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The head of Canada’s biggest private-sector union headed to Mexico’s Senate on Friday, promising to fight at the NAFTA trade pact talks for improved Mexican wages and free collective bargaining as a way of benefiting workers across North America.

The issue of tougher labor standards has emerged as a key sticking point in the talks to update the North American Free Trade Agreement, and has brought disparate groups of workers from across the region closer to U.S. populists.

“There will not be an agreement” until the Mexican team agrees to free collective bargaining, the elimination of so-called yellow unions that are dominated by employers, and fair wages for Mexican workers, Unifor President Jerry Dias said.

The event held in a side chamber of the Senate was organized by the umbrella organization Better Without Free Trade Agreements, which represents dozens of social organizations and unions.

Dias argued that low wages have not only hurt Mexican workers but have also prompted manufacturing jobs in Canada and the United States to leave for Mexico.

By including much tougher labor standards in an updated NAFTA, the issue could be dealt with head on, he said. “When you start talking about low wages, we can deal with that under the dispute mechanism as an unfair subsidy.”

The fifth round of talks NAFTA is being held in the upscale Camino Real hotel in Mexico City.

“What Mexico offers in this negotiation and to the rest of the world is cheap labor. That’s what Mexico puts on the table and how it presents itself as an attractive place for investments,” Senator Mario Delgado of the leftist Party of the Democratic Revolution told Reuters.

“It is a shame and it is unsustainable for Mexico. … Our salary policy is putting at risk the existence of the treaty,” said Delgado.

Mexican business leaders argue that integrating Mexico into North American supply chains has made the entire region more competitive. Recent studies have shown, however, that wages in Mexico have experienced significant downward pressure.

Given Mexico’s higher inflation rates, wages are now lower there in real terms than when NAFTA took effect, according to a report published in August by credit rating agency Moody’s.

While formally employed workers earn significantly more, the statutory minimum wage is a mere 80 pesos ($4.23) a day.
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The Trump administration on Friday revised its negotiating objectives for revamping the North American Free Trade Agreement, largely to reflect the demands it has made in NAFTA talks on agriculture, intellectual property and investment.

The revised objectives are now in line with U.S. proposals to eliminate Canada’s import tariffs on dairy, poultry and egg products and to allow more protections for seasonal U.S. produce that is sensitive to imports from Mexico.

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office said it is keeping in place most of its NAFTA objectives, first published in July, including a first-ever goal of reducing U.S. trade deficits.

USTR Robert Lighthizer said that the revisions are aimed at keeping Americans informed about what the Trump administration is seeking in a revised NAFTA.

“If we are able to achieve these objectives, we will both modernize and rebalance NAFTA to better serve the interests of our workers, farmers, ranchers and businesses,” Lighthizer said in a statement.

The new objectives on investment and intellectual property rights add considerable detail, partly aimed at reflecting existing demands and partly aimed at setting precedents for future trade agreements.

On investment, the objectives now seek to provide “meaningful procedures for resolving investment disputes, while ensuring the protection of U.S. sovereignty and the maintenance of strong U.S. domestic industries.”

U.S. negotiators are seeking to allow countries to “opt in” to an investor-state dispute settlement mechanism and to eliminate panels that arbitrate anti-dumping disputes between NAFTA countries.

But the new objectives for NAFTA investment rules also seek to prohibit forced technology transfers and technology localization, a goal that seems more aimed at addressing U.S. complaints about Chinese investment practices.

On intellectual property, the new objectives specify that the USTR will seek U.S. equivalent standards on trademarks, patents, copyrights with some appropriate exceptions, undisclosed test or other data and trade secrets.

The wording on rules of origin goals was also slightly revised to conform with the U.S. demand that NAFTA-built cars and trucks contain 50 percent U.S.-specific content.

 
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From $7 for a Rohingya refugee to $750 for a North Korean “slave wife,” human rights activists have voiced concerns that it is becoming increasingly easy to enslave another human being as the cost plummets.

The average modern-day slave is sold for $90-100 compared to the equivalent of $40,000 some 200 years ago, said Kevin Bales, Professor of Contemporary Slavery at Britain’s University of Nottingham.

“There has been a collapse in the price of slaves over the last 50 years,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference in London, which focuses on women’s empowerment and modern slavery.

‘Beasts of burden’

Pointing to a photo of boys hauling rocks in Nepal “like beasts of burden,” he said their parents would have sold them for $5-$10. Children are so cheap that if they get injured or fall in a ravine their slave master abandons them, Bales said.

“They understand it’s less expensive to acquire a new child than to call a doctor,” he added.

Bales attributed the fall in price to the population explosion which had “glutted the world with potentially enslavable people.”

40 million people trapped

Worldwide, about 40 million people were estimated to be trapped as slaves in 2016, mostly women and girls, in forced labor, sexual exploitation and forced marriages, with global trafficking estimated to raise $150 billion in profits a year.

North Korean defector Jihyun Park told how she was trafficked to China where she was sold for 5000 yuan ($750) to an alcoholic, violent farmer.

“He said I’ve paid for you so you must work. I spent six years as his slave,” Park said.

Thousands of North Korean women are believed to have been trafficked as wives and sex workers inside China where the one-child policy has skewed the gender ratio.

Natural disasters force issue

 In Bangladesh, Asif Saleh, of development agency BRAC, said Rohingya refugee women fleeing Myanmar and arriving in Bangladesh were being sold for as little as 5 pounds ($6.60).

Aid agencies say traffickers often exploit crises to prey on vulnerable people separated from their families and communities.

Nepalese nun and kung fu teacher Jigme Wangchuk Lhamo, who helps families displaced by the country’s 2015 earthquake, told the conference that people were selling their daughters, sisters and mothers to traffickers after the disaster in order to rebuild their homes.

“Some men just see girls as a bunch of money,” she said.

In northern Kenya’s pastoralist region, lawyer Fatuma Abdulkadir Adan said child brides as young as nine were sold for eight cows or eight camels — worth about $800.

“Girls become commodities and they have no voice, no one asks what the girl wants,” said Adan, who uses football to help tackle child marriage and female genital mutilation.

But it is not just rich countries where girls are sold off.

Sarah, forced into prostitution as a child in Britain, said the gang who groomed her said she would have to have sex every day until she had paid off a “debt” of 75,000 pounds.

“They told me I belonged to them and until my debt was cleared I had to work for them,” she said.
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Puerto Rico could face more than a decade of further economic stagnation and a steep drop in population as a result of Hurricane Maria, experts say.

The stark estimates were presented this wee to members of a federal control board overseeing finances of a U.S. territory that is already in the 11th year of a recession.

“The situation is dire to say the least, with destroyed infrastructure, lack of power and water, and an accelerated pace of migration,” economist Heidie Calero said.

She estimated that the hurricane caused $115 billion in damage, even without counting business losses.

“We believe that is very conservative,” she said.

The administration of Governor Ricardo Rossello said earlier in the week that it was seeking $94 billion in federal aid for an island where power generation remains at 40 percent and where nearly 10 percent of people are still without water almost two months after the storm. More than 20 of Puerto Rico’s 78 municipalities remain completely without power.

