British officials have been turning to Japan for tips on how to dodge American sanctions on Iran, according to local media. Britain is already seeking from Washington exemptions from some U.S. sanctions, which are being re-imposed by President Donald Trump because of the U.S. withdrawal earlier this year from a controversial 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. The British are especially keen to maintain banking links with Iran and to import Iranian oil. According to local media, U.K. officials have been asking their Japanese counterparts how they managed in the past to sidestep some aspects of the pre-2015 sanctions regime, which allowed Tokyo to sign oil deals with Iran as well as insurance contracts without incurring U.S. penalties. Re-imposed U.S. sanctions penalize any foreign companies that deal with Iran by barring them from doing business in America. That threat has already persuaded more than 50 Western firms to shutter their operations in Iran, including French automakers Renault and Peugeot and the French oil giant Total as well as Germany’s Deutsche Bahn railway company and Deutsche Telekom. Seeking waivers British ministers have publicly announced that they are hoping to secure waivers from sanctions for oil imports, tanker insurance and banking. There is particular concern, say British officials, about the position of a gas field 240 miles from Aberdeen which is jointly owned by BP and a subsidiary of Iran’s state-controlled oil company. According to The Times newspaper, British diplomats and Treasury officials have discussed with their Japanese counterparts what options they may …
58,6% опитаних бізнесменів не помітили зниження корупції на митниці – Європейська бізнес-асоціація
Майже 60% митних експертів з компаній, які входять до Європейської бізнес-асоціації, не помітили зниження корупції – про це свідчать дані опитування, яке ЄБА опублікувала 28 серпня. Дослідження охоплює період з січня по серпень 2018 року. На основі відповідей підприємців автори вивели Митний індекс – оцінку якості сервісів на митниці. Цього року вона склала 2,91 бали, тоді як у другому півріччі 2017 року становила 3,05 балів, а на початку 2017-го – 2,9. Так, за висновками дослідників ЄБА: 58,6% опитаних не помітили зміни в рівні корупції на митниці 20,7% вважають, що вона дещо зменшилась 10,3% – що істотно зменшилась 6,9% – що рівень корупції дещо виріс 3,4% – що виріс істотно При цьому більшість – 44,8% опитаних – скоріше задоволені або цілком задоволені роботою митниці. Читайте також: «Прикордонники запобігли вивезенню з України старовинної книги – ДПС» Говорячи про основні труднощі, пов’язані з проходженням митниці, експерти називають недосконалість системи проходження фітосанітарного, екологічного, радіологічного контролю, а також недоліки в роботі «Єдиного Вікна». 8,6% опитаних не користуються ним взагалі, хоча 37,7% тих, що користуються, цілком задоволені його роботою. «Бізнес-спільнота сподівається, що питання вдасться врегулювати максимально оперативно і вже осінню буде прийнято законопроект №7010 щодо «єдиного вікна». Адже його ключова мета – зменшити час митного оформлення товарів та зробити митний контроль більш ефективним», – заявляють в Європейській бізнес-асоціації. Про запровадження системи «єдиного вікна» уряд оголосив ще в 2016 році. В липні 2018 року Верховна Рада ухвалила відповідний законопроект, проте президент Петро Порошенко повернув його до парламенту на доопрацювання. …
ДФС заявляє, що боротьба з контрабандою у 2018 році принесла до бюджету 50 млрд гривень
Боротьба з контрабандою протягом перших семи місяців 2018 року принесла до державного бюджету додатково понад 50 мільярдів гривень, повідомив в.о. голови Державної фіскальної служби Мирослав Продан. За його словами, загалом за цей період ДФС передала до бюджету 395 мільярдів гривень, що на 15% більше, ніж за аналогічний період минулого року. Він додав, що 216 мільярдів гривень, або додатково майже 19%, спрямовано від податкових платежів, та понад 10% – від митного напрямку. …
US, Canada Holding Trade Talks Following US-Mexico Pact
Negotiators from Canada and the United States are holding detailed trade negotiations in Washington as they seek to work out a replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement. The talks come after the United States and Mexico agreed to a bilateral trade deal this week while leaving the door open for Canada to join and preserve what has been a trilateral trade relationship for more than 20 years. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland met with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Tuesday for what she said were “very constructive” initial talks before more specific negotiations between the two sides on Wednesday. Freeland said some of the details of the U.S.-Mexico agreement, particularly what she called “significant concessions” by Mexico on rules regarding automotive labor and parts origin, have given Canada optimism about the talks in Washington. “The fact that Mexico was able to do something that I think must have been quite difficult for Mexico and make those concessions does really set the stage for some productive conversations for us here this week.” It is unclear if the United States and Canada will resolve their long-standing disputes over duties on automobiles and dairy products that have persisted through months of NAFTA negotiations. Freeland was also due to meet with Mexican trade officials who were still in Washington. Final details of the U.S.-Mexico deal have yet to be worked out, but Lighthizer said he believes the tentative agreement is a win for both countries that creates more jobs for farmers …
