Tag: Trade

German government, trade unions agree on wage deal for public workers

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The German government, local authorities and trade unions reached a deal late Saturday on higher pay scales for the country’s 2.5 million public-sector workers, staving off the possibility of indefinite strikes.
“We have accommodated the unions as far as we can responsibly do under difficult budgetary circumstances,” said Nancy Faeser, the country’s interior minister. Trade union Ver.di had called for significant raises as the country, like many others across the Continent, grapples with high inflation.
Among other things, the deal entails tax-free one-time payments totalling €3,000 in several stages, with the first €1,240 to be handed out in June, followed by €220 each month from July to February 2024. In March 2024, monthly pay for all public workers will increase by €200, followed by a 5.5 percent salary increase, with a minimum increase of €340.
The agreement runs for 24 months.
The compromise is largely based on a proposal by arbitrators who were called in after talks broke down last month. Ver.di had initially asked for a 10.5 percent raise and at least €500 more pay over a twelve-month period.
Frank Werneke, the union’s chair, said the negotiations had not been easy. “With our decision to make this compromise, we went to our pain threshold,” he said.
Municipalities in the country fear the deal may pose new financial challenges for them. Prior to the negotiations, Karin Welge, president of the Federation of Municipal Employers’ Associations, had estimated the deal could create additional costs of €17 billion for cities and municipalities.
The agreement sets an end to months of negotiations. In a string of walkouts, employee representatives in recent months had disrupted public administration and other public services. At the end of last month, Ver.di, together with the national rail and transport union, brought rail and air traffic to a halt across the country in a large-scale strike.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 21, 2023
Europe’s disunity over China deepens

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BRUSSELS — Just when you thought Europe’s China policy could not be more disunited, the two most powerful countries of the European Union are now also at odds over whether to revive a moribund investment agreement with the authoritarian superpower.
For France, resuscitating the so-called EU-China Comprehensive Agreement on Investment (CAI) is “less urgent” and “just not practicable,” according to French President Emmanuel Macron.
Meanwhile, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is in favor of “reactivating” the agreement, which stalled soon after it was announced in late 2020 after Beijing imposed sanctions on several members of the European Parliament for criticizing human rights violations.
Speaking to POLITICO aboard his presidential plane during a visit to China earlier this month, Macron said he and Chinese leader Xi Jinping discussed the CAI, “but just a little bit.”
“I was very blunt with President Xi, I was very honest, as far as this is a European process — all the institutions need to be involved, and there is no chance to see any progress on this agreement as long as we have members of the European Parliament sanctioned by China,” Macron told POLITICO in English.
Beijing has proved skilled at preventing the EU from developing a unified China policy, using threats ranging from potential bans on French and Spanish wine to warnings that China will buy American Boeing instead of French Airbus planes.
Disagreement over the CAI is only one further example of divergence over China policy in Europe, where Beijing has expertly courted various countries and played them against each other in games of divide-and-rule over the past decade.
Scholz seeks CAI thaw
Following seven years of tortuous negotiations, the CAI was rushed through by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the end of Germany’s six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in late 2020.