So far, Congress has approved nearly $5 billion in aid for Puerto Rico.

Twin shocks

Economist Juan Lara told board members that the local economy could contract anywhere between 8 percent and 15 percent in fiscal 2018, depending on the restoration of power, with overall revenues falling by 30 percent.

“We are undergoing both a demand and supply shock,” he said, saying that 5,000 businesses could close permanently, representing 10 percent of membership of the island’s National Retail Federation.

Businesses that have reopened have been forced to reduce their hours or depend on costly generators.

“We need electric power to be back and to be reliable,” Lara said. “We need roads to be cleared. We need supermarkets to be able to replenish their inventories. … We need to restore basic operating infrastructure.”

Lack of power remains the biggest obstacle, with the island’s electric company struggling to maintain the 50 percent power generation it had reached Wednesday just as a major blackout occurred for the second time in a week.

Rossello has said the company will reach 80 percent generation by end of November and 95 percent by mid-December, goals that many have called ambitious. In contrast, the U.S. Corps of Engineers has said it expects 75 percent generation by end of January.

More migration

Before Hurricane Maria hit, Puerto Rico was trying to restructure a portion of its $73 billion public debt load amid a deep economic crisis that has prompted an exodus of nearly half a million people in the past decade. That migration will only accelerate because of post-hurricane conditions, with an estimated population of 2.8 million people by 2030, compared with the current 3.4 million, said economist Jose Villamil.

“What Maria has done in some ways is to exacerbate that situation, made it more intense,” he said.

The drop in population, coupled with a majority of young, talented people leaving, will hit Puerto Rico’s economy even harder, experts said.

Two more meetings remain as the board continues to gather information to revise a fiscal plan to adjust for the hurricane’s impact. It is unclear how much money, if any, will be set aside in the plan to pay off the island’s debt load.
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It’s been more than two months since Hurricane Harvey destroyed or damaged tens of thousands of homes across Houston and east Texas, and cleanup is expected to last 20 months, overtaking Hurricane Katrina as the most expensive rebuilding effort in U.S. history. Undocumented workers are part of the daunting task of reconstructing America’s fourth-largest city. VOA’s Ramon Taylor reports they are doing so despite multiple risks.
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Businesses striving to stamp out slavery from their supply chains should not dismiss struggling suppliers but train them to improve the lives of workers, and technology can play a part, leading companies including Apple and Walmart said on Wednesday.

In recent years modern-day slavery has increasingly come under the global spotlight, putting ever greater regulatory and consumer pressure on firms to ensure their supply chains are free of forced labor, child labor and other forms of slavery.

From cosmetics and clothes to shrimp and smartphones, supply chains are often complex with multiple layers across various countries – whether in sourcing the raw materials or creating the final product – making it hard to identify exploitation.

As companies delve deeper into their supply chains to examine workers’ conditions, they should not punish suppliers who violate human rights but help them raise standards and work more efficiently, said Paula Pyers of U.S. tech giant Apple.

“We are loathe to terminate a business relationship in cases of violations,” Pyers, Apple’s head of supplier responsibility, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s annual Trust Conference, which focuses on slavery and women’s empowerment.

“We want to teach and train suppliers to make them better,” said Pyers, adding that Apple has helped more than 11.5 million workers to learn their rights, and returned at least $28 million to 35,000 employees forced to pay fees to obtain their jobs.

Turning to tech

About 25 million people globally were estimated to be trapped in forced labor in 2016, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO) and rights group Walk Free Foundation.

With consumers increasingly conscious of slave labor and willing to pay more for ethically sourced goods, big brands should lead by example to inspire their suppliers to get into line, and also to boost profits, said Jan Saumweber of Walmart.

“Responsible sourcing is key towards our goal of being the most trusted retailer,” said Saumweber, senior vice president of responsible sourcing at Walmart, the world’s largest retailer.

She said Walmart has turned to technology to improve workers’ rights worldwide – from hotlines to a smartphone app in the style of TripAdvisor that allows Burmese migrants working in Thailand’s fishing industry to review their employers.

Speaking on a panel about best business practices to tackle modern slavery, several experts said cleaning up supply chains would only be sustainable if this resulted in greater profits.

“Investors can direct trillions of dollars to companies with strong human rights policies and clean supply chains,” said Jean Baderschneider, head of Global Fund to End Slavery, a public-private partnership seeking $1.5 billion to combat the crime.

“But it can’t be a case of charity or philanthropy – they need to see better returns through having clean supply chains.”

But firms’ efforts to tackle slavery, from codes of conducts to audits, are often lip service and deflect attention from a need for tougher measures, said Bobby Banerjee, professor of management at the University of London’s Cass Business School.

“The problem with CSR (corporate social responsibility) is that there is too much C, and not enough S or R,” he said.

“Forced labor is not an aberration, but a viable management practice … an outcome of the economic system we live in.”
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U.S. President Donald Trump pushed Thursday for adoption of a wide-ranging overhaul of the country’s complex tax laws as he met with the majority Republican caucus in the House of Representatives shortly before a scheduled vote on the issue.

Republican leaders in the House have voiced optimism that they have enough votes to approve the changes that would cut the corporate tax rate from 35 percent, one of the higher rates in the world, to 20 percent and cut taxes for millions of middle-class taxpayers, but not everyone. The measure would add $1.5 trillion to the country’s long-term $20 trillion in debt.

Trump, without a major legislative victory in his first 10 months in office, has been urging Congress to adopt a tax overhaul by Christmas; but, the changes are controversial and no Democratic lawmakers have announced their support.

Senate’s plan

Republican leaders in the Senate are advancing their own tax plan, but its fate is uncertain, with Republicans only holding a 52-48 majority. Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin on Wednesday became the first Republican senator to announce his opposition to both the Senate and House versions of the changes because he said they do not cut taxes enough to help small businesses.

Democrats have opposed the Republican tax-cutting effort, which they say greatly benefits the country’s wealthiest taxpayers, without enough help for people who earn way less money. Virtually every U.S. taxpayer would be affected by the changes being considered, but the overhaul is in such a state of flux in Congress that individuals have been hard-pressed to determine whether they would get a tax cut or not.

Trump said on his Twitter account, “Tax cuts are getting close!”

But he disparaged opposition Democratic lawmakers for their lack of support, saying, “Why are Democrats fighting massive tax cuts for the middle class and business (jobs)? The reason: Obstruction and Delay!”

A key House Republican leader, Congressman Kevin Brady, said the House plan “represents a bold path forward that will allow us as a nation to break out of the slow-growth status quo once and for all.”

Obamacare mandate

Trump, however, has complicated his push for tax reform by asking that Congress include a provision that would end the requirement that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a fine if they do not. Congress already failed earlier this year to overhaul national health care policies championed by former President Barack Obama, a law commonly known as Obamacare.

