JAKARTA (TheInsiderStories) - Good Morning! The United States (US) government has announced its backing for a waiver on intellectual property (IP) protection for COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic. World Trade Organization meetings are likely to continue consideration of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights waiver proposal, though any resolution is unlikely before the next formal council meeting scheduled for early June.
If implemented, the move could considerably weaken the economic position of vaccine developers that depend on IP protection for their research investment, although developers such as AstraZeneca, which is selling the vaccine to emerging countries at cost, would probably be less severely affected. Notably, the US government has rights to US patent 10.96 million patent, which covers some key Moderna and Pfizer products and Germany’ BioNTech’ COVID-19 vaccines.
While, President Joe Biden said a corporate tax rate between 25 to 28 percent could help pay for badly needed infrastructure, suggesting he could accept a lower rate than what he has proposed. In his US$2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, Washington initially proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 21 to 28 percent.
The country also announced the employment report should show another solid month of job gains as the economy continues to recover from the pandemic. Economists are predicting employers added 1 million jobs, up from the previous month’ 916,000. The unemployment rate is expected to tick down from 6.0 percent to 5.8 percent.
In Asia, political tensions between China and Australia are increasing. China said it would end all discussions or dialogue indefinitely under the China - Australia Strategic Economic dialogue. This is the latest response from China whose 5G investment was rejected in Canberra, Australia.
Then, Japanese government is working to extend the state of emergency in Tokyo and three other regions until the end of May, in a bid to contain a spike in coronavirus cases, less than three months before the start of the Tokyo Olympics. Economy minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, said new cases in Tokyo and Osaka were still at a high level.
The extension leaves less than two months before the Olympics, which will start on July 23 after being postponed a year due to the pandemic. In Indonesia, the central bank has an agenda to announce foreign reserves position in April.
Yesterday, Indonesian Rupiah closed up 0.8 percent to Rp14,319 compared to the US Dollar and the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI) fell 0.09 percent to 5,970 compared to the previous day. Analysts assess that one of the sentiments that will influence the movement of the two today is the government’s efforts to increase the Value Added Tax.
This is related to the Draft Law on General Provisions and Tax Procedures which regulates that the lowest tariff changes are at 5 percent and the highest is 15 percent. The impact of this policy will be felt on rising prices for goods and services.
Even so, they considered that there was potential for both of them to strengthen on the back of improving of US economic data, particularly unemployment data. The US government just released a regulation releasing patents for vaccination products to aid the worldwide vaccination process.
With this information, the Rupiah is expected to move in the range of 14,300 - 14,350 verus US Dollar and JCI between 5,827 - 6,088. Stocks that can be watched today are PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk (IDX: BBRI), PT Adaro Energy Tbk (IDX: ADRO), PT Barito Pacific Tbk (IDX: BRPT), PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk (IDX: INDF), PT Indo Tambangmegah Raya Tbk (IDX: ITMG), PT Bayan Resources Tbk (IDX: BYAN), PT Kalbe Farma Tbk (IDX: KBLF).
May you have a profitable day!
Written by Linda Silaen and the Editorial Team, Please Read Our News to Get More information about Indonesia
