Daily Current Affairs 21st April 2020 iasshiksha.com/daily-current-affair/daily-current-affairs-21st-april-2020/
Today’s Important Topic’s For UPSC Preparation 1. CHINA SAYS INDIAN TRADE CURBS ARE AGAINST WTO PRINCIPLES.. 2. AAROGYA SETU APP MUST FOR LABOURERS, SAYS CPWD. 3. RBI RAISES WMA LIMIT FOR APRIL-SEPT. 4. U.S. CRUDE FUTURES PLUNGE OVER 40% TO 1986 LOW. 5. OPEN UP E-COM SERVICES: IAMAI.
CHINA SAYS INDIAN TRADE CURBS ARE AGAINST WTO PRINCIPLES WTO: The World Trade Organization(WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that is concerned with the regulation of international trade between nations. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade(GATT), which commenced in 1948. It is the largest international economic organization in the world. The WTO deals with regulation of trade in goods, services and intellectual property(TRIPS) between participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements and a dispute resolution process. Aimed at enforcing participant’s adherence to WTO agreements, which are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their parliaments. The WTO prohibits discrimination between trading partners, but provides exceptions for environmental protection, national security, and other important goals. Trade-related disputes are resolved by independent judges at the WTO through a dispute resolution process. As of 2019 the WTO has 164 member countries, with Liberia and Afghanistan the most recent members, having joined in July 2016, and 23 “observer”.
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History: The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) traces its origins to the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference,which laid the foundations for the post-World War II financial system and established two key institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. The conference delegates also recommended the establishment of a complementary institution to be known as the International Trade Organization (ITO), which they envisioned as the third leg of the system. In Havana in 1948, the UN Conference on Trade and Employment concluded a draft charter for the ITO, known as the Havana Charter, which would have created extensive rules governing trade, investment, services, and business and employment practices. The Havana Charter never entered into force, primarily because the U.S. Senate failed to ratify it. As a result, the ITO was stillborn. Meanwhile, an agreement as the GATT signed by 23 countries in Geneva in 1947 came into force on Jan 1, 1948 with the following purposes: (1) To phase out the use of import quotas. (2) And to reduce tariffs on merchandise trade. The GATT became the only multilateral instrument(not an institution) governing international trade from 1948 until the WTO was established in 1995. Despite its institutional deficiencies, the GATT managed to function as a de facto international organization, sponsoring eight rounds (A round is a series of multilateral negotiations) of multilateral trade negotiations. 2/9
The Uruguay Round,conducted from 1987 to 1994, culminated in the Marrakesh Agreement, which established the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Why WTO replaced the GATT: The GATT was only a set of rules and multilateral agreements and lacked institutional structure. The trade in services and intellectual property rights were not covered by regular GATT rules.
Governance: Ministerial Conference: The topmost decision-making body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference, which usually meets every two years. It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions. The Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.
General Council: The General Council is the WTO’s highest-level decision-making body located in Geneva, meeting regularly to carry out the functions of the WTO. It has representatives (usually ambassadors or equivalent) from all member governments and has the authority to act on behalf of the ministerial conference which only meets about every two years.
Appellate Body: The Appellate Body was established in 1995 under Article 17 of the Understanding on Rules and Procedures Governing the Settlement of Disputes (DSU). The DSB shall appoint persons to serve on the Appellate Body for a four-year term. It is a standing body of seven persons that hears appeals from reports issued by panels in disputes brought by WTO Members.
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India’s recent policy to curb opportunistic takeovers of domestic companies goes against the World Trade Organisation (WTO) principles, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy This is the first response from the Chinese side after the Ministry of Commerce and Industry in an April 17 decision imposed restrictions saying companies from countries that share borders with India can invest “only under the government route”. The additional barriers set by Indian side for investors from specific countries violate the WTO’s principle of non-discrimination, and go against the general trend of liberalisation and facilitation of trade and investment. More importantly, they do not conform to the consensus of the G20 leaders and Trade Ministers to realise a free, fair, non-discriminatory, transparent, predictable and stable trade and investment environment, and to keep our markets open,” said Counsellor Ji Rong, spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy.
AAROGYA SETU APP MUST FOR LABOURERS, SAYS CPWD Aarogya Setu App: The Government of India launched ‘Aarogya Setu’ an app to track the cases of COVID-19 and alert the citizens of the country to keep safe. It uses GPS and Bluetooth features of smartphones to track the infection. It helps in determining whether the person has been in close contact with any other infected person or not. The government has launched the app in 11 different languages. The mobile app has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) that comes under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology.