Democratic lawmakers, and some Republicans, are opposed to attaching the health law change on buying insurance in the tax legislation, which if it is kept in the tax proposal, could imperil its passage, especially in the Senate.

While he was on his five-nation Asia trip, Trump tweeted, “I am proud of the (Republican) House & Senate for working so hard on cutting taxes (& reform.) We’re getting close! Now, how about ending the unfair & highly unpopular (individual) Mandate in OCare & reducing taxes even further?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
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Republicans are muscling their massive tax bill through the House, with President Donald Trump urging them on to a critically needed legislative victory and GOP House leaders exuding confidence they have the votes.

But the tax overhaul hit a roadblock Wednesday as Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin became the first Republican senator to say he opposes his party’s politically must-do tax legislation. That signaled potential problems for GOP leaders.

Passage of a similar package seemed assured Thursday in the House, where a handful of dissidents conceded they expected to be steamrolled by a GOP frantic to claim its first major legislative victory of the year.

 

“Big vote tomorrow in the House. Tax cuts are getting close!” Trump enthused in a tweet Wednesday night. “Why are Democrats fighting massive tax cuts for the middle class and business (jobs)? The reason: Obstruction and Delay!”

 Trump planned to visit House GOP lawmakers Thursday at the Capitol in what seemed likely to be a pep rally, not a rescue mission. Eager to act before opposition groups could sow doubts among the rank-and-file, Republican leaders were anxious to hand Trump the first crowning achievement of his presidency by Christmas.

 

The two chambers’ plans would slash the 35 percent corporate tax rate to 20 percent, trim personal income tax rates and diminish some deductions and credits — while adding nearly $1.5 trillion to the coming decade’s federal deficits. Republicans promised tax breaks for millions of families and companies that would have more money to produce more jobs.

 

“It represents a bold path forward that will allow us as a nation to break out of the slow-growth status quo once and for all,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas, as his chamber debated the bill Wednesday.

 

Democrats charged the measures would bestow the bulk of their benefits on higher earners and corporations. In the Senate Finance Committee, they focused their attacks on two provisions designed by Republicans to increase revenue.

One would repeal President Barack Obama’s health law requirement that people buy coverage or pay a fine, a move the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects would result in 13 million more uninsured people by 2027. The other would end the personal income tax cuts in 2026 while keeping the corporate reductions permanent.

 

“We should be working together to find ways to cut taxes for hardworking middle-class families, not taking health care away from millions of people just to give huge tax cuts to the largest corporations,” said Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla.

 

The Republican-led Finance panel was on track to approve its proposal by week’s end. It shut down Democrats’ initial efforts to modify the bill, voting along party lines against amendments aimed at protecting health care coverage for veterans or people with disabilities, mental illness or opioid addition if the insurance mandate is ended.

 

But with GOP leaders hoping for full Senate passage early next month, concerns harbored by Johnson and perhaps others would have to be addressed.

 

Republicans controlling the Senate 52-48 can approve the legislation with just 50 votes, plus tie-breaking support from Vice President Mike Pence. With solid Democratic opposition likely, they can lose just two GOP votes.

 

Besides Johnson, Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Jeff Flake of Arizona and Bob Corker of Tennessee have yet to commit to backing the tax measure.

 

Johnson complained the bills were more generous to publicly traded corporations than to so-called pass-through entities. Those are millions of partnerships and specially organized corporations whose owners pay levies using individual, not corporate, tax rates. While details of the House and Senate bills differ, many pass-through owners would owe more than 20 percent in taxes for much of their income.

 

“These businesses truly are the engines of innovation and job creation throughout our economy, and they should not be left behind,” Johnson said. But he left the door open to changes that would allow him to support the final version.

 

A small group of House Republicans largely from New York and New Jersey rebelled because the House plan would erase tax deductions for state and local income and sales taxes and limit property tax deductions to $10,000.

 

Their numbers seemed insufficient to derail the bill. Asked if they could stop it, Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., shook his head and said, “I don’t think so.”

 

Repealing the health law’s individual mandate would save $338 billion over the coming decade because fewer people would be pressured into getting government-paid coverage like Medicaid. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, used the savings to make his bill’s personal tax reductions modestly more generous.

 

Ending the bill’s personal income tax cuts in 2026, derided by Democrats as a gimmick, was designed to pare the bill’s long-term costs. Legislation cannot boost budget deficits after 10 years if it is to qualify for Senate procedures barring bill-killing filibusters. Those delays take 60 votes to block, numbers Republicans lack.

 

The House measure would collapse today’s seven personal income-tax rates into four: 12, 25, 35 and 39.6 percent. The Senate would have seven rates: 10, 12, 23, 24, 32, 35 and 38.5 percent.

 

Both bills would nearly double the standard deduction to around $12,000 for individuals and about $24,000 for married couples and dramatically boost the current $1,000 per-child tax credit.

 

Each plan would erase the current $4,050 personal exemption and annul or reduce other tax breaks. The House would limit interest deductions to $500,000 in the value of future home mortgages, down from today’s $1 million, while the Senate would end deductions for moving expenses and tax preparation.

 

Each measure would repeal the alternative minimum tax paid by higher-earning people. The House measure would reduce and ultimately repeal the tax paid on the largest inheritances, while the Senate would limit that levy to fewer estates.

 

 

 
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Zimbabwe’s economy has been hammered by political unrest, soaring inflation, a shortage of foreign cash, a trade deficit and many other problems. Residents say the economic turbulence has driven thousands of people out of the country and makes daily life challenging. But an economic analyst says Zimbabwe has an educated workforce and a battered-but-functional infrastructure that could boost agricultural production and manufacturing, and eventually bring recovery. VOA’s Jim Randle reports.
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The Angolan economy is set to grow 1.1 percent this year as sub-Saharan Africa’s third-largest economy enjoys a mild recovery, the International Monetary Fund said Wednesday following a 10-day visit to the country.

But Ricardo Velloso, the Brazilian economist who led the visit, said macroeconomic imbalances remain that need to be tackled by the new government.

In a statement, he highlighted the wide spread between the parallel and official market exchange rates and a backlog of foreign exchange purchase requests in commercial banks as points of continuing concern.

Velloso said the team met members of the new government which it felt understood the challenges facing the economy, and gave a thumbs up to the administration’s six-month economic plan known as “Plano Intercalar.”

“The Plano Intercalar is adequately focused on the goals of stepping up fiscal consolidation efforts, introducing greater exchange rate flexibility, and improving governance and the business climate to promote faster and inclusive growth as well as economic diversification,” the statement said.

After nearly a decade of rapid growth, Angola slipped into recession last year as a fall in the price of oil led to a massive drop in government revenue and access to hard currency.

The official unemployment rate is at 25 percent, though likely in reality much higher, and a dollar fetches more than double the official rate on the black market.

President Joao Lourenco, who took office in September, has vowed to get the economy back on track promising to diversify away from oil and combat corruption.
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Mexico will respond to U.S. demands for changes in content rules for autos and an automatic expiration clause in the NAFTA trade deal when negotiations on reworking the accord begin again this week, a top government official said on Tuesday.

