Latest news with #procedure
Korea Herald
26-05-2025
- Business
- Korea Herald
US calls for resolution of non-tariff barrier issues in latest trade consultation with S. Korea: sources
The United States asked South Korea to resolve various non-trade barrier issues in their latest round of working-level trade talks, government sources said Monday, as Seoul is seeking to get a reduction or exemption of the Donald Trump administration's tariffs. In last week's working-level consultations, Washington urged Seoul to handle non-trade barrier issues listed on the 2025 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign Trade Barriers issued by the office of the US Trade Representative in March, according to sources familiar with the matter. The NTE report had touched on a wide range of Korea's non-tariff measures, including its import ban on American beef from cattle aged 30 months or older, South Korea's "offset" defense trade policy, emission-related regulations on imported cars and pricing policies for pharmaceuticals. The two countries held their second round of "technical discussions" in Washington last week as agreed in a meeting between South Korean Industry Minister Ahn Duk-geun and USTR Jamieson Greer on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers' meeting held on South Korea's southern island of Jeju earlier this month. South Korea has been seeking to gain a full exemption or reduction of the Trump administration's 25 percent reciprocal tariffs for the country, as well as sectoral tariffs on steel, automobile and other imports. "Among the list of requests from the US, there are some things that can be resolved by easing regulations, but there are also matters concerning market access, which require necessary procedures under the trade treaty procedure act," a senior trade official said on the condition of anonymity, apparently referring to Seoul's beef imports and high tariffs on imported rice. South Korea imposes a 513 percent tariff on rice imports, but implements a 5 percent tariff rate quota for up to 132,304 tons of yearly rice imports from the US. The Korean delegation is said to have explained such issues can be dealt with in accordance with procedures under the trade treaty law, such as a parliamentary report. The delegation also told the USTR that South Korea has been looking into Google's request to transfer the country's high-precision map data and approved the cultivation of US-grown living modified organism potatoes as part of efforts to resolve the non-tariff barrier issues, according to the sources. The government plans to leave the decision of sensitive trade issues to the next government as the country is set to hold its presidential election next Tuesday. (Yonhap)
Hindustan Times
16-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
11 of 40 accused in ₹35,000 crore DHFL bank fraud turn approver for CBI
Eleven of the accused, out of 40 individuals named along with the promoters –– Kapil and Dheeraj Wadhawan –– of Dewan Housing Finance Ltd (DHFL) in a ₹34,000 crore bank fraud case, have turned approver for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and have been granted pardon under the criminal procedure code (CrPC), people familiar with the matter said. The development, officials say, is a shot in the arm for CBI's prosecutors who can now use these approvers to unearth the entire conspiracy and make a strong case against the Wadhawan brothers during the trial. Among those who have turned approver for the CBI are businessmen Sudhakar Shetty and Abhay Adukia, and film producer Parag Sanghvi . They approached a Special CBI court in Delhi this week asking to be made approvers under section 306 and 307 of the CrPC (now sections 343 and 344 of Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita) which deal with the tender of pardon to an accomplice. According to an order issued by the court of Special Judge, Ashwani Kumar Sarpal, at Rouse Avenue Courts on Tuesday, Shetty claimed in his plea that 'he wants to disclose facts regarding the DHFL fraud and help CBI in its probe and trial'. CBI, according to the order, didn't oppose their plea to turn approver. The agency informed the court that evidence from these approvers 'will help it to prove the conspiracy angle which otherwise cannot be established by direct evidence'. Others who have decided to help the CBI instead of going to jail are Ritesh Virchand Shah, Dinesh Bansal, Nikhil Mansukhani, Rajen Vasant Kumar Dhruv, Gopal Dalvi, Vivek Jayesh Thar, Arvind Kayan and Malav Mehta. The court allowed these eight to turn approvers, through separate orders in January and February this year, and granted them pardon, thereby striking off their names from CBI charge sheets. These 11 individuals were named by the federal investigation agency in its two charge sheets filed in October 2022 (naming 74 accused including 18 individuals and 56 companies) and April 2024 (naming 34 accused including 22 individuals and 12 companies). Overall, 108 individuals and companies were named in the DHFL probe , considered the single largest bank fraud case ever. It is alleged that between January 2010 and December 2019, a consortium of 17 banks extended credit facilities worth ₹42,871 crore to DHFL. The Wadhawans siphoned off the funds to shell companies/paper entities, known as 'Bandra Book Entities', and caused a loss of ₹34,926 crore to the consortium. The Piramal Group took over control of DHFL in 2021 through corporate insolvency resolution process. In its probe, CBI has found that after obtaining funds, DHFL gave loans of about ₹11,765 crores to approximately 87 shell companies, out of which 81 belonged to companies of Wadhawan Group itself. These companies were not recorded in the company's books of accounts and instead the amount was shown as loans given to 2,60,315 fictitious persons without any documentation, security or even loan applications. DHFL and its promoters are being investigated by CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in other cases including one involving Yes Bank and its founder Rana Kapoor.
