#InternationalFoodPrices Hit Four-Year Low

New World Bank Group tool focuses on preparedness for potential future crises

WASHINGTON, September 30, 2014 – International prices of food decreased by 6 percent between April and August 2014, reaching a four-year low, according to the latest edition of Food Price Watch. This sharp decrease was driven mainly by international wheat prices, which went down 19 percent and maize prices, which plummeted 21% between April and August 2014. Rice prices actually increased 13 percent during the same period. Prospects for next year’s harvests and food stocks are strong... (Read more)

External Expansion, www.externalexpansion.net,

#Globalization Is in Retreat? Not So Fast

An automotive electronics production line in Wuhan, China. Credit Shepherd Zhou/European Pressphoto Agency

Not long ago, executives at the Dutch multinational Royal DSM, a globe-girdling maker of nutritional supplements and high-tech materials, used to require a battery of internal studies to decide where to do a deal or locate a new manufacturing plant... (Read more)

External Expansion, www.externalexpansion.net,

Ukraine signs ‘historic’ free-trade deal with EU

THE IRISH TIMES  (Reuters/PA    First published: Fri, Jun 27, 2014, 09:36)

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Georgia, Moldova sign similar agreements as Russia warns of ‘grave consqeuences

Ukraine signed a historic free-trade and political cooperation agreement with the European Union today that has been at the heart of the country’s political crisis, drawing an immediate threat of “grave consequences” from Russia.

Ex-USSR states Georgia and Moldova signed similar deals, which fall short of full EU membership but hold out the prospect of deep economic integration and unfettered access to the EU’s 500 million citizens. It signals a turning away from Russia and moving closer to the West.

“Over the last months, Ukraine paid the highest possible price to make her European dreams come true,” Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko told EU leaders at a signing ceremony in Brussels.