A fifth round of talks to overhaul the North American Free Trade Agreement starts on Wednesday in Mexico City, notable for U.S. demands that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has labeled “poison pills.”

Foremost among them are a 50 percent minimum U.S. limit in NAFTA automobile content, the scrapping of a key dispute mechanism and inclusion of a sunset clause that will terminate the pact after five years if it is not renegotiated.

The measures soured the mood among U.S., Mexican and Canadian negotiators when put forward last month, and Mexico’s economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, said his country would respond to the auto content and sunset clause plans.

“Those responses will be angled very logically toward what we’re hearing from the business world in Mexico and the United States,” Guajardo said at an event in Mexico City.

The three sides would explore what scope there was for narrowing their positions on that basis, he added.

Industry officials across the region have balked at the auto proposals, arguing they would add bureaucratic hurdles, be hard to enforce and could damage the competitiveness of the sector.

In addition to seeking to establish U.S. minimum thresholds, the team led by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has proposed raising the regional content requirement for NAFTA autos to 85 percent from 62.5 percent at present.

Viability

The coming round, which runs through Nov. 21, would seek to examine the viability of such ambitious targets, Guajardo said.

“It’s one thing for them to say ‘we want 85 percent regional value’ and another for them to explain how to achieve that technically, understanding how the industry works,” he said.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw from NAFTA if he cannot rework it to the benefit of the United States, spooking investors and hurting the Mexican peso.

Mexican and Canadian officials have privately voiced skepticism about the prospect of negotiators making substantial progress on the most divisive issues during the current round.

That does not necessarily mean talks will be bad-tempered.

The White House is pushing for congressional approval of Trump’s planned tax cuts, and officials say that could help set a more measured tone for the round, lest trade disputes create friction with NAFTA-supporting Republican lawmakers.

If Trump makes headway on tax cuts, it is more likely to help NAFTA talks than harm them, said Bosco de la Vega, head of Mexico’s National Agricultural Council (CNA), a farming lobby.

“What we know from our U.S. counterparts is that they’re saying, ‘listen: we see that the future of [NAFTA talks] will depend on the success or failure of the tax reform.’ It will have a direct impact on NAFTA. How much? Who knows?” he said.

Meanwhile, Guajardo expressed confidence that negotiators could make progress on less divisive topics in Mexico City.

“There are some chapters we believe we can finalize this round,” he said, noting that talks on telecommunications and regulatory practices were advancing.
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Germany on Tuesday pledged $125 million to boost the work of an international insurance partnership that aims to cover 400 million more poor and vulnerable people against disaster risks by 2020.

That goal was first set in 2015 by the G7 group of wealthy nations, but the effort has now been expanded to bring in other partners, including the World Bank and an alliance of about 50 countries vulnerable to climate threats, including small island states like Fiji, which is presiding over the talks in Bonn.

In July, Britain contributed 30 million pounds ($39.4 million) to establish a Center for Global Disaster Protection.

Fiji’s prime minister, Frank Bainimarama, said that when powerful Cyclone Winston hit his nation last year, wiping out 30 percent of its economy, tens of thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed, and many households were uninsured.

“People protected by their wealth have no idea of the heartbreak of the poor and most vulnerable when they lose their homes and livelihoods in climate-related disasters,” he told an event to launch the partnership.

Fiji needs new forms of finance to develop while also reducing the risks of weather extremes and rising seas to tourism, forests, fisheries and agriculture, as well as to infrastructure, much of which is exposed on the coast, he said.

The InsuResilience Global Partnership will develop and roll out innovative finance and insurance solutions for individual countries tailored to the needs and challenges of their poor people in particular, it said.

Those will include sovereign risk pools like the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF), which has paid out $62 million to 10 Caribbean countries since hurricanes Irma and Maria brought destruction to the island states in September.

Using the additional funds announced Tuesday on the sidelines of the U.N. climate talks in Bonn, the global partnership will also aim to expand schemes such as the NWK Agri-Services cotton company in Zambia, which offers weather and life insurance to small contract farmers and is already backed by InsuResilience.

In 2015, some 52,000 farmers bought insurance, of whom more than 23,000 received payments after a major drought in 2016.

Allen Chastanet, prime minister of St. Lucia, said the CCRIF had proved to be “an amazing asset,” enabling quick access to funds after a disaster. But it was just as important to provide money to help Caribbean nations adapt to climate change to help prevent catastrophic losses, he said.

“Insurance is not dealing with the overall solution. It is dealing with the symptom, not the actual cause,” he said.

Aid agencies working in developing countries to reduce the risks of disasters said the partnership must also look at ways to help vulnerable communities prepare better for climate threats, besides providing insurance.

“Insurance doesn’t actually reduce risk, and it could be unaffordable for the communities it’s meant to cover,” said Tracy Carty, head of Oxfam’s delegation at the Bonn conference.

“No other choice”

Ibrahim Thiaw, deputy executive director of UN Environment, said the expansion of insurance could help bring down its costs, as has happened in Africa with mobile phones, which are now almost everywhere.

“Insurance is booming around climate. It will grow because people have no other choice. They need that buffer to protect themselves,” he told a separate discussion.

The group of climate-vulnerable countries working with InsuResilience, including Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Costa Rica, are also working on their own schemes, such as the planned Sustainable Insurance and Takaful Facility, which is based on the principles of Islamic finance.

It aims to close the gaps in insurance protection and disaster risk reduction for its member states’ 1 billion people, only 14 percent of whom have access to some form of risk cover.

Members would contribute to a fund that pays out when a disaster hits, as well as supporting adaptation and green projects, said Sara Jane Ahmed of the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities. The facility aims to start work next year.

This week, the U.N. climate change secretariat also launched an online platform under the Paris climate agreement that will use artificial intelligence to connect countries seeking innovative insurance solutions with the expertise they need.

U.N. Climate Chief Patricia Espinosa said the new efforts would bring together those working to prevent climate disasters and help allay damage across the international community.

“Failing to plan for climate impacts is a huge risk,” she said, noting how Hurricane Irma had recently left Barbuda uninhabited for the first time in 300 years while persistent drought is displacing people in Africa’s Sahel region, contributing to the migration crisis in Europe.

“It is in our best collective interest to build resilient societies,” she added.
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General Electric’s new Chief Executive John Flannery on Monday outlined steps that will turn the biggest U.S. industrial conglomerate into a smaller, more focused company, surprising some investors who sold the company’s shares to a five-year low.

Flannery’s plan to shrink GE’s multi-industry array of businesses was a reversal of the deal-driven empire building of his predecessors, Jeff Immelt and Jack Welch, and potentially a milestone in the decline of the conglomerate as a business strategy.

Other companies that once emulated the GE model of spreading bets among diverse industries are now unwinding their portfolios as well, something Immelt also did throughout his 16 years as CEO, even as he made acquisitions.

Flannery said he will pare GE down to three core businesses: power, aviation and healthcare. He will keep Immelt’s strategy of building software to complement GE’s machinery, albeit with a narrower focus and reduced budget.

