Topic “In the News News” — Exporter Magazine

Under pressure from Congress to do more to confront China on economic issues, the Obama administration has notified the World Trade Organisation of nearly 200 Chinese subsidy programs, saying many of them may violate free trade rules, according to the New York Times. US pork exports will jump 23% or more this year because of surging demand and prices in China, the world’s top consumer, according to a report in ChinaDaily quoting Brett Stuart, the co-founder of farm-industry researcher Global AgriTrends. An investigation is under way into allegations by Heinz Wattie’s that Italian preserved tomatoes have been dumped on the market here, causing “material injury” to the New Zealand food industry,according to the Sunday Star Times. Denmark has imposed a fat tax in attempt to limit the population’s intake of fatty foods, becoming the first country to take such a measure, according to a report carried in Al Jazeera. New Zealand brewers have been forced to cut products from their ranges due to a lack of American-grown hops, a key ingredient in the popular American pale ale style, according to the Sunday Star Times. China must make its farm sector more transparent and fairer to foreign competition, the United States told the World Trade Organisation’s (WTO) agriculture committee on Friday, as it reviewed China’s first decade in the world trade body, according to ChinaPost. Amazon.com has taken the wraps off its long-awaited “Kindle Fire”, tacking on a mass market-friendly $US199 ($204) price tag that poses a serious threat to the dominance of Apple’s two-year-old iPad, according to a Reuters report carried in the Sydney Morning Herald.