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They import most feedstock for production for exports, and now the TPP’s strict rules on origin will be a hurdle.
Import taxes in many large economies like the US, Canada, Australia, and Japan, the biggest buyers of Vietnamese textiles, will be cut from 17-32 percent to zero. But there will be a "yarn-forward rule" stating that every piece of thread, button and zipper in a garment will have to come from TPP signatories to qualify ...
But most of Vietnam's yarn and components are sourced from China and South Korea, both non-TPP countries, making much of Vietnam's products ineligible for the exemptions.
“I do not think there will be many changes to us after the TPP comes into effect; we will continue to implement outsourcing contracts,” Luong Van Thu, director of a garment firm in the northern Hung Yen Province, said.
However, Vietnamese garment manufacturers can do little since they lack the financial strength to invest in their own yarn and textile facilities. A garment company requires an investment of millions of dollars, which increases to billions of dollars for a textile and dying firm, industry insiders said.
In the agricultural sector too, businesses are not keen on investing in processing technologies, which are expensive, and focus on exporting raw materials with low added value.
Bui Chi Buu, former head of the Southern Institute for Agricultural Technology, blamed this on enterprises’ lack of long-term business strategies.
Besides shallow pockets and lack of long-term business strategies, poor infrastructure and low skills are also barriers to enterprises increasing output, Trang of VCCI said.
However, enterprises have made some preparations, including offering more training to employees and expanding markets, to tap opportunities brought by the trade pact, said Trang.
The VCCI’s survey found that 88.6 percent of local firms know about the TPP, and nearly 96 percent said free trade agreements like the TPP would help local firms participate more in the global value chain.
The TPP is expected to boost exports within the bloc of 12 Pacific-rim nations, which account for 40 percent of the global economy.
Negotiations have been recently completed and the pact is now awaiting ratification by the member countries' legislatures.
Many foreign-owned and large corporations based in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City plan to improve their production capacity to capitalize on export opportunities offered by the deal, which scraps tariffs in many markets, including the US, the world’s biggest economy.
More than 47 percent of the firms polled plan to improve their executives’ management skills, 56 percent hope to improve their workers’ vocational skills and 57.2 percent will try to access new markets.
Food producer Acecook Vietnam said it would expand in TPP member countries like the US, Australia and Canada. Its shipments to these markets account for only 18 percent of its exports.
Together with large local companies, foreign ones too are scrambling to expand in Vietnam to tap export opportunities.
Malaysian apparel company United Sweethearts is already planning a second factory in Vietnam, and the TPP would accelerate its plans, its managing director Tang Chong Chin was quoted as saying by US newspaper Wall Street Journal.
The company, which exports more than two-thirds of the clothing it makes to the US, said revenues could double within five years if tariffs are scrapped.
Currently, countries without free trade agreements with the US face tariffs of 10 percent or higher depending on the type of apparel.
In the event, economists fear the trade deal would benefit foreign firms in Vietnam more than domestic ones unless the latter develop a better raw materials base and business skills.
Gladiolus produces tall flower spikes filled with blossoms.
3 Do Gladiolus Rebloom After Cutting?
Often planted as borders and along the back of a sunny garden, gladiolus (Gladiolus spp.) can produce flower spikes that reach up to 6 feet tall. Grown from underground root structures called corms, gladioli are hardy in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7 through 10. To propagate gladioli and keep t...
Dig into the soil with a garden fork around each gladiolus clump. Corms are planted about 4 to 8 inches deep, so clear about 6 10 inches deep to ensure you do not damage them.
Cut under the clump with the garden fork and push down on its handle. Also, pull on the foliage to help lift the corms from the soil.
Cut off the foliage -- leaving about 2 inches intact -- with a pair of hand clippers that have been cleaned with rubbing alcohol or a disinfectant spray.
Brush the soil off with your hands. Arrange the corms in a single layer in a sunny area, such as an open porch or patio. Keep them there for two or three days until the corms are dry.
Pull off the corm that is growing on top of the old one with your hands. Also, pull off the smaller corms growing on the outside of the old corm. Discard the old corm, and any corms that appear damaged or diseased. The newly divided gladiolus corms are now ready for replanting.
Small corms can take several years to flower, so plant these in a starter bed, if desired.
Lewis, Melissa. "How to Divide Gladiolus." Home Guides \| SF Gate, http://homeguides.sfgate.com/divide-gladiolus-81330.html. Accessed 20 April 2019.