For investors, Flannery’s decision to cut both the dividend and the 2018 earnings forecast by half added up to a whole that was less than they judged GE be worth last week.

GE shares fell to their lowest level in more than five years as investors worried the years-long overhaul would not pare down enough expenses or generate as much cash as they hoped. They closed off the day’s lows, down 7.2 percent to $19.02.

“They need to cut more cost,” said Scott Davis, an analyst at Melius Research. “GE is still a bloated company with duplicate costs up and down the organization.”

GE stock has effectively been dead money since September 2001, when Immelt took over, posting a negative total return even after reinvesting its juicy dividends. Once the most valuable U.S. publicly traded company, GE now has a market value of $168 billion, less than a fifth of Apple.

“You have pessimism around its portfolio of businesses mixed with a pretty harsh cut in the dividend,” said John Augustine, chief investment officer at Huntington Private Bank. “It took them years to get into this mess and it will take them several years to right the ship and get back into a stronger position.”

‘Soul of the Company’

Flannery, who took over as CEO on Aug. 1, said he was “looking for the soul of the company again” and would focus on “restoring the oxygen of cash and earnings to the company.”

He will cut its board to 12 from 18 members, and bring on three new directors early next year.

GE said it already has shed 25 percent of its corporate staff, meaning 1,500 jobs around the world, including some at its Boston headquarters. It is aiming to reduce overhead cost by $2 billion next year, half of that at its troubled power unit that sells electrical generation equipment.

The transition includes GE getting rid of at least $20 billion of assets through sales, spin-offs or other means.

GE will jettison businesses with “a very dispassionate eye,” Flannery said, keeping only units that offer growth, a leading market position and a large installed base.

GE said it would exit its lighting, transportation, industrial solutions and electrical grid businesses, all of which were widely expected, closing factories around the globe.

But it was vague about other disposals.

It plans to get rid of its 62.5-percent stake in oilfield services company Baker Hughes, only months after making the multi-billion dollar investment. Baker Hughes shares lost 3.2 percent.

Flannery offered no quick fixes for investors. He said power, one of the businesses GE would focus on, was “challenged,” but could be turned around in one to two years.

GE’s Digital unit, on which Immelt bet billions of dollars, would focus on selling apps to customers in its core businesses, Flannery said. He confirmed that the shift meant sales staff were being let go, as Reuters reported last week.

GE also will cut spending on the digital unit to $1.1 billion in 2018 from $1.5 billion in 2017. GE had previously said it would invest $2.1 billion in its digital unit in 2017, but that tally included money not tied to Predix, GE’s industrial-internet platform, GE said.

Flannery said there is “no retreat on the idea” of GE providing both applications and the Predix platform to connect industrial equipment to computers that can make machines run better. However, getting one of its key applications to run on Predix could take two more years.

Flannery added that some of its healthcare IT business, such as software for imaging and hospital staff scheduling, were still critical to the company and not likely to be divested.

Dividend Cut

The dividend cut, to 48 cents from 96 cents next year, is only the third in the company’s 125-year history and the first not during a broader financial crisis. It is expected to save about $4 billion in cash annually.

“This dividend cut will be a major disappointment to GE’s (roughly 40 percent) retail shareholder base,” said RBC Capital Markets analyst Deane Dray.

The cut will be the eighth-biggest dividend cut in history among S&P 500 companies, according to Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst of S&P Dow Jones Indices. GE also had the biggest cut when it slashed its dividend by $8.87 billion in 2009, Silverblatt said.

GE forecast 2018 adjusted earnings of $1 to $1.07 a share, compared with its earlier estimate of $2 per share. Wall Street was expecting $1.16, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Industrial free cash flow will total just $6 billion to $7 billion next year, up from an estimated $3 billion in 2017, but far below earlier targets of $12 billion for 2017.

GE said the weak power business had largely prompted the dividend cut and lowered earnings forecast. Demand for new power plants will remain slow through 2019, Flannery predicted.

But GE also was to blame, he said.

“We did not manage the (power) business well,” he said. “That’s a fundamental change we need to make and that’s going to take some time. This is not a magic wand.”
…

Mexico’s government is preparing a macroeconomic response in case U.S. President Donald Trump makes good on threats to quit the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), an event which could wreak havoc on the Mexican economy and hurt the peso.

Mexico’s Foreign Minister Luis Videgaray said on Monday the government and central bank were preparing a plan to address the possibility of a future without NAFTA, but gave few details.

The government has said it is examining how it could adjust Mexican legislation to give investors certainty about their investments if the almost 24-year-old NAFTA collapses.

Underpinning some $1.3 trillion in annual trade between the United States, Canada and Mexico, NAFTA has been a central pillar of recent Mexican economic development. Nearly 80 percent of Mexican exports are shipped to the United States.

Trade negotiators from the United States, Mexico and Canada meet in Mexico City this week to continue talks on overhauling the accord, and Videgaray reiterated the government’s position that the expectation was that talks would ultimately succeed.

Mexico would continue to work on diversifying trade, protect foreign investment, review possible changes to tariff barriers, and prepare a macro-economic response from the finance ministry and the central bank, Videgaray added.

“These are the four lines a plan B must include,” he told Mexican radio. “We have to be prepared for all the scenarios and one of the scenarios is that the United States leaves the treaty, and as we have said, that is not the end of the world, the Mexican economy is much bigger than NAFTA.”

Separately, the International Monetary Fund said in a report on Monday that ending NAFTA would bring back World Trade Organization “most-favored nation” tariffs, which would disrupt Mexican-U.S. trade, and could crimp economic growth, dampen capital inflows and raise risk premia.

The IMF suggested that among various policy responses at Mexico’s disposal, “temporary foreign exchange interventions and liquidity provision could help smooth extreme volatility.”

Concerns that Trump could follow through on his threats to dump NAFTA have battered the Mexican peso in recent weeks.

Additionally, Mexico should continue to implement its structural reforms and boost efforts to diversify trading relationships, which would increase competitiveness and help economic growth over the medium-term, the IMF said.

The IMF sees Mexico’s economy growing 1.9 percent next year after projected expansion of 2.1 percent in 2017.
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Promoted as needed relief for the middle class, the Senate Republican tax overhaul would increase taxes for some 13.8 million moderate-income American households, a bipartisan analysis showed Monday.

The assessment by Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation emerged as the Senate’s tax-writing committee began wading through the measure, working toward the first major revamp of the tax system in some 30 years.

Barging into the carefully calibrated work that House and Senate Republicans have done, President Donald Trump called for a steeper tax cut for wealthy Americans and pressed GOP leaders to add a contentious health care change to the already complex mix.

Trump’s latest tweet injected a dose of uncertainty into the process as the Republicans try to deliver on his top legislative priority. He commended GOP leaders for getting the tax legislation closer to passage in recent weeks and then said, “Cut top rate to 35% w/all of the rest going to middle income cuts?”