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Why in News? Central government organisations involved in construction, including various metro rail corporations, were instructed by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) to ensure that “all labour personnel/staff” returning to work from Monday have downloaded the government’s COVID-19 tracking app — Aarogya Setu. The organisations were also asked to make sure there is no resumption of work in coronavirus containment zones and only workers still present at the camps should be asked to return to work at a particular site. Standard operating procedures, such as those issued by the National Real Estate Development Council (NAREDCO) for private developers, taking into account the advice of the Health and Family Welfare and Home Ministries should be prepared and followed, the organisations were told.
RBI RAISES WMA LIMIT FOR APRIL-SEPT WMA: Ways and means advances(WMA) is a mechanism used by Reserve Bank of India (RBI) under its credit policy to provide to States, banking with it, to help them tide over temporary mismatches in the cash flow of their receipts and payments. This is guided under Section 17(5) of RBI Act, 1934, and are repayable in each case not later than three months from the date of making that advance. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) gives temporary loan facilities to the central and state governments. This loan facility is called Ways and Means Advances (WMA). The Ways and Means Advances scheme was introduced in 1997. The Ways and Means Advances scheme was introduced to meet mismatches in the receipts and payments of the government. The government can avail of immediate cash from the RBI, if required. But it has to return the amount within 90 days. Interest is charged at the existing repo rate. If the WMA exceeds 90 days, it would be treated as an overdraft (interest rate on overdrafts is 2 percentage points more than the repo rate).
What is WMA limit? The limits for Ways and Means Advances are decided by the government and RBI mutually and revised periodically. For the second half of the 2019-20 financial year, RBI set Rs 35,000 crore as limit for Ways and Means Advances.
Types of WMA There are two types of Ways and Means Advances — normal and special. 6/9
Special WMA or Special Drawing Facility is provided against the collateral of the government securities held by the state. After the state has exhausted the limit of SDF, it gets normal WMA. The interest rate for SDF is one percentage point less than the repo rate. The number of loans under normal WMA is based on a three-year average of actual revenue and capital expenditure of the state.
Why in News? The RBI has decided to increase the ways and means advances limit for the AprilSeptember period of the current financial year to ₹2 lakh core from ₹1.2 lakh crore due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To tide over the situation arising from the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has been decided, in consultation with the Government of India, that the limit for Ways and Means Advances (WMA) for the remaining part of first half of the financial year 2020-21 (April 2020 to September 2020) will be revised to ₹ 2,00,000 crore,” the RBI said.
U.S. CRUDE FUTURES PLUNGE OVER 40% TO 1986 LOW Oil prices tumbled on Monday, with the U.S. crude futures contract plunging more than 40% to its lowest level since 1986, as investors worried about lack of storage and German and Japanese data indicated a bleak global economy. 7/9
Brent was down $1.56, or 5.6%, to $26.52 a barrel by 8.50 p.m. (IST) while the frontmonth May WTI contract fell $8.16, or 44.7%, to $10.11 a barrel. Prices have been pressured for weeks since with the COVID-19 outbreak, hammering demand even as Saudi Arabia and Russia failed to reach an agreement to cut supply. The two sides, with U.S. urging, agreed more than a week ago to cut supply by 9.7 million bpd, but that will not quickly reduce the global glut. Brent oil prices have collapsed around 60% since the start of the year, while U.S. crude futures have fallen more than 80%, to levels well below break-even costs necessary for many shale drillers. This has led to drilling halts and drastic spending cuts. S. crude futures hit a low of $10.01 a barrel, the lowest since 1986. Analysts said the sell-off was exaggerated by the contract’s imminent expiry.
OPEN UP E-COM SERVICES: IAMAI IAMAI: Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) is a not-for-profit industry body registered under the Societies Act, 1896. Its mandate is to expand and enhance the online and mobile value added services sectors. IAMAI also put forward the problems and requirements of the businesses to the consumers, shareholders, investors and the government of India. The main purpose of the Internet and Mobile Association of India is to improve and expand the value added services pertaining to mobiles and several online services IAMAI is a specialized industry body in India representing the interests of online and mobile value added services industry.
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Why in News? The Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) on Monday said it had requested the government to open up e-commerce services, adding that the online vs offline debate is an ‘incorrect portrayal’ of the ground reality as lakhs of sellers from the physical markets also sold online. Today, the only priority is to emphasise on ‘social distancing’ and e-commerce can support India’s fight against COVID-9. It added that the key to returning to normal was the fulfilment of consumer demand, which, under the present public health crisis, could be effectively done through e-commerce. Preservation of consumer demand is of prime importance that will keep the economy chugging along as the country starts the difficult process of economic recovery. This demand needs to be met and nurtured towards restoration rather than being suppressed to a future date.
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