Trade

• [New] SEMI and other international trade groups expect single-digit chip sales increases and double-digit growth for manufacturing equipment.
• [New] As the global rollout of vaccines picks up pace, the world that emerges from Covid, and the pace of change that will characterise the 2020s, will be very different from the decade before.
• [New] Ensuring that the rights and interests of seafarers are represented helps lower the operational risks to the sectors involved and allows global trade to continue in a sustainable way.
• [New] Today, pastoralists globally, are faced with myriad challenges and opportunities arising from economic development, social change, climate change, conservation, and sedentarization policies, population growth, and war or conflicts.
• [New] Emissions must fall by about 45% by 2030 to limit the rise in average global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius - the most ambitious Paris goal.
• [New] Climate change posed a fundamental risk to economic and financial stability, but investing in green infrastructure could expand global economic output by an average 0.7% annually over the next 15 years and create millions of jobs.
• [New] In most parts of the world, there's a clear sense of momentum building, leaving Australia - which has failed for eight years to legislate an effective plan to tackle carbon emissions - at risk of being cast into a small and isolated group of global laggards.
• [New] China is a much bigger power with global ambitions, and New Delhi will neither accept a subservient role nor will it be able to trust Beijing for the foreseeable future.
• [New] If, as many scientists and conservationists believe, climate change will make pandemics increasingly likely, international cooperation to prevent the spread of disease will become critical to future global security.
• [New] While new carbon-cutting proposals will bend the curve of global emissions, they are still nowhere near the cuts required to stave off the devastating consequences of breaching the 1.5 °C threshold.
• [New] If China were to curb its rare earth exports, it could result in serious supply shortages to a number of companies, but it would also motivate other countries to ramp up their own production capabilities.
• [New] China's expansion in exports last year could be temporary, especially if the manufacturing sectors improve in more countries as vaccine rollouts gather pace.
• [New] The GILTI tax will reduce the corporate profits of U.S. multinational affiliates in haven countries by about 12-16 percent, modestly increasing the tax base in both the United States and in higher-tax foreign countries.
• [New] LCH, which has €84 trillion worth of euro derivative clearing positions, has been permitted by the EU to continue handling trades for European clients until June 2022.
• [New] The American Petroleum Institute, an industry trade group, released a report last year finding that switching to U.S.-produced gas could reduce emissions from coal-fired power plants by about 50% in China, Germany and India.
• [New] Companies in every sector are looking to modernize their infrastructures amid unabated cyber threats and global changes that have altered the way they must protect and manage data.
• [New] Banks' corporate customers will no longer need to obtain bank account information and instead can transact through the banking system via a customer's phone number or e-mail address used when enrolling in Zelle.
• [New] China will be more powerful than the United States within a decade, and most see Germany as a more important partner and international leader than the U.S.
• [New] With UK online sales forecast to rise by up to £67 billion over the next five years, we could see e-commerce drive additional requirements of 92 million sq ft and that creates opportunities for more deliver businesses also.
• [New] The Department for International Trade will lead on work to ensure that UK companies in Myanmar are not trading with military-owned businesses, while protecting the important role that trade plays in poverty reduction and economic development.
• [New] Based on an agreement with the Japanese government, Takeda plans to import and distribute 50 million doses of Moderna's vaccine in the first half of 2021 once it gains Japanese regulatory approval.
• [New] Benign competition between the world's two largest economies will lift Chinese tech practitioners' morality and inspire them to strive for the best, thereby injecting new dynamics to global innovation.

Last updated: 28 February 2021