India is a massive business opportunity for America www.cnn.com

New Delhi (CNN Business)The United States has been tightening the screws on several allies in an escalating global trade battle. India is its latest target.

President Donald Trump on Friday announced the South Asian country's removal from a special trade program, saying it had "not assured the United States that India will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets." The program, known as the Generalized System of Preferences, exempted Indian goods worth more than $6 billion from import duties in 2018, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Here's what's at stake, and why the two countries still need each other.
Why India needs the United States
One of President Trump's biggest priorities has been reducing the United States' trade deficits with countries around the world, and its $142 billion trading relationship with India is skewed in favor of India.
India exported goods worth around $54 billion to the United States in 2018 and bought $33 billion worth of American goods, according to US government data.
And the goods that do come into India are subject to duties that can be as high as 150%. Trump has repeatedly slammed India's tariffs on products like motorcycles and whiskey, and his decision to revoke trade privileges for India followed complaints from American dairy farmers and medical device manufacturers that tariffs were hurting their exports.
Another source of friction is the Trump administration's crackdown on H-1B work visas used by the US tech industry, the majority of which go to Indian workers. The crackdown has impacted companies like TCS, Infosys (INFY) and Wipro (WIT) in India's huge outsourcing industry, which is another big driver of bilateral trade. Trade in services between the two countries totalled $54.6 billion last year.

But India still needs the United States, currently its second-largest trading partner behind China. It has postponed tariffs on US goods worth more than $200 million several times in recent months — a retaliation for US tariffs on Indian steel and aluminum imposed last year — as it continues to try and find a resolution.
The Indian government on Saturday called the US move to end its trade exemptions "unfortunate," but said it would continue to try and fix bilateral ties.
"In any relationship, in particular in the area of economic ties, there are ongoing issues which get resolved mutually from time to time," it said in a statement. "We view this issue as a part of this regular process and will continue to build on our strong ties with the US."
Why the United States needs India
While India is only the United States' 9th largest goods trading partner, its massive market presents a prize that US businesses can scarcely afford to ignore.
Access to India's population of 1.3 billion people is crucial for American businesses, with big names like Amazon (AMZN), Walmart (WMT), Google (GOOGL) and Facebook (FB) investing billions of dollars in the country in recent years. India's 600 million internet users — more than any country except China — are also a big draw for Netflix (NFLX), Uber (UBER) and Disney (DIS). As part of its recent deal with 21st Century Fox, Disney recently acquired India's biggest streaming platform Hotstar.
But the Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, imposed restrictions this year that will make it harder for many of those companies to do business in the country.
Other stringent requirements on foreign retailers have hurt firms like Apple (AAPL), which continues to struggle to sell iPhones and open its stores in India. But CEO Tim Cook has said he remains "very bullish" on the Indian market.
US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross criticized the latest regulations during a recent visit to New Delhi, saying that "trade relationships should be based on fairness and reciprocity."

Modi's government attracted record levels of foreign investment during his first five-year tenure as India's leader. That inflow of funds tapered off recently, however as Modi courted local business owners that form a key part of his political base ahead of the country's national election last month.
The ploy appears to have worked, and the Indian leader won re-election by a huge margin. Overseas investors and companies will be waiting to see whether the country's growing protectionism persists in his second term.
Fixing the relationship
With Trump now fighting trade battles on multiple global fronts, most notably with China and Mexico, analysts say friction with India risks alienating a key ally.
"Leaders on both sides must keep in mind that these are short-term bumps that must be avoided, even if they incur some level of political cost," Richard Rossow, a senior adviser and India expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in a recent note.
"It is imperative that our two governments convene quickly to assess these roadblocks on the horizon and work hard and effectively to ensure the relationship succeeds," he added.
US business groups are also urging the two sides to resolve their differences, with the US-India Business Council speaking out against the decision to remove India from the GSP.
The preferential trade program "provides important benefits for both India and the United States," Nisha Biswal, the council's president and a former State Department official, said on Twitter Saturday.
"These issues can be better resolved through continued dialogue and engagement," Biswal added.

Demand for Batsaikhan.S / ZGM© investment rises in agriculture as livestock heads increase www.zgm.mn

According to the statistical data on the growth of livestock heads in Mongolia, the share of livestock in the macroeconomy is declining, calling for investment in the field. The agricultural sector accounts for only about 10-15 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) according to the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry (MOFA). The amount falls further for animal husbandry.

Imran Khan under fire after Pakistan fails to find offshore oil www.asia.nikkei.com

ISLAMABAD -- Prime Minister Imran Khan has come under fire after his government abandoned an offshore drilling project due to failure to find any oil and gas, with some critics saying he had announced the doomed plans to deflect attention from the massive loan it was negotiating with the International Monetary Fund.

Pakistan began negotiating the $6 billion IMF loan last year in the hopes of staving off a balance of payments crisis. But with tough conditions attached to the loan, the prime minister and some of his fellow cabinet members were quick to announce "good news" in the form of the drilling project, critics said.

