Judges at the World Trade Organisation have handed down a landmark ruling - most of China's curbs on foreign books, films and DVDs are illegal.

The ruling, which is now final, affects distribution in China of foreign films for theatrical release, DVDs, music, books and journals. China has said it "regrets" the WTO's decision.

The United States has won a case against China in the World Trade Organisation which has rules that it is illegally restricting imports of movies, music and books into the country.

The WTO Appellate Body held that China was obstructing trade by forcing foreign suppliers to distribute certain copyright-intensive products through state-owned companies which is inconsistent with the Beijing's obligations with the WTO.

"America got a big win...The Appellate Body's findings are key to ensuring full market access in China for legitimate, high-quality entertainment products and the exporters and distributors of those products," Ron Kirk, the US Trade Representative, said.

Brazil will be allowed to impose up to 829.3 million dollars in retaliatory sanctions against the United States over unfair US cotton subsidies, a source close to the World Trade Organization said Monday.

The WTO had given the green light for the sanctions in August, more than a year after it ruled in June 2008 ruled that subsidies to US cotton producers were discriminatory.

The sanctions were authorised in retaliation for subsidies that dampened international cotton prices.

Under WTO rules, sanctions can be imposed until the offending party brings its trade regime into line with international rules.

India’s apparel exports witnessed a fall of 17% in October to $603 million in comparison to the previous year as the country had to face stiff competition from China, Bangladesh and Vietnam on account of featuring non-competitive fabric pricing in the local market.

Exporters informed that increasing rates of the cotton resulted in the high cost of yarn, and, which in turn made local garments expensive.

Foreign buyers, however, are not able to absorb this increase and are giving contracts to Indonesia, China, Vietnam and Cambodia who are offering apparels at cheaper prices than India.

According to an expert, Duty Drawback rates help in neutralizing the instance of service tax, customs duty and central excise duty for export. According to him, these rates have been revised 5 times for the Chinese garment exporters from 11% to 17% in last few months on value of Freight on Board. But, Indian exporters can avail only 8.8% rebate.

Market share of Indian apparel exports in the US decreased by 6.46% to $2.27 billion in the months spanning from January to September 2009 in comparison to $3.07 billion during the same period in 2008.

Getting rid of the rising food prices seems to be a distant dream, as the scenario may turn out to be even worse in next few months. According to the figures provided by government, food inflation touched 19.05% in the 4th week of November as against 17.47% previous week in the backdrop of the increased prices of potatoes, pulses and onions.

Crisil Principal Economist told “Though the Government is trying to soar up imports and take other possible measures, for another 3-4 months we are going to witness constant pressure on food prices.”

He added, “It could even touch higher levels of 20-22 per cent as well if the Government does not take desired steps”. He also pointed out that “the Government needs to import as much as it can. Secondly, the major need is of curbing speculations and hoarding of stocks. Thirdly, there is still scope to provide cheaper food grains to the poor section of the country and support at the basic level.”

India insisted that services must take top priority in world trade talks. “We have our interests and there is no question of agreeing only to those sectors where the developed countries are interested,” Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said in Rajya Sabha.

He was replying to a calling-attention motion on the status of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Sharma said in the present round of negotiations “services will be an integral part.”

He assured the House that “there is no question of coming under pressure when it comes to trade policy. India will come under only one pressure, the pressure of its interest, the pressure of its people and the pressure of its farmers. There is no question of us being pro-US.”

Director-General Pascal Lamy told the Conference on the New Global Trading System in the Post-Crisis Era in Seoul on 7 December 2009 with respect to post-crisis banking rules that “it is important that re-regulation be applied in a non-discriminatory manner, avoiding any form of “re-nationalization” of lending.” He said that “countries that have provided support to banks should be able to exit support as the de-leveraging process takes place, in a manner that ensures a level playing field between national and foreign-owned institutions.”

Amidst all the talks of the 10th India-EU summit to accomplish Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as fast as possible, India has made the picture very clear by saying that it would discuss only trade and investment related issues and not the ones like child labor and environmental laws.

Anand Sharma, Commerce and Industry Minister, said “We are clear in our approach. No other extraneous issues will form part of the India-EU FTA negotiations. On the climate change issue, both India and the EU will make their positions at the UN Climate Change summit in Copenhagen later this year”. These words from the minister came during a joint press conference with Baroness Cathrine Ashton, the EU Trade Commissioner and Ewa Bjorling, the Swedish Minister of State for Trade.

Mr. Sharma told that both India and EU were keen on wrapping up the agreement on FTA by the year end of 2010 as was suggested by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during his summit discussions with Fredrik Reinfeldt, the EU President and Swedish Prime Minister and Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President.

Referring to the recent confiscation of drug shipments by some EU nations, Ms. Ashton added, “We are clear that we have no intention to stop export of generic medicines from India. Officials of the two countries will be meeting soon to sort out the issues this month”.

Mr. Sharma also said that India would not encourage any movement of unskilled labor, as it possesses adequate talent in this field. This point was made as against the issue of visas to amateur laborers from EU nations. Nevertheless, he added there is no issue with the arrival of technical staffs, who join diverse projects that were carried out here.

Venu Srinivasan, Confederation of Indian Industry President, told the day-long India-EU business discussions pressed on the need to give a big push to the trade agreement.

Both India and the EU felt the need to conclude Doha Round. Simultaneously, India urged the EU to allow free movement of people from India to the EU and also introducing a process for carbon credit and carbon funding through launching a Carbon Fund.