International

Efforts aim for healthy grain harvest

China will step up efforts to coordinate agricultural production and COVID-19 epidemic prevention, stabilizing economic development in agriculture and rural areas amid rising uncertainties in the overall economy, a senior official with the agriculture ministry said recently.

Vice-Minister Deng Xiaogang said that annual grain output above 650 million metric tons is the bottom line, and spring sowing under epidemic prevention and control measures is crucial for the country’s summer harvest－the first battle for the annual grain harvest.

Affected by rare autumn floods in five provinces last year, the late-sowing area of winter wheat reached 7.3 million hectares, resulting in a complicated seeding situation that hasn’t happened in many years.

In addition, the prices of agricultural materials such as pesticides have continued to rise and many places are seeing flare-ups of domestic cases. “The harvest of summer grain has encountered unprecedented pressure,” Deng said.

The central government has invested a record 6 billion yuan ($900 million) to support summer grain production, including 1.6 billion yuan to subsidize the robust growth of wheat. A one-time subsidy of 20 billion yuan has been distributed to farmers to alleviate the impact of rising agricultural material prices, he added.

The ministry has launched campaigns to survey the seedling growth of each county, and has dispatched 100 officials and 200 technicians nationwide to instruct field management in accordance with emergency plans and guidelines.

As the transportation of agricultural products was affected by the local epidemic outbreaks, “the ministry has opened a hotline and online message platforms to solve the difficulties encountered by farmers in spring sowing.”

At present, the supply of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides is generally guaranteed. The production of summer grain is better than expected. Spring sowing is progressing smoothly and faster than last year, with more than 40 percent of the crops having been planted, Deng said.

He stressed that increasing farmers’ incomes is an essential task of the agricultural sector. “An important measure to test the achievement of rural work is to check whether farmers’ pockets are bulging,” he said.

In the first quarter of this year, farmers’ incomes increased by 6.3 percent, 2.1 percentage points faster than their urban counterparts. However, farmers met challenges in going out to work due to the spread of the epidemic.

“We must spare no effort to maintain the increase of farmers’ incomes by developing rural industries, stabilizing employment, promoting entrepreneurship and investing in business,” Deng said.

Local authorities will expand the agricultural processing industry, gradually restore rural tourism, and focus on developing characteristic industries in areas that have shaken off poverty.

As wages account for more than 40 percent of farmers’ total income, modern agricultural industrial parks should be built to ensure farmers employment in nearby areas.

Regional cooperative projects and enterprises are expected to play roles in ensuring that more than 30 million migrant workers in once poverty-stricken areas get jobs.

The country will keep promoting rural entrepreneurship to further drive employment and increase farmers’ incomes.

“A rural start-up project can provide stable jobs for six to seven farmers and flexible employment for 17 people on average,” Deng said.

The ministry will continue to optimize the rural business environment, guide commercial capital to flow to the countryside and help farmers become prosperous together, he added.

International

China’s Xi Jinping tells top global CEOs to use their influence to defend trade

Gathering of senior business leaders in Beijing comes amid rising tensions with US

Xi Jinping has urged global business leaders to work together to protect supply chains at a meeting with a group of executives including Rajesh Subramaniam of FedEx, Ola Källenius of Mercedes-Benz and Georges Elhedery of HSBC.

Amid a deepening trade war with the US, the Chinese leader told the group of more than 40 business leaders, which also included Pascal Soriot of AstraZeneca, Miguel Ángel López Borrego of Thyssenkrupp and Amin Nasser of Saudi Aramco, that foreign business leaders should resist behaviours that “turn back the clock” on history.

“We hope everyone can take a broad and long-term view . . . and not blindly follow actions that disrupt the security and stability of global industrial chains and supply chains, but instead contribute more positive energy and certainty to global development,” Xi told the gathering in Beijing on Friday.

The event at the Great Hall of the People marked the second consecutive year that Xi held a carefully staged meeting with foreign chief executives in the Chinese capital. Last year’s event was held exclusively with US business leaders.

The meeting came at the conclusion of a busy week for Chinese policymakers, who are trying to strengthen relations with international business amid rising tensions with US President Donald Trump’s administration.

China’s premier annual CEO conference, the China Development Forum, was held in Beijing this week, followed by the Boao Forum for Asia in the tropical resort island of Hainan. Beijing is seeking to promote itself as a bastion of stability in global trade in contrast to the US, where Trump has launched successive waves of tariffs on products from aluminium to cars. The president has vowed widespread, reciprocal duties on US trading partners on April 2, threatening further disruption to international trade.

“A few countries are building ‘small yards with high walls’, setting up tariff barriers, and politicising, instrumentalising, weaponising, and over-securitising economic and trade issues,” said Xi, who was accompanied by his foreign, commerce and finance ministers.

He said these actions were forcing companies “to take sides and make choices that go against economic principles”. “This runs counter to the overarching trend of open markets,” he said. He added that foreign enterprises, especially multinational corporations, had “considerable international influence”.

“We hope everyone will . . . resist regressive moves that turn back the clock,” Xi said. “Together, we must safeguard the stability of global industrial and supply chains. “Decoupling and severing ties harms others without benefiting oneself; it leads nowhere.”

International

US to Negotiate with Regional Governments on Hiring of Cuban Doctors

US special envoy to the Caribbean and Latin America, Mauricio Claver-Carone, says the United States intends to negotiate a mechanism with Caribbean governments regarding the hiring of Cuban doctors.

The US has threatened visa restrictions for nations who benefit from Cuban medical missions. They deem the programme as a form of forced labour and trafficking on the part of the Cuban government.

Several countries in the Caribbean rely heavily on Cuban medical missions to supplement local staff.

The special envoy says the US wants a united voice against human trafficking, in favour of international labour laws. He says they look forward to reaching a deal that allows Caribbean governments to directly hire Cuban doctors.

International

Honda to produce next Civic in Indiana, not Mexico, due to US tariffs

Honda has decided to produce its next-generation Civic hybrid in the U.S. state of Indiana, instead of Mexico, to avoid potential tariffs on one of its top-selling car models, according to three people familiar with the matter.

The change underscores how manufacturers are scrambling to adapt to U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada. While several automakers have expressed concerns about the levies, Honda’s move is the first concrete measure by a major Japanese car company. (Article from Reuters)