Trudeau Promises Effort to Reach Trade Agreement With US
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says his country will negotiate new trade terms with the United States, but will only accept a deal that serves Canada’s interests. Speaking after the United States reached a tentative deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Trudeau said negotiators have made some progress. U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to increase U.S. tariffs on Canada’s auto imports if a deal is not reached. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke has more. …
China Struggles to Curb Its Reliance on US Buyers, Suppliers
Faced with plunging U.S. orders, surgical glove maker Ren Jiding is hunting for new markets amid Chinese government calls to reduce reliance on the United States. But no other market can absorb the 60 percent of his sales that went to American customers last year. “Other countries import much less than the United States,” said Ren, a co-owner of Hongyeshangqin Medical Science and Technology Co. Ltd. in the eastern city of Zibo. From medical products to smartphone chips to soybeans, Beijing is responding to President Donald Trump’s tariff hikes by pushing companies to trade more with other countries. But there are few substitutes for the United States as an export market and source of technology for industries including telecom equipment makers that Chinese leaders are eager to develop. Beijing has announced tariff cuts and other changes while rejecting U.S. demands to scale back plans such as “Made in China 2025,” which calls for state-led creation of Chinese champions in robotics, biotech and other fields. American leaders say those violate Beijing’s market-opening promises and might erode U.S. industrial leadership. The response highlights the cost the ruling Communist Party is willing to pay in lost sales and jobs to stick to plans that are fueling conflict with Washington, Europe and other trading partners. ’Fundamental’ to growth “China sees its technology and industrial policies as fundamental to its growth,” Tianjie He of Oxford Economics said in an email. “It is thus hard to see China’s leadership committing to significant changes.” Trump has raised duties on …
After Flood, Tourism in India’s Kerala Left a Muddy Mess
More than a week after the floodwater began subsiding, animal carcasses are still floating in Kerala’s backwaters, and in places a nauseating stench rises like a wall when the wake from a passing boat breaks the surface. These inland lagoons running parallel to the coast are one of the biggest tourist draws in India’s most southwesterly state, but the stain of death and devastation wrought by Kerala’s worst flood in a century will take longer than a season to wash away. The quaint towns and villages scattered between the lush forests and paddy fields bordering the backwaters are now communities in despair. Houses in low-lying areas are still submerged, roads are waterlogged and the sewage from drains have washed into channels that are too slow-moving to effectively flush out the effluent. Sudarsanan T.K., a houseboat owner in the town of Alappuzha, had been looking forward to the peak tourist season, but as his home disappeared under 2.5 meters (8 feet) of water his family now have to live aboard the boat he would otherwise be renting to tourists from Europe, China, Malaysia and India. “I’ve nothing left, but this houseboat. I don’t know how I can repay my bank loan in this condition. The bank may take back my boat. I will have nothing at all then,” Sudarsanan, a 64-year-old father of two, told Reuters. Some 1,500 houseboats are tied up at Alappuzha, going nowhere, with many of the owners still paying off loans taken to buy the boats. Sudarsanan …
Express Fitness Gaining Popularity in US
Express fitness is gaining popularity in the United States, as people try to squeeze exercise into their hectic schedules. To accommodate them, gyms are offering more total body workouts in a compressed period of time. VOA’s Jill Craig has more. …
Glioblastoma Remains a Deadly Form of Cancer
