न्यूज डेस्क, अमर उजाला, नई दिल्ली, Updated Fri, 04 May 2018 05:43 PM IST
फ्लिपकार्ट ने वालमार्ट के साथ 15 अरब डॉलर की डील को अपनी मंजूरी दे दी है। इससे वालमार्ट को फ्लिपकार्ट के 75 फीसदी हिस्सेदारी मिल जाएगी। डील के तहत कंपनी का वैल्यूएशन लगभग 20 अरब डॉलर तय किया गया है।
BEIJING — Senior Chinese and American officials concluded two days of negotiations late Friday afternoon with no deal and no date set for further talks, as the United States stepped up its demands for Chinese concessions to avert a potential trade war.
The American negotiating team, which included Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and the United States trade representative, Robert E. Lighthizer, headed for the airport after the talks and did not release a statement. But a list of demands that the group brought into the meeting called for reducing the United States’ trade gap with China by $200 billion over the next two years and a halt on Chinese subsidies for advanced manufacturing sectors.
The demands, which spread on Chinese social media and were confirmed by a person close to the negotiations, suggest that both sides have hardened their positions this week despite the two days of talks. Senior Chinese officials and their advisers sent a deliberate message to the West during a three-day seminar that ended on Monday that the days of conciliation by Beijing were over.
The person close to the negotiations insisted on anonymity because of diplomatic sensitivities.
The extensive list of United States trade demands was unexpectedly sweeping, and showed that the Trump administration has no intention of backing down despite Beijing’s assertive stance in the last few days. “The list reads like the terms for a surrender rather than a basis for negotiation,” said Eswar Prasad, an economics professor at Cornell University.
Chinese officials put the talks in a positive light. “The two sides agreed that a sound and stable China-U.S. trade relationship is crucial for both, and they are committed to resolving relevant economic and trade issues through dialogue and consultation,” Xinhua, the official news agency, said soon after the talks ended.
But the negotiations also highlighted key differences — and the American delegation’s tight-lipped departure from Diaoyutai, the parklike enclosure of guesthouses where the talks were held, suggested the two sides had made little headway in solving them.
For example, China protested penalties that Washington officials imposed last month on ZTE, a Chinese telecommunications company, for repeatedly violating American sanctions on Iran. The Commerce Department banned all shipments of American wares to ZTE, including chips and other equipment essential to many of its products. The move appears to have strengthened China’s resolve to continue its drive for self-sufficiency and to curb imports in a variety of high-tech fields.
China’s push to upgrade its technology accounts for many of its disagreements with the United States. The American document reiterated Trump administration calls for a broad halt of Chinese subsidies to manufacturers in advanced technology industries. Beijing’s $300 billion Made in China 2025 program calls for extensive government assistance to build domestic industries in aircraft manufacturing, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, robotics, electric cars and five other sectors. Chinese officials defend the program as essential to upgrading the economy and have said that they would not agree to any limits on the Made in China program.
The document also highlighted China’s trade surplus with the United States. It called for a reduction of $100 billion in the coming 12 months and a further $100 billion in the following 12 months, the document said. The American side also said that it wanted to be able to impose new restrictions on Chinese investment in the United States for national security reasons without any retaliation by Beijing, and with an agreement by China to reduce its own investment restrictions.
The United States also asked that China cut its tariffs on imports by about two-thirds to match those in the United States. China, which now has a manufacturing sector nearly equal in annual output to the United States and Germany combined, contends that it is still a developing country and should be allowed to retain higher tariffs.
Chinese officials have said that they would be willing to reduce some trade barriers, but only if the United States also lowered trade barriers. Chinese officials particularly object to American limits on the export of high-tech goods that have both civilian and military applications, contending that these restrictions prevent sizable potential exports.
They also objected to United States demands for a specific cut in the bilateral surplus. Li Gang, the vice president of the Commerce Ministry’s research and training institute, said in a separate interview last month that a $100 billion cut in the surplus was “impossible.” China’s surplus has been widening lately as the United States economy grows fairly strongly and takes in more imports.
