Month: March 2018

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed companion proclamations slapping 25 percent tariffs on steel coming into the country and 10 percent tariffs on imported aluminum. The across-the-board taxes are to go into effect in 15 days. Amid fears that his action would ignite a trade war, Trump declared the dumping of steel and aluminum in the United States as “an assault on our country,” suggesting foreign producers relocate their facilities to America. “If you don’t want to pay tax, bring your plant to the USA,” he said. Trump was flanked in the Roosevelt Room by workers from those metals industries, some with hard hats in hand, as he signed the documents. Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, and Trade and Industrial Policy Director Peter Navarro were also among those in the room. After an outcry from lawmakers, some industry executives and foreign governments, Canada and Mexico are being given specific exemptions from the tariffs for an indefinite period while negotiations continue on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). “We’re giving Canada and Mexico sufficient time to address these issues at the request of the governments, but it’s not open-ended,” said a senior U.S. administration official. “The focus is on the broader security relationship, where we can address ensuring national security and eliminate any impairment whatsoever.” Other countries which are considered allies of the United States — such as Australia — will also be given “satisfactory alternative means to …

European Central Bank: Trump Tariff Move ‘Dangerous’

Europe’s top monetary official criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports as a “dangerous” unilateral move. Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, said that the “immediate spillover of the trade measures … is not going to be big.” But he said such disputes should be worked out among trade partners, not decided by measures initiated from one side. “Whatever convictions one has about trade … we are convinced that disputes should be discussed and resolved in a multilateral framework, and that unilateral decisions are dangerous.” Trump is expected to announce by the end of this week tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum. Trump has long singled out China for being unfair in trade practices, but experts say the tariffs would hurt U.S. allies Canada and the European Union far more. Draghi warned that unilateral moves like these tariffs could trigger retaliation — which the EU and China, among other, have already threatened. The most important fallout, Draghi said, would be if tariffs raised fears about the economy. They could depress confidence among consumers and businesses, he said, which could weaken both growth and inflation. Draghi also alluded to the kind of financial deregulation the U.S. is pursuing as a risk to the global economy. The U.S. Senate is considering a bill that would remove some of the banking safeguards imposed in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and the collapse of investment bank Lehman …

Trump Stands Firm on Steel, Aluminum Tariffs Despite Pushback

U.S. President Donald Trump is set to go ahead with his plan to impose tariffs of 25 percent on foreign steel and 10 percent on aluminum, but also vowed to remain flexible for specific countries. His comments came as 11 nations signed an expansive trade pact that aims to bring down trade barriers. “I’m sticking with 10 and 25 [percent] initially,” Trump said Thursday before a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “I’ll have a right to go up or down depending on the country, and I’ll have a right to drop countries or add countries.” Trump said he was staying the course to protect the American worker, even as he faced pushback from Republicans at home and threats of trade retaliation abroad. The president is expected to sign a proclamation calling for the tariffs as early as Thursday, the same day 11 nations signed the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), an expansive trade pact aimed at bringing down trade barriers. U.S. media reported the White House was still finalizing details of Trump’s plan. In an early morning tweet, Trump said he was looking forward to a Thursday afternoon meeting at the White House and the importance of protecting U.S. industries. The White House said Mexico and Canada would be given a 30-day exception that could be extended. Meanwhile, trade ministers from the 11 CPTPP signatories — including Canada, Mexico, Japan and Australia — met in Santiago, Chile. They signed the Asia-Pacific trade pact, a smaller, modified …

11 Nations to Sign Pacific Trade Pact as US Plans Tariffs

Trade ministers from 11 Pacific Rim countries are set to sign a sweeping agreement to streamline trade and slash tariffs just as U.S. President Donald Trump is preparing to formalize new tariffs on aluminum and steel to protect U.S. producers. The deal to be signed Thursday in the Chilean capital is an outgrowth of the Trans-Pacific Partnership that Trump pulled the U.S. out of last year. Many feared the agreement would not prosper without its most influential country. But the remaining 11 members pressed ahead, saying it shows resolve against protectionism. The pact includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. …