Does Gladiolus Flower More Than Once Per Season?
Which Side of the Gladiolus Corm Goes Down?
Foreign Affairs Minister Mumtaz Soysal resigned on 28 November dealing another blow to the weak coalition government. Differences with Prime Minister Tansu Ciller over the appointment of a new undersecretary at the Foreign Affairs Ministry triggered the resignation, say observers.
Soysal had been opposed to Ciller’s choice of her former foreign affairs adviser, Volkan Vural. The foreign affairs minister generally had diverged from Ciller over foreign policy. He argued that Turkey should push harder for its own diplomatic and economic interests within the Western camp.
Soysal has also been at odds with the leadership of his own party, the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) and has been a trenchant critic of privatisation.
His controversial appointment in the summer was viewed as an attempt by the coalition leadership to muzzle him on privatisation (MEED 12:8:94). An able constitutional lawyer as well as MP for Ankara, Soysal had led cross-party resistance which twice secured cancellation by the constitutional court of decree laws for pr...
A body discovered along the rocks in Pismo Beach on Monday is a man in his late 30s or 40s, weighing around 300 pounds, officials at the scene said.
The body has signs of trauma and the death has been ruled suspicious, said Cmdr. Jake Miller of the Pismo Beach Police Department. He would not say what the trauma was, but added the discovery doesn't rule out suicide, accidental death or homicide. The investigation is ongoing.
Authorities are circulating his description to other agencies in the region to compare to missing person reports. So far, no matches have been made, police said.
Officials do not believe the man is George Carpenter, the 74-year-old San Luis Obispo resident who has been missing since Christmas Eve.
The body was discovered unclothed but with shoes on around noon, face-down in the tide pools outside a private community of homes off Park Place.
A construction worker notified police when he saw the body.
It is not uncommon to find bodies unclothed after being in the ocean, Miller said, since the water movements can be harsh at times. Officials aren't sure how long the body was at the location it was discovered, as it was high tide in the morning and it could have been submerged, Miller said. However, he could have been...
It's unclear if the body washed up on shore or if it entered the water at the spot it was found, Miller said. Ocean currents there come from the north and south.
Today is Kate Bush’s birthday, an artist of undoubted talent that has left a huge legacy in her wake. Her influence is undeniable, and her image can be seen in many women in pop music today.
Nn her honour we’ve decided to put together a list of the craziest women in music. Now, we don’t mean crazy as in mentally unstable, and we certainly aren’t discussing who has the craziest image (because anyone can wear clothes made of meat...). We’re talking about women who, like Kate Bush, care less about popularity,...
So, wish Kate Bush a happy birthday, then take a look at our favourite ‘crazy’ women in pop. We may have missed a few, so let us know if we have.
M.I.A.: Yes, she performed with Madonna at the Superbowl this year, but we still love her. Why? Because the video for 2010''s ''Born Free'' is a nine minute epic allegory of the Sri Lankan army''s murder of Tamil Tiger males, and was banned from MTV and Youtube. That''s why.
Fiona Apple: The vegan star and former girlfriend of David Blaine won a Grammy for her 1998 single ''Criminal'', and is still making outstanding music now. Watch the video for her latest single ''Every Single Night'', it%u2019s choc-a-bloc with giant snails and cow-headed men.
K.D. Lang. The Canadian country singer received massive acclaim for her hit ''Constant Craving'', winning the Grammy for Best Female Country Vocal Performance. K.D. Lang''s hometown is in the heart of the Alberta''s cattle ranching industry, so her animal rights campaign ''Meat Stinks'' lead to extended controversy.
Bat for Lashes: Natasha Kahn has just announced the upcoming release of her third album ''The Haunted Man''. The cover art is a photo of the singer posing naked with a naked man across her shoulders. She''s got a great bod, and lead single ''Laura'' suggests the album is going to be one of bonkers brilliance.
Regina Spektor: The American singer/songwriter is best known for her associating with New York''s anti-folk scene and her 2004 album Soviet Kitsch. Spektor has been quoted as saying that she wants to write a classics like the Beatles'' ''Yesterday'', but weird songs about stuff in her fridge keep coming into her head -...
PJ Harvey: The British singer/songwriter won last year''s Mercury Music Prize for her album ''Let England Shake'', ten years after winning the same award for album ''Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea''. Nick Cave''s former muse also has two albums that feature on Rolling Stone''s best of all-time list.
