By Shalini Bhutani | Commentary | December 18, 2020
On December 16, 2020, the Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved a subsidy of Rs.35 billion to sugar mills for the export of 60 lakh tonnes of sugar during the October 2020-September 2021 season. In 2018 and 2019, the Government of India had approved the sugar export incentive before October 1, but this year the approval was delayed. Sugar mills will now export their surplus sugar stock. This is supposed to help sugar mills clear…
On November 15, 2020, 15 East Asian countries agreed to take their economic integration several notches higher by forging the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the largest free trade agreement (FTA) ever. In 2019, RCEP members accounted for about 30 percent of world output and population and 28 percent of world trade. But about 44 percent of their total trade was intra-RCEP, which is a major incentive for the members of this agreement to agree to the deal, for…
By Smitha Francis | Commentary | November 24, 2020
One of the integral components of the economic stimulus packages announced by the Indian government since April 2020 is the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme meant to increase India’s self-reliance in key manufacturing sectors. To eligible companies, the scheme offers an incentive of 4% to 6% on their incremental sales of goods manufactured in India (over 2019-20), for a period of five years. The first tranche of the PLI scheme was announced on April 1 for mobile phones and certain electronic…
The COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest health and economic crisis in a generation. Some governments are taking extraordinary measures to fight the pandemic, in order to save lives, protect jobs, and avoid economic disaster. But the little known Investor-State Dispute Settlement system, or ISDS, included in many trade deals, could pressure governments to roll back public-interest measures, or pay millions in compensation to corporations.
ISDS allows foreign companies to sue governments for measures that might impact their profits.
More than 370 civil society organisations, including Madhyam, have urged the Members of the World Trade Organization to adopt the proposal titled, “Waiver from certain provisions of the TRIPS agreement for the prevention, containment and treatment of COVID-19” submitted by India and South Africa on October 2, 2020. The proposal allows member-countries to suspend certain intellectual property protection related to the prevention, containment, and treatment of COVID-19. The WTO’s TRIPS Council will meet on October 15-16 to discuss this…
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