New Initiative Links Protection of Human, Environmental Rights

03/08/2018 sellheal

The U.N. environment program is taking aim at corporations and governments that threaten and intimidate environmental defenders and foul the planet for financial gain. A panel of environmental activists meeting in Geneva explored the actions needed to ensure a safe, healthy environment. A film that began a panel discussion is narrated by Kenyan environmental activist Phyllis Omido. She succeeded in closing down a lead smelting plant in a slum near Mombasa, which she said spewed poisonous fumes into the air, killing and harming local residents, including her child. While that battle was won, the fight is far from over. U.N. Environment’s head of communication for environmental governance, Niamh Brannigan, says threats against environmental defenders continue. “We have been receiving messages over the last two days to say that another environmental defender has been shot dead in the Philippines. Ricardo Mayumi of the Ifugao Peasant Movement. He has been leading the opposition to the Mini Hydro Dam in Santa Clara of the Santa Clara Power Corporation and we believe that he has been shot dead,” said Brannigan. Between 2002 and 2013, the United Nations reports 908 people in 35 countries have been killed defending the environment and land. U.N. Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Kate Gilmore says all human rights depend on the environment. Yet, she says people continue to pollute the Earth’s resources for short-term economic gain, endangering the lives and livelihoods of future generations. “The polluter must pay, so we say. But in practice it is those who …

Samsung S9 Has Great Camera – Just Like Other Phones

03/08/2018 sellheal

Samsung’s new Galaxy S9 phone has a darn-good camera. But other top-end phones also have darn-good cameras. Technology in smartphones has improved to the point that it’s really hard to tell the difference. The S9 outperforms its rivals in many test shots. The evening sky is darker, for instance, with less distortion. But usually there’s little obvious difference beyond color variation, which is subject to personal tastes. The most distinctive feature in Samsung’s new camera is super-slow-mo video. People appear frozen as they jump. It’s a gimmick, but potentially fun. The phone comes out March 16 with a U.S. starting price of $720 through Samsung and T-Mobile and nearly $800 through the other major U.S. carriers. …

Europe Split on Nord Stream 2 Pipeline as US Warns Against Dependence on Russian Gas

A number of eastern European states have ramped up their opposition to a new gas pipeline linking Russia with Germany. The Nord Stream 2 project will bring Russian gas directly to Western Europe, but critics say it will increase dependence on Russia and enrich its state-owned energy firms, at a time when Moscow stands accused of undermining European security. The $11 billion, 1,225-kilometer pipeline is on schedule for completion next year. It is a private project backed by Russian state-owned Gazprom and five energy companies from Germany, France, Britain and the Netherlands. It also has the strong backing of the German and Russian governments. “We support the implementation of this project which is undoubtedly, absolutely free from politics. This is a purely economic and moreover purely commercial project,” Russian President Vladimir Putin told reporters after meeting the Austrian chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, last week in Moscow. Kurz also offered his support for the project. Doing business with Putin Many eastern states, however, say Europe should not be engaged in big business with President Putin. Some of the most vocal critics have been the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, whose foreign ministers traveled to Washington last week to meet Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “Security these days is increasingly indivisible. There’s no clear division between internal and external security and also geographically,” Estonian Foreign Minister Sven Mikser told reporters in Washington ahead of the meeting. The United States is opposed to Nord Stream 2, having sanctioned Russian companies over Moscow’s …

Amid Tariff Debate, Trump Asks China to Reduce US-China Trade Deficit

The Trump administration is asking China for a $1 billion reduction in the U.S.-China trade deficit. The request comes amid intense international debate over U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum. VOA’s Jesusemen Oni has more. …

