Australia’s largest bank, National Australia Bank (NAB), lost hundreds of millions of dollars in speculative currency trading. The scandal broke out in January 2004 when a fellow trader working in the Melbourne office of the bank exposed unauthorized foreign currency derivatives trading. Initial reports had indicated that the total loss could be as high as A$600 million but Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), country’s banking regulatory body, found that the currency trading scandal has cost the bank A$360 million. In its detailed…
In December 2003, Italian food and dairy giant, Parmalat, went bust. The dramatic fall of family-owned Parmalat was triggered when Bank of America claimed that a document showing 4 billion Euro in company’s Cayman Islands bank account is forged. Just a couple of months ago, Parmalat’s bosses had claimed a cash balance of 4.2 billion Euro but on December 19, 2003, they admitted a 4 billion Euro hole in company’s finances. Given the complex way of financial wizardry employed…
By Kavaljit Singh | Commentary | September 24, 2003
The Fifth Ministerial Conference of World Trade Organization (WTO) held in Cancun during September 10-14, 2003, failed to arrive at any agreement on several contentious issues. Since Cancun Conference was expected to provide a further push to the Doha Round, both the proponents and critics were apprehensive about its outcome. To many critics, Cancun Conference was destined to be a failure as the mandated deadlines (for agreement on the modalities on agriculture, special and differential treatment, implementation issues, and TRIPs and public health), agreed…
By Kavaljit Singh | Op-Ed, Financial Times | July 7, 2003
If the European Union, Japan and Canada have their way, negotiations for a multilateral investment agreement will begin at the World Trade Organisation meeting in Cancun in September. But many developing countries are doing everything they can to ensure they do not. They are right to do so: an MIA has the potential to cause them serious economic damage.
There is no conclusive evidence that investment agreements lead to increased foreign investment. Since the 1980s, developing countries have signed numerous bilateral investment agreements, yet they receive less than…
By Kavaljit Singh | APRN-PIRC Briefing Paper | 2003
This paper is an in-depth investigation of attempts made by a select grouping of developed world to widen the scope of trade negotiations to new issues, particularly investments, at the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) held at Cancun, Mexico in September 2003.
Current approaches advocating international investment agreements are grounded on several myths. There is no evidence to prove conclusively that investment agreements lead to increased foreign investment in all countries. Nor does it boost the…