Bjork: The Icelandic solo artist is responsible for the incredible, insane tracks, ''Venus as a Boy'' and ''Hyperballad'' to name just two. Plus, in the amazing video for ''All Is Full of Love'', her face is superimposed onto the head of a lesbian robot. She turns up to awards ceremonies dressed as swans. Records album...
Tori Amos: The American singer''s first world tour featured 142 performances, and all she took to each gig was one keyboard; she would only use a piano if the venue could provide it. By 2005 Amos had sold 12 million albums, and during her career she has been nominated for eight Grammy Awards, with the first and last be...
Feist: Aside from her work with Broken Social Scene, it was Feist''s 2007 single ''1234'' the pushed the Canadian artist into the music mainstream.
Karen O: The frontwoman of New York band The Yeah Yeah Yeahs is not only a musical icon, but she also contributed a selection of animal noises to numerous tracks on the Flaming Lips'' album, Embryonic. Awesome.
Here is the ETF Professor's ETF Watch List for Wednesday, May 1, 2013.
Give the iShares S&P Global Energy ETF (NYSE:IXC) a look.
The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (NYSE:XHB) should be considered as well.
The Vanguard Health Care ETF (NYSE:VHT) should be in play.
The Direxion Daily Gold Miners Bull 3X Shares (NYSE:NUGT) had another wild day Tuesday.
Emerging markets plays of the day: iShares MSCI Brazil Index Fund (NYSE:EWZ), Market Vectors Indonesia ETF (NYSE:IDX) and the Market Vectors Poland ETF (NYSE:PLND).
Michael Heffernan’s tenure as state revenue chief proved to be a job bonanza for a half-dozen of his associates, including Wellesley residents, former co-workers, and Wellesley Country Club golfers.
A review of resumes and other documents obtained by the Globe reveals that Heffernan, whom Governor Charlie Baker made commissioner of the Department of Revenue in May 2016, provided these friends and colleagues with high-paying jobs within the agency during his 15 months in the post.
Aides to Baker would not address questions about Heffernan’s personal relationships with these hires but said in a statement that they are all qualified for their jobs, some of which were created at a time Baker had imposed a hiring freeze.
Neither the employees in question nor Heffernan, whom Baker made his top budget chief in August 2017, responded to Globe requests for comment.
A spokeswoman, Lizzy Guyton, cited Kristin Lindquist’s professional experience as a securities trader and portfolio manager.
But the hires appear to be at odds with Baker’s own pledge during his 2014 gubernatorial campaign to give Beacon Hill “a strong medicine” to cure it of its insider employment practices and “root out patronage.” In fact, Heffernan was on the same ticket with Baker, running as the GOP candidate for state treasurer that y...
The Globe reported earlier this month that Kristen Lindquist, 53, a social friend and neighbor of Heffernan’s, was hired in 2016 for a $121,000-per-year job as the DOR’s associate deputy commissioner for administration and chief risk officer.
In a written justification for the creation of Lindquist’s position, the department said a new official was needed to deal directly with managing risk, such as data security breaches, and protect the agency from threats to its digital security. It cited the rollout of two major technological systems, both of which have...
Lindquist’s resume showed no background in that sort of digital risk management.
Before Lindquist was hired, Heffernan had tapped Christopher Harding as his chief of staff in June 2016. Harding was working at Mobiquity Inc., a Wellesley-based firm that Heffernan cofounded. He was the company’s executive vice president of sales, marketing, and business development. Heffernan expanded the duties of c...
Like Lindquist and her husband, Harding, 53, and his wife — who live just over a mile away from Heffernan in Wellesley — supported Heffernan’s unsuccessful race for treasurer in 2014, donating $1,000.
When Baker elevated Heffernan last August to the Cabinet-level post of secretary of administration and finance (which oversees DOR), Heffernan chose Harding to take his place as state tax commissioner with a $158,000 annual salary.
Harding then turned to another fellow Wellesley resident, 59-year-old Philippe M. Mauldin, to serve as his chief of staff at a salary of $140,000 per year. Mauldin lives two homes away from Heffernan on Grove Street. Having left a job at Fidelity in 2017, he listed himself as “retired” on his LinkedIn business profile....