That puts him at odds with the House legislation that leaves the top rate at 39.6 percent and the Senate bill as written, with the top rate at 38.5 percent.

Trump also said, “Now how about ending the unfair & highly unpopular individual mandate in (Obama)care and reducing taxes even further?”

Overall, the legislation would deeply cut corporate taxes, double the standard deduction used by most Americans, and limit or repeal completely the federal deduction for state and local property, income and sales taxes. It carries high political stakes for Trump and Republican leaders in Congress, who view passage of tax cuts as critical to the GOP preserving its majorities at the polls next year.

With few votes to spare, Republicans leaders hope to finalize a tax overhaul by Christmas and send the legislation to Trump for his signature.

The key House leader on the effort, Rep. Kevin Brady, said he’s “very confident” that Republicans “do and will have the votes to pass” the measure this week.

Brady, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said he doesn’t expect major changes to the bill as it moves to a final vote in the House. Still, he said Trump’s call for removing the requirement to have health insurance as part of the tax agreement “remains under consideration.”

Trump and the Republicans have promoted the legislation as a boon to the middle class, bringing tax relief to people with moderate incomes and boosting the economy to create new jobs.

“This bill is not a massive tax cut for the wealthy. … This is not a big giveaway to corporations,” Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, insisted as the panel had its first day of debate on the Senate measure.

Hatch also downplayed the analysis by congressional tax experts showing a tax increase for several million U.S. households under the Senate proposal. Hatch said “a relatively small minority of taxpayers could see a slight increase in their taxes.”

The committee’s senior Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, said the legislation has become “a massive handout to multinational corporations and a bonanza for tax cheats and powerful political donors.”

Tax increase for some

The analysis found that the Senate measure would increase taxes in 2019 for 13.8 million households earning less than $200,000 a year. That group, about 10 percent of all taxpayers, would face tax increases of $100 to $500 in 2019. There also would be increases greater than $500 for a number of taxpayers, especially those with incomes between $75,000 and $200,000. By 2025, 21.4 million households would have steeper tax bills.

The analysts previously found a similar magnitude of tax increases under the House bill.

A group of more than 400 millionaires and billionaires, including prominent figures such as Ben and Jerry’s founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, designer Eileen Fisher and financier George Soros, asked Congress to reject the GOP tax plan and not give cuts to the super-wealthy like themselves.

“We urge you to oppose any legislation that further exacerbates inequality,” they said in a letter made public Monday.

Neither bill includes a repeal of the so-called individual mandate of Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, the requirement that Americans get health insurance or face a penalty. Several top Republicans have warned that including the provision would draw opposition and make passage tougher.

Among the biggest differences in the two bills that have emerged: The House bill allows homeowners to deduct up to $10,000 in property taxes while the Senate proposal unveiled by GOP leaders last week eliminates the entire deduction. Both versions would eliminate deductions for state and local income taxes and sales taxes.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., asked whether the Senate’s proposed repeal of the property tax deduction could bring higher taxes for some middle-class Americans, acknowledged there would be some taxpayers who end up with higher tax bills.

“Any way you cut it, there is a possibility that some taxpayers would get a higher rate,” McConnell told reporters after a forum in Louisville, Kentucky, with local business owners and employees. “You can’t craft any tax bill that guarantees that every single taxpayer in America gets a tax break. What I’m telling you is the overall majority of taxpayers in every bracket would get relief.”
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Foreign investors walked a red carpet at a state palace Monday eager to hear strategies for reorganizing Venezuela’s billions in debt, but they left minutes later having learned no concrete plans to address the country’s financial crisis.

 

Vice President Tareck El Aissami, who headed the talks, used much of his time to rail against U.S. President Donald Trump and foreign lenders for leading what the government calls an “economic war” against this oil-rich nation.

 

But he also tried to assure creditors that debts will continue to be paid, echoing statements by President Nicolas Maduro that Venezuela has made more than $70 billion in debt payments since 2013.

 

“The state has fully honored its national and international commitments, especially with regard to external debt service,” El Aissami said in a televised broadcast. “Even with great sacrifice, we have paid every penny of our debt service.”

 

Those few investors who bothered to show up had few expectations for the meeting, which from the start was clouded in confusion.

 

Maduro invited investors to Caracas a little more than a week ago while announcing his goal of renegotiating a foreign debt that he said has become impossible to repay because of a U.S.-led financial “blockade” of the socialist-run country.

 

As Venezuela spent heavily on social programs under the late President Hugo Chavez, a time when global oil prices soared, its debt skyrocketed to over $120 billion, about half of which is in the form of dollar-denominated bonds. The drop in crude prices has ravaged the country that sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, leading to widespread shortages amid triple-digit inflation.

 

Strained relations between Venezuela and the United States are compounding the situation.

 

The Trump administration has sanctioned a growing list of Venezuelan officials, including the government’s top two debt negotiators, Economy Minister Simon Zerpa and El Aissami. The vice president is accused of being a major drug trafficker.

 

Washington has also barred U.S. companies from lending new money to Venezuela because of human rights abuses committed during months of anti-government protests and Maduro’s efforts to squash the opposition.

 

But in a sign the Trump administration might be willing to soften its stance, the Treasury Department said last week that it would consider allowing Americans to deal in new debt if any restructuring plan was backed by Venezuela’s opposition-controlled congress, whose authority has been steadfastly ignored by Maduro’s government.

 

Russ Dallen, managing partner of Caracas Capital Markets, said several U.S. investors he represents told him they wouldn’t bother attending. One said he couldn’t get a visa on such short notice and another reported planning to send an intern, citing the lack of information.

 

“You’d think they’d put it on the table and let you study it if there was some kind of proposal,” Dallen said. “There’s nothing. Just crickets.”

 

Also Monday, at an informal meeting to discuss Venezuela at the U.N. Security Council, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley called Venezuela “an increasingly violent narco-state” that threatens the world.

 

Venezuela’s U.N. ambassador, Rafael Ramirez, responded by denouncing the session.

 

“This is a hostile act from the United States and an interference that violates the sovereignty principles of a country that is a member of the United Nations,” he told reporters.

 

In Brussels earlier in the day, the European Union banned arms sales to Venezuela and set up a system to slap asset freezes and travel restrictions on Venezuelan officials as it seeks to ramp up pressure on Maduro. The weapons ban would stop sales of military equipment that could be used for repression or surveillance of Venezuelans.
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The federal government began its new budget year with an October deficit of $63.2 billion, up sharply from a year ago.

The Treasury Department reported Monday that the October deficit was 37.9 percent higher than the $45.8 billion deficit recorded in October 2016.

Both government receipts and spending were up for the month, with receipts climbing 14.3 percent to $235.3 billion, a record for the month of October. The larger spending figure was up a sizable 11.6 percent to $298.6 billion.

The deficit for the 2017 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30, totaled $666 billion, up 13.7 percent from a 2016 deficit of $586 billion.

Many forecasters believe the deficit will rise higher in the current budget year, reflecting the impact of proposed tax cuts Congress is considering and hurricane relief.

