Government Wants to Raise Excise Duty on Gasoline by nearly 40%

The Cabinet of Ministers has proposed to the Verkhovna Rada to increase the excise duty on motor gasoline by 37.9%, from EUR 132 to EUR 182 per ton, starting 2011. This is stipulated in the draft Tax Code registered in the parliament.

In general, the government proposed increasing excise rates on oil products, in particular, on aviation gasoline and jet fuel from EUR 20 to EUR 28 per ton, on diesel fuel with a sulfur content exceeding 0.2% from EUR 65 to EUR 90 per ton, with a sulfur content of 0.035-0.2% from EUR 50 to EUR 69 per ton, with a sulfur content of 0.005-0.035% from EUR 45 to EUR 62 per ton, and with a sulfur content of less than 0.005% from EUR 30 to EUR 42 per ton.

The Cabinet of Ministers also proposed increasing the excise duty on fuel oil by 40%, from EUR 30 to EUR 42 per ton. In May 2010, the Verkhovna Rada increased the excise duty on motor gasoline for cars by 20%, from EUR 110 to EUR 132 per ton.
Resource: http://bit.ly/b4tKRJ

HS Code - Guide to Foreign Trading

Infodriveindia.com, the market leader in providing Competitive Business Intelligence on Exports, Imports and Foreign Trades, provides HS codes which have become an indispensable tool for any trader or company interested in increasing its share in other nations. This launch of the list in a detailed chapter wise fashion includes several products and simplifies the challenges faced by its clients while practicing foreign trade.

The numerical code, used to describe a product when it is to be shipped or transported from one country to another is referred to as HS code. In today's world, all exporters and importers need to declare it to customs about the items that are being traded; It is these codes which determine the duty rates, adequacy of imports and exports, and other important information concerning the product. Hence it has also increased the importance of these codes considerably. This is when Infodrive India comes to rescue. It provides Indian customs Harmonized system codes policy with policy conditions, codes ranging from year 2004 to the latest ones launched in 2010 and also provides amended ITC-HS codes from DGFT.

Harmonized code list is basically a collection of these codes listed under various sections including vegetable products, vehicles, aircrafts, animal products, mineral products, ammunition etc. Each company has a code number assigned to all its products, which appears with every other standard information about the product. Thus infodriveindia.com simplifies the task of importers and exporters by providing them with all the data on a number of categories at one place.

HS code lists on Infodrive India can thus act as reference to those traders and companies which are interested in making investments in new markets. Thus, with its help, the newly entering enterprises can know the requirements and preferences of their future customers without conducting lot of surveys and campaigns. The company has evolved itself as a knowledge hub with import and export trade intelligence of 12 countries. In present day's scenario, when the market is flooded with a wide range of products, the role of such a code list has become even more important in carrying out the foreign trade.

Resource: http://bit.ly/cOlytO

Textile Industry Says: Cotton Output in India May Miss Forecast on Rains

The cotton harvest in India, the second-biggest producer and shipper, may be less than forecast if monsoon rains last longer than normal, according to the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry. Futures advanced. Production in the year from Oct. 1 may be less than the 32.55 million bales estimated by the Cotton Advisory Board last month, Confederation Vice Chairman Prem Malik said by phone from Mumbai. Output this year is estimated at 29.5 million bales, according to the board. An Indian bale weighs 170 kilograms.

Cotton is the best performer over the past year on the UBS Bloomberg CMCI Index, surging 47 percent. The most-active contract, for delivery in December, advanced as much 1.5 percent to 97.18 cents a pound on ICE Futures U.S. in New York today, the highest price since June 1995.

“If the rains persist, then definitely it’s going to affect the crop,” Malik said yesterday, without giving an estimate for the harvest. “The plants will not get the sunlight,” said Malik, 67, who also restated a call from the group for India’s cotton exports to be delayed from next month to January. India’s government plans to allow the export of as much as 5.5 million, 170 kilogram bales in the year from Oct. 1. Exports this year may be 8.3 million bales, according to an estimate from the Cotton Advisory Board.

India’s monsoon rains, the main source of irrigation for the nation’s 235 million farmers, normally draw to an end from September, the last month of a four-month season. Still, so far this September, rains are 122 percent of the 50-year average and clouds will begin to withdraw only by the end the month, the Indian Meteorological Department said on Sept. 14.

In the western state of Gujarat, the nation’s biggest cotton producer, rains were 54 percent above normal between June 1 and Sept. 15, according to the weather office. In Maharashtra, the second-largest grower, rains have been 25 percent more than average, it said. Global cotton inventories will fall to 45.4 million, 218 kilogram bales in the 12 months to July 31, the lowest level in 14 years, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data.

Cotton futures may surge to $1.25 a pound by January as supplies dwindle, O.A. Cleveland, a professor emeritus in agricultural economics at Mississippi State University, said on Sept. 14. Prices may reach as much as $1.05 within six weeks because supplies are tight and demand is increasing, John Flanagan, president of Flanagan Trading Corp., said Sept. 15.