U.S. Senator John McCain’s death from glioblastoma on Saturday brought new attention to the most deadly type of brain cancer. The National Brain Tumor Society says 80 percent of brain tumors are benign, but a glioblastoma tumor grows rapidly, and it returns after treatment. It usually affects adults, especially men over age 50, but women and even children can develop this type of cancer. Glioblastoma begins in glial cells that surround and support nerve cells. Because glioblastoma spreads so quickly, the sooner the cancer is diagnosed, the more treatment options a patient has. Symptoms can include headaches, seizures, memory loss, changes in personality, changes in vision, and difficulty speaking or understanding conversations. The tumor can also affect coordination. Glioblastoma is generally considered incurable because it is difficult to remove all of the cancer during surgery, which is why it can grow back. Surgery is usually the first treatment, followed by radiation and chemotherapy. McCain’s treatment included these three options. Drugs used to treat patients with this type of cancer have lengthened patients’ lives over the past two decades. The National Cancer Institute reports that in the mid-1990s, the average survival rate was eight to 10 months. With new drugs patients now live between 15 and 18 months on average. McCain’s tumor was diagnosed in July 2017. He died little more than a year later. The National Cancer Institute says survival has also improved slightly. In the mid-1990s, essentially no one with glioblastoma survived five years after diagnosis, now 15 percent of …
Appetite for Destruction: Soy Boom Devours Brazil’s Tropical Savanna
When farmer Julimar Pansera purchased land in Brazil’s interior seven years ago, it was blanketed in tiers of fruit trees, twisted shrubs and the occasional palm standing tall in a thicket of undergrowth. He mowed down most of that vegetation, set it ablaze and started planting soybeans. Over the past decade, he and others in the region have deforested an area larger than South Korea. Permissive land-use policies and cheap farm acreage here have helped catapult Brazil into an agricultural superpower, the world’s largest exporter of soy, beef and chicken and a major producer of pork and corn. This area has also lured farmers and ranchers away from the Amazon jungle, whose decline has spurred a global outcry to protect it. The tradeoff, environmentalists say, is that while Brazil has slowed destruction of the renowned rainforest from its worst levels, it has put another vital ecological zone at risk: a vast tropical savanna that is home to 5 percent of species on the planet. Known as the Cerrado, this habitat lost more than 105,000 square kilometers (40,541 square miles) of native cover since 2008, according to government figures. That’s 50 percent more than the deforestation seen during the same period in the Amazon, a biome more than three times larger. Accounting for relative size, the Cerrado is disappearing nearly four times faster than the rainforest. The largest savanna in South America, the Cerrado is a vital storehouse for carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas whose rising emissions from fossil fuels and …
US Congress Skeptical of Trump’s Mexico Trade Deal
President Donald Trump’s trade deal with Mexico could struggle to win approval from Congress unless Canada comes on board, lawmakers from both parties said on Tuesday, saying support from Democrats would be needed to pass a purely bilateral deal. Trump unveiled the Mexico deal on Monday and threatened to slap tariffs on Canadian-made cars if Canada did not join the revamp of the trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which Trump has long criticized. If Trump, a Republican, tries to get the Senate to vote in favor of a bilateral deal as a replacement for NAFTA, he will face an uphill struggle to win passage, lawmakers said. Some lawmakers said only a trilateral pact would be eligible for fast-track, 51-vote Senate approval. A bilateral deal, on the other hand, would need 60 votes and that would require some support from Democrats, who likely would be reluctant to help Trump, they said. There are now 50 Republican-held seats in the 100-member Senate. To get fast-track Senate ratification, “the administration must also reach an agreement with Canada,” said Republican Senator Pat Toomey in a statement. “NAFTA was a tri-party agreement only made operative with legislation enacted by Congress,” said Toomey, a member of the committee that oversees trade policy. “Any change, such as NAFTA’s termination, would require additional legislation from Congress. Conversion into a bilateral agreement would not qualify for … ‘fast track’ procedures and would therefore require 60 votes in the Senate.” The White House did not immediately respond to …
Iraq Sending Team to US to Seek Deal on Transactions with Iran
