Month: June 2018

Britain will not sign a trade agreement with the United States that is not in the country’s best interests, Trade Minister Liam Fox said Saturday after European Union officials filed a complaint with the World Trade Organization over stiff U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.

“If we can’t come to an agreement that we believe is in the interests of the United Kingdom, then we wouldn’t be signing any trade agreement,” Fox said Saturday in an interview with BBC radio.

Fox’s comments came one day after European Union officials submitted a formal complaint to the WTO, the first in a series of retaliatory actions, including possible tariffs, against the U.S. Fox said the tariffs are “illegal” and that British Prime Minister Theresa May would raise the issue at the Group of Seven meeting next week in Canada.

Trans-Atlantic and North American trade tensions escalated when the U.S. imposed on Friday a 25 percent tariff on steel imports and a 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports from the European Union, Canada and Mexico. The U.S. also negotiated quotas or volume limits on other countries, such as South Korea, Argentina, Australia and Brazil, instead of tariffs.

In a separate dispute, China is prepared to target billions of dollars in U.S. products, many of which come from America’s agricultural heartland, where Trump enjoys strong voter support.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross arrived in Beijing Saturday in an attempt to avert an all-out trade war between the world’s two largest economies. On China’s target list are U.S. soybean farmers, who export about 60-percent of their soybeans to China.

A dairy farmer who also grows soybeans in the midwestern state of Nebraska, Ben Steffen, is angry about the U.S. tariffs “because it hits me in my pocketbook from multiple angles.”

California farmer Jeff Colombini, who grows walnuts, cherries and apples, is concerned about the financial damage a trade war could bring.

“With these tariffs, its going to make the product[s] too expensive for the consumers in Mexico and in Canada and in the EU,” he said. “I have 200 employees, and they depend on the success of this operation for their jobs and to feed and clothe their families.”

The imposition of the tariffs is also not popular with some members of Congress, including those from Trump’s own party, whose states are dependent on exports.

“Imposing steel and aluminum tariffs on our most important trading partners is the wrong approach and represents an abuse of authority intended only for national security purposes,” said Bob Corker of Tennessee, who is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

“You don’t treat allies the same way you treat opponents,” Republican Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska said on Twitter. “Blanket protectionism is a big part of why we had a Great Depression. ‘Make America Great Again’ shouldn’t mean ‘Make America 1929 Again.’”

Tennessee has three major auto assembly plants. Nebraska is a significant exporter of cattle, corn, soybeans and hogs.

Mexico said, in response, it will penalize U.S. imports, including pork bellies, apples, grapes, cheeses and flat steel.

“There’s a reason why” the countries are carefully selecting which American products to target in response, said William Reinsch, senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“Most of bourbon is made in Kentucky, which is the state of the Senate majority leader. Harley Davidsons are made in Wisconsin, which is the state of the speaker of the House,” Reinsch told VOA News. “Usually when other countries retaliate, and the Chinese have done something similar, is they’re good at maximizing political pain by picking out products that are made in places where people are politically important.”

“Tariffs on steel and aluminum imports are a tax hike on Americans and will have damaging consequences for consumers, manufacturers and workers,” said Republican Orrin Hatch, who chairs the Senate’s finance committee and is a longtime advocate of breaking down trade barriers.

Expected higher prices for U.S. consumers on some products is only one side of the equation, said Ross, who noted that steel and aluminum makers in the U.S. are adding employment and opening facilities as a result of the U.S. government action.

“You can create a few jobs, however, you’re going to lose more in the process,” as consuming industries will be placed at a disadvantage of paying more for raw materials compared to their foreign competitors, Simon Lester, trade policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, told VOA News.

 
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White House officials are making plans for a possible summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The report, citing a senior administration official, said U.S. Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, has been in Washington to help schedule the meeting.

“This has been an ongoing project of Ambassador Huntsman, stretching back months, of getting a formal meeting between Putin and Trump,” the official said.

People familiar with the plans said the purpose of the summit would be to address long-standing differences between the two countries.

U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the intent of helping Trump win. The findings have led to a special counsel investigation into whether Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia. Trump has denied any collusion.

The U.S. also has denounced Russia’s alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and has expressed opposition to Moscow’s military intervention in eastern Ukraine.

Tensions between Washington and Moscow escalated in March when the U.S. and dozens of other nations ordered Russian diplomats to leave their countries after a former Russian spy and his daughter were poisoned in the United Kingdom with a military-grade nerve agent. Russia has denied responsibility and has accused the U.S. of coordinating an extortion plan.