India will limit cotton exports to 5.5 million bales in the season from Oct. 1, with a “prohibitive” duty to be imposed on shipments above that level, Commerce Secretary Rahul Khullar said on Sept. 4. Textile Secretary Rita Menon said on Sept. 14 that India plans to delay registration of export contracts by two weeks until Oct. 1.
Source: http://bit.ly/aO7YwD

China to import 8500 t/y of uranium by 2020, eyeing acquisitions

China will need to source over 8 500 t/y of uranium from other countries by 2020, and is looking to buy shares in uranium producers, China National Nuclear Corp vice-president Lu Huaxiang said on Tuesday. China's current uranium demand was 1 700 t/y, and this would increase tenfold over the next decade, he told Mining Weekly Online through an interpreter.

"There is 9 GW of installed nuclear generating capacity. That will grow to 70 GW in the next ten years, so there will be a ten times increase in uranium to about 17 000 t/y in China," Huaxiang said.

The country was able to meet the uranium requirements of its current nuclear fleet from domestic supplies, but would need to look abroad to meet future demand. "If you look to the future, we will surely need to purchase uranium from sources outside China. We will likely source over 50% of our requirements from outside China," Huaxiang said on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress being held in Montreal.

China had increased the number of reactors it would build over the next ten years, Huaxiang said earlier in a speech. Previous estimates had pegged nuclear generation at 60 000 GW by 2020. The country was cooperating with a number of exploration companies, as well as producers, and was eyeing the acquisition of stakes in such firms. "We are considering acquiring shares of companies outside China. It is an option we are looking at," noted Huaxiang. Asked where China was most likely to pursue uranium acquisitions, he said: "The number-one choice is countries that have large uranium resources, such as Kazakhstan, Australia, Canada and African countries such as Niger.

"We have some very good relationships with companies in those countries." China had already acquired stakes in Australian uranium companies, as well as those operating in Kazakhstan. Earlier this year, Canada's Cameco signed an agreement with China Nuclear Energy Industry Corporation, a subsidiary of China National Nuclear Corp, to supply it with 23-million pounds of uranium concentrate up to 2020.

China National Nuclear Corp is the country's biggest nuclear power generator.

Uranium spot prices have climbed to $48/lb.

Over 20 nuclear plants were under construction in China, and more than 20 were in the planning phase, Westinghouse Electric Company Americas president Jim Ferland said on Tuesday. In North America, 22 new nuclear power plants had been announced, he said. "To a large extent, the nuclear renaissance is starting."
Source: http://bit.ly/a3Cq9d

New Customs Deal to Lighten Burden on South Africa

A new revenue-sharing arrangement within the Southern African Customs Union (Sacu) that is more sustainable than the present one should be ready for implementation in the 2011-12 fiscal year, Parliament was told yesterday.

The present redistributive formula, which places a heavy burden on SA, has been under review since 2006. It is seen as being too vulnerable to the volatile economic cycles that affect revenue-sharing forecasts and the budgets of member states.

The formula is also seen as encouraging too much dependency on customs revenue by smaller countries, namely Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland.

A large chunk of the total of their budget revenue comes from the revenue-sharing arrangements of the union, the oldest customs union in the world, which has been in existence since 1910.

SA is by far the biggest single contributor to the union payments, which have become an increasingly heavier burden for the fiscus.

In 2008-09, SA contributed R45bn to the common revenue pool, which represented 98% of the Sacu transfers, and received R22bn (46,5%).

The present formula distributes customs and excise revenue on the basis of forecasts reconciled against actual collections and intra-trade data.

The Treasury’s chief director of African economic integration, Neil Cole, told the standing committee on finance that negotiations on a new revenue-sharing formula should be finalised in December when the revenue shares of member countries were determined.

Mr Cole said care would have to be taken with its implementation, however, to prevent disruption to the budgets of Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland .

In terms of the proposals under discussion, each member state would receive what its economy produced, determined on the basis of its own collections, re-exports and duty drawbacks.

One proposal was that the revenue would be distributed as a forecast, which would be adjusted two years later on the basis of actual customs collections. Member states would contribute to a structural or development fund on the basis of a percentage of their gross domestic product.

Mr Cole said a new formula would have to have “a strong development thrust that supports regional infrastructure, lead(s) to greater transparency and parliamentary oversight, (and) support(s) the expansion of Sacu”.

Revenues are a function of the tariff book and are highly dependent on higher-import-tariff consumer goods, which are hit hard in a recession. Mr Cole said about half of all customs revenue came from consumer goods, including vehicles (29%), electrical goods, footwear, beverages and clothing.

On the other hand, there were no or low tariffs on capacity- building capital goods and most inputs. Mr Cole said the review was also considered necessary because SA believed that revenue considerations should not be the single driver of trade policy decisions. “A great deal of polarisation is caused by trade and revenue reconciliation.”
Source: http://bit.ly/drXjl4

US Exports On Track To Double In Five Years

Top U.S. trade officials said Monday exports are on track to double over the next five years, in line with the goal set by President Barack Obama.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said the "aggressive" target will be a challenge to achieve, but that boosting sales of U.S. products abroad will serve as a necessary counter-weight to slowing consumer spending at home.

