On the ready cotton market, traders in Karachi reported easy and dull conditions prevailing on Thursday. Even though hardly about 100,000 bales of cotton (155 Kgs) reportedly remain unsold with the ginners from the current crop (August 2017/July 2018), and most of which are said to be of lower grades, prices of cotton remained weak.
The price for ready cotton, both from Sindh and Punjab, were said to range from Rs 6000 to Rs 7400 per maund (37.32 Kgs), depending on the qualities. It is now several days that few bales of cotton are sold now and then as textile mills have covered ample quantities of cotton by importing them at cheaper rates over the past several months.
In recent weeks, cotton rates in the United States, China and India have generally been reported to be steady to firm. However, comparatively speaking, the domestic cotton prices have remained under pressure. Moreover, local textile business has remained steady to good over the past several months.
Sowing of the new cotton crop (August 2018/July 2019) has been late in Pakistan this year due to lower level of water in the irrigation system and also lesser rains received till now. However, very small quantities of new crop cotton (2018/2019) is said to arrive possibly by the end of June 2018 or the beginning of July 2018. Full swing arrivals of the new cotton crop with have to wait till the later months.
Last Tuesday 5311 bales of cotton from Ghotki in Sindh were said to have been sold at Rs 8100 per maund (37.32 Kgs). In Punjab, 800 bales of cotton from Mian Channu reportedly sold on Thursday at Rs 6000 per maund.
On the economic and financial front, the central figure dictating the new proposed topography of world trade, tariffs and terms of finance remains President Donald Trump of America. President Trump has been redefining and reaffirming the roadmap of the role of the United States to remain the central power in determining how the world should trade and that the contours of the new global trading and financial system must keep the motto of "America First" in mind.
Besides the chagrin of China, Russia, Mexico, Canada and those who have been hitherto allies like Germany, France and Italy and the United Kingdom, President Trump insists that the policy of "America First" has to be duly accommodated by the rest of the world as hitherto America has been short changed by the prevailing globalisation.
On their part, the so-called "globalists" have already more often than not been blaming the impending global economic disintegration on President Trump and have also been trying to persuade him not to disturb the existing global economic and financial setup. However, President Trump remains adamant in pushing up America single handedly.
The brand of nationalism being pushed by President Trump has already taken initiative to control immigration into the United States, has pulled out of the Paris climate accord and has also pulled the United States out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.
Now President Trump has reportedly asked for thorough investigations whether automobiles imported into America are a real threat to "American national security". The presumption is that America's automobile industry has played a pioneering role in research and technological development which initiative could be lost and ultimately threaten the American economy.
It may be recalled that the Trump administration is already facing a challenge against its claim that the import of steel and aluminium are a national threat as Japan, the European Union and other allies are already challenging America at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regarding the propriety and legality of such a step.
Besides the issue of American trade wars with China, Russia, Japan and the European Union, the nuclear technology deal with Iran and the North Korean threat to the Peninsula remain problems of great threat to world peace. In fact on Thursday President Donald Trump cancelled his much awaited summit talks with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Singapore next month (June 12, 2018) citing "tremendous and open hostility in your part in your (Kim Jong Un) statement" as reasons for the cancellation of the meeting. Thus global turmoil and turbulence on the political front have become grave issues threatening the world's economic, financial and trading wellbeing in no uncertain terms.
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