Regarding the potential summit, the official said a lot of planning still must be done, including setting a date and location.

If the summit does take place, it would be the third meeting between the two leaders. They met on the sidelines of the G-20 summit last July in Hamburg, Germany, and in November at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam.

Trump currently is focusing on a planned June 12 summit in Singapore with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The senior administration official said if negotiations with North Korea continue, plans for the summit with Russia will be delayed.

Trump has said a number of times he would like to improve relations with Russia.
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The faked murder of a Russian journalist in Ukraine has set off soul searching among journalists and a debate in civil society over the propriety of the gambit in an era of propaganda and “fake news.”

On Tuesday, journalists were shocked by the apparent slaying of Russian dissident, war veteran and journalist Arkady Babchenko, who Ukrainian authorities said had been gunned down outside his apartment in Kyiv. The first reports came from personal friends of Babchenko on their social media pages. This was quickly followed by official announcements from the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. Within hours of the killing, Ukrainian police even released a sketch of a possible suspect.

The next day, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) caused an even bigger shock wave by revealing that Babchenko was in fact very much alive. The SBU said the killing had been staged as part of a sting operation to catch a suspected Russian agent who was targeting Kremlin enemies in Ukraine. Journalists around the world expressed their astonishment when Babchenko appeared at the press conference along with Ukrainian officials. 

Perhaps the most dramatic reaction came from his own colleagues at the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR:

“This may have been the appropriate way to go about saving someone’s life,” Michael Carpenter, a former U.S. adviser on Russia and Ukraine, told VOA News. “But it does have long-term consequences, the way it was carried out.”

Critics and supporters of the act expressed relief that Babchenko was alive, but many voiced concerns about the credibility of Ukrainian government institutions. Others suggested that this would be a gift to Russia, which could now point to the stunt anytime Russia is implicated in some scandal.

Writing for the British newspaper The Independent, Oliver Carroll called the situation a “get-out-of-jail-free card” for the Kremlin.

“Ukraine is now a storyteller; nothing that comes out of Ukraine is really how it seems; everything Ukraine says is to show Russia in a bad light,” Carroll wrote. “Russia has been accused by the U.S. of using disinformation campaigns to try and affect the 2016 presidential election and in such a climate there is no doubt Moscow will use the staged killing to undermine news out of Kyiv.”

Threats did occur

There is little doubt Babchenko faced death threats in response to his years of journalistic work. In 2017, a wave of new threats in response to one of his Facebook posts forced him to flee Russia. Officials at Wednesday’s news conference explained how they had detected a plot to assassinate not only Babchenko but other Russian dissidents living in Ukraine. In contrast to several other high-profile slayings or attempted slayings of Russian dissidents in other countries, this time a suspect was captured.

The intelligence agency that staged the fake hit, however, has its own checkered past in controlling the media inside Ukraine. In its annual report, Freedom on the Net 2017, Freedom House listed Ukraine as only “partly free.” The democracy and human rights NGO said the SBU campaign was aimed at a pro-Russian news agency — blocking websites, forcing removal of content and even staging raids of two Ukrainian news outlets.

In late 2017, the English language Kyiv Post published a story that accused the SBU of using the armed conflict against Russia as a pretext “to persecute government critics and enrich themselves.”

In this context, some suggest the SBU’s faked homicide could be a propaganda gift to Russia, which could now point to the stunt anytime Russia is implicated in scandals or its own version of fake news.

“They will cite this, they will exploit this, they will use this to throw all sorts of doubts and seed questions about the legitimacy of Western news sources,” said Carpenter, who served in the White House advising Vice President Joe Biden on Russia.

Defenders, however, pointed out that had Babchenko been killed, the Kremlin and Russian state media would spread disinformation about his death while continuing their denial of involvement in such cases as the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in 2014 or the more recent poisoning of former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in London.

Among journalists, the debate rages on the ethics of one of their own participating in a fake news event. The OSCE Representative for Media Freedom condemned the “spread of false information” on Twitter. Russian journalist Andrei Soldatov also tweeted that Babchenko’s involvement in the scheme was “crossing a line” with him. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) published a statement condemning the stunt for raising many questions, which they listed. First among them was how “credible and imminent” the threat to Babchenko’s life was at the time.

‘Very difficult’ matter

Frank Sesno, the director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University, told Voice of America that the question of ethics in this case was “very difficult terrain.”