AP Fact Check: Trump Citing Wrong Information on Trade

President Donald Trump is presenting a skewed picture of the decline of manufacturing in making his case for import penalties that could spark a trade war. A look at his latest statement on the subject as he prepares to impose heavy tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum: TRUMP: “From Bush 1 to present, our Country has lost more than 55,000 factories, 6,000,000 manufacturing jobs and accumulated Trade Deficits of more than 12 Trillion Dollars. Last year we had a Trade Deficit of almost 800 Billion Dollars. Bad Policies & Leadership. Must WIN again!” — tweet Wednesday. THE FACTS: Trump persistently miscasts the trade balance, citing the U.S. deficit in goods and ignoring the U.S. surplus in services. The actual trade deficit last year was $566 billion. As for manufacturing, Trump leaves out what is widely regarded as the main reason for the decline in factory jobs: automation and other efficiencies. Trade is certainly a factor as well. He’s in the ballpark when referring to how many factory jobs have been lost since January 1989, when George H.W. Bush became president. The number he cites as 6 million is actually 5.5 million, according to the Labor Department. What he doesn’t say, though, is that despite the loss of those 5.5 million factory jobs, the U.S. economy overall has added a net total of about 40.6 million jobs in that time. Incomes from those jobs have paid for the imported goods that have added to U.S. trade deficits. Historical context He also …

Canada, Mexico to Be Temporarily Spared From US Tariffs on Metals

Canada and Mexico could be temporarily spared from tariffs on some metals that will be part of a proclamation that President Donald Trump is expected to sign as early as Thursday. The Washington Post reports the two North American nations would get a 30-day exception and that other countries may also enjoy exemptions from the tariff proposed on steel and aluminum imports. Sources at the White House also said Trump’s controversial tariff plan could be put into action at a signing ceremony at 3:30 p.m. EDT (2030 UTC) Thursday. Reuters quoted a senior U.S. official saying the measures would take place about two weeks after Trump signs the proclamation. Lawmakers urge caution Meanwhile Wednesday, a number of members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to the president, urging him to minimize negative consequences if he goes through with the tariff plan. The letter said “tariffs are taxes that make U.S. businesses less competitive and U.S. consumers poorer,” and “any tariffs that are imposed should be designed to address specific distortions caused by unfair trade practices in a targeted way while minimizing negative consequences in American businesses and consumers.” The lawmakers went on to recommend that Trump exclude fairly traded products and products that do not pose a national security threat; announce a process for U.S. companies to petition for duty-free access to imports unavailable from U.S. sources; and allow exemptions for existing contracts for steel and aluminum purchases. They also recommended doing a short-term review of the effects …

Despite Widespread Pushback, Trump Finds Some Support for Tariff Plan

U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to impose tariffs of 25 percent on steel and 10 percent on aluminum has met criticism from his Republican allies in Congress, many of whom worry the measures could trigger a trade war that damages U.S. businesses. But the president does have supporters among some Senate Democrats from states where voters are concerned about the long-term loss of American manufacturing jobs. “This welcome action is long overdue for shuttered steel plants across Ohio and steelworkers who live in fear that their jobs will be the next victims of Chinese cheating,” Senator Sherrod Brown, a Democrat from Ohio, said in a statement released after the plan was announced. “If we fail to stand up for steel jobs today, China will come after other jobs up and down the supply chain tomorrow.” American labor unions have also broadly favored Trump’s proposed tariffs, saying they have been complaining for years that foreign countries frequently subsidize their own steel industries, putting American competitors at a disadvantage. Economists have been mostly critical of the plan, saying that overall it will hurt American manufacturers, some of whom may be targeted by trading partners for retaliatory sanction. They argue that the benefits to steel and aluminum workers are outweighed by job losses among Americans in other industries. Tariffs in focus in special election A test of how much the issue is resonating with American voters comes next week, when voters in Pennsylvania’s 18th congressional district, vote in a special election to fill …

Trump Sells Tax-Cut Package to Hispanic Business Owners

President Donald Trump is selling Hispanic business owners on his new tax cuts. Trump is delivering the keynote address Wednesday at the annual legislative summit of the Latino Coalition. It’s his first time addressing Hispanic business owners. The president says the $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts he signed late last year have finally given American business a “level playing field.” He tells the Latino business owners that they’ll “see more of this in the coming weeks.” Trump highlighted administration efforts to eliminate regulations that many businesses find burdensome. Trump also touched on immigration. He blamed Democrats for failing to reach agreement with the White House on a plan to protect immigrants who were brought to the country illegally as children. …

Транзит газу до ЄС через Україну зріс на 30% порівняно з березнем минулого року – Укртрангаз