The Commerce Department announced on Thursday in Washington that the trade imbalance with China had widened slightly further in March compared with the same month a year ago, although it narrowed slightly compared to February, possibly for seasonal reasons.
The lack of a deal this week, and the failure to schedule further talks right away, does not rule out the possibility that Chinese negotiators will visit the United States next month for further talks. One possibility that American officials have considered is whether China might send Vice President Wang Qishan, who is close to President Xi Jinping, on a follow-up trip.
So far, the Chinese side has been led by Liu He, a Politburo member who is also the vice premier for finance, trade and technology.
Trade experts have been saying for weeks that Chinese officials would like to resolve the dispute with the United States so that they can go back to focusing on issues closer to home.
“That’s the immediate problem, because it’s a headache for them that’s distracting from a very pressing domestic agenda,” said Christopher K. Johnson, a former C.I.A. officer who analyzed China and now holds the Freeman Chair in China Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The Beijing talks were unlikely to result in a comprehensive deal, but experts said they could still be a first step toward reaching some sort of accord.
“There’s no way our team is going to risk signing up to something without getting back here and making sure that Trump is happy with it first,” Mr. Johnson said. “Maybe there’s also some optics where Trump wants to be seen standing with Wang Qishan and striking the deal.”
“I think we’re still several jumps down the track from that.”
Follow Keith Bradsher on Twitter: @KeithBradsher.
Chris Buckley contributed reporting.
Surrey have confirmed the signing of India's captain Virat Kohli for the month of June so ending months of anticipation that he would use the county circuit to warm up for the Test series against England.
Kohli will become the fourth Test-eligible Indian player in county cricket this year with fellow batsman Cheteshwar Pujara currently at Yorkshire and seamers Ishant Sharma and Varun Aaron representing Division Two clubs Sussex and Leicestershire respectively.
Although there have been a few voices decrying the fact that Surrey have given Kohli useful acclimatisation ahead of India's Test series in the country this summer, the vast majority of followers of England's professional circuit will welcome the additional publicity and status it is bound to bring.
Kohli will be available for all Surrey cricket throughout the month, beginning with Royal London Cup 50-over matches against Middlesex - an opening match at Lord's for India's captain - and Glamorgan and three Championship matches against Hampshire, Somerset and, finally, Yorkshire where there will not be a guest house room to be had in Scarborough.
Kohli's presence in county cricket owes much to the attitude of India's Committee of Administrators, headed by Vinod Rai. Rai had prepared the ground for Surrey's announcement by confirming that India players would not be forced to play in a one-off Test against Afghanistan against their wishes.
"Afghanistan is playing versus India and not Virat Kohli. No player (Cheteshwar Pujara especially) will be called back from UK to play versus Afghanistan. Priority is England and to do well there, so, whatever it takes," Rai said.
England will hope that this will signal a general softening of India's resistance to their leading stars playing professional cricket in England if and when the opportunity arises.
Kohli said: "It has long been an ambition of mine to play county cricket and I am thankful to Alec Stewart and Surrey for allowing me the opportunity to join them during their 2018 season. I can't wait to get to the Kia Oval."
Stewart, Surrey's Director of Cricket, added: "We are thrilled to have signed the biggest name in world cricket for the month of June. Playing and training alongside Virat will be a massive benefit for our players who will have the opportunity to learn so much from him.
"At a time when there is much discussion around the future of county cricket, the arrival of Virat should give our domestic game a massive boost and positive exposure around the cricketing world which in turn can benefit every county."
Surrey, the wealthiest professional club in England, are making a habit of such marquee signings. Kumar Sangakkara had an outstanding summer in 2017, averaging 106.50 as he made eight centuries and three half-centuries in 13 innings.
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — From the perspective of the White House, the United States had negotiated a preliminary deal with Brazil, as well as Argentina and Australia, to exempt the countries from punitive steel and aluminum tariffs.
From the perspective of Brazil, it was issued an ultimatum.
