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AMMAN — The Jordan Industrial Estates Company (JIEC) has managed to draw a JD2 million Syrian investment project to Al Muwaqqar Industrial Estate, JIEC said in a statement on Saturday.

The new investment in the field of irrigation and drinking water systems will provide nearly 30 jobs, the statement indicated. JIEC Chief Executive Jalal Al Debei said this investment, along with other new investments, reflects an increasing interest in investing in industrial estates in general, and at Al Muwaqqar Industrial Estate, in particular.

Talal Atasi, the general manager of the investing company which specialises in irrigation pipelines and drinking water production, said the firm will start its production process soon, adding that it is going to export its products to the local and Arab markets.

BRUSSELS — The EU on Thursday appealed a decision by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that found the European Union guilty, as charged by giant US rival Boeing, of providing illegal subsidies to Airbus.

The bitter spat over Airbus at the WTO comes just as the European Union and the United States struggle to save years of negotiations on the world’s biggest trade deal amid deep public scepticism that it will deliver the benefits promised.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm that handles WTO disputes for the bloc, said “significant aspects of the compliance panel report cannot be regarded as satisfactory”.

“The EU in particular disagrees with the legal conclusion that, even though most of the subsidies challenged by the US have ended, the EU has not yet fully complied with the previous ruling,”it said in a statement.

The WTO appeals panel, ruling in a dispute dating back to 2004, said on September 22 that the EU had not taken steps it had ordered in 2011 to withdraw several support and subsidy programmes for Airbus.

The WTO did not put a value on those programmes, but Boeing said they amounted to $22 billion worth of illegal support for Airbus development and sales, mostly in subsidised loans.

The EU appeal comes a day before top US trade officials visit the WTO to defend Boeing against what the company calls unfair competition from its European rival.

The US wants the WTO to formally adopt the appeals panel’s findings, and “will press for the rapid enforcement of those findings in a special meeting of the WTO’s Dispute Settlement Body”, the US Trade Representative’s office said last week.

“We will not tolerate our trading partners ignoring the rules at the expense of American workers and their families,”US Trade Representative Michael Froman said.

Boeing also claimed that as a result of the September 22 ruling, the United States could now levy retaliatory duties against the EU of up to $10 billion a year.

The EU noted Thursday that the WTO still has to rule on two cases it has brought against Boeing over massive alleged illegal subsidies it has received.

Washington has said it is ready to negotiate a solution over the broader dispute.

NEW DELHI — Prime Minister Narendra Modi will look to reinvigorate the BRICS group of emerging nations at a summit this weekend with India seen as a bright spot in a bloc whose clout has been undermined by economic woes.

BRICS — a club made up of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — was formed in 2011 with the aim of using its growing economic and political influence to challenge Western hegemony.

The nations, with a joint estimated GDP of $16 trillion, set up their own bank in parallel to the Washington-based International Monetary Fund and World Bank and hold summits, rivalling the G7 forum.

But the countries, accounting for 53 per cent of the world’s population, have been hit by falling global demand and lower commodity prices, while several have also been mired in corruption scandals.

Russia and Brazil have fallen into recession recently, South Africa only just managed to avoid the same fate last month while China's economy — the recent engine of world growth — has slowed sharply.

India by contrast is now the world's fastest-growing major economy in an otherwise gloomy environment and its GDP is expected to grow 7.6 per cent in 2016-17.

Indian foreign ministry official Amar Sinha said the leaders would debate "global growth prospects, the role of BRICS in leading this global growth and our contributions to it".

China's Vice Foreign Minister Li Baodong said the leaders would "exchange in-depth views on BRICS cooperation and other global and regional issues", according to state news agency Xinhua.

Some of the more substantive talks are expected at bilateral meetings, on the sidelines of the summit in the tourist state of Goa, with Modi expected to separately meet China's President Xi Jinping and Russia’s president.

Brazil's new President Michel Temer, who replaced impeached Dilma Rousseff, will look to such meetings to boost trade ties and help drag his country out of its worst recession in half a century.

The summit comes amid some scepticism about the future of BRICS, especially given India's efforts to reach out to the US and Europe since Modi — a one-time pariah of the West — came to power in 2014.

