Trade

• [New] Oracle Cloud will provide real-time financial, supply chain and merchandising solutions, replacing its legacy suite of technology systems and delivering new data, insights and planning capabilities.
• [New] Urban refugees in cities of the global south are often confined to informal settlements that feature improvised infrastructures at best which might pose particular risks.
• [New] There are concerns that recent tariff hikes are protectionist and could get in the way of India becoming a part of the global supply chains.
• [New] According to Cisco, 66% of the global population will have access to it within two years, by which time there will be 5.3 billion total Internet users.
• [New] Precision technology which can map soil health, predict potential yields and make the most efficient use of inputs could all help UK farmers compete on a global stage.
• [New] The growing power of China is reshaping the priorities of the Atlantic alliance, which traditionally focused on the threat from Russia but now is seeking a consensus among Western nations that Beijing is no longer a benign trading partner.
• [New] The world must reach net zero emissions by 2050 to limit global temperature increases to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial times and avert the most catastrophic impacts of climate change.
• [New] To absorb the lifetime emissions that will be produced by every American alive today - just 4% of the global population - you would need to plant and permanently maintain trees on more than 16bn acres, roughly half the landmass of the world.
• [New] China may ban the export of rare-earth refining technology to countries or companies it deems as a threat to state security.
• [New] Vaccine nationalism, where countries push to get first access to a supply of vaccine, potentially hoarding key components for vaccine production, could cost the global economy $1.2 trillion a year in terms of GDP.
• [New] U.S. trade and economic policy over the next four years will likely be quite different than it was prior decades, but it is clear that both the United States and Korea have strong interests in maintaining a solid and open trading relationship.
• [New] The Biden administration may push for new sector-based trade agreements, such as an e-commerce agreement, an environmental goods and services agreement, and a new information technology agreement, where Korean support and partnership will be critical.
• [New] China's National IC Plan calls for $150 billion of government subsidies to produce domestically at least 70% of the semiconductors it consumes, and for China to become a global leader in all segments of the semiconductor industry by 2030.
• [New] The National IC Plan became the centerpiece of China's semiconductor strategy in 2014, with China's State Council setting a goal of China becoming a global leader in all segments of the semiconductor industry by 2030.
• [New] The U.S. economy could lose more than $1 trillion worth of production and long-term global competitiveness if the White House pursues a sharp separation with China.
• [New] Black men in the United States and the Caribbean have the highest incidence rates globally, supporting the role of Western African ancestry in modulating prostate cancer risk.
• [New] Although bottlenecks in the semiconductor industry will impact sales mainly in the first quarter it is currently anticipated that lost production volume can be compensated for by the end of the year.
• [New] Unified commerce will see an uptick - Focus in 2021 will be towards payment innovation to help businesses consolidate their sales with unified commerce and secure data in multi-channel mode.
• [New] South Korea should impose measures to restrain growth in bilateral trade and limit investment in China for fear of the strategic consequences of becoming subordinate to China's growing economic power.
• [New] As the world of work transforms at a rate of knots, people are upskilling to take advantage of new opportunities.
• [New] Domestic production levels have been choppy in recent weeks, but forecasters generally expect the United States and other producers outside of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase output in 2021 when compared to 2020.

Last updated: 21 February 2021