Iraq will send a delegation to the United States seeking an agreement on financial transactions with Iran following Washington’s reimposition of sanctions on Tehran, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said Tuesday. His statement was the first by an Iraqi official since Reuters reported last week that Baghdad was going to ask Washington for exemptions from some of the sanctions because Iraq’s economy is closely linked with neighboring Iran. “We have requests for the American side, we have presented them and a delegation will go to negotiate within that framework,” Abadi told a weekly news conference. “We have presented a clear vision of what Iraq really needs. This includes Iranian [natural] gas, which is very important, as well as other trade and the electricity sector.” U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew the United States in May from world powers’ 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, calling it flawed, and reimposed trade sanctions on the Islamic Republic. The Trump administration has warned of consequences for countries including European allies that co-signed the nuclear accord, that do not respect the new sanctions. Baghdad is in a difficult position — its two biggest allies are the United States and Iran, themselves arch-adversaries. “We have had good promises initially, but as you know the American situation is complicated; you do not deal with one person, there are several institutions,” Abadi said. He called the sanctions “unilateral” and “oppressive,” adding that Iraq would not be “part of a blockade” due to its own painful experience with international sanctions during …
Google, Indian Lenders Unite in Bid to Woo New Users
Alphabet’s Google said Tuesday that it was partnering with a handful of Indian banks to bring quick loans to the masses, as it aims to woo tens of millions of new internet users in the country to its digital payments services. At an annual Google event in New Delhi, Caesar Sengupta, vice president of Google’s Next Billion Users initiative, said the move would make banking services accessible to tens of millions of Indians. Google launched payments app Tez, meaning fast in Hindi, in India last year, integrating it with the state-backed unified payments interface (UPI), as it sought to gain a foothold in the South Asian nation’s digital payments space — which, according to Credit Suisse, will grow fivefold to $1 trillion by 2023. On Tuesday, Google rebranded the app as Google Pay and said it was partnering with four Indian banks — Federal Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank — to provide instant loans to the app’s users. “We’re talking to a lot of banks. We’re completely open with whom we work with in terms of banking partners,” Sengupta said in an interview on the sidelines of the event. “Banks bring their financial capabilities, their understanding of the user, their customers. We bring our user experience, our ability to make complex processes extremely simple and very fast,” he added. Challenge to Paytm Google’s ambitions could pose a challenge for homegrown Paytm, backed by Japan’s SoftBank and China’s Alibaba and U.S. conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway. Paytm’s founder, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, and its parent, One97 Communications, run a payments bank, and the payments firm also plans to expand to selling financial …
India: Manned Space Mission to Cost $1.4 Billion
India said on Tuesday it expected to spend less than 100 billion rupees ($1.43 billion) on its first manned space mission to be launched by 2022, suggesting it is likely to be cheaper than similar projects by the United States and China. India is cultivating a reputation as a low-cost space power, after the 2014 launch of an unmanned Mars mission at a cost of $74 million, or less than the budget of the Hollywood space blockbuster Gravity and a fraction of the $671 million the U.S. space agency NASA spent on its MAVEN Mars mission. The Indian manned mission, announced this month by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and to be led by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), will aim to send a three-member crew to space for five to seven days in a craft that will be placed in a low Earth orbit of 300-400 km, the Department of Space said in a statement. “ISRO has developed some critical technologies like re-entry mission capability, crew escape system, crew module configuration, thermal protection system, deceleration and floatation system, sub-systems of life support system etc required for this program,” the statement said. ISRO Chairman K. Sivan said the agency had “perfected the engineering aspects of the mission,” although it was new to the field of bioscience — dealing with living beings. Private agencies will also participate in the mission, and ISRO might consider collaborations with space agencies from “friendly countries with advanced space programs,” the statement added. India’s neighbor and old …