'Reduced potency' 

Eswar Prasad, professor of trade and economics at Cornell University in the United States, said BRICS had been weakened by its collective burdens.

"The economic troubles faced by many members of the BRICS group have reduced its potency and influence in the world economy," he told AFP. 

Prasad said BRICS needed to focus on a global issue such as pushing back against mounting anti-globalisation rhetoric to stay relevant.

"Given its sheer size and continued significant contribution to global growth, this group could have some clout if it acted in concert in dealing with issues of global governance and the international monetary system."

Geethanjali Nataraj, currently at the Brookings Institute India, agreed the summit needed to focus on areas of common concern, warning India against pursuing contentious issues with regional rival China. 

"India needs to tread with caution and avoid all controversial issues that would lead to friction," Nataraj wrote in the Financial Express.

Taking place at the same time in Goa is a meeting of heads of a seven-nation grouping called BIMSTEC loosely based around the Bay of Bengal.

Myanmar's Aung Sang Suu Kyi, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as well as the leaders of Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Nepal are set to attend for talks focused on trade.

CAIRO — Egypt says it has secured fuel imports to make up for a shortfall caused by Saudi Arabia’s abrupt decision to halt shipments that have been previously agreed on, avoiding a potentially costly fuel shortage and propelling the issue of oil onto the centre stage of an escalating Saudi-Egypt spat.

Saudi Arabia agreed in April to provide Egypt with 700,000 tonnes of fuel monthly for five years on easy repayment terms, but Egyptian officials said this week that Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, informed Cairo it would not ship any fuel this month.

Oil Ministry spokesman Hamdi Abdel Aziz was quoted by Egyptian newspapers on Wednesday as saying that several fuel shipments from other suppliers have arrived in Egypt following “urgent” tenders.

There has been no official word from Saudi Arabia on the abrupt halt of shipments, a decision that appears linked to a public spat between the two allies over Syria.

Egypt’s vote in favor of separate Russian and French draft resolutions on Syria at the UN Security Council over the weekend has apparently angered the Saudis, who oppose Russia’s military intervention in Syria and support some of the anti-government militant groups there.

Recently, Egypt has been moving closer to Russia, harshly condemned by the Saudis and other Arabs for its heavy-handed military intervention in Syria.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, is moving closer to Turkey, which Egypt accuses of backing militants seeking to topple the Cairo government.

Continuing tension between Egypt and Saudi Arabia would signal a realignment of Mideast power centres.

Egyptian columnist Abdullah El Sennawy criticised Egypt’s decision to vote for both resolutions at the Security Council, describing it in an article in the Al Shorouq daily as diplomatically “inappropriate”.

But “there is nothing to justify any Saudi haughtiness, either with loose diplomatic talk or the suspension of oil shipments as economic punishment,” he added.

The Security Council spat was the first public quarrel between Riyadh and Cairo since the Egyptian military’s 2013 ouster of an Islamist president and the subsequent flow of billions of dollars in Saudi aid that kept Egypt’s ailing economy afloat.

But relations have cooled since King Salman sought closer ties with Turkey and Qatar, two countries whose relations with Egypt are fraught with animosity. Beside Syria, other issues divide Cairo and Riyadh. 

Later on Wednesday, Saudi ambassador to Egypt, Ahmed Qatan, left Cairo for Riyadh but was expected to return to the Egyptian capital over the weekend, according to airport officials.

It was not immediately clear whether his departure was linked to the Saudi-Egypt spat. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

ISTANBUL — OPEC said on Wednesday it was inviting Russia and other key non-members to a meeting later this month as the oil cartel and Moscow seek to tighten cooperation to boost historically low crude prices.

The announcement came after a meeting in Istanbul between several top OPEC energy ministers with their Russian counterpart Alexander Novak aimed at advancing joint efforts to bolster oil prices whose lows have hurt the highly-dependent economies of crude producers.

The meeting took place on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress in Istanbul, which on Monday saw a vow by Russian President Vladimir Putin for Moscow to impose curbs on energy output to match OPEC cuts that caused a spurt in oil prices.

“We agreed to have a technical meeting of OPEC... on 28-29 of this month [October]. An invitation is going to be sent to some key non-OPEC countries,” Qatar Energy Minister Mohammed Saleh Al Sada said after the talks.

