recent BCG study finds that labour productivity in India’s apparel factories is lower than that in Vietnam and Bangladesh, yet the government has been hiking minimum wages and flirting with the idea of a national minimum wage. Such policies will make India’s textile sector lose further on cost competitiveness. Wage hikes must have some reference to workers’ productivity, otherwise it will induce relocation of factories to cheaper destinations. That is, in fact, already happening with top textile companies such as Arvind Mills and Raymond setting up factories in Ethiopia where electricity and labour cost less and LDC (least developed country) status confers duty free access to top consuming markets such as EU, Japan and the US. Indian government favours cotton so it attracts lower import and GST vis-a-vis synthetic fibres and yarns. That artificially keeps cotton cheaper and over-promotes its use. Thus, India must adopt a fibre neutral taxation policy to align fibre production and consumption with global demand trends. India has failed to use trade policy to its advantage – for pushing its exports to major consuming markets starting from the EU, EEU, Japan to North and South America, or safeguarding its domestic industry from the influx of cheap imports from countries such as Bangladesh or China. The EU is the world’s largest apparel importer with an annual import of $85-90 billion. However, India’s exports are subject to 9-10% import duties versus 0% for Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and African countries. A free trade pact with EU will remove this duty disadvantage but India has been dragging its feet. Similarly, an FTA with Russia-led EEU will open a completely new market (so far dependent upon imports from China) for India’s value added textile products. Textile and clothing market in Mercosur countries is highly protected with basic customs duties as high as 26-35%. High import duties along with high logistics cost have kept this big market virtually inaccessible. Thus, the expansion of India-Mercosur preferential trading agreement (PTA) into a full-fledged FTA covering textile items will be immensely helpful. China is a top consuming market but it imposes high import duties (10-15%) on clothing items. Australia is another $10-15 billion clothing market. The RCEP negotiating platform can be used to get improved market access for apparels in Australia and China. Indian trade negotiators have also failed badly in securing favourable terms for textile and clothing in FTAs that are already operational such as SAFTA or India-Japan CEPA. Allowing duty free imports from Bangladesh (under SAFTA) and other LDCs under unilateral duty free quota free (DFQF) facility without any sourcing restrictions have resulted in ever increasing import of apparels made of Chinese fabrics that’s hurting the whole of India’s textile value chain comprising of fibre, yarn, fabrics and apparels. That calls for urgent tweaking in sourcing rules. Similarly, stringent sourcing restrictions imposed by Japan under India- Japan free trade pact have resulted in a virtual denial of market access for India’s apparel exports. India should use the review mechanism of the trade pact to get these provisions relaxed or removed. Moreover, inverted duties (higher import duties on raw materials and lower on finished products) encourage import (rather than export) of finished goods. India should use the upcoming budget in February to end this self-inflicted trade policy measure. To summarise, India has failed so far to tap the global textile and clothing opportunity. It can still improve things by tweaking its regulations on labour, fibres and trade. Source Credit: This article was first published in The Times of India. The writer is a business economist currently associated with Indonomics Consulting. Views are personal. Parvasi weekly & people associated with it are not responsible for any claims made by the advertisement & do not endorse any product or service advertised in Canadian Parvasi. Please consult your lawyer before buying/hiring/contracting through the advertisement Publised in this newspaper. The Canadian Parvasi is in the business of selling space and the clains made by the advertisement are not tested/confirmed by an independent source.
