City Abu Dhabi Financial News

By Emma Farge

13th ministerial conference (MC13) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) got extended and entered into the fifth day as the 166-members couldn’t reach a consensus on key issues of agriculture, fisheries subsidies, ending the moratorium on imposing customs duties on e-commerce transmissions and dispute resolution reform. Moreover, talks on elements on trade inclusiveness, women’s participation in trade, industrial policy and environment, in the draft Abu Dhabi package also remained unresolved. “Members are indicating that additional time will be needed to iron out some of the outstanding issues,” said an official, adding that, for this reason, the informal meeting of heads of delegation and the formal closing session were postponed to Friday.

farm subsidies at the World Trade Organization (WTO) remained stuck on the third day of 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) with countries sticking to their respective positions. Developed countries are not yielding to the «legitimate» demands of developing nations, officials said, adding that an outcome on the ministerial is expected to be delayed to Saturday instead of Friday. The European Union and the United States also blocked pro-development agenda in the draft Abu Dhabi package such as India's proposal, backed by many countries, to lower the cost of cross-border remittances, and a paragraph on debt on «trade-related approach» to mitigate challenges on increasing levels of debt and global financial crises.

By Alexander Cornwell

NEW DELHI : New Delhi: The crisis in the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest trade corridors, hit global merchandise trade volumes in 2023, according to Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, director-general, World Trade Organization (WTO). These disruptions, coupled with a global economic slowdown, likely led to a less than 0.8% increase in global merchandise trade volumes in 2023, falling short of the WTO's April projection, Okonjo-Iweala said while speaking at the business forum on the third day of the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in Abu Dhabi.

Family office-backed crypto investment firm, ​​Deus X Capital, has agreed to acquire institutional digital assets firm HAYVN for an undisclosed amount.

The Economic Times. Except the US, most WTO members have backed India's proposal. A cost reduction can not only increase the inflow of remittance to developing countries like India, but also create vantage for the country's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for global penetration, economists told Livemint, while speaking on its impact on the Indian economy.

₹2,500-crore IPO to open on Feb 28 OIL to announces global partner roadshow in Abu Dhabi Feb 28 Goa ST quota: Note to be placed before Union cabinet Feb 28 Gyanvapi suit: Hearing set on Feb 28, court considers new parties WB: Mamata to visit Jhargram on Feb 28 INSAT-3DS is set to be at its ‘In Orbit Testing’ location by Feb 28 Telangana: Semi-Finals of Pro Kabaddi League Feb 28 Vivo V30 Pro With 50-Megapixel Primary Camera Set to Launch Feb 28 Birth Anniversary: Morarji Ranchhodji Desai Death Anniversary: Kamala Kaul Nehru, Rajendra Prasad National Science Day to honour the discovery of the 'Raman Effect' (India) Bill Gates to visit Odisha on Feb 28Milestone Alert! Livemint tops charts as the fastest growing news website in the world

NEW DELHI : New Delhi: The 13th Ministerial Conference (MCA 13) of the World Trade Organization on Tuesday announced new rules to streamline the international trade in services. These regulations, which apply on a Most Favored Nation (MFN) basis, aim to make authorization processes more transparent and accessible, with commitments to gender equality. The reduction in barriers to the services trade could have a substantial economic impact, particularly benefiting poorer countries, and emerging economies like India that are driven by services, experts said.

WTO agreement on duty-free trade in digital services would appear to be self-damaging. India is a major beneficiary of growth in services trade, and within that, the rise of digital trade, which has been allowed free access through a quarter century of tax moratorium. Tax forgone on import of services such as ecommerce, entertainment and software would be a fraction of the volume of India's technology-enabled services exports that could face tariffs in retaliation.

As the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) begins, the question is not whether this once-important gathering will fail, only if it will fail in a way that’s even worth noticing. The prevailing sentiment seems to be, “True, this broken relic of neoliberalism is barely any longer functioning. Who cares?" Regardless of your views on globalization, you should care.

NEW DELHI : India expressed concerns about the increasing use of unilateral trade protectionist measures being justified in the guise of environmental protection, at the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference that began in Abu Dhabi on Monday. Speaking at a session on sustainable development and policy space for industrialization, India’s commerce secretary Sunil Barthwal said the country has propagated a sustainable way of living as a key to combating climate change.

