Tpp trade deal trump

The European parliament has passed the controversial EU-Canada free trade deal, while protesters staged a sit-in at the gates of the building in Strasbourg, France. The agreement was celebrated by some as a victory for global free trade in the face of growing US protectionism under the government of Donald Trump. The agreement aims to eliminate 98% of tariffs on exported goods, making it the EU’s most comprehensive trade deal to date. Trade between the two sides amounts to more than 60bn euros (C$83bn) a year, and the EU expects the so-called Ceta deal (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) to boost this by 20% by removing almost all tariffs. Supporters claim the pact will be worth £1.3bn (C$2.1bn, $1.6bn) a year to Britain alone, in the period before the UK withdraws from the EU. The EU commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, called it “an important milestone” and said “EU companies and citizens will start to reap the benefits the agreement offers … [Read more...] about European parliament passes EU-Canada free trade deal amid protests

Donald Trump has announced he will impose “the highest level of economic sanctions” on Iran, violating an international nuclear agreement and a UN resolution, breaking decisively with US allies in Europe, and potentially triggering a new crisis in the Gulf. In a statement at the White House, Trump said this decision meant that the US would “exit the Iran deal” agreed with other major powers in 2015, and warned that “any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could be strongly sanctioned”. He then signed an executive order reimposing sanctions on any foreign company that continues to do business with Iran. The order gives companies 90-day or 180-day grace periods to extract themselves from existing Iranian contacts or face punitive US measures. The leaders of the UK, France and Germany, who are also parties to the agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA, issued a statement soon after Trump’s … [Read more...] about Iran deal: Trump breaks with European allies over ‘horrible, one-sided’ nuclear agreement

Donald Trump spoke directly to the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdoğan, on Monday to demand an immediate ceasefire in Syria while announcing a series of punishments for Ankara that critics saw as an attempt to save face. The US president’s conversation with Erdoğan was revealed by the vice-president, Mike Pence, who said he would soon be travelling to the Middle East. “The United States of America did not give a green light for Turkey to invade Syria,” Pence insisted to reporters at the White House. But Trump’s announcement just over a week ago that he was withdrawing US troops, who had served as an effective buffer against Turkish invasion, has been widely viewed as a historic foreign policy blunder and provoked an extraordinary backlash even from Republicans. As the situation in northern Syria spiralled out of control, and the White House scrambled to catch up, the president said he had issued an executive order to impose sanctions on current and … [Read more...] about Trump asks Turkey for ceasefire and calls for sanctions as violence escalates

The significance of the trade war between China and the US goes well beyond the impact of tit-for-tat tariffs, or which of two self-styled strongmen wins the bragging rights. As was the case in the 1930s, the seemingly inexorable drift towards protectionism is part of a deeper crisis of the international status quo. When Beijing this week accused the US of “deliberately destroying the international order”, it was really saying that US hegemony will no longer go unchallenged. Globalisation as we have known it is coming to an end and that’s by no means unwelcome. Hailed as the ultimate in human progress, a model based on loosening the controls on capital and the construction of global supply chains has spawned recurrent financial crises, fostered corrosive inequality and worsened the climate emergency. True, millions of people have been lifted out of poverty in the past 25 years, but most of them live in a country – China – that has kept the market at … [Read more...] about Globalisation as we know it will not survive Trump. And that’s a good thing

Donald Trump said Monday that as U.S. troops withdraw from Syria, he has put the fate of America's former Kurdish allies in the hands of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, whose regime he called 'our enemy' in the same breath. And he announced that his administration aims to punish Turkey's incursion into Syria by canceling a $100 billion trade agreement, hiking import tariffs on Turkish steel, and readying economic sanctions against anyone in Erdoğan's government who threatens 'peace, security, or stability' in Syria. Turkey is a NATO ally. It's also the aggressor whose military incursion both the Syrian army and the Kurds are trying to push back. And sitting on an air base 250 miles inside Turkey, which the U.S. has shared since the mid-1950s, are about 50 American tactical nuclear weapons. A senior U.S. official told The New York Times on Monday that the weapons, though under American control, have effectively become Erdoğan's hostages. Leaving them there could become a … [Read more...] about BREAKING NEWS: Donald Trump says the Kurds are Assad’s problem now and ANYONE is welcome to help protect them as he invites Russia, China and ‘Napoleon Bonaparte’ to step up – while revealing sanctions on Turkey