Brazil accused the Trump administration on Wednesday of breaking off negotiations over the tariffs last week and issuing a take-it-or-leave-it offer. According to the Brazilian authorities, the United States said the country’s steel and aluminum industries could opt for tariffs or quotas.
That account appears to contradict the White House’s version of the events. On Monday, White House officials said they had reached agreements in principle with Argentina, Australia and Brazil with regard to steel and aluminum, saying the details would “be finalized shortly.”
The disconnect between the United States and Brazil echoes the broader state of the trade negotiations, which have been clouded by confusion, miscommunication and a general state of uncertainty over the rules of engagement.
When President Trump issued the worldwide tariffs in March, he granted temporary exemptions to Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Canada, the European Union, Mexico and South Korea. Almost immediately, countries scrambled to make them permanent.
Just hours before those exemptions were set to expire, the Trump administration extended the deadline for the European Union, Canada and Mexico. It also said Brazil, along with Argentina and Australia, were finalizing the details of “satisfactory alternative means” to address national security threats posed by steel imports and avoid tariffs. (South Korea had previously reached an agreement as part of a broader trade deal.)
Apparently, Brazil wasn’t exactly on board.
In a joint statement on Wednesday, Brazil’s foreign and trade ministers said they were informed of the decision by the United States to break off negotiations last Thursday. They were then told that the temporarily suspended tariffs would be applied “immediately” or, as an alternative, they could opt for “restrictive unilateral quotas.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The president of the Brazil Steel Institute, Marco Polo de Mello Lopes, who was meeting with Brazilian officials when they got the call from Washington, said the ultimatum came as a complete surprise.
“They said the decision was made on the eve of a presidential meeting, that the political conditions had changed, and there were no longer the conditions to keep negotiating as we had been,” Mr. Lopes said in a conference call with journalists on Wednesday. “Take it or leave it isn’t the way you treat a partner.”
In the statement, Brazil said that if it ultimately had to choose, its aluminum industry would prefer the 10 percent tariffs on its exports to the United States while its steel business favored import quotas to the 25 percent tariffs. But the Brazilian authorities said they would like to keep negotiating.
Brazil has argued that 80 percent of its steel exports to the United States are semifinished products used in the steel industry and therefore do not pose a threat. Officials have also noted that Brazil is the largest importer of American metallurgical coal, worth about $1 billion in 2017, which is used in Brazil’s steel industry.
Days before talks were broken off, Thomaz Zanotto, a consultant for Brazil’s second-biggest steel company, CSN, who had been kept abreast of negotiations, said it appeared that Brazil might have to face quotas on finished products, which represent 20 percent of exports to the United States. But they believed at the time the rest would be exempt.
Mr. Lopes said the quotas being offered by the United States in lieu of tariffs would mean a 7.4 percent reduction in the exports of semi-finished steel products and a drop of between 20 percent and 60 percent in exports of finished goods, depending on the product.
In its statement, Brazil said the United States would be solely responsible for putting the measures in place. The ministers “lamented that the negotiating process had been broken” but said they were open to “building solutions that are reasonable for both parts.”
Ana Swanson contributed reporting from Washington.
West Indies all-rounder Carlos Brathwaite has signed to play in Kent Spitfires' opening four matches of the Vitality Blast.
The World T20 champion, who made his name hitting four successive sixes in the final over of the 2016 final against England, will join the Spitfires squad before the opening group match agaist Surrey on July 6.
Brathwaite can at least be confident of getting on the field at Kent. He has yet to figure for Surisers Hyderabad in this season's IPL, a continuation of his inactivity when he played only twice for Delhi Daredevils in 2017.
It will be the first experience of county cricket for Brathwaite, who has played three Tests, 28 ODIs and 25 T20s for West Indies, and who said Sam Billings had been instrumental in persuading him to sign during conversation at IPL and BBL when they have been team-mates.
"I have a good relationship with Sam, having played in the same team at the IPL and BBL," he said. "Sam chatted to me about the opportunity to join and has told me a lot about the great support and atmosphere on T20 nights.
Brathwaite has also played for both Sydney Sixers and Thunder in the Big Bash League as well as Delhi Daredevils in the Indian Premier League.
