Showing posts with label US. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

How US plans to Put 'Tremendous Handicaps' on Chinese Companies



The key to TTIP is the so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism that essentially gives corporations free reign to sue governments using a “failure to implement” provision, if state policies or legislation interfere with profits. But is this all about trade?
There was a direct, crucial "secret" agenda linking the G7 meeting in Germany and the Bilderberg meeting in Austria last week; the advancement of the virtually secret negotiations towards the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), the massive free trade agreement between the US and the EU.
Even though the corporate powers behind TTIP are itching for a deal to be reached before the end of 2015, serious (negotiation) trouble remains.  
And then there was last Friday's vote in the US Congress. What happened were in fact two votes; one on giving the US government the "fast track" authority to conclude trade deals, mostly, in this case, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP); and another one on help for US workers struggling to compete with imports as a result of trade deals.  "Fast track" passed, but not the adjustment assistance. So the US Senate will need to review "fast track". The corporate powers behind TPP — and TTIP for that matter — were not amused.
Yet the whole thing goes way beyond total presidential authority to negotiate shady deals such as the TTIP, the TPP and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA).
The Obama administration is obsessed with plugging a torrent of benefits for US workers once a Pacific deal is clinched. That's eminently debatable. From the point of view of other nations, TPP is hardly a panacea. Washington offers no new, improved market access. TPP shuts out China completely — which is ridiculous; Beijing is the top trading partner of most of these nations. And the key to TPP is corporations laying down the law on intellectual property rights — which opens the door to all sorts of social Darwinist abuses.

On TTIP, Brussels is saturated with spin swearing trade deal negotiations are not that "secret". The European Commission (EC) brags they post negotiation texts on its website, unlike Washington. Some they do. But not all, including the most sensitive. The key to TTIP is the so-called Investor-State Dispute Settlements (ISDS); that essentially gives corporations free reign to sue governments, any government, using a "failure to implement" provision, if state policies or legislation interfere with profits. In sum: corporate ethos wins; workers, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and democracy, lose badly.
One can already foresee the proliferation of kangaroo courts labeled "arbitration tribunals" stuffed with pricey corporate lawyers. So much for social "justice".
But is this all about trade? Of course not.
Welcome to NATO on trade
The giveaway is how the Obama administration is desperate to wrestle down Japanese resistance — going on two solid years now — against many of TPP's provisions. The proverbial "US officials" have been frantically spinning that TPP is crucial for the US "pivot to Asia".
Even Pentagon supremo Ash Carter went overboard two months ago, saying that TPP was "as important to me as another aircraft carrier."