03/07/2018 sellbiz

Транзит газу до Євросоюзу через Україну зріс на 30% порівняно з показниками початку березня минулого року, заявляє Укртрансгаз на своїй сторінці у Facebook. Окрім того, зазначають в компанії, запасів газу в газосховищах достатньо, щоб комфортно завершити цьогорічний опалювальний сезон. «Станом на сьогоднішній ранок обсяг газу в ПСГ (підземні сховища газу – ред.) становить 9,23 млрд кубометрів, що на 1 млрд або на 12% більше ніж на цю дату торік», – мовиться у повідомленні. Кризовий комітет при Міністерстві енергетики та вугільної промисловості України оголосив 6 березня про завершення кризової ситуації, пов’язаної з російським «Газпромом». 28 лютого компанія НАК «Нафтогаз України» повідомила про перемогу в Стокгольмському арбітражі над російським газовим монополістом, компанією «Газпромом» у суперечці щодо компенсації на суму 4,63 мільярда доларів за недопоставлені «Газпромом» обсяги газу для транзиту. «Газпром» заявив про незгоду з рішенням Стокгольмського арбітражу, у компанії оголосили про початок процедури розірвання контрактів з НАК «Нафтогаз України» на поставку й транзит газу. 1 березня у компанії «Укртрансгаз» заявили про низький тиск у магістральних газопроводах на вході в українську ГТС і додали, що падіння тиску на вході системи ускладнює його транзит і споживання. Уряд запровадив національний план дій в енергетиці щодо обмеження споживання природного газу. 3 березня в компанії «Укренерго» заявили, що зниження тиску газу в ГТС на 20% не вплинуло на стабільність енергосистеми. Президент Петро Порошенко, зі свого боку, повідомив, що ситуація з газопостачанням в Україні стабілізувалася. …

Repairs Completed on Lowell Observatory’s Pluto Telescope

An observatory telescope in Arizona used to discover the distant Pluto nearly 90 years ago will reopen for business on Saturday after a year of extensive restoration work. Nearly every part of Lowell Observatory’s Pluto Discovery Telescope and accompanying dome near Flagstaff has been refurbished, from the trio of lenses to historic wooden shutters that open up to the stars, the Arizona Daily Sun reported. “It’s a beautiful telescope,” said Ralph Nye, part of the restoration team. “This is the way it should look.” The team removed, cleaned and reused everything down to the nuts, bolts and screws – almost nothing needed to be replaced, said Peter Rosenthal, who also worked on the telescope. The observatory said the nearly 90-year-old telescope is working as well and is looking even better than it did when Clyde Tombaugh used the instrument to pick out distant Pluto 88 years ago. Known as an astrographic camera, the telescope’s three lenses focus light onto a single glass photographic plate. Each image requires an exposure time of almost an hour, which would have been a chilly experience for Tombaugh on winter nights because the dome’s shutters have to be open to the sky, Rosenthal said. As a young observatory assistant, Tombaugh took the exposures and then scrutinized the glass negatives using a Zeiss blink comparator. On Feb. 18, 1930, he pinpointed Pluto. Nye said the repairs came in on time and met the project’s $155,000 budget with a few bucks to spare. …

Australia’s Central Bank Chief Slams US Tariffs

The head of Australia’s central bank is upbeat about domestic economic growth despite a disappointing end to last year, but fears the specter of a trade war calling threatened U.S. tariffs “highly regrettable.” President Donald Trump intends to slap duties on imports of steel and aluminum, a pledge that has met with warnings of retaliation from the rest of the world and spooked financial markets. Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Governor Philip Lowe’s comments on Wednesday come as data showed growth in Australia’s A$1.8 trillion ($1.40 trillion) economy slowed last quarter as bad weather hit exports, although a pickup in spending helped it extend its 26-year run without recession. Lowe slammed the tariffs on Wednesday at a business summit in Sydney, saying a tit-for-tat move from other countries would be very damaging. “The recent announcement on tariffs by President Trump was highly regrettable,” Lowe said, strong words for a typically measured policymaker. “History shows protectionism is bad.” Australia’s export-driven economy relies heavily on international trade and capital. It is particularly vulnerable to a U.S.-led trade war, which threatens the outlook for global growth and the demand for commodities. Those concerns have been reflected in global financial markets, with investors dumping shares for the safety of gold, cash, the Japanese yen and Swiss francs. The Australian dollar, considered a risky asset, has been volatile since the start of February, losing 3.6 percent that month alone. On Wednesday, it slipped 0.6 percent to go as low as $0.7772, not far from a …