Kent director of cricket Paul Downton said: "Carlos is a proven match winner. He is an explosive ball striker and a skilful white-ball bowler with good variations and extensive experience in the 20-over format. I'm sure he'll make an impact in his brief spell with the Spitfires."
Australian all-rounder Marcus Stoinis will succeed Brathwaite as the squad's second overseas player ahead of a likely debut against Sussex Sharks at The Spitfire Ground on July 27.
यरुशलम: परमाणु कार्यक्रम को लेकर इजराइल के आरोपों के बाद ईरान ने बुधवार(2मई) इजराइल प्रधानमंत्री बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू को ‘‘कुख्यात झूठा ’’ बताया. इसके पहले नेतन्याहू ने गुप्त ईरानी परमाणु हथियार कार्यक्रम के संबंध में आरोप लगाए थे. नेतन्याहू के आरोपों के बाद ईरान ने उन पर निशान साधा. ईरानी विदेश मंत्रालय के प्रवक्ता बाशरम गसेमी ने प्रतिक्रिया व्यक्त करते हुए एक बयान में नेतन्याहू को ‘‘कुख्यात झूठा’’ बताया और कहा कि उन्हें झूठ के अलावा कुछ नहीं बोलना है. इसके पहले इजराइल ने दावा किया था कि उसके पास ईरानी परमाणु हथियार कार्यक्रमों को लेकर नए सबूत हैं.
नेतन्याहू ने अपने एक भाषण में वीडियो और स्लाइड के जरिये ईरान के परमाणु कार्यक्रम का खुलासा करने का दावा किया. उन्होंने दावा किया कि दस्तावेज जताते हैं कि ईरान पर भरोसा नहीं किया जा सकता और उन्होंने अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति डोनाल्ड ट्रंप से करार से हटने का आह्वन किया.
ईरानी परमाणु हथियार कार्यक्रम के नये सबूत- बेंजामिन नेतन्याहू
ईरान के साथ परमाणु समझौते से हटने या उसमें बने रहने को लेकर अमेरिका के विचार करने के बीच इजराइल पीएम बेंजामिन नेतान्याहू ने बताया था कि उनके पास ईरानी परमाणु हथियार कार्यक्रम के नये सबूत हैं. वैश्विक शक्तियों और अपने देश के मुख्य शत्रु ईरान के बीच हुए परमाणु करार में संशोधन या उसके निरसन की बार बार मांग कर चुके इजराइली प्रधानमंत्री ने टेलीविजन पर ईरान के परमाणु डोजियर को बेनकाब करते हुए वीडियो एवं स्लाइड के माध्यम से लाइव प्रजेंटेशन दिया था.
उन्होंने कहा कि इजराइल ने कुछ ही हफ्ते पहले हजारों फाइलें हासिल की हैं जो उसकी एक बड़ी खुफिया उपलब्धि है. उन्होंने कहा था कि, ‘‘हम गोपनीय परमाणु हथियार कार्यक्रम के नये एवं निर्णायक सबूत का खुलासा करने जा रहे हैं जिसे ईरान अपने गोपनीय परमाणु आरकाइव में अंतररष्ट्रीय समुदाय से सालों से छिपाये रखा. ’’ उन्होंने दावा किया कि 2015 के परमाणु करार से ईरान को परमाणु हथियार हासिल करने में कोई रुकावट नहीं आती है.
Nottinghamshire's left-arm fast bowler Mark Footitt has joined Derbyshire on an initial 28-day loan deal where he will be available to play Specsavers County Championship and Royal London One-Day Cup cricket.
The 32-year-old, who spent six seasons with Derbyshire between 2010 and 2015, is earmarked for two four-day matches and five 50-over games, starting against Warwickshire at Edgbaston on Thursday.
"Mark's pre-season has been affected by injury and we feel it's a good opportunity for him to get out there and get some cricket under his belt," said Nottinghamshire'd director of cricket Mick Newell.
