Urea price hike will hinge on subsidy bill's extent -- Prabhu
An increase in urea prices will be inevitable if the subsidy bill crosses budget estimates, chemicals and fertilisers minister Suresh Prabhu has said.

EIA, US stick to deadline on seafood quality
The $1.2-billion Indian seafood industry is once again in crisis with government's Export Inspection Agency (EIA) and the US government turning down exporters plea for waiving off the December 31 deadline on quality standards.

Centre must seek to scrap sugar export sops at WTO
The Indian sugar industry is pinning its hopes on the upcoming ministerial round of WTO for a level-playing field with world players. Sugar manufacturers feel the government should pressurise the developed countries to remove trade and production-distorting elements from their domestic policies.


  No progress in US-Beijing trade negotiations yet
  Commodity Briefing
  Yarn exporters to be penalised for quota failures
  Tea industry put under states for urea allotment
  Pakistan cotton prices likely to remain weak
  Oilseed shortages to lift sagging edible oils by Jan
  Non-compliance cause for jute sector's failures
  Cotton Board's imports, exports estimates go haywire
  `Foundries capacity utilisation dismal'
  New crops soften pepper
  Granule price spurt hits small plastic units
  Infrastructure bottlenecks hinder agricultural exports
  Indonesian LNG output seen down 38% in 2000
  South Korea to buy rice from Cofco Cereals
  Exporters wary on Australian sale of US wheat
  BP Amoco's Browne to visit Saudi on investment plans
  Cheap palmolein mixed with castor oil
  Orissa's loss of agro-assets put at Rs 150 crore
  Experts to submit feasibility study on rubber futures
  HK unveils new plan to combat oil smuggling
  Crude oil price impact on inflation seen peaking soon, say experts
  $3.5bn Chad-Cameroon crude pipeline reviewed
  Centre, FIs meet on multi-commodities bourse
  Thailand oil refiner nears $2.25 b debt deal
  Australian growers welcome AWB's sale of US wheat
  Norway's main oil workers' unionmulls brief strike
  Freight rates buoyant
  Plant tissue-culture biotechnology is need of the hour
  Global tea production seen down by 150m kg in 1999
  Russia fears losing to US on Caspian oil
  Coffee Board sees 1999-2000 crop at 2.82 lakh tonnes
  Asian oil prices slip as rally prompts profit-taking
  Asian sugar stagnant before Thai auction
  Lower estimates push up US food prices
  Mexico slaps 100 per cent duty on Japanese steel
  Cyclone dashes hopes of record domestic rice output
  Cuango river basin diamond project records sharp rise in output
  Sunny weather fails to buoy Vietnam coffee
  Traders see fall in Colombia coffee crop
  Acacia favours AngloGold bid
  `Ukraine cannot raise sugar exports next year'
  Plans afoot to push ailing global pepper bourse back into the orbit
  Palladium hogs the limelight, gold marginally up
  Kembla copper production may begin next year
  Platinum ends off 27-month high, palladium buoyant on scarcity talks
  Peru's Yanacocha eyes more gold in 2000
  South Korea seeks 15,000 tonnes of aluminium ingot
  Minor metal moly output halt fails to boost price, cobalt may rebound