Pakistan launched the drilling project, its first, in search of oil and gas at the start of the year in the Arabian Sea off its southern coast. Undertaken by Exxon Mobile and Italy's ENI, together with two local companies, the drilling initiative was set to catapult the country to becoming an OPEC member, according to some politicians close to Khan.

Their desperate optimism was largely fueled by Pakistan's proximity to the Middle East, notably the nearby Persian Gulf surrounded by oil and gas rich countries including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iran.

"Best of luck to ExxonMobil & ENI when they start drilling. Let us all pray for a global discovery. From the looks of it, big news Inshallah (by the will of Allah)" announced Ali Haider Zaidi, Pakistan's minister of maritime affairs on Twitter in December.

Those promises were abruptly broken on May 18 when government officials pulled the project after failing to find any gas or oil reserves. Now Khan and his government faced mounting criticism.

"They [government] played up this whole initiative without thinking it through," said Shahid Khaqan Abbassi, Pakistan's former prime minister who had also previously served as minister of petroleum, in an interview with Nikkei Asian Review.

Abbassi who stepped down as prime minister in early 2018 before parliamentary elections brought Khan to power added: "The government deliberately created a hype to turn people's attention away from a tough period ahead as they impose conditions under the IMF program."

Opposition leaders had warned that the coming IMF program would lead to a steep rise in energy tariffs and the removal of subsidies that help to make public welfare services affordable for Pakistanis.

Economists said that even if the offshore oil and gas project had been successful, it would still take years before the benefits would feed down to consumers. "By the time energy [resources] were going to be put out if the drilling would have been successful, you were easily looking at four to five years," said Mushtaq Khan, a respected economist and former head of economic research at the central bank, the State Bank of Pakistan.

In an interview with Nikkei, Khan added: "The government built up expectations without having a clear idea on the scale of the expected [oil and gas] reserves."

Khan's government, however, has received some good news. Ahead of the annual budget for the next financial year which begins in July, Pakistan announced on May 22 that Saudi Arabia had agreed to defer up to $275 million in monthly payments from July for oil shipments to the country for a total of $9.6 billion over a three-year period.

A few days after that, de facto Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said that Jeddah-based Islamic Development Bank, the largest developmental institution in the Islamic world, had agreed to lend $1.2 billion to Pakistan to finance oil imports from July.

These commitments in the short term will help Pakistan with its oil import bill, which according to economists, is expected to reach $17 billion to $19 billion in the next financial year.

Yet, economists said, they leave Pakistan with more debt in the long term and do not address the country's need to reduce its dependence on energy imports.

"As Pakistan goes through a difficult adjustment period under the IMF loan, of course these gestures [support from Saudi Arabia and IDB] provide an important cushion," said one western economist who did not want to be named. "But these loans eventually have to be paid back."

A senior executive in a foreign oil company based in Pakistan said that Islamabad must be prepared to undertake more drilling initiatives. "Sometimes you have to drill up to 20 or 30 different locations before you can find promising results," he said. "The first drilling project which failed had a cost of about $100 million. Pakistan needs to be prepared to spend more money."

As it prepares to finalize details of the IMF bailout, the government would be keen to find large new investments on further offshore drilling projects, but analysts said it would also have learned the painful lesson that predicting overly optimistic outcomes can easily backfire.

Financing for environmental protection discussed www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/. On May 30, a discussion was held for the project, ‘The Biodiversity Finance Initiative’ (BIOFIN), jointly being implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and the UNDP .

Construction waste recycling machine granted to the MUST www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar /MONTSAME/ ‘Improving resource-efficiency and cleaner production in the Mongolian construction sector through materials recovery’ project handed over EUR 20 thousand equipment for construction waste recycling to the School of Engineering and Architecture of the Mongolian University of Science and Technology.

Mongolia hopes for Belt and Road bonanza without heavy debt www.asia.nikkei.com

TOKYO -- Mongolia expects to win big from China's Belt and Road Initiative, but it remains on guard over the dangers of too much borrowing, a high-ranking government official said at Nikkei's Future of Asia conference on Thursday.

Mongolia announces 2019-2020 to be Year of Children's Development and Protection www.xinhuanet.com

ULAN BATOR, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The Mongolian government on Wednesday declared that 2019-2020 is the country's Year of Children's Development and Protection.

Liquid milk production increases year by year www.montsame.mn

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Light Industry, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, European Union, Mongolian Food Producers’ Association and Global Communities Mongolia jointly celebrated the World Milk Day that falls on June 1.

Program on Heavy Industry Development approved www.montsame.mn

Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/. At its regular meeting on May 29, the Cabinet approved the Program on Heavy Industry Development.

Mongolia’s opportunities for exporting goods to the EU www.news.mn

President Kh.Battulga held a meeting with resident and non-resident ambassadors of the EU member states to Mongolia which has been regularly organized in Ulaanbaatar since 2009. The 11th meeting is taking place on May 28-29. Present at this meeting were, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the EU to Mongolia, Mr. Traian Laurentiu Hristea, 20 ambassadors, and representatives of six missions.