НБУ оголосив аукціон на міжбанку для уникнення обвалу долара

03/07/2018 sellbiz

Національний банк України оголосив 7 березня про проведення аукціону на міжбанківському валютному ринку. Регулятор має намір викупити до 100 мільйонів доларів, щоб уникнути надмірного посилення національної валюти, повідомляє сайт «Мінфін», який відстежує перебіг торгів на міжбанку. Станом на 10:50 курс продовжив тенденцію попередніх днів і наближається до позначки 26 гривень за долар США (купівля 26,08, продаж 26,12 гривні за долар). Фахівці вказують на кілька підстав для зміцнення гривні. Це, зокрема, чергове успішне розміщення міністерством фінансів облігацій внутрішньої державної позики – для купівлі номінованих у гривні цінних паперів нерезиденти заводять валюту. Також експортери намагаються продати валюту перед тривалими вихідними, оскільки побоюються продовження зростання курсу гривні. …

Non-profit Health Center Cares for Uninsured People

With the rising cost of healthcare in the U.S., and the growing demand for services by those who can least afford them, two doctors in Clarkston, Georgia, made a commitment to do something about it. Founded five years ago, the non-profit Clarkston Community Health Center wanted to make a difference – by providing free treatments and services for lower-income residents in the city of Clarkston and its surrounding communities. Saleh Damiger from VOA’s Kurdish Service filed this report. …

Drought-hit Kenyans Find Gold in Tea Trees – But for How Long?

At Sweet Waters, a village in central Kenya, Veronicah Nyambura stands under the hot sun between two fields. One is full of lush plants – but the other has crops so wilted that their leaves have curled up. The green land is planted with tea tree, an Australian native that thrives in this semi-arid part of Kenya. Opposite is a field of maize, which suffers in years of poor rains and high temperatures. “Maize is very disappointing. You plant but you’re never sure whether you’ll harvest anything,” said Nyambura, who has planted a quarter-acre of tea trees. The 65-year-old said she harvests 900 kg of tea tree branches every six months from that bit of land. When it was planted to maize, she got about 270 kg of grain every nine months, she said. Many farmers in this part of Laikipia County – like farmers in many parts of the world – cannot afford to buy seeds for alternative crops better suited to drought, so keep planting maize. But Nyambura and about 800 other small-scale farmers were sold tea tree seedlings on credit by a company called Earthoil that also guaranteed to buy their harvest. Each seedling cost 3.5 Kenyan shillings, or about 3 cents. Earthoil, which buys the branches for between 17 Kenyan shillings ($0.17) and 19 Kenyan shillings ($0.19) a kilogram, extracts the tea tree oil at its local distillery and exports it to British skin-care company, The Body Shop. Dairy cows and a TV To meet the …

Products Take On Microfiber Pollution, a Laundry Room at a Time

The fight to keep tiny pollutants from reaching the dinner plate might start in the laundry room. Innovators are coming up with tools to keep tiny pieces of thread that are discharged with washing machine effluent from reaching marine life. Such “microfibers” are too small to be caught in conventional filters, so they eventually pass through sewage plants, wash out to waterways, and can be eaten or absorbed by marine animals, some later served up as seafood. So far there are at least four products, with names such as Guppyfriend and Cora Ball, aimed at curbing microfibers. The developers are taking the war on pollution to a microscopic level after the fight against microbeads — tiny plastic beads found in some beauty products that were banned nationally in 2015. “Blaming industry or government won’t solve the problems,” said Alexander Nolte, co-founder of Guppyfriend, a polyamide washing bag designed to prevent tiny threads from escaping. “Buy less and better; wash less and better.” How harmful are they? The issue has become an increasing focus of environmental scientists seeking to find out just how harmful microfibers are to coastal ecosystems, oceans and marine life and whether they affect human health. One study from 2011, led by Australian ecotoxicologist Mark Browne, found that microfibers made up 85 percent of man-caused shoreline debris. Exactly how much microfiber pollution exists in the environment is a subject of research and debate. The United Nations has identified microfiber pollution as a key outgrowth of the 300 million …