Merkel sought to seal the deal and ingratiate herself with Beijing before Washington could apply pressure to block it, causing tension with the incoming administration of U.S. President Joe Biden.
Germany has long been the most vocal cheerleader for the CAI due to its scale of manufacturing investments in China, particularly in the car-making and chemicals sectors.
The CAI would have made it marginally easier for European companies to invest in China and protect their intellectual property there. But critics decried weak worker protections and questioned to what degree it could be enforced.
Xi Jinping during Macron’s visit to Beijing | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Soon after the agreement was announced, Beijing imposed sanctions on several European parliamentarians in retaliation for their criticism of human rights abuses in the restive region of Xinjiang.
The deal, which requires ratification by the European parliament, went into political deep freeze.
Scholz, who at times seems to mimic the more popular Merkel, would like to take CAI “out of the freezer” — but has cautioned that “this must be done with care” to avoid political pitfalls, according to a person he briefed directly but who was not authorized to comment publicly.
“It is surprising Scholz still thinks this is a good idea, despite the vastly changed context from a couple of years ago,” said one senior EU official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss sensitive diplomatic issues.
EU branches split
Not only are EU countries divided on how to approach CAI — there’s also a rift among institutions in Brussels.
With its members sanctioned, the European Parliament is certain to reject any fresh attempt to ratify the CAI.
But like Scholz, European Council President Charles Michel also hopes to resuscitate the deal. He has discussed this with Chinese communist leaders, including during his solo visit to Beijing late last year, according to a senior EU official familiar with the matter who was not authorized to speak publicly.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, however, has stymied Michel’s attempts to place the agreement back on the agenda in Brussels. Von der Leyen is far more skeptical of engaging with China, citing increasing aggression abroad and repression at home.
Von der Leyen accompanied Macron on part of his China trip earlier this month, but said of her brief meeting with Xi Jinping and other Chinese officials that the topic of CAI “did not come up.” She has publicly argued that the deal needs to be “reassessed” in light of deteriorating relations between Beijing and the West.
Meanwhile, Chinese officials have made overtures to Michel and other sympathetic European leaders, suggesting China could unilaterally lift its sanctions on members of the European Parliament — but only with a “guarantee” the CAI would eventually be ratified.
A spokesperson for Michel said an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers will discuss EU-China relations on May 12. “Following that discussion we will then assess when the topic of China is again put on the table of the European Council,” he said.
During the same interview with POLITICO, Macron caused consternation in Western capitals when he said Europe should not follow America, but instead avoid confronting China over its stated goal of seizing the democratic island of Taiwan by force.
Manfred Weber, head of the center-right European People’s Party, the largest party in the European Parliament, described the French president’s comments as “a disaster.”
In an an interview with Italian media, he said that the remarks had “weakened the EU” and “made clear the great rift within the European Union in defining a common strategic plan against Beijing.”

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 21, 2023
Addressing India-Russia trade imbalance, payment issue important: EAM Jaishankar

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New Delhi: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Monday called for urgently addressing India’s trade imbalance with Russia even as he described the partnership between the two countries as among the steadiest of major relationships globally.
In presence of Russian Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov, Jaishankar said at an event that finding a solution to the imbalance really means addressing the impediments such as market access issues, non-tariff barriers and those relating to payments or logistics.
The external affairs minister said the bilateral trade target of USD 30 billion has been crossed much before the target year of 2025, adding the trade volume was about USD 45 billion for the period April 2022 to February 2023.

India’s trade deficit with Russia jumped significantly in the last few months after it procured significant volumes of discounted crude oil from that country in the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis.
Jaishankar said what the future of India-Russia economic cooperation requires is the willingness and the ability to really look at the concerns from the point of view of the other party and then come up with solutions to overcome the obstacles.
The minister said payments, logistics and certifications are the key areas in the economic engagement.
A rupee-rouble mechanism for trade between India and Russia was established to settle dues in rupees instead of US Dollars or Euros in view of the imposition of severe economic sanctions against Moscow by the West following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
However, there have been certain issues in the full use of the mechanism, according to experts.