Goldman Sachs and Mubadala Investment Company have signed a $1-billion separately managed account in which Mubadala and Goldman Sachs will co-invest in private credit opportunities throughout the Asia Pacific region, said a joint statement. The Partnership will be managed by Private Credit at Goldman Sachs Alternatives, with a dedicated on-the-ground team across multiple Asia Pacific markets. The global Private Credit team consists of 165 credit investment professionals overseeing more than $110 billion in assets under management (AUM).

Adani New Industries Ltd. is in talks to raise up to $3 billion for capital expenditure, according to people familiar with the matter, as the unit of India’s ports-to-power conglomerate aims to become a major player in the country’s green hydrogen push. The company is discussing the planned transaction with a group of foreign lenders and is likely to raise the money via offshore loans in two or three tranches over the next 12 months, with the process starting in June, the people said, asking not to be identified because the details are private. The loan’s tenor could range from three to five years, with the pricing likely linked to the Secured Overnight Financing Rate, they said. Lenders discussing the credit facility with the company include DBS Bank, Deutsche Bank AG, First Abu Dhabi Bank PJSC, ING Bank NV, MUFG Bank and Standard Chartered Bank Plc.

Building coalitions with other WTO members will help India push for the adoption of open and interoperable payment systems like UPI with a view to cut the cost of money transfers or remittances, a report by think tank GTRI said on Monday. The dominance of a few large players in the market contributes to these high costs, through complex and opaque fee structures, the GTRI said.

World Trade Organization (WTO) beginning Monday in Abu Dhabi, the G-33 group of countries, which includes India, has urged members to achieve an outcome on public stockholding for food security purposes. Ministers and Representatives of the G-33 members who met yesterday in United Arab Emirates on the sidelines of the four-day Ministerial Conference (MC) called on all WTO Members to engage constructively to achieve a meaningful outcome on agriculture. The G-33 group, which includes 47 developing and least developed countries (LDCs) and Net Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCs), issued a joint statement on February 25, after the meeting coordinated by Indonesia.

(Reuters) -Goldman Sachs and Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund Mubadala have struck a $1 billion deal, signing a seperately managed account in which the companies will co-invest in private credit in the Asia Pacific, the companies said on Monday.

In an eerie echo of the protectionist 1930s, globalization has been in retreat this decade amid a fast deepening geopolitical divide. This explains feeble expectations of anything multilateral. So too of the 13th ministerial conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) being held in Abu Dhabi.

trade ministers gather at the World Trade Organization summit in Abu Dhabi this week, one of the villains will, as usual, be India. And, certainly, there’s some justice to the complaint that Indian negotiators are far too ready to block consensus at such confabs unless granted concessions on their own priorities. Saying “no” often comes too easily to them. But those priorities need to be viewed in the context of India’s fiendishly complicated domestic politics. This is a country the size of a continent, and achieving internal consensus on a drastic shift in policy is as hard — or harder — than getting agreement at the WTO. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the strongest, and most popular, leader India has had in decades. But he has always been particularly careful not to provoke widespread protests against his decisions. Although he hates to retract policies after investing political capital in them, he has twice in the past decade withdrawn legislation that enraged some of India’s farmers — a law early on in his tenure that would have made it easier to acquire agricultural land for industry, and a package of reforms in 2021 meant to liberalize India’s complicated farm subsidy system.

Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund and Goldman’s asset-management arm struck a partnership to invest alongside each other in the Asia-Pacific region, with a particular focus on India. The pact follows a similar mandate the New York-based firm received from the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System in September.

Cube Highways & Infrastructure, an investment arm of global infrastructure fund I Squared Capital, plans to monetise some of its road assets by selling seven highway projects spanning 516 kilometres (2,200 lane km), multiple people aware of the development said. Cube has hired Ambit Capital to run the sale process and feelers have already been sent to leading investors and strategic investors, the sources said. They did not share any estimated sale value. The assets on the block include six hybrid annuity model (HAM) assets and one BOT (build-operate-transfer) asset. They reported a total revenue of ₹860 crore in FY23. Cube Highways — the largest roads operator in India with a portfolio of 27 highways spanning nearly 8,400 lane km — had originally planned to transfer these assets with a right of first offer (ROFO) into its private infrastructure investment trust (InvIT), the sources said.