The Congressional Budget Office estimated in June that the deficit for the current budget year, which runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, would fall to $563 billion. However, that estimate did not include money for a tax cut being pushed by the Trump administration and GOP lawmakers. It also did not include increased spending to deal with three devastating hurricanes that have hit the U.S. mainland and territories.

Taking those developments into account, economists at JPMorgan Chase estimate that the deficit in the current budget year could climb to $675 billion, with the deficit in 2019 rising even higher to $909 billion.

Lawmakers passed a budget resolution that would provide for $1.5 trillion in additional deficits over the next decade to reflect the lost revenue from the pending tax cuts. The Trump administration contends the tax cuts will end up generating increased economic activity and will not be that expensive.

For October, the 11.2 percent rise in spending reflected an increase of $4 billion in spending by the Department of Homeland Security, with outlays rising from $4 billion in October 2016 to $8 billion last month, a jump that was attributed to higher spending for hurricane relief.

The 14.3 percent increase in revenues included a $12 billion increase in individual taxes, including payroll taxes for Social Security, compared to October 2016.

The government has run deficits in October for each of the past 64 years.
…

President Donald Trump is wrapping up 12-day, five-nation tour of Asia dominated by talks on the North Korea nuclear threat and bolstering trade.

After talks in Manila on Monday with the prime ministers of Australia and Japan, Trump promised to make a “major statement” on North Korea and trade when he returns to Washington this week. But he offered no details.

Trump’s meeting with Australia’s Malcolm Turnbull and Japan’s Shinzo Abe underscored the growing relationship between the three nations in the face of regional security issues. The top concerns include North Korea’s nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs and countering China’s increasingly assertive maritime territorial claims.

“The key for us is to ensure very close trilateral cooperation so as to bring peace and stability on the ground,” said the Japanese leader, who has been displaying a united front against North Korea with Trump.

“We’ve got the same values and the same focus on ensuring that the North Korean regime comes to its senses and stops its reckless provocation and threats of conflict in our region,” Turnbull said. “Peace and stability have underpinned the prosperity of billions of people over many decades, and we’re going to work together to ensure we maintain it.”

Show of military force

A massive naval drill involving three U.S. aircraft carrier strike groups was underway in western Pacific waters as a show of force.

The U.S. naval vessels and aircraft were joined by elements of the South Korean navy and Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force.

The three leaders met on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit. Trump said “big progress” had been made on trade but he did not offer further details.

​Meeting with Duterte

Earlier Monday, the U.S. leader met with Philippines’ President Rodrigo Duterte, who hosted the ASEAN summit. Trump said the two have “a great relationship” and described their talks as “very successful.”

A joint statement released by the U.S. and Philippines said the two leaders condemned Pyongyang’s “unlawful nuclear weapons and missile development” and urged all nations, including those in the region, “to voice their opposition to these threatening programs and to take steps to downgrade their diplomatic and economic engagement with North Korea.

During a joint appearance, reporters tried to query whether Trump had raised the issue of human rights with Duterte. Duterte, facing strong criticism from human rights groups internationally, replied, “Whoa, whoa. This not a press statement. This is the bilateral meeting.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later said of the meeting between Trump and Duterte:  “The conversation focused on ISIS, illegal drugs, and trade. Human rights briefly came up in the context of the Philippines’ fight against illegal drugs.”  

Duterte’s spokesman denied that.

“No, that issue was not raised,” Harry Roque said replying to a reporter’s question. “My understanding is he explained at length the Philippine policy on the war against drugs. And from the body language of the U.S. president, he seemed to be in agreement and he made an assurance that President Duterte has a friend in President Trump and he’s been an ally since he was elected into office.”

Sidestepping controversy

Earlier, as regional leaders gathered at a colorful ceremony to open the summit in Manila, Duterte sidestepped the controversy over his war on illegal drugs and its thousands of extrajudicial killings.

In opening remarks before the 17 other leaders at the summit’s plenary session, he called illegal drugs a “menace” that threaten “the very fabric of our society,” without mentioning methods of the response.

“I apologize for setting the tone of my statement in such a manner,” said Duterte. “But I only want to emphasize that our meetings for the next two days present an excellent opportunity for us to engage in meaningful discussions on matters of regional and international importance.”

The communique resulting from the talks is expected to announce that ASEAN will begin official negotiations for a code of conduct for the South China Sea, where several nations have conflicting territorial claims.

A number of countries have concerns about China’s increased militarization of disputed islands it controls.  

Anti-Trump protests

For a second day Monday several thousand militant protesters marched in Manila, clashing with riot police who responded with truncheons, water cannons and sonic alarms to keep the demonstration out of sight of the delegates at the ASEAN Summit, which is surrounded by a security cordon.  

Protesters burned an effigy of Trump on Monday. Some protesters pushed the police, organizer Renato Reyes told VOA News, who said “scores” of protestors had been injured and some had to be treated at an on-site clinic. The protesters shouted for Trump to leave and accused the United States, a former colonizer of the Philippines, of looking for overseas wars.

Local media reported 10 people were injured, including six police officers.

Trump has praised his hosts during the Asia tour, which included stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Vietnam and the Philippines.

 “It was red carpet like nobody, I think, has probably ever seen,” Trump told reporters.

Ralph Jennings and Kenneth Schwartz contributed to this report.
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The next World Economic Forum of world leaders and CEOs in Davos will be chaired by women including International Monetary Fund director Christine Lagarde, Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg and IBM’s chief executive Ginni Rometty.

The seven co-chairs for the four-day event in January were announced in the face of criticism that the conference has in the past lacked female representation.

“Co-chairs… were chosen to reflect global stakeholders,” said a spokeswoman for WEF, adding the co-chairs were all leaders in their fields.

The co-chairs shape the program and lead discussions and panels. The theme of the 48th conference is to “explore the root causes of, and pragmatic solutions for, the manifold political, economic and social fractures facing global society,” WEF said.

WEF, in an annual report this month, found it will take another 217 years before women earn as much as men and have equal representation in the workplace, revealing an economic gap of 58 percent.

It is the second straight year the Swiss non-profit has recorded worsening economic inequality.

A typical representative of the more than 2,500 titans of industry and influence that each January descend upon the Alps has received the unofficial moniker of “Davos Man” — a sign of the further shift in representation and thinking still necessary to balance uneven gender dynamics.

Other co-chairs are Isabelle Kocher, head of French energy conglomerate Engie; Italian physicist and director general of the CERN particle physics research centre Fabiola

Gianotti; founder of the rural cooperative Mann Deshi Bank for women, Chetna Sinha; and International Trade Union Confederation General Secretary Sharan Burrow.

Next year’s event will take place January 23-26, 2018.

 

 

 
…

The European Union has approved economic sanctions, including an arms embargo on Venezuela.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels announced the measures on Monday in response to regional elections last month, which they say worsened the country’s crisis.

The weapons ban is intended to prevent the government of President Nicolas Maduro from purchasing military equipment that could be used for repression or surveillance.

The sanctions also include setting up a system for asset freezes and travel restriction on some past and present Venezuelan officials close to Maduro.