“There are also obviously discussions on the payments issue. The expansion of the correspondent relationship network, under the scheme of international trade settlement in Indian rupees through a special rupee vostro account system,” he said.
“And I think the payments issue clearly needs to be worked through between our systems. It is something we will also be discussing at the meeting tomorrow,” he added, referring to Tuesday’s inter-governmental commission meeting.
Without mentioning the Ukraine crisis, but putting the India-Russia economic cooperation in a strategic context, Jaishankar said the partnership today is a “subject of attention and comment, not because it has changed, but because it has not.”
“Indeed, it has been among the steadiest of the major relationships of the world in the contemporary era. But that by itself is not enough. We share a commitment to a multi-polar world. And that also means a multi-polar Asia,” he said at the India-Russia Business Dialogue.
Jaishankar said Russia is looking much more towards Asia now could mean a broadening out of “our engagement that was overly reliant on the triad of military, nuclear and space cooperation.”
“For Russia also, it presents a broader set of options. As Russia looks eastwards, its resource and technology complementarity can be a powerful contribution to India’s growth. And this is a growth of a 3.5 trillion economy that is expected to grow at more than 7 per cent for at least a decade or more,” he said.
“And I would say that our ties, our cooperation is best advanced through more intensive bilateral engagement such as the one that we are having today,” he added.
The external affairs minister also referred to the “time-tested and long-standing friendship” between the two countries and that the cooperation witnessed significant enhancement in many areas including traditional areas of defence, nuclear energy and space.
While talking about annual bilateral trade crossing the target of USD 30 billion ahead of the target year and the trade figure of USD 45 billion in the period from April 2022 to February 2023, he said it is expected to grow further.
At the same time, he referred to a previous speaker’s observation to emphasise that there is “understandable concern” about the trade imbalance which these new volumes have created.
“And we need to work together with our Russian friends on a very urgent basis on how to address that imbalance.
“And addressing that imbalance really means addressing the impediments — whether they are market access impediments, whether they are non-tariff barriers, whether they are related to payments or to logistics,” Jaishankar said.
The external affairs minister said there is a need for an honest assessment of the short and medium term challenges being faced in economic engagement.
“And you know, there could be quite frankly, there could be over-compliance, they could be over-anxiety, or even over-caution on our side. And equally, on the Russian side, there could be an inadequate appreciation of the concerns and the risks that the Indian businesses face,” he said.
“So, I would say what really the future of our economic cooperation requires, is the willingness, the ability to really look at it from the point of view of the other party and then come up with solutions which will overcome the obstacles.
“Now the possibilities, I think, are both in, you know, I would say, gaps which may have emerged in recent months but also new areas,” he said.
Jaishankar said he completely agreed that payments, logistics and certifications are the key areas.
“And I am convinced that it is possible to really find solutions, because if you look even in the last year, and this is something which the deputy PM himself is personally involved, we found ways, for example, of looking at, the fertilizer trade, in a much more mutually acceptable way,” Jaishankar said.
“So, I think if we can look at an area like fertilizer, surely you know, the same spirit of cooperation and mutuality, we can look at other areas and look to find solutions,” he said.
In his address, Jaishankar also said that there is a need to motivate businesses on both sides to diversify and expand the trade basket.
He said apart from the traditional exports of pharmaceuticals and organic chemicals, there are possibilities in auto and spare parts, electronics goods and components, medical devices, textile and apparel and ceramics among others.
Jaishankar also highlighted the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative and said it is determined to make India a major global manufacturing hub.
“It is clearly our strategy today to position ourselves as a major manufacturer, as a bigger trader, as a stronger service provider. And I think it should be of interest definitely to our Russian friends,” he said.
Jaishankar also referred to the proposed free trade agreement between India and the Eurasian Economic Union.
“The Covid interrupted those discussions, so I would very much hope that our colleagues will pick up on this. We will certainly encourage them from the foreign ministry side,” he said.
“Because we do believe that they will make a real difference to our trade relationship. We also are in advanced negotiations on a new Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT), and we appreciate that this is perhaps necessary; certainly useful to provide sufficient confidence to investors,” he said.
Talking about the strong people-to-people connection between the two countries, Jaishankar, however, pointed out that India actually gets less than one percent of Russia’s outbound tourism.
“When we are talking today of exploring new areas and new opportunities, I would also flag that whether more direct flights to more destinations, will provide a possibility for greater business when it comes to tourism,” he said.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 17, 2023
Russia, India negotiating on free trade agreement

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New Delhi: Visiting Russian Minister of Trade and Industry, Denis Manturov, said on Monday that India and Russia are deliberating on a free trade agreement (FTA), a move which could enhance commercial relations between the two nations.
The talks between the two countries on a possible FTA are likely to further accelerate economic relations between both the nations, despite Europe and America urging India to distance itself from Russia due to the latter’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
India’s imports from Russia have grown more than four times to $46.33 billion over the last fiscal, mainly due to oil purchases from that country.

“We pay special attention to the issues of mutual access of production to the markets of our countries,” Manturov said during an industry event.
He added that along with the Eurasian Economic Commission, Russia is looking forward to fast-track negotiations on a free trade agreement with India.
External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, who was also present at the event, said that the Covid-19 pandemic had disrupted discussions on an FTA between the two countries, but expressed hope that talks will resume on it soon.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 17, 2023
Eastern Europeans face Brussels backlash over Ukraine grain bans

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European Union politicians and officials have rounded on the front-line Eastern states of Poland, Hungary and Slovakia for imposing import bans on Ukrainian farm produce, denouncing the curbs as illegal and counterproductive.
The three countries banned imports of Ukrainian grain and other food products over recent days, arguing the export surplus had flooded their markets and threatened the livelihoods of local farmers.
The curbs have set the group on a collision course with Brussels while at the same time threatening the EU’s fragile solidarity in backing Ukraine’s fightback against Russia’s war of aggression.

