Posts tagged…China
China’s monetary policies
Wed, Apr 01 2009
The People's Bank has an english language site that is becoming essential reading.
The papers and speeches by the Governor, Zhou Xiaochuan, such as this paper on international monetary reform are significant documents. Well-argued, straight-forward, with little of the bluster that has occasionally spoiled China's official account of itself (and is not unknown to our own Dear Leader).
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Read more…Credible rejection of Chinese mine bid?
Sat, Mar 28 2009
It's difficult to call this, one way or the other. The generally xenophobic reaction to three recent, high-profile, Chinese resource bids (Rio, Ozminerals and Fortescue) is a good reason to be alert to a questionable 'national interest' claim.
Some people have smelled a rat in the Treasurer's announcement that he won't approve OzMetals' $2.6 bn sale to China's MinMetals, on national security…
Lu Kewen given his orders?
Tue, Mar 24 2009How could a meeting, at the PM's official residence, with a top Chinese politburo member be 'private'? This is a bizarre statement!
"[A] spokeswoman for Mr Rudd told The Australian: 'It was a private meeting between the two. It is not the Prime Minister of Australia's role to put out a press release announcing what every visiting politician is doing.'" Extract from The Australian
Spring-time for state captialists
Wed, Feb 18 2009It's much more than Rio and Oz Minerals. Now China is securing a 20-year supply from the stumbling Russian oil industry.
"The deal, the largest trade financing agreement between the two countries, alleviates the massive refinancing needs of Russia’s two state energy giants as they seek to weather the credit crisis with the country facing its first recession in 10 years. It will also provide…
A coal quiz
Tue, Feb 17 2009Here's a little quiz about coal. You probably know that there are two kinds; coking coal, which provides the carbon in carbon-steel and thermal coal that drives the power-stations and adds CO2 to the atmosphere. You might also know that Australia exports four times more coking coal than the #2 global supplier (Indonesia) and maybe you were aware that Australia is the #2 thermal coal exporter…
Nationalism and foreign investment policy
Mon, Feb 16 2009In today's Fairfax press, Beijing correspondent John Garnaut provides some much-needed facts to hose-down the economic nationalism being whipped up by some investment advisors and politicians over the Rio asset sale to Chinalco. Garnaut's story about the relationships of Chinalco and Chinese steel giant BaoSteel and about the pressures on the government fund backing the loans to Chinalco confirm No role for the FIRB in Rio
Thu, Feb 12 2009
Maybe Alan Kohler is right and, from a commercial perspective, Rio’s asset sale to Chinalco “stinks”. But it is not the role of foreign investment policy to pick between investments, or investors, on the basis of their commercial smarts. That’s up to the Board and the shareholders.
The half-stated concern over the Rio-Chinalco deal remains, as it was last year, that the Chinese investors have a…
A better way to negotiate on agriculture
Thu, Dec 04 2008Next week, at the Institute for International Trade in Adelaide, Andrew Stoler (Institute Director, former Deputy Director-General of WTO) and I are presenting a conference in our project on future frameworks for WTO agriculture agreements.
In addition to our own research (some linked here) we've commissioned the help of leading agriculture and trade policy research centers in Brazil, China,…
Suppose the SWFs got cold feet?
Thu, Dec 04 2008"‘Right now we don’t have the courage to invest in financial institutions because we don’t know what problems we will put ourselves into,’ Lou Jiwei [Chairman of China Investment Corp] said on Wednesday. ‘My confidence should come from government policies. But if they are changing every week, how can you expect that to make me confident?" extract from: Financial Times…
An american preoccupation
Tue, Aug 26 2008What evidence is there for this? None that he cites. Reminds me of the nonsense I saw tossed around Washington in the early 1980's about the allegedly 'obsessive' Japanese culture.
Nations are increasingly preoccupied with their relative economic standing, not the living standards of citizens. Issues of strategic leverage and vulnerability now play a bigger role in economic policy…
Foreign direct investment approvals
Tue, Aug 26 2008Below the fold, my Op-Ed in today's Australian Financial Review on the approval of foreign investment proposals.
In summary, I'm advocating a transparent policies and procedures using existing review institutions and laws (the Corporations Act, the Australian Stock Exchange Guidelines on business practices, the transfer pricing regulations of the tax laws) to regulate all companies doing business…
There could be four
Sun, Aug 10 2008Henry Gao asks a very pertinent question about a development in the management of WTO that might easily be missed (unless you're looking)
"Will this 'one country, two candidates' arrangement work in the future?" extract from: WTO and China Blog