Spain has long pushed for sanctions on those close to Maduro, but the EU has been divided over whom to target.

In Monday’s statement, ministers said they would focus on security forces, government ministers and institutions accused of human rights violations, and the disrespect of democratic principles or the rule of law.

Last Thursday, the U.S. imposed financial sanctions on 10 current and former Venezuelan officials because of corruption and abuse of power allegations related to Maduro’s crackdown on the opposition.

The EU also stressed that it would not recognize Venezuela’s pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly, whose 545 members took office in August and sidelined the opposition-led National Assembly. The EU said its creation has only served to “further erode democratic and independent institutions.”
…

Venezuela’s foreign debt renegotiation committee will meet with creditors at 2 p.m. (1800 GMT) on Monday at the government’s “White Palace” in downtown Caracas, the finance minister said on Saturday.

“Once again, we invite investors to register their participation in this meeting,” Simon Zerpa, who is also the finance boss of state oil company PDVSA but is on a U.S. sanctions list for alleged corruption, said in a Tweet.

Foreign investor sources had said Zerpa and committee head Tareck El Aissami, who is Venezuela’s vice president but also on a U.S. blacklist for alleged drug traffickers, would probably sit out the meeting to allay any fears about meeting them.

But Saturday’s exhortation by Zerpa, and the location of the meeting right opposite the Miraflores presidential palace, appear to indicate the meeting will not be a low-profile affair.

Socialist leader Nicolas Maduro’s move a week ago to summon bondholders for talks about “restructuring” and “refinancing” some $60 billion in bonds has spooked markets worried Venezuela is heading for a default amid U.S. financial sanctions.

President Donald Trump’s measures against the Maduro administration, which it accuses of being a “dictatorship” that has impoverished Venezuela’s 30 million people through corruption and incompetence, effectively bar U.S. banks from rolling over the country’s debt into new bonds.

Venezuela did, however, appear to be honoring its most recent debt payment: a $1.2 billion payment due on a bond from state oil company PDVSA. Two investors told Reuters they had finally received payment, albeit delayed.

It is unclear how widespread investor participation in Monday’s meeting in Caracas will be. U.S.-based creditors are not prohibited from attending the meeting, but are barred from dealings with officials like Zerpa and El Aissami.
…

Emirates Airlines agreed to buy 40 Boeing 787-10s in a deal worth more than $15 billion.

The purchase was announced Sunday at the Dubai Air Show by the largest airline in the Middle East.

Deliveries of the wide-body, twin-engine planes are set to begin in 2022.

Boeing’s website says the aircraft typically carries 330 passengers with a range of 11,900 kilometers.  

The manufacturer says the 787 is 25 percent more fuel-efficient than the aircraft it replaces.

Also, Azerbaijan Airlines announced a $1.9 billion deal for more 787s, five to carry passengers and two more to haul freight.
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West Virginia could produce profitable niche crops grown on reclaimed mine sites.

At least that’s what Nathan Hall, president of Reclaim Appalachia envisions.

Hall spoke about uses for reclaimed sites at the West Virginia Good Jobs Conference last Tuesday at Tamarack. The goal of the conference is to bring together entrepreneurs, funders, local community leaders and government agencies to trade ideas, provide mentorship and support entrepreneurs in southern West Virginia.

Reclaim’s first operational site is next to the Buck Harless Wood Products Industrial Park in Holden, a property owned by the Mingo County Redevelopment Authority.

Former miners

Reclaim and Refresh Appalachia have partnered to develop an active commercial agroforestry site, which is on about 50 acres of land that was mined and reclaimed in the late 1990s, managing crops including blackberries, hazelnuts, lavender and pawpaws. The site also has animals including chickens, hogs, goats and honeybees, which are managed with “rotational grazing techniques.”

Hall said he first started work on the Mingo County site early last year. The business has five full time crew members and one crew chief. Of those six employees, four are former coal miners.

According to Reclaim’s website, the organization intends to replicate the model on more mined properties and on a larger scale.

“With any post surface mine landscape, this model works well,” Hall said. “It’s especially suited to areas where it’s not feasible to turn into a big shopping center or a golf course.”

Long-term approach

Hall said the model is designed to be long term and said sites like these may not see profit until a few years down the road.

“This approach is never profitable in year one or even year two,” he said. “It’s more of a three-five year horizon to get into the black. A lot of agricultural investments like this are longer term.

“With animals, you have to establish a breeding stock. It takes some time before you’re able to send animals to slaughter,” Hall said. “And with perennial plants, it takes a year of establishment to get fruit, sometimes three to four years. We are looking at this as a longer-term investment but this is a pretty common way to invest in projects you see on the West Coast and the Northeast. A lot of investors know this is not a quick turnaround.”

However, down the road, Hall said he envisions West Virginia as being primary producers of niche produce on the East Coast.

“If we produce enough at a low cost and upgrade to high value products, move it six to nine hours away, there is a huge amount of ways to use these lands in ways that we’ve barely started to scratch the surface,” he said.

Crops, animals for rocky soil

Hall mentioned the possibility of products including lavender or grapes — plants that can thrive in the rocky soil.

“You could even have things like goat meat, which is something you don’t think about as something to eat in this area,” Hall said. “There are huge markets for it, maybe not here but the conditions are great for these sites.”

Hall spoke about some of the struggles with using these sites including the rocky terrain itself.

“You think about nice farmland where there is this loose, fluffy, brown soil you can almost scoop your hand into,” he said. “This soil, you can’t get a shovel to go more than 2 inches. The only thing that can survive is something with a shallow breeding system.”

Controlling invasive species

Another issue is invasive species of plants that were planted for reclamation. However, Hall said animals including goats and hogs can eat the shrubby plants while also adding nutrients to the soil.

“I’m a fan of high-intensity rotational grazing,” he said. “You have people out there tending fences and maintaining the animals and the site regularly. It has a more diversified income. And there is a benefit to the land through manure and reducing unwanted vegetation. You can eventually replant to better quality pastures if you do rotational.”

He said stacking systems including orchards and animals have been efficient in maintaining the land along with adding a larger labor force.

“You have the animals in between the orchard growth keeping the areas maintained,” he said. “It’s benefiting the roots and the trees. You’re also able to sell the meat and eggs while harvesting fruit and berries.”

Not the first attempt

Hall isn’t the first or the only person to grow crops on reclaimed mine sites. Hall mentioned one in particular back in the 1990s in Kentucky where there was a hog farm on a former mine site.

“There are a lot of activity in these spaces,” he said. “We are more focused on stacking systems and having this multifaceted approach. Other folks want one piece. It’s an interesting time to be involved. We can learn from each other and grow a new sector of the economy.”
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Ranchers in the Midwestern U.S. state of Nebraska are raising beef for tables in China, reopening trade suspended more than a decade ago during concerns over mad cow disease. From Nebraska, VOA reporter Abby Sun tells us how U.S. beef producers are changing to meet Chinese food-safety requirements.
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