EU diplomats believe the import bans contravene both international and EU law — and will fail to achieve their goals.
“Unilateral bans of individual countries won’t solve anything,” Czech Minister of Agriculture Zdeněk Nekula said.
“We must find agreement throughout the EU on the rules under which agricultural commodities will transit from Ukraine to European ports, and that production from them goes further to countries outside the EU that are dependent on Ukrainian production.”
The issue risks turning into a ticking time bomb.
Ukraine’s economy heavily relies on grain exports, which before the war were enough to feed 400 million people. When Russia invaded last year and blocked much of Ukraine’s global exports, the EU quickly installed so-called “solidarity lanes,” dropping all inspections on imports.
As a result, grain imports into surrounding countries shot up — much to the anger of local farmers who say they can’t compete. Instead of transiting through the countries to the rest of the world, the grain stays on the local markets, the countries argue.
With the summer harvest season ahead, the situation might get even tenser. Both Poland and Slovakia are heading into national elections later this year where the rural vote will be crucial.
“Solidarity lanes aren’t working. We have no effective tools controlling the transit,” Poland’s Ambassador to the EU Andrzej Sadoś told POLITICO. “We have in our silos some 4 million tons of Ukrainian grain and we need some time to stabilize the situation.”
The problems had been largely ignored by the European Commission so far, he said, forcing the Polish government to act.
Romanian farmers protest in the front of the European Commision headquarters in Bucharest | Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images
“Individual farmers started to block terminals and train connections. They were protesting. We were very close to an escalation,” said Sadoś. He stressed that the ban, due to expire on June 30, is only temporary.
‘Unacceptable’ moves
One EU diplomat accused Warsaw of indulging in “gesture politics.”
“The situation has come to a head, it wants to send a signal that it’s supporting its farmers,” this diplomat said. “But it’s really not the most elegant solution, especially with regards to solidarity for Ukraine.”
Others even doubt whether the measures are legal in the first place.
In public, the EU’s executive branch, the Commission, has taken a measured approach, telling journalists in Brussels on Monday that “at this stage, it’s too early” to give a definite answer on the legality of the move. It did, however, note: “Trade policy is of EU exclusive competence and, therefore, unilateral actions are not acceptable.”
The private steer from Brussels appears to be more adamant about illegality. Czech Agriculture Minister Nekula, for example, said the EU’s Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski — who is himself Polish — had told him that such measures “are unacceptable.”
Asked whether the bans were legal, another EU diplomat said: “I don’t think so.” That’s because, the diplomat argued, trade is an exclusive competence of the EU, meaning individual countries cannot simply unilaterally block imports from a country. Yet another EU diplomat supported that argument, pointing to World Trade Organization rules.
The terms of EU-Ukraine commerce are also supposed to be safeguarded by the terms of a free-trade area applied since 2014.
Poland rejects the idea that it is breaking the rules, citing national laws that allow it to do so for public safety reasons.
It’s not just Poland, however, and each of the three countries is trying to avoid the Commission’s wrath by making different arguments in its defense.
Slovakia, for its part, argues it was forced to act on Monday after Poland and Hungary moved at the weekend to block imports.
“There was a risk their routes will redirect towards us and will cause even more pressure on our small domestic market,” a Slovak official said, adding that tests had also shown an excessive level of pesticides in wheat.
Contrary to Poland and Hungary, Slovakia said it would keep transit open.
European Commissioner for Agriculture Janusz Wojciechowski speaks during a debate on the Common Agricultural Policy | Pool photo by Christian Hartmann/AFP via Getty Images
A way out?
Wiesław Gryn, one of the main leaders of farmer protests in Poland, said a better way would be to focus on banning products that are made in violation of EU standards, rather than imposing a temporary blanket ban.
“Stopping Ukrainian exports for two months won’t do much because at least six months are needed to export the 4 million tons [that is already in Poland],” he said.
To address the issue, the EU has disbursed some €30 million to Poland, some €16.8 million to Bulgaria and €10 million to Romania.
That isn’t nearly enough, said Sadoś, the Polish ambassador. “We need systemic solutions, not just support for the farmers,” he said. Poland wanted to keep supporting Ukraine through imports, he said, “but the price cannot be … the bankruptcy of millions of Polish farmers.”
Such systemic solutions, in Sadoś’ view, would be to give importers a window of 24 hours, for example, for shipments to reach a transit port to ensure that the products don’t stay in Poland.
That is legally complicated, however, and would involve more checks and paperwork — potentially holding up trade flows even more, say critics.
Lili Bayer and Gregorio Sorgi contributed reporting.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 17, 2023
India-US trade rose by 8% in 2022-23, fell 1.5% with China

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New Delhi: Bilateral trade between India and the US rose by almost 8 per cent to $128.55 billion in 2022-23, compared to $119.5 billion in 2021-22.
The growth in bilateral trade between the two countries is significant, considering the fact that in 2020-21, it was only $80.51 billion, according to Commerce Ministry data.
Exports to the US rose by 2.81 per cent to $78.31 billion in 2022-23 as against $76.18 billion in 2021-22, while imports grew by about 16 per cent to $50.24 billion.