“If in fact there was legitimate information that an assassination was pending, that his family and his children were threatened as well, which apparently they were — that’s what he’s claiming, anyway — and if the security forces felt this was the only way to flush out the perpetrators or planners of this sort of thing, then reluctantly I would say this is something that probably needed to happen,” Sesno said.

Sesno pointed out that there are regimes that target and sometimes kill journalists, and “that needs to be exposed.” Yet he called for “full transparency and honesty” from those involved.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said the press freedom implications depend on the answers to its series of questions, involving the seriousness of the threat to Babchenko, identities of the alleged plot organizer and contract killer, and who in the Ukrainian government knew of the staged killing.

“What is known is that the Ukrainian government has damaged its own credibility,” Nina Ognianova of CPJ’s European office wrote on Wednesday. “Given the SBU is an intelligence agency, which engages in deception, obfuscation and propaganda, determining the truth will be very difficult.” 

As to whether Babchenko’s fake slaying was a “gift” to Russian propagandists, there seemed to be only mixed initial evidence supporting the concern. While Babchenko was still thought to be dead, the state media and Russian officials seemed to be launching a narrative. Sputnik News on May 29 advanced a narrative portraying Ukraine as inherently dangerous for journalists. Before news of Babchenko’s “resurrection” broke, The Republic reported that Russian State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said the U.S. bore responsibility for Babchenko’s death.

Since the revelation, domestic Russian media fastened on the Skripal poisoning, but 30 hours later neither the Russian government nor state had demonstrated it was an international propaganda game changer.

In a way, the Babchenko story provides a good example of what is, and what is not, “fake news.” The fiction was not promoted knowingly by any journalist, other than Babchenko himself. The narrative was created and supported by Ukraine security and police officials. Even Russia’s Investigative Committee claimed it was opening a criminal case on the matter, citing the fact that Babchenko was a Russian citizen.

In a post-revelation interview, Babchenko explained how he was covered in pig’s blood after donning a T-shirt with bullet holes already in it. He was actually taken to the morgue before being “resurrected.” For all intents and purposes, Babchenko’s “killing” was “real news,” until it was publicly revealed as a hoax.

In the same interview, Babchenko gave his own opinion about disinformation surrounding the story:

“By the way, this is an example of birth of fake news: I don’t understand why there’s a version with me going to buy a loaf of bread [that] came up. I didn’t go to buy bread, I went to buy water.”

This story first appeared on Polygraph.info, a fact-checking website produced by Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Original reporting contributed by VOA’s Ukrainian service and Russia service and RFE/RL.
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Arkady Babchenko, a Russian journalist, worked with Ukrainian intelligence to stage his assassination. A day later, Kyiv security officials unveiled the ruse. While officials claim the scheme was necessary to save Babchenko’s life, ethics experts worry about the consequences. Bronwyn Benito narrates this report by Iryna Matviichuk of VOA’s Ukranian service.
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After three months of political deadlock following inconclusive March 4 elections, Italy has a new government. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, a political novice, and his ministers were sworn in Friday. The government is backed by the populist 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League.

Markets breathed easier Friday after months of political wrangling ended. European stocks closed higher after Italian parties reached an agreement that led to the formation and swearing in of a new government, thereby averting the prospect of an early general election.

Conte has been dubbed “Mr. Nobody.” The 53-year old law professor took the oath of office along with his 18 ministers, five of them women. In the gilded Quirinale Palace, President Sergio Mattarella presided over the ceremony.

The new government coalition consists of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement and the right-wing League. The two parties have a solid majority in both houses of parliament. Conte’s government will now seek confidence votes there early next week in order to be fully empowered.

Italy’s future in the eurozone has dominated the political uncertainty of the last week, with the head of state vetoing the coalition’s original choice for economy minister, Euroskeptic economist Paolo Savona. On Friday, Savona was sworn in as the new European affairs minister.

Mattarella’s rejection of Savona as economy minister led to the breakdown of the coalition’s first attempt to form a government. A technocratic government seemed the only solution until the leaders of the 5-Star Movement and the League decided to present a new lineup to the president, which was acceptable.

Luigi Di Maio and Matteo Salvini, who respectively head the 5-Star Movement and the League, are both deputy prime ministers in the new government. In addition, Di Maio will run the Labor Ministry and Salvini the Interior Ministry, two of the most important portfolios in Italy today.

