China makes concessions to US on trade issues
Washington, USA: After a day long summit, aimed at easing tensions before Chinese president Hu Jintao visits the country next week, China appears to have made several concessions to U.S. demands. It has agreed to start the process to lift its ban on U.S. beef imports, open up its mobile phone and medical devices market and crack down on software and music piracy.

The annual trade meeting, attended by the Chinese vice premier Wu Yi, U.S. trade representative Rob Portman and U.S. commerce secretary Carlos Gutierrez, is aimed at addressing ways and means to relive pressure on the record $202bn trade gap that the US faces in its trade with the communist country.

The trade relationship between the U.S. and China, valued at $285 billion, has grown increasingly contentious because of China's currency and market access policies, which the US perceives as being unfairly skewed in favour of the communist country.

Meanwhile, by way of tempering the rhetoric that is increasingly in evidence in the US capital, China has signed more than 100 contracts with U.S. companies such as Boeing Co. and Motorola Inc. worth a combined $16.2bn.

China has also notified the World Trade Organization of its government subsidies and said it would start negotiations by the end of 2007 on joining a WTO treaty that limits the ability of a nation to discriminate against foreigners in government contracts.

Twenty of the largest U.S. trade associations had written the U.S. to say that getting China to sign that government procurement agreement was one of their top trade priorities.
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WTO report forecasts downturn in global commerce
Geneva: The World Trade Organization, in its annual report has said that growth in global commerce may slow this year even as energy prices rise, European economies struggle to recover and central banks raise interest rates, curbing demand for imports.

The WTO estimated that the trade in goods may expand seven per cent in 2006, almost half of last year's 13 per cent rise, to $10.1trn.

Central banks in the United States, Japan and the 12-nation euro region have indicated that they planned to raise interest rates, which may dampen growth in their economies. The report says that rising energy costs may curb consumer spending and corporate profit, even as the United States tries to tackle a record trade deficit.

"The global trading system is undergoing a period of transition," Pascal Lamy, the WTO director general, said. "Persistent imbalances, driven largely by macroeconomic factors, continue to be a cause for concern."

As for the European Union, which accounts for about 40 per cent of global trade in goods and commercial services, and recorded the smallest increase in trade of all regions last year, the WTO said that "the long-awaited recovery of investment in Europe will eventually materialize and trigger broader economic growth" in 2006.

The United States, overtaken by Germany in 2003 as the world's biggest exporter, accounted for 8.7 percent of world shipments by value, worth $904 billion, and 16 per cent of imports in 2005, worth $1.7trn, the WTO said.
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Nasdaq picks up 15 per cent stake in the LSE
London, UK: The Nasdaq stock exchange said today that it had purchased a 15 per cent stake in the London Stock Exchange, Europe's largest, in a move designed to expand its international profile. The purchase makes Nasdaq the largest shareholder in the London exchange and comes just a month after Nasdaq's $4.1 billion bid to buy the exchange was rebuffed by the LSE as being insufficient.

Nasdaq said today that it had paid $782mn for its stake, with the bulk of the position coming from Threadneedle Asset Management, one of the London exchange's larger shareholders.

With an increasing number of companies reluctant to submit to the stiff regulatory requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley, the London exchange has become a popular listing alternative, and is experiencing increasing cash flows as corporate entities head towards it for listing.
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