Hot Weather May Aid 2018 UN Climate Talks in Poland
Sizzling weather this summer will put pressure on almost 200 governments to reach a deal in Poland in December on the details of a global plan to limit climate change, the incoming president of the U.N. talks said. Environment ministers will meet in Katowice, the heart of Poland’s coal-producing region, Silesia, to agree on rules for the 2015 Paris climate accord. That accord set a sweeping goal of ending the fossil fuel era this century, but the text was vague on details. “Paris is empty without Katowice,” Michal Kurtyka, a former deputy energy minister of Poland who will preside at the December 3-14 talks, told Reuters. Poland, which generates most of its electricity from coal, is hosting the annual U.N. climate talks for the third time. “The Paris Agreement includes certain principles. However, the way they will be implemented will be described in the Katowice package. So the more detailed and concrete it is, the better,” Kurtyka said. Hot weather this summer that set off wildfires from California to Greece has made officials more determined to reach a detailed deal in Katowice, he said. “For sure this is something that affected millions of people all over the world. … Societies in particular countries will act on politicians. I think that this will increase political determination for the solutions to be as concrete and as detailed as possible,” Kurtyka said. Bangkok session Many issues remain to be discussed at an extra session in Bangkok next month, he said, where “a vision of the whole should be built.” Some of the sticking points include the way the countries report on their …
India’s Health Ministry Urges End to E-cigarette Sales
India’s federal health ministry called Tuesday for stopping the sale or import of electronic cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco devices that companies like Philip Morris International Inc. were planning to launch in the country. India has stringent laws to deter tobacco use, which the government says kills more than 900,000 people every year. But the country still has 106 million adult smokers, second only to China, according to the World Health Organization. In an advisory to state governments, the health ministry said such devices were a “great health risk” and it was possible that children and nonsmokers using such products could switch to cigarettes once they became addicted to nicotine. The government took a position on such products with tobacco giant Philip Morris planning to launch its iQOS smoking device in India. Reuters reported in June that Philip Morris was working toward achieving iQOS’s acceptability as a reduced-risk product in the country. Philip Morris says the sleek, penlike iQOS heats but does not burn tobacco, producing a nicotine-containing vapor rather than smoke and making it less harmful than conventional cigarettes. The company wants to one day stop selling cigarettes altogether. The health ministry asked Indian states to “ensure” that electronic nicotine delivery systems including e-cigarettes — devices that use a nicotine-laced liquid — and heat-not-burn devices are not sold, manufactured, imported or advertised. Such devices, the ministry said, “are a great health risk to public at large, especially to children, adolescents, pregnant women and women of reproductive age.” Philip Morris did not respond to Reuters queries. ITC, India’s leading cigarette maker, which also sells e-cigarettes, also did not respond. A senior health official …
Уперше з січня: офіційний курс нацвалюти щодо долара став вищим за 28 гривень
НБУ вперше із січня встановив офіційний курс національної валюти щодо американської на рівні понад 28 гривень за долар. На 29 серпня курс становитиме 28 гривень 5 копійок за долар. Це на 17 копійок більше, ніж показник на 28 серпня. Згідно з повідомленнями учасників валютного ринку, регулятор встиг у розпал попиту на валюту продати долар за курсом 28 гривень 10 копійок без офіційного оголошення аукціону. Згодом свої значні обсяги запропонували експортери, і торги на міжбанківському валютному ринку завершилися на нижчому рівні – попит на рівні 27 гривень 99 копійок за долар, пропозиція – 28 гривень 3 копійки. …
Київська влада просить у Кабміну субвенцію для укладання нового договору з «Нафтогазом» – КМДА