Look at Consumption When Assigning Blame for Global Warming, Study Says

Wealthy cities are responsible for a huge share of greenhouse-gas emissions when calculations include goods they consume from developing countries, researchers said on Tuesday, challenging traditional estimates that put blame on manufacturing nations. Looking at emissions based on consumption, affluent cities, mostly in North America and Europe, emit 60 percent more greenhouse gases than they do using traditional calculations, researchers said at a United Nations-backed climate summit. Calculating emissions of greenhouse gases, which are blamed for global warming, traditionally looks at where goods such as cellular phones or plastic cups are produced, they said. But consumption-based emissions presents a fuller picture by attributing emissions to the consumers rather than the manufacturers, said Mark Watts, head of C40, an alliance of more than 90 global cities. The newer method of calculation puts the responsibility on richer consumers and “increases the scope of things that policy makers in cities can address to reduce emissions,” Watts said. Cities account for an estimated 75 percent of carbon emissions, according to U.N. figures used at the summit. Big cities, big problem The estimate by C40 comes amid concern that national governments are not on track to meet the pledges they made in 2015 in Paris to reduce greenhouse gases and curb climate change. Traditional calculations put manufacturing countries such as China and India amid the lead emitters of greenhouse gases. Using consumption-based calculations, emissions in 15 affluent cities were three times more than they were with traditional figuring, the researchers said. Using consumption-based emissions is …

White House Wants User-friendly Electronic Health Records

The Trump administration Tuesday launched a new effort under the direction of presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner to overcome years of problems with electronic medical records and make them easier for patients to use. Medicare will play a key role, eventually enabling nearly 60 million beneficiaries to securely access claims data and share that information with their doctors. Electronic medical records were ushered in with great fanfare but it’s generally acknowledged they’ve fallen short. Different systems don’t communicate. Patient portals can be clunky to navigate. Some hospitals still provide records on compact discs that newer computers can’t read. The government has already spent about $30 billion to subsidize the adoption of digital records by hospitals and doctors. It’s unclear how much difference the Trump effort will make. No timetables were announced Tuesday. The government-wide MyHealthEData initiative will be overseen by the White House Office of American Innovation, which is headed by Kushner. His stewardship of a broad portfolio of domestic and foreign policy duties has recently been called into question due to his inability to obtain a permanent security clearance. Medicare administrator Seema Verma said her agency is working on a program called Blue Button 2.0, with the goal of providing beneficiaries with secure access to their claims data, shareable with their doctors. Software developers are already working on apps, using mock patient data. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is also reviewing its requirements for insurers, so that government policy will encourage the …

EU Tax Haven Blacklist Set to Shrink Further

European Union states are set to remove Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia from a list of tax havens next week, leaving only six jurisdictions on it, an EU document shows. The planned removals from the EU list drew criticism from an anti-corruption watchdog on Tuesday. The decision is also likely to bring more disapproval from lawmakers and activists who had strongly criticized a first delisting in January that cut the number of jurisdictions named to nine from 17. The latest decision was taken by the EU Code of Conduct Group, which includes tax experts from the 28 member states, according to an EU document seen by Reuters. EU finance ministers are expected to endorse the proposal at their regular monthly meeting in Brussels on March 13. The jurisdictions that remain on the blacklist are American Samoa, Guam, Namibia, Palau, Samoa and Trinidad and Tobago. Bahrain, the Marshall Islands and Saint Lucia are to be delisted after they made “specific commitments” to adapt their tax rules and practices to EU standards, the document says. Those commitments are not public. “This ever-decreasing list of tax havens will soon be so short it will be able to fit on a Post-it. It’s time for the EU to publish how it chooses which countries go on the list and why,” said Elena Gaita, of Transparency International EU, an anti-corruption watchdog. Panama In the last cut, EU governments decided to remove Barbados, Grenada, South Korea, Macau, Mongolia, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and …

Mexico Foreign Minister Looks for More Jamaican Oil Ties