Salvini said his first order of business as the country’s new interior minister would be to revamp the nation’s immigration policies. He wants to reduce the number of migrants arriving, increase the number of expulsions and cut the funds Italy spends tending to migrants.
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Brexit Secretary David Davis is creating a Brexit plan that would give Northern Ireland joint UK and European Union status so it could trade freely with both, as well as a buffer zone to eliminate the need for border checkpoints with Ireland, The Sun newspaper reported on Thursday.

Davis is drawing a proposed 10-mile (16-km)-wide trade buffer zone along the border that would be in effect for local traders like dairy farmers after Britain leaves the bloc, the newspaper said. 

The Brexit minister’s plan is a revision of the “max fac” or “maximum facilitation” plan, the report said, citing a source.

British Prime Minister Theresa May previously pledged to take the UK out of the EU customs union by considering two options. One would be “max fac” in which the UK and EU would be entirely separate customs areas but would try to use technology to reduce friction and costs at the border.

The other option being considered is a “customs partnership”, according to which the UK would cooperate with the EU more closely and collect tariffs on its behalf with no requirement of declarations of goods crossing the border.

The European Union previously criticized May for not setting out how the UK would achieve a frictionless border with the EU without erecting a land border to control goods between the British province of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

Britain suggested earlier this month that it would be willing to extend the use of EU tariffs as a backstop if there were delays in ratification of a Brexit deal to avoid a return to a hard border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, adding the government did not want to use that option. 
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The United States’ allies in the G-7 vowed Thursday to push back against Washington’s decision to impose tariffs on their steel and aluminum exports, saying as they gathered for a meeting that the move threatens global growth.

The escalating trade conflict between the United States and many key allies will dominate the three-day meeting in Canada of financial leaders from the Group of Seven industrialized nations that began Thursday, with U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin the top target for their complaints and lobbying.

The United States said it was moving ahead to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminum, starting at midnight (0400 GMT Friday), ending months of uncertainty about potential exemptions and sending a chill through financial markets.

French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire demanded a “permanent and total exemption” from the tariffs and said that European Union countries would respond with their own measures.

The U.S. tariff decision “is unjustified and unjustifiable and will have dangerous consequences for global growth,” Le Maire said in comments to media on his way to the meeting of policymakers from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Japan and Canada in the mountain resort of Whistler, British Columbia.

His German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, said EU member states would show their unity and sovereignty by acting in a determined way. “Our response should be clear, strong and smart,” Scholz told Reuters.

Canadian Finance Minister Bill Morneau said the tariffs would color the G-7 meeting.

“There will be some challenging discussions I’m sure,” Morneau told a news conference as top policymakers gathered. “We are not saying there won’t be frictions,” he added. “We’re not saying we won’t have strong words. We’re not saying we won’t be able to send messages.”

Mnuchin, who was not at the introductory discussion panels focused on development and sharing the benefits of global growth, is scheduled to meet individually with many of his global counterparts during the three-day meeting.

Bank of England Governor Mark Carney said the U.S. decision to target trade in goods, not services, was misplaced.

“This focus on goods trade, bilateral goods, is not the right focus in a hyperconnected world where most of the economic activity, most people work, most small businesses, most women work in the service sector,” Carney told a panel.

“If we were to liberalize services to the same degree as we have liberalized [trade in] goods, these balances would be cut in half for the United States and for the U.K.,” Carney added.

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde said if trade was “massively disrupted,” the level of public trust in leaders would be severely damaged.

“First of all, those who will suffer most are the poorest, the less privileged people, those who actually rely on imported goods to have their living,” she said, adding that long-standing supply chains also would be disrupted.

The U.S. actions on trade policy, which also include potential tariffs and investment restrictions on China and a national security probe that could lead to tariffs on auto imports, are expected to also dominate the G-7 summit of world leaders in Quebec next week. 
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Nine people were hurt, including two children, when Croatian border police fired at a van full of illegal migrants that refused to stop.

Police said they discovered 29 people inside the van after it crossed the border from Bosnia.

The driver fled into the woods, and police were searching for him. 

The two wounded children were recovering in a hospital, and officials said their lives were not in danger.

“We are sorry about the children being injured in this incident,” Zadar town police chief Anton Drazina said. “Our priority is the fight against organized crime and protection of the state border and not against the migrants, but against the criminals who are unfortunately endangering the lives of the migrants by their smuggling activities.”

Police said most of the people in the van were from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Hundreds of thousands of migrants used the so-called Balkan route to cross into the European Union before the route was shut down. But a number of people still slip through.
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