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  • Tech product tariff eliminated by Canadian international trade minister

    CANADA, 2016/07/08 Canada has always been an island in the digital world. According to a statement from Chrystia Freeland, the minister of international trade, Canada will eliminate tariffs that contribute to this mentality. As a result of the implementation of an expanded Data Technology Agreement (ITA), Canadians may see lower costs and increased trade opportunities, particularly on technology products. In implementing the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) expanded ITA, Canada eliminated tariffs on a inventory of 201 tech and data-related products. This agreement builds on the original 1996 ITA.

  • VW says US 'Dieselgate' settlement not to be replicated in Europe

    GERMANY, 2016/07/04 Volkswagen's CEO has rejected calls for the carmaker to compensate customers in Europe over the 'Dieselgate' emissions scandal along the lines of its $15-billion transaction in the US, telling a German newspaper a similar settlement would be inappropriate and unaffordable. Europe's Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska last week called on Volkswagen to as well compensate European owners of its diesel-powered cars, saying it would be unfair for them to be treated differently from US customers just because of a different legal system.

  • United States sees China investment talks ‘productive’ after new offers

    CHINA, 2016/06/20 Bilateral investment talks between the United States and China “continue to be productive,” the US Trade Representative’s office said on Friday next the two sides exchanged new offers this week. A USTR spokeswoman said US and Chinese negotiators exchanged revised “negative lists” of sectors that would remain off-limits from foreign investment as they try to reach a transaction for a bilateral investment treaty.

  • Trump says Britain should leave EU

    UNITED STATES, 2016/06/20 Donald Trump told Britons on Sunday he supported Brexit, repeating just days before the vote on June 23 that he thinks the UK would be better off outside the European Union. As the campaign to decide Britain’s EU membership restarted next a three-day hiatus following the killing of lawmaker Jo Cox, Trump, the presumptive Republican US presidential candidate, said in a newspaper interview he was backing an “out” vote.

  • My Diplomatic Moment with Mohammed Ali

    UNITED STATES, 2016/06/11 While a lot of recall and some still criticize Mohammed Ali’s refusal to be drafted to fight the U.S. war in Vietnam as a conscientious objector, I remember the time at the same time as the boxer conscientiously took on a tough fight for his country. In December 1979, the army of the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan. What did this event have to do with Mohammed Ali, the American boxing champion? The Soviet aggression against Afghanistan was such a blatant illegitimate act that President Jimmy Carter was totally enraged. He wanted to punish the Soviets. He decided that the United States would boycott the Olympic games scheduled to be held in Moscow during the summer of 1998. In addition, he unleashed an international diplomatic offensive designed to persuade each other government to boycott as well.

  • Obama Japan Trip 2016: US President Calls For End To Nuclear Weapons On Historic Hiroshima Trip

    JAPAN, 2016/05/28 Next laying a wreath at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park Friday, U.S. President Barack Obama said in a brief speech, “The memory of the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, must at no time fade.” “Death fell from the sky and the world was changed,” Obama said. During his historic visit to Hiroshima over 70 years next the Japanese city became the target of an American atomic bomb, Obama reiterated his call for a “world without nuclear weapons.”

  • Alberta Wildfire Economic Pain Singes Beyond Energy Sector

    CANADA, 2016/05/27 The wildfire that has ravaged northern Alberta and cut Canadian crude output by 25 % is set to crimp corporate earnings beyond the oil patch, particularly hitting the rail and hospitality sectors. The fire, which has caused an estimated $50 million a day in lost production for oil sands companies near the evacuated city of Fort McMurray, has as well caused pain to large companies that serve the sector and smaller ones catering to thousands of industry workers.

  • USAID to grant Ethiopia $128M to fight drought

    UNITED STATES, 2016/05/16 U.S Agency for International Improvment(USAID) just announced it would grant Ethiopia $128 million to fight the drought it has been facing over the completed 50 years. This grant should serve to buy food, water, treat malnutrition, and pay mobile health teams, said Thomas Stall, assistant at the humanitarian affairs, conflicts and institution’s democracy office.

  • TSA union calls for 6000 new officers to alleviate airport security lines

    UNITED STATES, 2016/05/15 The union representing Transportation Security Officers at our country's airports is calling on Congress to pass emergency legislation funding the hiring of 6,000 additional full-time screeners to alleviate long airport security lines. "These additional TSOs will at least begin to address the shortage of TSOs needed to reduce the delays passengers are facing in airports across the country," American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. wrote in a letter sent to Home and Senate leaders on May 12.

  • US to renew most of its sanctions against Myanmar

    MYANMAR, 2016/05/15 Washington plans to renew most of its sanctions against Myanmar at the same time as they terminate next week, though the US will make some adjustments aimed at boosting investment and trade with the Asian country. An announcement on extending considerable portions of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act may be made as any minute at this time as May 17 prior to an upcoming visit to Myanmar by US Secretary of National John Kerry on May 22, the Guardian reported Saturday citing senior American officials and congressional aides. The development comes as the US Treasury Department has drastically eased sanctions against Myanmar’s government, infamous for carrying out massive human rights abuses against its Rohingya Muslim minority, by issuing general licenses that give companies and investors exemptions to sanctions that target over 100 individuals and businesses, inclunding some of Myanmar’s biggest business figures.
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