Ramadan Mubarak
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TAKE AWAY SPECIALS
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| CHINA |
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| QATAR |
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| CARIBBEAN |
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| TRINIDAD & TOBAGO |
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| EUROPE |
A big, fat
security package is in
the legislative grab bag, according to EU officials Playbook spoke to. Top
lesson to be learned from recent elections in EU countries: You don’t need an
influx of migrants to make security — disguised as a migration-related issue —
voters’ top concern. Trouble is, the very same politicians who want the EU to
act on security have also been campaigning about Brussels already holding too
many competencies. [POLITICO Brussels Playbook, April 17, 2018]
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| ARMENIA |
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| CYPRUS |
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| READ |
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| RUSSIA |
Russia's pension system is increasingly
underfunded
Russia’s Labor Ministry has amended the Pension Fund’s 2018 budget to reflect a deficit that's more than
twice as high as predicted, rising from 106.6 billion rubles ($1.7 billion) to 256.8 billion
rubles ($4.1 billion). The Pension Fund is expected to earn just 66.7 billion rubles
($1.1 billion), while spending 83.5 billion rubles ($1.3 billion). Spokespeople
for the Pension Fund told the magazine RBC that the revised forecast is the result of cuts in federal
subsidies and the rising costs of Russia’s pay-as-you-go pension payments.
The Pension Fund's “distributive” budget (the money collected from
working Russians and paid to current retirees) will be more than 150 billion
rubles underfunded in 2018, and the Labor Ministry plans to plug the gap with
money taken from the fund's “transferrable” budget.
Policymakers in Moscow who advocate raising the
retirement age in Russia cite the Pension Fund’s rising deficits as one of
the key justifications. The news media has repeatedly published stories that
the government is considering this unpopular move, but the Kremlin has always
said it has no immediate plans to institute such reforms.
How does Russia’s
pension system work? In 2014, Russia suspended its
experiment with a market-based savings program that allowed younger workers to
invest up to six percent of their income back into the economy. Under this
system, another 16 percent of these people’s salaries went to the pension
system’s “insurance component,” funding both “fixed basic payments” (the
pension benefits guaranteed to all pensioners) and individual accounts
(allowing higher earners to receive slightly larger pensions). The moratorium
on market accounts is supposed to expire in 2020. [The Real Russia. Today. April 25]
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| SPAIN |
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| UKRAINE |
MORE
SHENANIGANS IN UKRAINE - Ransomware took down the Ukrainian energy ministry's website on
Tuesday, replacing the site with a demand for a
payment of 0.1 bitcoin (approximately $930). "We do not know how long it
will take to resolve the issue," a spokeswoman for the government's cyber
law enforcement agency told Reuters . The spokeswoman added that Ukrainian
energy firms remained unaffected. Ukraine has not yet blamed anyone for the
cyberattack, though the Russian government is believed to be responsible for a
string of hacks in recent years, including a ransomware
outbreak and several power grid
outages. The security
firm AlienVault told the BBC that the new ransomware appears to be the work of
two amateurs, one who compromised and defaced the website and the other who
planted ransomware using the first hacker's access. [POLITICO's Morning
Cybersecurity, April 25, 2018]
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| GREAT BRITAIN |
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| CANADA |
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| MEXICO |
NAFTA
LABOR GETS SOME ATTENTION THIS WEEK: Canadian labor leader Jerry Dias is in Washington this
week to hit home the point with NAFTA negotiators that Mexico has to be pressed
into agreeing with major improvements to the pact's labor standards.
"The
U.S. still hasn't put forward a formal proposal on labor over and above the one
that they tabled in October," the head of Canada's largest labor union,
Unifor, told Morning Trade. "But they now recognize frankly that the
proposal they put forward in October doesn't do a thing to help their
situation."
Dias
said the U.S. had been expected to put forward a revised labor proposal when
ministers met Friday but ended up not doing so. He said chief negotiators from
all three countries met again Wednesday and the labor chapter came up in those
discussions.
U.S.
Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer has floated a change among U.S.
stakeholders that would alter only language that was viewed as the central
reason the U.S. lost a years-long labor dispute against Guatemala. The Central
American country was accused of violating labor rules under the separate
Central America Free Trade Agreement, but a tribunal ultimately ruled in Guatemala's favor because it held that the
country's actions didn't meet a legal threshold that requires a violation to
occur in a "manner affecting trade."
A
Democratic congressional aide said it's still unclear whether the change,
combined with the proposal to add a wage standard to the pact's auto rules of
origin, would be the extent of Lighthizer's labor improvements.
The
Mexican waiting game: Dias
said he is urging the Canadian and U.S. negotiators to wait out the current
Mexican administration on a final deal if they want to get a better agreement
on labor. Mexico holds national elections on July 1, with left-wing candidate
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador leading in the polls.
Mexico
"will end up with a progressive, left president that's talking about the
deplorable labor standards in Mexico, and the chances of carving a much better
deal is then," he said. "So why would anyone rush knowing that there
will be a change in leadership in Mexico?" [Politico Morning Trade, April
12, 2018]
MEXICO STAYS RESOLUTE ON
NAFTA RULES OF ORIGIN STANCE: Mexico
will not accept USTR's revamped autos proposal as is, as it would make North
America noncompetitive and create new costs for the auto industry, a source
close to the talks told Morning Trade. Mexico would be willing to increase its regional content requirements for autos to an
upper limit of 70 percent but will not go higher than that, the source
emphasized. This comes after Inside U.S. Trade first reported that USTR was
willing to reduce its regional content requirements to 75 percent in a new
NAFTA. However, USTR had not formally tabled that proposal as of Thursday
morning, the source said. [Politico Morning Trade, April 13, 2018]
FYI
Several of
you have expressed great interest in joining our Oaxaca Culinary Tour! There
is still a bit of time to register for our June 5 to 11 fabulous
tour! I would love to have join us. You will get an
opportunity to join three cooking classes, tour colorful villages famous for
their pottery and wood carvings, weaving and much more. info@janebutelcooking.com
NOTE: The news sources here vary. Not all sources have the same credibility, but in an effort to share some different perspectives, they are included here. This compendium itself cannot claim to be unbiased. Please take into consideration where these different perspectives originate in assessing their value. Thank you
NOTE: I have no official connection to any organization from which information is shared.. Occasionally, I post informational material and/or an opportunity to donate or join as a "community service" announcement. These again are shared for their varying perspectives.
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Any books listed are random or topic-related to something else in the post. Think of these as a "library bookshelf" to browse. They are shared for informational or entertainment value only, not as being recommended.
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