At the same time, India’s bilateral trade with China fell by 1.5 per cent in 2022-23 to $114 billion, compared to $115 billion in 2021-22.
Exports to China fell by 28 per cent to $15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose by 4 per cent to $98.51 billion in 2021-22.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 16, 2023
India-US trade rose by 8% in 2022-23, fell 1.5% with China

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New Delhi: Bilateral trade between India and the US rose by almost 8 per cent to $128.55 billion in 2022-23, compared to $119.5 billion in 2021-22.
The growth in bilateral trade between the two countries is significant, considering the fact that in 2020-21, it was only $80.51 billion, according to Commerce Ministry data.
Exports to the US rose by 2.81 per cent to $78.31 billion in 2022-23 as against $76.18 billion in 2021-22, while imports grew by about 16 per cent to $50.24 billion.

At the same time, India’s bilateral trade with China fell by 1.5 per cent in 2022-23 to $114 billion, compared to $115 billion in 2021-22.
Exports to China fell by 28 per cent to $15.32 billion in 2022-23, while imports rose by 4 per cent to $98.51 billion in 2021-22.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 16, 2023
Woman being sent to UAE to join flesh trade rescued in Bhayander

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Thane: A 25-year-old woman who was allegedly being sent to the United Arab Emirates to join a sex racket has been rescued following a raid in Bhayander in Maharashtra’s Thane district, a police official said on Thursday.
The woman’s mother and brother, who were allegedly sending her to UAE, have been arrested following the raid on Wednesday, Senior Inspector Sameer Ahirrao of the MBVV police’s Anti Human Trafficking Cell said.
“The victim’s mother and brother had taken Rs 50,000 to send her to join a sex racket there. We were tipped off by an NGO. The two have been charged under Indian Penal Code and Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act,” he added.
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( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 14, 2023
Biden’s Northern Ireland ultimatum looks doomed to fail

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LONDON — Joe Biden is not someone known for his subtlety.
His gaffe-prone nature — which saw him last week confuse the New Zealand rugby team with British forces from the Irish War of Independence — leaves little in the way of nuance.
But he is also a sentimental man from a long gone era of Washington, who specializes in a type of homespun, aw-shucks affability that would be seen as naff in a younger president.