And all this has happened as Washington was trying to force its allies — with no success — to shun the Chinese-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Can't blame the Obama administration for not being on message; China can't lead a development bank, and China can't have a say writing global rules and standards for trade and investment. The heart of the matter is these three mega-deals — TTP, TTIP and TiSA — are the ultimate template of a Bilderberg group wet dream:  global corporate "governance".
And the Pentagon's own giveaway that TPP is the "strategic" economic arm of the "pivot to Asia" reveals how politicized "trade" has become. Under TPP, Chinese companies will have tremendous handicaps competing with US companies in both US and Asian markets. Call it yet another facet of "containment".
TTIP, TTP and TiSA are in fact a Hydra-like head; they follow the same geostrategic logic of NATO on trade — transatlantic and trans-Pacific; the "West against the Rest". Not accidentally, the BRICS are excluded. And no wonder the negotiations are secret; global corporate "governance" is not exactly a pop hit in any latitude.
Plastic ham, anybody?
Make no mistake; there's plenty of opposition to TTIP in Europe, at least among the few concerned — and horrified — EU citizens who took the trouble of trying to cut through the secrecy.  
In Germany, there have been serious demonstrations. The SPD — part of the coalition government under chancellor Merkel — is definitely against it. Italians learned TTIP would cost the country no less than 1.3 million jobs. It's useful to compare TTIP with NAFTA; in 12 years, the US actually lost 1 million jobs, as corporations and companies preferred to delocalize to Mexico, where costs are much lower.
Even Brussels was forced to admit TTIP will actually mean unemployment; a lot of jobs will definitely move Stateside, where labor standards and trade union rights are much lower.
TTIP will concern 850 million people between North America and Europe; that's roughly 45% of global GDP. Trade in question amounts as it stands to 500 billion euros a year. That could be arguably configured as "advanced globalization" — with not so much interference from emerging markets.
Enter the European idea that as a consequence of this leading role, the EU has the most advanced rules on health, consumer protection and quality of public services (it varies a lot from country to country; can't compare France with Romania, for instance).
Thus no wonder high-quality agricultural producers in the Club Med countries  are terrified that TTIP will mean a de facto barbarian invasion. Italians are terrified about the onset of a monster, false made in Italy market, with US corporations calling any mongrel GMO concoction a "Parma" ham or a "gorgonzola" cheese. 
A good test is to hit your average US supermarket. Talk about a horror show; at least 70 per cent of all processed foods are GMO-infested. The EU allows virtually no GM foods. Not to mention the toxic front; in the EU a company must prove a substance is safe before it's commercialized. In the US, anything goes.
Under TTIP, public health, education and water services in the EU will be devastated, and taken over by US corporations. Food safety laws, key legislation over the environment, and banking regulations will be turned upside down.
The spin from TTIP peddlers is that Globalization 2.0 will lead to a "surge" of 0.5% of the EU's collective GDP. That's not exactly a Chinese rate. But when you're austerity-ravaged, you drink any Kool aid you can get. And eat it with plastic Parma ham.
The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Omo Oodua.

Friday, December 12, 2014

QnA: The EU and the Ukraine stand to lose the most from the current US policies against Russia.



QUESTION:

Ukraine is becoming an American/NATO platform with no viable economy, a thoroughly corrupt junta-criminal government.  It has lost most characteristics of a state. We know its economy is no longer functioning. It is on economic life-support.

Q: What in history does this colonization most remind you and what does it present as a permanent platform for the projection of US hegemony right next to Russia?

In the context of US cruise missiles into Poland and 100 US tanks into Latvia, also right on the Russian border, how do you interpret these developments?

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

US in De Facto Alliance With Iran to Fight IS Threat: Expert





 The United States has de facto formed an alliance with Iran to fight the Islamic State (IS) movement, despite the strong reluctance by US officials to admit it, the former director of the Iraq program at the National Security Council told RIA Novosti.
"We are in a unique position where, in the extremely short term, our interests and Iran's inside Iraq are almost identical," said Douglas Ollivant during a New America web discussion on Wednesday.

"So, de facto we're in an alliance with Iran. Now, I don't expect anyone in a position of power in the US government to ever say that," he said, continuing that much of the realities and facts of the region are "politically inconvenient to say."
Continue..

Sunday, September 28, 2014

US, Allied Military Forces Launch New Series of IS Attacks in Syria: US Central Command





The United States and partner nation military forces have continued to attack Islamic State (IS) terrorists in Syria, conducting a new series of airstrikes, the US Central Command stated in an official news release on Sunday.


Forces are using fighter and remotely piloted aircraft to carry out the attacks. An IS vehicle was destroyed south of Al-Hasakah in Syria in addition to several buildings in the area part of an IS garrison, the release confirmed. An IS command and control facility near Manbij has also been damaged. Additional buildings and vehicles along with a garrison, airfield and training camp used by the IS jihadists were also hit by the attacks.
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The US and its Coalition Created, Trained and Funded IS: Political Analyst





As the US-led coalition launched its airstrikes against the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria, the Executive Director of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity Daniel McAdams explained that it was the US and several of its coalition partners who had originally created the group.
“Essentially it was the US and the so-called coalition that is fighting the IS right now that created, funded and trained IS in the first place,” he told OOB's source. “So how can you be for and against an organization at the same time? Saudi Arabia and Qatar particularly were involved in training, finding and providing weapons to this organization. How can we believe that they are all of a sudden interested in ending this organization?”
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Friday, September 26, 2014

US, Nigeria’s relations under threat over arms purchase





There are strong indications that the relationship between Nigeria and the Western countries, especially the United States, is being adversely affected by the reluctance of the Western powers to assist Nigeria with arms and ammunition.

