Author: Sam Byfield, Vision 2020 Australia
One of the notable recommendations of the Australian government’s Independent Review of Aid Effectiveness released in July was that Australia’s aid to China should be phased out.
The report and the Australian government’s response did not specify the time period likely to be involved, but the report made it clear that as China’s economic development continues, and its own aid program grows, Australia should focus its aid elsewhere. Read more…
Author: Micah Burch, University of Sydney
Much was made (in tax treaty circles, at least) three years ago when the OECD included in its model tax treaty a provision requiring arbitration.
The controversial provision (Article 25(5) of the OECD Model Tax Convention on Income and on Capital (2003)) requires states to arbitrate tax disputes arising under the treaty if they remain unresolved after two years of negotiation between the competent authorities. While arbitration is a generally accepted facet of international commercial dispute resolution worldwide, dispute resolution under bilateral tax treaties is relatively undeveloped. Read more…
Author: Shankaran Nambiar, Manipal International University, Malaysia
As the US loses its AAA rating, and Japan takes a slide to AA-, can the Malaysian economy hold its candle in the global storm that is brewing?
In what is an already gloomy environment, there is no doubt that the weather ahead is likely to turn grey, and Malaysia’s credit rating slipping from A+ to A in early September 2011 is proving an ominous sign. Read more…
Author: Andrei Lankov, Kookmin University and ANU
In mid-August, the armoured train of the ‘Dear Leader’, Marshall Kim Jong-il once again crossed the Russian border. This time, he did not venture far: the summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev took place in the city of Ulan-Ude.
Among other things, the summit produced a statement about a gas pipeline which is to go through the North to reach the South. Read more…
Author: Wang Yong, Peking University
Prior to joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), the common perception in China was that the WTO belonged to ‘the Club of the Rich’, where wealthy countries imposed rules on poor and weak developing ones.
Now, the WTO is one of the most widely recognised and respected international organisations within China. Read more…
Author: Nabeel A Mancheri, NIAS
China is the world’s largest depositor, producer, consumer and exporter of rare earths, controlling 97 per cent of the global supplies.
But with China’s export restrictions, the gap between demand and supply is growing because of the dearth of any other major supplying nation. Read more…
Author: Evan A Feigenbaum, CFR
Can the United States and China cooperate to forestall threats to stability?
A new CFR report, Managing Instability on China’s Periphery, asks this question in the context of fragile states and regions that share borders with China — specifically North Korea, Myanmar, Pakistan and Central Asia. Read more…
Author: Carlyle A Thayer, UNSW Canberra
The Obama Administration’s decision to sell Taiwan an arms package worth $5.85 billion is a carefully calibrated decision designed to meet US legal obligations under the Taiwan Relations Act of 1979.
It is also a decision that carefully calibrates the impact on Sino–American relations at a time of improved relations not only between Washington and Beijing but between Beijing and Taipei. Read more…
Author: Gilbert Rozman, Princeton University
In much of the world the Six-Party Talks represent a futile attempt to rein in North Korea’s nuclear weapons program and deter it from a path of belligerence.
But in China the talks offer hope for a new regional security arrangement. While observers took keen interest in China’s resistance to condemn the North’s two attacks on South Korea in 2010, few paid attention to Chinese rhetoric on the Korean peninsula, apart from expressing surprise at Xi Jinping’s revival of Chinese support for the North in the ‘glorious’ Korean War. Read more…
Author: Huw McKay, Westpac and ANU
The Australian economy presents a conundrum for both policymakers and outside observers.
Despite a spectacular effort in evading the worst of the 2008/09 downturn and an impressive recovery trajectory in the labour market through 2010, a striking undercurrent of pessimism has emerged. Read more…
Author: Peter Drysdale, Editor, East Asia Forum
Europe’s woes and another week of volatility in world financial markets saw confidence in global recovery tumble.
The IMF meetings in Washington and the political follow up that is now playing out across Europe have done something to staunch the financial bleeding, but the global economy is still in emergency triage.
Read more…
Author: Andrew Elek, ANU
The global economy has another serious bout of the jitters around the deep problems in Europe and uncertain recovery in the United States.
The IMF meetings in Washington may have temporarily allayed the effects of the collapse in global confidence but there remain big challenges for the G20 in developing a response to the threat of the world’s slipping back into recession.
Read more…
Author: Masaya Sakuragawa, Keio University
Japan is a large country driven by export-orientated economic growth, but, surprisingly, the yen is not used broadly in trade invoicing among Japanese exporters.
Given most of Japanese trade is invoiced in US dollars, the recent appreciation of the yen to above 80 yen per dollar is a serious problem for the Japanese economy, and threatens exports and GDP growth. Read more…
Author: Matthew Morris, ANU
The first 50 days of Papua New Guinea’s O’Neill-Namah government have seen reforms take off, including decisive action being taken to tackle corruption, public enterprises being cleaned up, and an 800 million kina (US$362 million) supplementary budget passed focusing on free education and infrastructure.
The next nine months provide an opportunity to put the economic foundations in place for better management of the mineral boom. Read more…