His lack of subtlety was on show in Belfast last week as he issued a thinly veiled ultimatum to the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) — return to Northern Ireland’s power sharing arrangements or risk losing billions of dollars in U.S. business investment.
The DUP — a unionist party that does not take kindly to lectures from American presidents — is refusing to sit in Stormont, the Northern Ireland Assembly, due to its anger with the post-Brexit Northern Ireland protocol, which has created trade friction between the region and the rest of the U.K.
The DUP is also refusing to support the U.K.-EU Windsor Framework, which aims to fix the economic problems created by the protocol, despite hopes it would see the party reconvene the Northern Irish Assembly.
The president on Wednesday urged Northern Irish leaders to “unleash this incredible economic opportunity, which is just beginning.”
However, American business groups paint a far more complex and nuanced view of future foreign investment into Northern Ireland than offered up by Biden.
Biden told a Belfast crowd on Wednesday there were “scores of major American corporations wanting to come here” to invest, but that a suspended Stormont was acting as a block on that activity.
One U.S. business figure, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Biden’s flighty rhetoric was “exaggerated” and that many businesses would be looking beyond the state of the regional assembly to make their investment decisions.
The president spoke as if Ulster would be rewarded with floods of American greenbacks if the DUP reverses its intransigence, predicting that Northern Ireland’s gross domestic product (GDP) would soon be triple its 1998 level. Its GDP is currently around double the size of when the Good Friday Agreement was struck in 1998.
Emanuel Adam, executive director of BritishAmerican Business, said this sounded like a “magic figure” unless Biden “knows something we don’t know about.”
DUP MP Ian Paisley Jr. told POLITICO that U.S. politicians for “too long” have “promised some economic El Dorado or bonanza if you only do what we say politically … but that bonanza has never arrived and people are not naive enough here to believe it ever will.”
“A presidential visit is always welcome, but the glitter on top is not an economic driver,” he said.
Joe Biden addresses a crowd of thousands on April 14, 2023 in Ballina, Ireland | Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Facing both ways
The British government is hoping the Windsor Framework will ease economic tensions in Northern Ireland and create politically stable conditions for inward foreign direct investment.
The framework removes many checks on goods going from Great Britain to Northern Ireland and has begun to slowly create a more collaborative relationship between London and Brussels on a number of fronts — two elements which have been warmly welcomed across the Atlantic.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said Northern Ireland is in a “special” position of having access to the EU’s single market, to avoid a hard border with the Republic of Ireland, and the U.K.’s internal market.
“That’s like the world’s most exciting economic zone,” Sunak said in February.
Jake Colvin, head of Washington’s National Foreign Trade Council business group, said U.S. firms wanted to see “confidence that the frictions over the protocol have indeed been resolved.”
“Businesses will look to mechanisms like the Windsor Framework to provide stability,” he said.
Marjorie Chorlins, senior vice president for Europe at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, said the Windsor Framework was “very important” for U.S. businesses and that “certainty about the relationship between the U.K. and the EU is critical.”
She said a reconvened Stormont would mean more legislative stability on issues like skills and healthcare, but added that there were a whole range of other broader U.K. wide economic factors that will play a major part in investment decisions.
This is particularly salient in a week where official figures showed the U.K.’s GDP flatlining and predictions that Britain will be the worst economic performer in the G20 this year.
“We want to see a return to robust growth and prosperity for the U.K. broadly and are eager to work with government at all levels,” Chorlins said.
“Political and economic instability in the U.K. has been a challenge for businesses of all sizes.”
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said Northern Ireland is in a “special” position of having access to the EU’s single market | Pool photo by Paul Faith/Getty Images
Her words underline just how much global reputational damage last year’s carousel of prime ministers caused for the U.K., with Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey recently warning of a “hangover effect” from Liz Truss’ premiership and the broader Westminster psychodrama of 2022.
America’s Northern Ireland envoy Joe Kennedy, grandson of Robert Kennedy, accompanied the president last week and has been charged with drumming up U.S. corporate interest in Northern Ireland.
Kennedy said Northern Ireland is already “the number-one foreign investment location for proximity and market access.”
Northern Ireland has been home to £1.5 billion of American investment in the past decade and had the second-most FDI projects per capita out of all U.K. regions in 2021.
Claire Hanna, Westminster MP for the nationalist SDLP, believes reconvening Stormont would “signal a seriousness that there isn’t going to be anymore mucking around.”
“It’s also about the signal that the restoration of Stormont sends — that these are the accepted trading arrangements,” she said.
Hanna says the DUP’s willingness to “demonize the two biggest trading blocs in the world — the U.S. and EU” — was damaging to the country’s future economic prospects.
‘The money goes south’
At a more practical level, Biden’s ultimatum appears to carry zero weight with DUP representatives.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson made it clear last week that he was unmoved by Biden’s economic proclamations and gave no guarantee his party would sit in the regional assembly in the foreseeable future.
“President Biden is offering the hope of further American investment, which we always welcome,” Donaldson told POLITICO.
“But fundamental to the success of our economy is our ability to trade within our biggest market, which is of course the United Kingdom.”
A DUP official said U.S. governments had been promising extra American billions in exchange “for selling out to Sinn Féin and Dublin” since the 1990s and “when America talks about corporate investment, we get the crumbs and that investment really all ends up in the Republic [of Ireland].”
“President Biden is offering the hope of further American investment, which we always welcome,” Donaldson said | Behal/Irish Government via Getty Images
“The Americans talk big, but the money goes south,” the DUP official said.
This underscores the stark reality that challenges Northern Ireland any time it pitches for U.S. investment — the competing proposition offered by its southern neighbor with its internationally low 12.5 percent rate on corporate profits.
Emanuel Adam with BritishAmerican Business said there was a noticeable feeling in Washington that firms want to do business in Dublin.
“When [Irish Prime Minister] Leo Varadkar and his team were here recently, I could tell how confident the Irish are these days,” he said. “There are not as many questions for them as there are around the U.K.”
Biden’s economic ultimatum looks toothless from the DUP’s perspective and its resonance may be as short-lived as his trip to Belfast itself.
This story has been updated to correct an historical reference.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 11, 2023
Ukraine’s bumper grain exports rile allies in eastern EU