Our correspondents gathered on Thursday that Nigeria had not made much progress in its efforts to procure arms and ammunition to prosecute the war against the militant Islamic sect, Boko Haram.

Investigations showed that   the security leadership in the country might have taken a decision to look in the direction of Russia, Ukraine and China for military hardware for the prosecution of the campaign against the insurgents.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

Expert: NATO Enforcing US Financial, Commercial Power Globally - Adeyinka Makinde




 “NATO is the enforcer of American financial and commercial power” globally, which is the primary reason for the bloc’s expansion, Adeyinka Makinde, a London-based legal lecturer specializing in intelligence and security matters, told Radio VR.


That explains why the US is so eager to co-opt Ukraine, the expert said, warning that Kiev’s fate will be grim. Contrary to what the current Ukrainian authorities think, once the United Stated gets into Ukraine, through NATO or the EU, the country “is going to be plundered and looted”, Makinde stated. As the EU financial package shows,
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Friday, August 29, 2014

Marketing Death: How US Is Using Foley and McCain to Sell War




Another American citizen has been killed in Syria in the past week, albeit under completely different circumstances. Douglas McAuthur McCain was killed by ‘Free Syrian Army’ militants during a gunfight while fighting for Islamic State (IS), becoming the first American Islamist to die in Syria. This comes as the world is still reeling from the beheading of reporter James Foley, which was first broadcast last week. The deaths of Foley and McCain back-to-back provide the US with different justifications for the same objective – the bombing of Syria.
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Sunday, August 10, 2014

Russia Forces US Submarine Out of Boundary Waters



Russia's Northern Fleet's anti-submarine forces have detected and forced out a US submarine from Russian boundary waters, a high-ranking source in Russia's Navy told RIA Novosti Saturday.
"On August 7, 2014, the patrol forces of the Northern Fleet detected a foreign submarine, supposedly a US Navy Virginia-class one, in the Barents Sea. A seaborne anti-submarine group, as well as an anti-submarine airplane Il-38, was sent to the region to search and track it down," the source said.
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Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Nigeria, US agree on partnership to combat Ebola



President Goodluck Jonathan and Vice President Joe Biden have agreed that Nigeria and the United States would work together to urgently curtail the outbreak of Ebola virus. 
Jonathan and Biden met in Washington D.C. on Tuesday on the side-line of the on-going US-Africa leader’s summit, according to a ‘readout’ issued by the White House, Office of the Vice President.
Ebola virus has claimed two lives in Nigeria since a 40-year old Liberian and American citizen Patrick Sawyer died of the disease in Lagos.
Continue..

Friday, July 18, 2014

Pics: Aircraft carrying US soldiers crash lands on Ugandan Highway




A tiny plane carrying 6 American soldiers today July 18th crash landed on a highway outside Uganda's capital Kampala after running out of fuel. It'd to make a quick safe landing to prevent any disaster. Reports say the plane which took off from the Entebbe airport in Uganda was maneuvering to neighboring South Sudan when the aircraft was forced to reverse as a result of bad weather and then land on a highway after running out of fuel approximately 40 miles from the airport. Fortunately no on was injured

 Continue...

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Amid spy scandal Kerry remains unfazed, calls US, Germany 'great friends'



US Secretary of State John Kerry, standing alongside Germany's foreign minister on Sunday, stressed the strategic importance of relations between the two countries, which have been battered by new allegations of US spying on Berlin.

"Let me emphasize the relationship between the United States and Germany is a strategic one," Kerry said in Vienna on the sidelines of nuclear talks with Iran. "We have enormous political cooperation and we are great friends."

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Strangling democracy: From information to infotainment




We are focused on the US government's ways of promoting its policies across the global community. Why would the US State Department choose to offer something like free entertainment, sometimes, at press briefings? Or - could that be some smart strategy most of us are still unaware of? The Voice of Russia has invited Italian journalist Giullietto Chiesa and Ilya Fabrichnikov, Russian expert on political communications strategy, to talk about "infotainment" and how it is used to manipulate our minds. 

