(The Corner House, 24 April 2008, Dorset) The High Court today formally quashed the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) decision to drop its corruption investigation into arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia. This follows the Court's ruling on 10th April that the SFO, acting on government advice, acted unlawfully in stopping its investigation in December 2006 following a threat from Saudi Arabia.
Index for April 2008
Volume 7, Issue 4
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(Halifax Initiative, 30 April 2008, Ottawa) On April 7, 2008, John Ruggie, Special Representative to the United Nations Secretary-General on human rights and transnational corporations (SRSG), submitted his final report to the Human Rights Council (HRC) for consideration when it meets on June 2-13. He argues that “ECAs, representing not only commercial interests but also the broader public interest, should require clients to perform adequate due diligence on their potential human rights impacts.
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(AKI, 11 April 2008, Rome) Ahmad Rafat - Italy's export credit agency Sace, which insures the activities of Italian enterprises in foreign markets, has stopped issuing policies to companies seeking to operate in Iran. Sace which has a scale of one to seven to measure risk, has placed Iran in the sixth position. Although Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to downplay the impact of UN imposed economic sanctions, the economy of Iran has been badly affected by this international isolation. On Thursday the French oil company Total said they had decided to give up on investments in Iran. A Chinese company which won a contract for the construction of a highway in Iran, has just decided to pull out of the deal without giving any explanation.
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(Financial Express, 23 April 2008, New Delhi) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh indicated during last July’s G-8 Summit in St Petersburg that he wanted to force the pace of Indo-Russian cooperation. Amongst the factors inhibiting trade are credit risk, the high cost of India`s Export Credit Guarantee Corporation (ECGC) cover, insurance and the Russian ban on farm imports.
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(Air Finance Journal, April 2008, London) Export credit loans cover 85% of the aircraft’s value. This type of finance is extremely important during a downturn when many banks stop lending.
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(Business Wire, 17 April 2008, Moscow) The State Corporation “Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs” (Vnesheconombank, Russia), COFACE, a French export credit agency, and SACE, an Italian export credit agency signed a Joint statement on the establishment of an export credit financing scheme for the Sukhoi Superjet 100 international sales.
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(AFP, 17 April 2008, Johannesburg) South Africa has waived Cuban debt totalling more than 100 million dollars. The 926.8-million-rand (117-million-dollar/ 73-million-euro) debt was owed for insurance cover provided by the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of SA for the export of diesel engines and pesticides in 1996.
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(BBJ.hu, 17 April 2008, Budapest) The European Commission said Thursday that a planned scheme for providing short-term export credit guarantees to Hungarian SME exporters and their foreign clients is incompatible with EU rules as risks covered by the guarantees are too wide and give Hungarian exporters an unfair competitive advantage over companies in other member states.
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(Reuters, 16 April 2008, Washington) - The U.S. Export-Import Bank has approved a $2.2 billion loan guarantee program to support U.S. exports to help build energy and other infrastructure projects in India.
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(Kazinform, 16 April 2008, Astana) During 9-12 April meetings of senior officials, the Kazakhstan Development Bank and Chinese Export-Import Bank concluded an Agreement on soft credit. Kazakh-Chinese relations rely mainly on trade-and-economic cooperation. Bilateral trade turnover grew to USD 13.8 billion in 2007 with suggestions it could exceed USD 15 billion by 2010. The two nations have intensified financial cooperation, notably in large project financing, export credit insurance, involvement of second tier banks in development of the two countries’ financial markets, including through opening of subsidiaries.