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Ukraine’s farmers played an iconic role in the first weeks of Russia’s invasion, towing away abandoned enemy tanks with their tractors.
Now, though, their prodigious grain output is causing some of Ukraine’s staunchest allies to waver, as disrupted shipments are redirected onto neighboring markets.
The most striking is Poland, which has played a leading role so far in supporting Ukraine, acting as the main transit hub for Western weaponry and sending plenty of its own. But grain shipments in the other direction have irked Polish farmers who are being undercut — just months before a national election where the rural vote will be crucial.

Diplomats are floundering. After a planned Friday meeting between the Polish and Ukrainian agriculture ministers was postponed, the Polish government on Saturday announced a ban on imports of farm products from Ukraine. Hungary late Saturday said it would do the same.
Ukraine is among the world’s top exporters of wheat and other grains, which are ordinarily shipped to markets as distant as Egypt and Pakistan. Russia’s invasion last year disrupted the main Black Sea export route, and a United Nations-brokered deal to lift the blockade has been only partially effective. In consequence, Ukrainian produce has been diverted to bordering EU countries: Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.
At first, those governments supported EU plans to shift the surplus grain. But instead of transiting seamlessly onto global markets, the supply glut has depressed prices in Europe. Farmers have risen up in protest, and Polish Agriculture Minister Henryk Kowalczyk was forced out earlier this month.
Now, governments’ focus has shifted to restricting Ukrainian imports to protect their own markets. After hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Warsaw in early April, Polish President Andrzej Duda said resolving the import glut was “a matter of introducing additional restrictions.”
The following day, Poland suspended imports of Ukrainian grain, saying the idea had come from Kyiv. On Saturday, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, after an emergency cabinet meeting, said the import ban would cover grain and certain other farm products and would include products intended for other countries. A few hours later, the Hungarian government announced similar measures. Both countries said the bans would last until the end of June.
The European Commission is seeking further information on the import restrictions from Warsaw and Budapest “to be able to assess the measures,” according to a statement on Sunday. “Trade policy is of EU exclusive competence and, therefore, unilateral actions are not acceptable,” it said.
While the EU’s free-trade agreement with Ukraine prevents governments from introducing tariffs, they still have plenty of tools available to disrupt shipments.
Neighboring countries and nearby Bulgaria have stepped up sanitary checks on Ukrainian grain, arguing they are doing so to protect the health of their own citizens. They have also requested financial support from Brussels and have already received more than €50 million from the EU’s agricultural crisis reserve, with more money on the way.
Restrictions could do further harm to Ukraine’s battered economy, and by extension its war effort. The economy has shrunk by 29.1 percent since the invasion, according to statistics released this month, and agricultural exports are an important source of revenue.
Cracks in the alliance
The trade tensions sit at odds with these countries’ political position on Ukraine, which — with the exception of Hungary — has been strongly supportive. Poland has taken in millions of Ukrainian refugees, while weapons and ammunition flow in the opposite direction; Romania has helped transport millions of tons of Ukrainian corn and wheat.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Poland’s Prime Minister, Mateusz Morawiecki | Omar Marques/Getty Images
Some Western European governments, which had to be goaded by Poland and others into sending heavy weaponry to Kyiv, are quick to point out the change in direction.
“Curious to see that some of these countries are [always] asking for more on sanctions, more on ammunition, etc. But when it affects them, they turn to Brussels begging for financial support,” said one diplomat from a Western country, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Some EU countries also oppose the import restrictions for economic reasons. For instance, Spain and the Netherlands are some of the biggest recipients of Ukrainian grain, which they use to supply their livestock industries.
Politically, though, the Central and Eastern European governments have limited room for maneuver. Poland and Slovakia are both heading into general elections later this year. Bulgaria has had a caretaker government since last year. Romania’s agriculture minister has faced calls to resign, including from a compatriot former EU agriculture commissioner.
And farmers are a strong constituency. Poland’s right-wing Law & Justice (PiS) party won the last general election in 2019 thanks in large part to rural voters. The Ukrainian grain issue has already cost a Polish agriculture minister his job; the government as a whole will have to tread carefully to avoid the same fate.
This article has been updated.

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( With inputs from : www.politico.eu )

April 11, 2023