Київська міська державна адміністрація просить Кабінет міністрів виділити субвенцію у розмірі 729 мільйонів гривень для укладання нового договору з «Нафтогазом» про постачання газу, повідомив заступник голови КМДА Петро Пантелеєв. За його словами, напрацьований спільно з НАК алгоритм про правонаступництво комунальним підприємством «Київтеплоенерго» боргів компанії «Київенерго» передбачає списання штрафу, а також балансування заборгованості споживачів перед «Київенерго» та боргів енергокомпанії перед «Нафтогазом». «Також є зобов’язання держави перед «Київенерго» за компенсацію різниці у тарифах у минулих періодах – 729 мільйонів гривень. Погашення державою своїх боргів дасть змогу вирішити питання балансування боргів та списання штрафних санкцій», – пояснив заступник голови КМДА. Вирішення цього питання, яке Кабмін має розглянути на засіданні 29 серпня, дасть можливість відновити газопостачання та гаряче водопостачання у Києві, а також підготуватися до опалювального сезону, зазначають в КМДА. «Якщо рішення Кабміну буде ухвалене, то планова дата укладення договору з «Нафтогазом» – 15-16 вересня», – сказав П.Пантелеєв. Читайте також: Київ майже вдвічі переплатить за газ – «Нафтогаз України» Раніше КМДА погодилась успадкувати заборгованість «Київенерго» перед Нафтогазом та повідомила про те, що підпише з компанією мирову угоду. 19 липня Господарський суд Києва ухвалив рішення не перекладати борги компанії Ріната Ахметова «Київенерго» за спожитий газ перед НАК «Нафтогаз України» на новостворене комунальне підприємство «Київтеплоенерго». У «Київенерго» заявляли про намір оскаржити це рішення. З 1 травня 2018 року теплові мережі та котельні Києва перейшли від компанії «Київенерго» мільярдера Ріната Ахметова в управління комунального підприємства «Київтеплоенерго». Наприкінці травня влада Києва повідомила, що «Нафтогаз» відмовляється укладати договір на поставку газу з «Київтеплоенерго» через борги попереднього оператора «Київенерго» (загальна сума заборгованості становить близько 5 …
Will Seaweed Solve Indonesia’s Plastic Trash Problem?
Indonesia produces an estimated 1.3 million tons of plastic every day, much of which ends up in the oceans, clogging the ecosystem and killing wildlife. Last year the country pledged to cut the amount it throws into the sea by 70 percent by 2025. As Jack Hewson reports, the sea itself could help to solve the problem. …
Blow for France’s Macron as Star Minister Quits
President Emmanuel Macron suffered a major political blow Tuesday as his popular environment minister resigned live on radio — without informing the French leader beforehand. Nicolas Hulot, one of the most respected members of the Cabinet among the French public, took even his interviewers by surprise on the France Inter radio station when announcing his move. “I am taking the decision to leave the government,” Hulot said, adding that he felt “all alone” on environmental issues within the government. The 63-year-old TV celebrity, who made his name as an environmental campaigner, was lured into government last year by Macron, but has repeatedly clashed with his cabinet colleagues over policy. “We’re taking little steps, and France is doing a lot more than other countries, but are little steps enough?… the answer is no,” he added. Hulot, whose future in the government has been a subject of speculation for months, said he had not informed Macron or Prime Minister Edouard Philippe of his plans to resign. “It’s an honest and responsible decision,” he added. His departure adds to mounting problems for 40-year-old centrist Macron, who swept to power in May last year promising to solve decades of low growth and high unemployment in France and reform the European Union. Due to slowing economic growth, his government is having difficulties drawing up the 2019 budget which saw Prime Minister Philippe announce at the weekend that he was dropping targets for reducing the deficit. At the diplomatic level, Macron is struggling to convince his …
В НБУ очікують транш МВФ на 2 мільярди доларів до грудня
«Якщо вони оголошують про приїзд місії, це означає, що шанси на позитивний перегляд достатньо високі» …
Курс долара подолав позначку у 28 гривень – НБУ
Курс долара подолав позначку у 28 гривень, свідчать дані на сайті Національного банку України. Станом на 12:00 курс становив 28 гривень 6 копійок за долар. На ранок 28 серпня НБУ встановив вартість долара на рівні 27 гривень 88 копійок. …
Kenyatta: Kenya Wants to Boost Trade, Investment Partnership With US
Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta says his country wants to increase bilateral trade with the United States and attract more U.S. investors. U.S. President Donald Trump received Kenyatta at the White House on Monday for talks that focused on trade and security. Ahead of the talks, Kenyatta told VOA African Service in an interview that his country is battling corruption and boosting security to create the right environment for foreign investment. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports. …
Trump’s Rollback of Clean Power Plan Means Support in Coal Country
President Trump recently proposed cuts to the Clean Power Plan. The Obama-era plan aims to generate electricity with less coal and more renewable energy and slash carbon emissions from the nation’s power plants by about one-third by 2030. Trump’s proposal was criticized by environmentalists but applauded in West Virginia, where coal mining jobs are vital to the economy. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara reports. …