"Our pace attack has started the season in fine form and Mark has found himself short of game time so far. Hopefully he can get some overs under his belt and come back ready to go when the season ramps up from June onwards."
The move suits Derbyshire who have fielded a high-class pace attack this season in three bowlers with international experience - Duanne Olivier, Ravi Rampaul and Hardus Viljoen - but who have limited stocks in reserve and fear the danger of overbowling their prize assets as a conequence.
Derbyshire's cricket advisor, Kim Barnett, said: "We're grateful to Nottinghamshire and Peter Moores for allowing Mark to join us for this busy period, and I'm sure this arrangement will be good for all parties."
This move for Footitt is not as angst-ridden as the last, involving just a few miles up the A52. He admitted that a weight had been lifted from his shoulders when Surrey gave him permission to return to Nottinghamshire in the middle of last season on a two-and-a-half year deal. The strain of hotel living, away from his fianc and daughter in London had become too much.
Footitt has travelled this way before. He first joined Derbyshire in 2009 after Nottinghamshire released him from his contract as injuries bedevilled his early career. He became a firm favourite at Derbyshire, taking 82 County Championship wickets in 2014. He moved south to Surrey, fired by England ambitions, and came close to a Test debut when he was chosen for the South Africa tour of 2015/16 but never played.
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday embraced Israel’s claims that Iran entered a nuclear deal with the world’s major powers under false pretenses, a stark divergence from its European allies, who said the disclosures broke little new ground and reinforced, rather than weakened, the case for the 2015 deal.
The administration echoed the claims made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday in a dramatic PowerPoint presentation, suggesting he had coordinated it with the White House to set the stage for President Trump’s decision about whether to rip up the agreement negotiated by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
Mr. Trump has threatened to scrap the deal as soon as May 12, if Britain, France and Germany do not agree to wholesale changes. The White House cited Mr. Netanyahu’s theatrical presentation — based on documents taken from an Iranian warehouse in a nighttime raid in January — as further proof of the agreement’s flaws.
“The deal was made on a completely false pretense,” the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said at her daily briefing. “Iran lied on the front end. They were dishonest actors. So the deal that was made was made on things that weren’t accurate, and we have a big problem with that.”
Ms. Sanders said the White House had discussed the rollout of the new information with the Israelis in advance. A senior Israeli official said Yossi Cohen, the chief of Israel’s intelligence agency, Mossad, first informed Mr. Trump of the operation in January during a visit to Washington. And Mr. Netanyahu briefed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo about the details in Tel Aviv on Sunday.
As United States intelligence agencies and outside experts pored over the 55,000 pages, and 183 compact discs of Iranian files, the starkly divergent reactions to Mr. Netanyahu’s presentation on each side of the Atlantic suggested how the debate over the Iran deal was likely to play out should Mr. Trump decide to reimpose sanctions on Tehran.
The White House did not assert that the files demonstrated that Iran was in violation of the 2015 agreement. But Ms. Sanders argued that the disclosures shed new light on the scope of Iran’s deceit — further undermining Mr. Obama’s case for making the deal.
In a sign of the administration’s tough line on Iran, Ms. Sanders brushed aside a potentially dangerous typo in its initial statement on Monday evening about the Israeli disclosures. The statement said, “Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people.”
White House officials later said that was a clerical error and that it should have said “Iran had a robust” program. But Ms. Sanders said, “We think the biggest mistake that was made was under the Obama administration by ever entering the deal in the first place.”
And Israel is not finished with its lobbying campaign. Officials there said they planned to share much of the data they had harvested from the secret archive with the International Atomic Energy Agency — including data on some previously unknown nuclear sites in Iran.
Israel’s intention appears to be to force the organization, a United Nations agency, to demand that the Iranians allow inspections of those sites, even though some of them may have been closed or dismantled years ago. Since Iran considers many of these military sites, the Israelis, and some American officials, expect the Iranians to balk at the demand — inciting another crisis for the deal.
But there were no signs that Mr. Netanyahu’s presentation on Monday swayed the three European leaders — President Emmanuel Macron of France, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain — all of who have lobbied Mr. Trump not to scuttle the deal.