Heffernan also pulled in another Wellesley resident, William McNamara, who — like Heffernan — plays golf at the Wellesley Country Club and lives just over 4 miles from Heffernan. His resume shows he has long experience at major financial firms, including 16 years at Fidelity Investments (overlapping with Mauldin) and i...
Shortly after Baker chose Heffernan to be his tax commissioner, the 55-year-old McNamara was put on the Revenue Department’s payroll as deputy commissioner for legislative affairs and policy director at a salary of $141,000 per year.
That is not where he is working now, although he is still on the DOR payroll. McNamara moved with Heffernan to the Executive Office of Administration and Finance with the title of assistant secretary — a position Heffernan created for him. He donated $350 to Heffernan’s campaign for treasurer.
Suzanne Kisiday, 53, until recently lived a mile from Heffernan’s home in Wellesley. She was a member, along with Heffernan and his wife, of the Wellesley Country Club, according to a membership list, the Globe has learned. She was recently put on the DOR payroll as the agency’s marketing and digital service director, ...
Kisiday’s resume shows that she has worked in marketing for several high-end real estate companies, including Coldwell Banker in Wellesley from March 2016 until she joined the Revenue Department earlier this year. She also worked as a consultant to Babson College and held a number of marketing and media promotion jobs ...
Meanwhile, before he was elevated to the Baker administration’s chief budget officer, Heffernan found room for an old colleague and 60-year-old friend, Geoffrey E. Snyder, to join his DOR team. He was hired as deputy commissioner, in part overseeing Lindquist’s work on risk management.
After 20 years working as a manager at several New York’s major financial firms, Snyder was living in Chatham, N.J., teaching as an adjunct professor of finance at two New Jersey colleges and in China when Heffernan chose him to be the DOR’s deputy commissioner for $140,000 per year in 2016. The two had worked together...
Baker, as a gubernatorial candidate, vowed to put an end to cozy state hiring practices.
At the time, the scandal of patronage hiring in the Probation Department was in the headlines, and Baker talked about what he was hearing on the campaign trail when he announced a program to crack down on such job handouts and make the hiring process for state government more transparent.
NEGATIVE gearing is shaping up to be a key battleground in the next election as both sides argue their approach will make housing more affordable while preserving homeowners' assets.
Today, we present both sides of the argument courtesy of Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and his Opposition counterpart Chris Bowen, whose article appears below.
LABOR'S plan to abolish negative gearing as we know it and double capital gains tax paid will hurt every Australian. If you own your home it will be worth less. And if you rent you will pay more.
Investors today hold around a quarter of the 10 million dwellings that make up the $6 trillion Australian housing market. But under Labor's big new property tax there will be less incentive for investors to buy property, creating downward pressure on prices.
Reducing the number of investors in the market also pushes up rents. Investors often accept lower rents in the expectation of future after-tax capital gains when they sell.
Labor's policy could not come at a worse time for the housing market as prices have reduced across capital cities, including Sydney. Labor's changes will smash property values and undermine confidence in the stability of the market.
Their excuse is that they want to improve the opportunities for first-home buyers to gain access to the market. But that is already happening without changes to negative gearing, with over 100,000 first-home buyers getting loan approvals over the last year, the highest number since 2009.
Labor also claims that negative gearing is the domain of the so called "rich" and people with multiple investment properties. Again, the facts tell a different story. Two-thirds of those who negative gear have a taxable income of less than $80,000 and over 70 per cent of those who negatively gear have only one property...
Labor should listen to the critics of its policy, says the Treasurer.
Labor's "rich" negative gearers include 58,000 teachers, 41,000 nurses, 19,000 police and emergency service personnel. Not only is Labor hurting families right across the country but it's attacking those aspirational Australians in its heartland.
Labor's policy also risks sending home buyers into a position of negative equity, when the value of their home falls below the size of their mortgage. This not only impacts household wealth, but can also deter future buyers, shaking their confidence about entering the market.
Unfortunately when Labor's frontbenchers try to justify their new property tax, they get caught out.
Bill Shorten and Chris Bowen have said Labor's property tax will decrease housing prices, but opposition finance spokesman Jim Chalmers has said that prices will increase, while Joel Fitzgibbon says prices will neither go up, or down under Labor. What a shambles!
With unemployment falling to five per cent and GDP growth increasing to 3.4 per cent, it's fastest rate since the height of the mining boom in 2012, the last thing the country now needs is a big new property tax.
Labor should listen to the critics of its policy, cut its losses and abandon the changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax.

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