Another year passed. And along, with it, another set of memories – good, bad and ugly. Here are ten events that had, in my opinion, the most widespread repercussions globally.
Trump’s amazing ability to dominate world headlines continues
No review covering the world’s major news items can ignore Donald Trump and the seemingly endless news fodder he provides. Depending on who you ask and their affiliation, the reactions range from being understanding and fiercely supportive to puzzled and cringe-worthy. He lost many of his key cabinet and administrative heads including Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, Attorney General, Chief of Staff, etc. The noose has been tightening on the personal front with his lawyer convicted and several Russia-related dealings coming too close to his inner circle of family and friends.
Global trade partnerships got shaken quite a bit
2018 saw NAFTA die and being born again as USMCA.
When Trump became president, he walked away from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that was supposedly one of the most extensive trade agreements to come up in a while. His “America First” policy took on the well-established North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and pushed hard against Canada and Mexico to offer more concessions and create manufacturing jobs in the US. This year saw everything – from steel imports on Canada and name calling aimed at Mexico. Mexico acquiesced first, and the US signed an agreement with it forcing Canada’s hand. Eventually, the three countries came together.
Meanwhile, the world’s most significant bilateral trade agreement was signed between the EU and Japan – covering a third of the world’s GDP. Under the deal, Japan will remove 99 per cent of the tariffs it applies to EU exports – a value of nearly $1.2 billion. It also offers new concessions-from EU export of agricultural and food products and allows EU companies to operate in and bid for Japanese service contracts – all the while protecting EU intellectual
property rights.
India – shining in some areas and losing lustre in others
Both GST and demonetisation were to provide 2018 with the reaping of what had been sowed. On the positive side, India was the fas test growing economy in the world. Lots of fantastic work was done in infrastructure – new ports, navigable waterways, increased road development and improvements in the rail and aviation segments. Start-ups like Ola, PayTM and Swiggy fared well and are expanding globally. India declared its intent to be a more responsible player to address climate change.
But it wasn’t entirely bright. The slowdown in revenues, the rupee depreciation and the increase in oil prices led to much larger deficits. This caused a public disagreement between the government and the RBI and led to the resignation of Governor Urjit Patel. To cap it, the loss suffered by BJP in some of its traditional strongholds adds to the concern around reforms. Purely short-term and election-focused decisions don’t augur well for necessary, long-term growth.