"These challenging times demand nothing less," Locke said in a prepared speech to an export summit in Richmond, Va.

"With millions of Americans out of work, and our competitors in Europe and Asia increasingly competing with us for the same customers, we can't simply keep doing what we've done in the past and hope things get better," he said.

Locke said the administration is on track to meet its goal with exports up 17.9% in the year to July, at a little over $1 billion.

Exports would have to increase by about 15% a year to increase two-fold in five years, though critics point out that the administration is using as its base year 2009, when sales abroad were at a three-year low below $1.6 billion.

The Export-Import Bank, which has focused on expanding financing to small and medium-size exporters, has also topped the previous year's amount of credit authorizations with one month to go in the fiscal year. It had authorized $21.5 billion in financing so far through July, following a total of $21 billion in fiscal 2009.

Fred Hochberg, Ex-Im Bank chairman and president, was scheduled to speak at the event with Locke. In a statement late Friday, he said this year's financing has supported an estimated 200,000 jobs.

"Again we are heartened by the export increase, which shows a growing appetite for U.S.-made goods and services, and that translates to more American jobs," Hochberg said.

The two officials, who are part of the president's export promotion cabinet, were speaking ahead of the first meeting of an advisory council made up of business and labor leaders later this week.
Source: http://bit.ly/buHCRn

Horticulture strategic to export sector growth: Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe's horticultural sector is essential to economic recovery and is strategic in respect of the enhancement of the country's export receipts.

Local horticultural production includes products such as cut flowers, fruit and tropical fruit, and out of season fruit and vegetables. At its peak during the late 1990s horticulture was the second largest agricultural foreign exchange earner after tobacco, recording exports figures in 1999 of US$144 million.

During that period horticulture contributed an average of 4 percent to Growth Domestic Product. However, like any other sector in Zimbabwe it has suffered from the macro-economic strictures that resulted from the decade long downturn, and has reflected in a fluctuating trend over the years.

Nonetheless, with the 2010 agricultural sector reflecting a steady growth path augmented by ramped up tobacco output, the horticulture sector is also expected to be bullish by the close of this year.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation, and Irrigation Development, the horticulture sector output could hit the 43 000 tonne mark up from the 2009 figure of 35 000 tonnes, in line with the 18,8 percent projected growth for the year.

As aforementioned horticulture is quite strategic to the growth of the country's export sector as most of its products tend to be destined for the European market, but it is also important in another key economic area, that is, labour. In so far as the horticulture sector is labour intensive - on average any one new horticultural project can add 25 to 30 jobs per hectare - hence growth of the sector can simultaneously function to boost employment levels.

These requirements are constituted in the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (also known as the SPS Agreement) is an international treaty of the World Trade Organisation.

Under the SPS agreement, the WTO determines limitations on member-states' policies relating to food safety around issues such as bacterial contaminants, pesticides, inspection, labelling and animal and plant health (phytosanitary).

According to ZimTrade, during the ten year period between 1999 and 2008, Zimbabwean horticulture's export receipts declined by around 80 percent, from US$144 million in 1999 to US$24 million, this in contrast to an consistently expanding global horticulture market.
Source: http://bit.ly/aGxyZz

U.S. Exports Rise 17.9 Percent in First Seven Months of 2010

Exports of U.S. goods and services increased 17.9 percent during the first seven months of 2010, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Commerce Department. The United States remains on track to meet President Obama's goal of doubling exports and supporting two million American jobs over the next five years.

"Again we are heartened by the export increase, which shows a growing appetite for U.S.-made goods and services, and that translates to more American jobs," said Ex-Im Bank Chairman and President Fred P. Hochberg. "For its part, Ex-Im Bank has authorized $21.5 billion in export financing and supported an estimated 200,000 U.S. jobs this fiscal year to date. We will continue to widen our outreach to U.S. businesses large and small, to help them grow their profits through exports."

President Barack Obama's National Exports Initiative is a government-wide effort to put the United States on a path to sustained economic growth by doubling exports and creating 2 million jobs by 2015. To support this effort, Ex-Im Bank is continuing to expand its outreach efforts and make its financing products accessible to more exporters.

Ex-Im Bank, an independent, self-sustaining federal-government agency, provides export financing that helps strengthen U.S. export competitiveness, and creates and maintains U.S. jobs. The Bank provides a variety of financing mechanisms, including working capital guarantees to help small and medium-sized U.S. businesses, export-credit insurance to protect exporters against nonpayment by foreign buyers, and loan guarantees and direct loans to assist foreign buyers of U.S. goods and services.

In fiscal year 2009, overall Ex-Im Bank financing totaled $21 billion, and authorizations supporting small-business exports reached a historic high of $4.4 billion, nearly 21 percent of total authorizations.

In the first 11 months of FY 2010 (through August 2010), Ex-Im Bank authorized $21.5 billion in loans, guarantees and insurance.
source: http://bit.ly/ce8E9f