China Watch Blog

China Watch Blog has picked this up from Damco North Asia, which has put out a notice to customers warning them that China to Cancel Tax Refund for Some Export Goods.

The company cited the Ministry of Finance as saying that the tax refund on some exported steel, non-ferrous metals, silver powder, alcohol, cornflour, pesticides, medicines, chemical products, plastic goods, rubber and glass products, effective from July 15 2010 will be called off.

A spokesperson for the China Commerce Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying that the cancellation of the tax refund aims to push forward the targeted energy consumption reduction in China and does not mean a tightening of the country’s foreign trade policy.

Experience from previous changes in the tax refund policy in China indicates that “we expect to see a surge cargo in order to beat the deadline”.

The immediate and estimated impact is expected to include but not limited to:

• Port congestion
• Space issue
• Late gate-in

Damco said it will closely monitor the effect of this change and will take all measures possible to maintain nominal operations of your supply chain.

Although this is put out by Damco, other companies will similarly be affected. So transport logistics professionals, beware.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has revised upward its forecast for Taiwan`s economic growth in 2010 to 7.7%, up from the original forecast of 6.5% made in April, with the new figure even higher than the forecast made by Taiwanese institutions, according to Taiwan Economic Times.

In a report released on July 8, IMF, however, lowered its forecast for Taiwan`s economic growth in 2011 to 4.3%, down from the previous figure of 4.8%. It predicted that the four little Asian dragons will rack up a robust growth of 6.7% on average in 2010, thanks to export upsurge and upturn in domestic demand, but the growth rate will decrease to 4.7% in 2011.

Shih Yen-hsiang, economics minister, remarked that Taiwan`s economy will grow at least 6% this year, adding that a growth rate of 7% or even 8% is possible. Christina Liu, minister of the Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD), attributed IMF`s rosy outlook to the robust growth of Taiwan`s domestic consumption and investments and was especially upbeat about its investment performance, citing the effect of cross-Taiwan Strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA). She, however, cautioned that the euro region`s economic woe has started to affect Taiwan`s exports.

In view of the stronger-than-expected performance of the Asian economy, the IMF has also revised upward its forecast growth for the global economy this year to 4.6%, higher than the previous figure of 4.2%, but maintained its forecast for the global economic growth next year at 4.3%.

China`s economy will expand by 10.5% this year, the highest worldwide, followed by India with 9.4% and Brazil with 7.1%, according to the IMF. Although the European financial market will stabilize gradually, the IMF still revised downward its forecast for the euro region`s economic growth in 2011 to 1.3%, 0.25 percentage points lower than the previous forecast, due to the effect of the financial disciplinary measures, but maintained its forecast for the region`s growth this year at 1%. The U.S. economy will grow 3.3% this year and the Japanese economy 2.4%, both higher than the previous forecast.

China Watch Blog received this note from a reader: Hey dude , Why dont u put facebook badge on your blog? Because I want to follow your fb. Thanks Regards Admin of elobing.com

If this reader had just looked at the top right hand corner of China Watch Blog, we not only have facebook, but also “follow me”, “Share it on Technorati”, “Reddit”, “Share it on My Space”, “Share it on LinkedIn”, “Submit it on WebONews”, “Share it on Delicious”, “Digg”, “Flickr”, “Stumbleupon”, “Newsvine”, and even “YouTube”.