The International News Weekly World October 19, 2018 | Toronto 07 Trump threatens to use military to close US-Mexico border IANS Washington : US President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to use the military to close the border with Mexico if a caravan of thousands of Honduran migrants bound for the US continues its journey. In a series of tweets, Trump said the caravan was Democratic Partyled, claimed that many of the migrants were criminals and urged Mexico to intervene to stop the group from reaching the border. "If (Mexico is) unable to do so I will call up the US military and close our southern border!.." the President said. Trump has threatened in recent days to immediately halt foreign aid to the Honduran, Guatemalan and Salvadoran governments if they do not put an end to the latest flow of migrants. Organizers say the people who make up the caravan are fleeing violence and poverty, according to the US media. Trump also criticized the leaders of those three Central American countries, saying they were "doing little to stop this large flow of people, including many criminals, from entering Mexico to the US". He also claimed the Democrats were behind the caravan "because they want open borders and existing weak laws", an accusation he has repeatedly levelled since taking office in January 2017. A first group of migrants taking part in the caravan arrived on Wednesday at Guatemala's border with Mexico, according to the Episcopal Conference of Guatemala's National Office of Human Mobility Pastoral. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said on Wednesday that the "massive" influx of Honduran migrants posed a risk to the country and its inhabitants, adding that with the help of international organizations he was trying to ascertain the group's intentions. In addition to the caravan of Honduran migrants that set out on Saturday (a group of 3,000 people, according to the UN), a second large group of migrants left that same Central American country bound for the US on Tuesday. The Salvadoran government said it had allowed "415 Hondurans" belonging to that second caravan to enter its territory on Wednesday, although hundreds of other people also make up that same group. UK to consider longer transition period to ease deadlock: May IANS Brussels: British Prime Minister Theresa May has said that the UK's transition out of the EU can be extended by "a matter of months" in a bid to break the deadlock in talks. May is understood to have raised the possibility of a longer period in meetings with EU leaders in Brussels on Wednesday, but Downing Street was previously tight-lipped about the exchanges, which were likely to enrage Tory eurosceptics. The British leader had urged her 27 European counterparts to give ground and end the current Brexit deadlock. Arriving at the second day of the European Council summit here, May told reporters on Thursday that the option had IANS Washington : Saudi Arabia transferred $100 million to the US on the day Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrived in Riyadh seeking answers in the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi amid mounting pressure on the kingdom for a fuller explanation in the case, the media reported. The amount was pledged by Saudi Arabia in emerged to extend the controversial period, but that it would only be for "a matter of months", the BBC reported. The UK leaves the EU in March and the current plan is for a transition period to finish at the end of 2020. The BBC reported an EU source as saying that there would have to be "financial implications" if the UK did extend the transition period. It came after the summit of EU leaders August to support Washington's stabilization efforts in Syria, but the timing of the transfer raised questions about a potential payoff as Riyadh sought to manage the backlash over allegations that its agents were responsible for Khashoggi's disappearance, the New York Times reported. The State Department denied any connection between the payment and failed to make decisive progress in reaching an agreement. During the transition period, practically nothing would change for the UK -- Britain would continue to implement all EU laws, stay in the single market and customs union and under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. The UK would however not be represented in EU institutions like the Parliament, Council and Commission and would Pompeo's discussions with Saudi officials on Tuesday about the Washington Post's contributing columnist. "We always expected the contribution to be finalized in the fall time frame," said Brett McGurk, the State Department's envoy to the anti-Islamic State coalition. "The specific transfer of funds has been long in process and has nothing to therefore have no say in drawing up the rules. "A further idea that has emerged -- and it is an idea at this stage -- is to create an option to extend the implementation period for a matter of months - and it would only be for a matter of months. "But the point is that this is not expected to be used, because we are working to ensure that we have that future relationship in place by the end of December 2020," the Prime Minister said. According to the Independent, most trade experts and people in Brussels say the current 21-month period will realistically not be enough time to negotiate a full free trade agreement between the UK and EU, and that an extension is inevitable. Saudi Arabia transfers $100mn to US amid crisis over Khashoggi do with other events or the secretary's visit." Khashoggi, a permanent resident of the US in self-imposed exile, was a fierce critic of Riyadh's human rights violations and of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's policies. Turkish officials say he was killed on October 2 during his visit to the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for paperwork needed for his planned marriage. EU recognises 'need' to strengthen climate targets IANS Brussels : In response to the landmark IPCC report on global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius published last week, 28 EU heads of state and government have called upon all countries of the world to commit at the upcoming climate summit in Poland to review the levels of ambition of their Paris Agreement pledges by 2020. The EU now needs to translate this statement into an action plan on how and when its member states will agree on a new 2030 target, in line with the long-term objectives of the Paris Agreement. In reaction to the heads of state and governments' decision, Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe Director Wendel Trio said on Thursday: "The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change scientists gave our leaders a to-do list for avoiding the worst impacts of climate change. "Today's statement from the EU ticks the first box on this list as it acknowledges that we need to urgently revisit our weak climate pledges. It is now time for EU leaders to act and agree to massively increase emission cuts within the bloc, to galvanize other countries to do the same." "To stay below 1.5 degrees Celsius, the EU will need to significantly increase its 2030 target, even beyond the 55 per cent reduction some member states are calling for and ensure it achieves net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040," Trio added. The EU will have a critical opportunity to commit to a much higher climate target at the allimportant Conference of Parties (COP24) summit in Katowice in Poland this year. The process of revising the 2030 target should be finalised by EU heads of state and government before the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' Global Climate Summit set to take place in September 2019 in New York and aimed to review the Paris Agreement commitments.
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