Mr. Chiesa, Mr. Fabrichnikov, I am happy to welcome you to our show, and before we proceed let me give you one of the latest.

Monday, June 23, 2014

EU overtakes US as main food exporter



The EU beat out the United States to become the world's top exporter of agricultural and food products last year, AFP cites a European Commission report on the global farming market as saying Monday.

Fuelled by record sales to China and other emerging markets, in 2013 the 28 countries of the European Union sold 120 billion euros ($163 billion) in agri-food products, up 5.8 percent and with cereals alone accounting for over two thirds of the jump.
A market of 500 million people, the EU remained the world's biggest importer of farming and food products, though the level was mostly unchanged from 2012 at 101.5 billion euros.
A quarter of Chinese imports came from the United States, but the EU saw its share rise to 9.1 percent in 2013, mainly on sales of malt extract for beer brewing, and pork.

Friday, June 20, 2014

UN places blame on Ukraine's gov't for war crimes



The United Nations Human Rights monitoring commission has published a report on the Ukrainian issue. The report might stir Kiev, the US and the EU up, if only the West still respects the UN. The report says that the Ukrainian government violates human rights and the international conventions in the Federal State of Novorossiya, which is southeastern Ukraine.

The violations include detentions, kidnapping, tortures and killing of people, including women and children.

Tuesday, June 10, 2014

SCO, BRICS, and EAU most likely to become serious competitors to US and NATO - expert



The West should not underestimate the role of the Eurasian Union in international affairs, says Nikolas K. Gvosdev, professor of national-security studies at the US Naval War College and a contributing editor at The National Interest.

Two other institutions - the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS forum - were likewise dismissed as irrelevant, meaningless efforts at their times of creation but, both have proved their efficiency and durability over the years, the expert stresses.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

By bombing Yugoslavia US wipes floor with int'l law - Expert



15 years ago the United States cut up Yugoslavia's map. If prior to that Washington had played behind the scenes, in the situation of Serbia the Americans acted openly. Without the UN SC resolution, the NATO bombed peaceful cities for 11 weeks ruthlessly destroying the civilian and military infrastructure, thus in essence wiping the floor with international law.

What in the West would later be called "humanitarian intervention" has in fact nothing to do with humanism – 78 days of bombing took lives of 2,000 people, two thirds of whom were peaceful civilians. Over 10,000 people were wounded.

Sunday, March 2, 2014

US, EU 'pyromaniacs' surprised at fire they started in Ukraine – expert



The United States and European Union should have anticipated the consequences of their dubious decision to throw support behind the Ukrainian regime change, a French geopolitical analyst has told Russian media.

"What we are witnessing now is the easily predictable aftermath of the US and EU’s irresponsible decision to back the overthrow of a legally-elected Ukrainian president at the time when Russia was busy with the Sochi Olympic Games," Emerique Chopard said in an interview with Interfax.

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Nigerian Driver's License now accepted in Europe, US - FRSC



The Lagos Sector Commander FRSC, Chidi Nkwonta has said that the upgraded Driver's License being issued now in Nigeria can be used in 3 states in America as well as some countries in Europe.

Speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday, Commander Nkwonta said in the US, the states of  Washington DC, California and Maryland recognize the Nigerian Driver's license while European countries such as Germany, Turkey, Switzerland, Poland, Spain, Austria and Sweden also recognize the Nigerian Drivers License. He said the license can be used in these places for a period of time, after which their own licenses would be issued.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

EXCLUSIVE: "Since 1945 US destroyed 73 countries and has been directly involved in the deaths of 26 million people"




The US and its allies: a horror show that must stop – John Shipton

For many Australians it is embarrassing the way the Australian Government blindly obeys whatever the US tells it to do. Even joining in the US’ illegal wars. The scorched earth policy of divide and conquer, decimate and destroy, destabilize and control is in stark contrast to the efforts of the Russian Federation, the BRICS and SCO countries.

ST

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