“This meeting is meant to give a better understanding of the best way of how to move towards the rebalancing of the market to the interest of all,” added the Qatari minister.

Other than Russia, he did not elaborate on what other non-OPEC countries were being invited to the meeting, but indicated he wanted a wide turnout.

“We have a list of non-OPEC countries and we are yet to refine it further. We intend to expand it and get the feelings of as many non-OPEC countries as possible.”

He gave no indication however the meeting would be attended by the United States, the world’s number three oil producer.

“The US attending is something we cannot assure you of,” he said.

‘Cooperation roadmap’ 

The prospect of Russia, one of the world’s top two oil producers alongside Saudi Arabia, coordinating policy with OPEC has boosted global oil markets in the last few days and briefly brought crude to its highest levels for a year. 

The cartel had last month at a meeting in Algiers agreed its first production cut in eight years, although it remains to be seen how this will be complied with and implemented.

Novak confirmed that Russia had been invited to the October meeting in Vienna which would try and “work out a roadmap for the cooperation of our countries” in the rebalancing of prices. 

The upcoming talks will be a technical meeting, with the next general meeting of OPEC ministers planned for November 30 in Vienna. 

Novak had on Tuesday evoked a possible six month freeze of production levels by Russia to match OPEC’s own output curbs.

He said no concrete figures were discussed at the meeting. “As for figures, that is in the future and and I think [at the October meeting] we will discuss more or less concrete parameters.”

Putin said Wednesday in Russia that a freeze of production at current levels was in the interest of the Russian economy.

“If OPEC countries agree a production freeze, we will join that decision,” he said, adding the key obstacle was to find agreement between Saudi Arabia and its regional foe Iran.

‘Rebalance the market’ 

The energy ministers of OPEC members including United Arab Emirates Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazroui, Qatar Energy Minister Mohammed Saleh Al Sada and Venezuelan Oil Minister Eulogio del Pino all attended the talks at an Istanbul hotel chaired by OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo. 

Of non-OPEC countries, Mexico was also represented.

However, there were notable absentees from the talks, with the energy minister of the cartel’s Saudi Arabia, Khalid Al Falih, having already departed from Istanbul and Iraq and Iran also not attending. 

Al Falih had also made clear at the congress earlier in the week that Saudi Arabia was against any drastic output cuts by OPEC, warning the cartel not to “crimp too tightly”.

Oil prices had plunged to historic lows over the last two years with an excess of supply, partly due to new and cheaper technologies coming at a time of a global economic slowdown.

“We are doing our very best now to rebalance the market,” said the Qatari Minister Al Sada, adding that the current “overhang” in excess supply was holding back much-needed investment.

CAIRO — Egypt has invited tenders to meet its refined oil products needs for October after Saudi Aramco halted the expected delivery of 700,000 tonnes for this month, the petroleum ministry said on Tuesday.

The move by the Saudi oil giant was a surprise as Riyadh has been one of the main regional backers of President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi and had agreed to finance Egyptian imports from Aramco for five years in a $23 billion deal reached in April.

“The Saudi Aramco company verbally informed the General Petroleum Corporation earlier this month that it would halt its supplies for October, without offering any reasons,” ministry spokesman Hamdy Abdel Aziz told AFP.

Egypt has invited “tenders in international markets to supply the amount needed for October and we have opened credit lines with the central bank and will reach a deal soon”.

Egypt angered its ally on Saturday by voting in favour of a Russian-drafted resolution on the conflict in Syria which Saudi Arabia had strongly opposed.

Riyadh had backed a French text, which was vetoed by Moscow, that would have demanded an end to air strikes on rebel-held areas of Syria’s battleground second city Aleppo.

But Abdel Aziz insisted that Aramco’s decision came before the Security Council vote and was unconnected.

“Aramco told us about the issue before the Security Council meeting. This is a commercial issue and not political. It is normal for some shipments to be late,” he said.

Abdel Aziz did not elaborate on when he expected Aramco to resume shipments, but insisted: “The deal with Saudi is ongoing.”