“The Israeli prime minister’s presentation on Iran’s past research into nuclear weapons technology underlines the importance of keeping the Iran nuclear deal’s constraints on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions,” the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, said in a statement. “The Iran nuclear deal is not based on trust about Iran’s intentions; rather it is based on tough verification.”
The French foreign ministry said the inspection regime under the agreement “is one of the most exhaustive and robust regimes in the history of nuclear nonproliferation.” But it added, “The new information presented by Israel could also confirm the need for longer-term assurances on the Iranian program, as the French president has suggested.”
Although Mr. Macron has urged Mr. Trump to stay in the deal, he has left open the possibility of an addendum or successor agreement restricting Iran’s nuclear activities. Officials from the State Department and European governments have been negotiating for months but have failed to bridge gaps over how to address the deal’s “sunset clauses.”
Over the years of accusations and negotiations with Iran, the Bush and Obama administrations dismissed Tehran’s insistence that the country’s nuclear program was peaceful in nature. They both presented evidence of Iranian deceptions, including hidden facilities. And the International Atomic Energy Agency showed member states evidence of work on nuclear weapons designs as far back as 2008, some drawn from the same projects Mr. Netanyahu made public.
In a statement on Tuesday, the agency said it “had no credible indications of activities in Iran relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device after 2009.”
Other prominent figures argued that the legacy of Iranian deception outlined in the nuclear files reinforced the case for the deal.
John Kerry, who as Mr. Obama’s secretary of state negotiated the agreement, said on Twitter, “It’s worth remembering that the early 2000’s — when his evidence comes from — was the period where the world had no visibility into Iran’s program. More and more centrifuges were spinning each month and the world wasn’t united like it is now.”
Former and current intelligence officials who have closely monitored Iran’s programs said nothing that Mr. Netanyahu made public indicated that Iran currently had an active program to manufacture a nuclear weapon.
“There is nothing that would change our 2007 assessment,” said Norman T. Roule, who until last year was the intelligence community’s Iran mission manager, and retired after decades of studying the country.
That assessment concluded that Iran suspended its nuclear program in early 2004, though it continued to build other facilities — like the giant underground enrichment center at Fordow — that Mr. Netanyahu showed images of in his presentation. Mr. Obama revealed the existence of that site early in his presidency, using it as a basis to push for sanctions.
Still, if Iran refuses to allow inspections of sites identified by the stolen archive, it could well touch off an inspection crisis. The Iranians have said that military sites are off-limits to the inspectors. But the 2015 accord provides no exemption for such sites.
If there is a standoff, there are procedures built into the agreement to resolve the disputes. But the upshot of the Israeli strategy, in concert with the United States, appears to be to force the Iranians into the first violations. “We recognize,” one former Israeli official said, “that we have to establish that the Iranians are trying to deceive now, not just 10 years ago.”
Few in Israel said they expected Mr. Netanyahu’s presentation would do much to affect Mr. Trump’s decision. Rather, several analysts said they expected the Israeli discovery to provide additional cover or supporting evidence with which Mr. Trump could justify his decision, as officials in Mr. Netanyahu’s government are said to have concluded.
“We have to ask ourselves, ‘Who was the audience of last night’s presentation?’” said Amos Yadlin, the former chief of military intelligence for the Israeli Defense Forces. “Was it the Iranians, to tell them Israel has penetrated their secrets? Maybe it was Iranian public opinion, or the opposition? Or was Trump himself the target, because the prime minister felt the Europeans had convinced him not to walk away?”
Despite the skeptical reaction to Mr. Netanyahu’s presentation in European capitals and at the International Atomic Energy Agency, it also underlined that in the end, the Israeli leader may have had an audience of one: Mr. Trump.
“It’s a real opportunity for Netanyahu to achieve things he couldn’t achieve in the Obama years,” said Daniel B. Shapiro, a former American ambassador to Israel. “The real question is where do we go from here.”
Mark Landler and David Sanger reported from Washington. David Halbfinger reported from Jerusalem.