Saudi Arabia has provided Egypt with billions of dollars in aid and credit since Sisi overthrew Islamist president Mohamed Morsi when army chief in 2013 and King Salman visited Cairo in April.

The two governments have had some differences over the Syrian conflict and over Egypt’s unwillingness to send ground troops to join the Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen.

But Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdullah Al Muallimi, expressed hurt at Saturday’s UN vote by Egypt.

“It was painful for the Senegalese and Malaysian positions to be closer to the Arab consensus than that of the Arab representative,” he told Al Jazeera television.

“This obviously was painful. But obviously the question should be directed to Egypt’s ambassador.”

AMMAN — Jordan’s public debt dropped slightly during the first eight months of 2016, as it represented 93.3 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP), put at JD27.46 billion, compared with 93.4 per cent of the GDP at the end of 2015, the Finance Ministry reported on Tuesday.

The debts of the National Electric Power Company and the Water Authority of Jordan amounted to JD6.7 billion of the overall public debt, totalling JD25.625 billion at the end of August, according to the ministry’s monthly bulletin.

At the end of August, post-aid budget deficit dropped to JD370 million compared to a JD555.4 million deficit in the same period in 2015, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra. 

SHANGHAI — China's central bank set the yuan's central parity rate weaker than 6.7 to the dollar for the first time in six years on Monday, the first day of trading after it joined the IMF's "special drawing rights" reserve currency basket.

The currency has been declining for months in the face of a globally stronger dollar, slowing growth in the Chinese economy, and capital outflows from the world's second-largest economy.

China's authorities have repeatedly pledged to liberalise trading in the unit, also known as the renminbi, but still keep a tight rein on it, only allowing it to rise or fall 2 per cent on either side of a daily fix on the national foreign exchange market.

On Monday the People's Bank of China lowered the central rate by 230 basis points from the previous trading day to 6.7008, its weakest since 2010.

Chinese markets were closed all last week for national holidays, during which the dollar's performance was "quite strong", Lu Zhengwei, chief economist at Industrial Bank told AFP.

"I believe today's slump is a response to the strong dollar during the holiday." 

Monday was the first trading day in China since the yuan joined the dollar, pound, yen and euro in the IMF's "special drawing rights" reserve currency basket on October 1, after a decision last year.

The move, long pressed for by Beijing as it seeks to increase the yuan's role in global markets, brings with it symbolic prestige but has limited direct impact, analysts say.

Zhang Qun, an analyst at Citic Securities, said the currency's value was increasingly dependent on China's economic fundamentals, adding: "In the medium and long term, the yuan will continue to depreciate at a steady, slow pace."

The Asian giant's economy expanded only 6.9 per cent in 2015 — its weakest rate in a quarter of a century — and has slowed further this year.

In August of last year, Beijing suddenly devalued the yuan, causing investors to dump the currency in volumes not seen since 1994 and sparking an outflow of capital from China. The yuan has fallen 8 per cent against the US dollar over the last two years.

Strong US economic data released in September and heightened market expectations that the US Fed will raise interest rates in December have also caused short-term pressure on the yuan, analysts said.

AMMAN — Amman Chamber of Commerce President Issa Murad on Monday commended the Cabinet’s “positive” response to the chamber’s demands for partial exemptions of fines for late tax payments. On Sunday, the government approved a partial exemption for taxpayers who have not paid their dues on time, a decision Murad described as “positive and excellent”.

Murad, who is also a senator, said the decision would encourage the private sector to submit their tax statements as soon as possible and alleviate the financial burdens borne by investors, and assist taxpayers in paying their dues to the Treasury. This way, tax payment will be more efficient, Murad said, according to a statement of the chamber.  

AMMAN — Amman Chamber of Industry exports during the first nine months of this year exceeded JD3 billion, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported on Monday. The chamber’s exports were 1 per cent less than those of the same period last year as they went down to JD3.029 billion from JD3.069 billion, according to the chamber’s monthly report.

Exports in 10 of Jordan’s 20 industrial sectors decreased, most significantly in the plastic and rubber industries which witnessed a 30 per cent drop to JD47 million, according to Petra. The chamber’s exports to Asian and African-Arab countries went down, according to the report, while Iraq topped the list of the countries which imported most Jordanian industrial products over the last nine months.