Trump admin to consider adding China's Ant Group to trade blacklist: Report

 

By Humeyra Pamuk, Alexandra Alper, Karen Freifeld and David Shepardson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has presented a proposition for the Trump organization to add China's Ant Group to an exchange boycott, as indicated by two individuals acquainted with the issue, before the budgetary innovation firm is scheduled to open up to the world.

It was not quickly clear when the U.S. government offices that conclude whether to add an organization to the alleged Entity List would survey the issue.

The move comes as China hardliners in the Trump organization are looking to make an impression on prevent U.S. financial specialists from participating in the first sale of stock for Ant. The double posting in Shanghai and Hong Kong could be worth up to a record $35 billion (27 billion pounds).

The most recent swipe at China additionally comes in the approach the Nov. 3 political race, in which U.S. President Donald Trump, following in the surveys against his Democratic adversary Joe Biden, has made an extreme way to deal with China a significant international strategy stage.

While the Alipay installment application is right now inaccessible for American clients in the United States, as indicated by a representative for Ant, Trump organization authorities dread the Chinese government could get to touchy financial information having a place with future U.S. clients.

An incredible security board known as the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) halted its $1.2 billion offer to purchase the cash move organization Moneygram in 2018 over public security hazards.

US coronavirus stimulus: Here's what Trump, Republicans, and Democrats say

Current Affairs
President Donald Trump met with individual Republicans in the US Senate on Tuesday to talk about a financial boost intend to reinforce the country's economy even with the coronavirus episode.
Any arrangement the White House acquaints will require with be affirmed by the two places of the US Congress. Anticipate Democrats, who control the House of Representatives, and Republicans, who control the Senate, to fight over the state of the upgrade in the weeks to come.
Here are a portion of the thoughts being advanced by the various gatherings.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin introduced alternatives for an improvement bundle, yet didn't have a nitty gritty arrangement. Trump has been centered around a finance tax break, guides state, however has additionally openly vowed alleviation for the aircraft, inn, and journey businesses as of late.
Representatives and managers each pay 6.2% of a specialist's gross make good on in finance charge, which goes to support Social Security and joblessness remuneration, in addition to other things. Trump, who is on the ballot in November, told Republicans at the gathering that if a finance tax reduction is executed, he might want it to go on until after the political decision, or for it to get lasting.

Pence told the representatives that the administration safety net providers Medicare and Medicaid, just as private back up plans, have consented to take care of the expense of coronavirus tests, and the deductibles identified with them...Read More

Restart unannounced inspections of drug units in India, China: US senator

International News

Senior US Senator Chuck Grassley has urged the Trump administration to "reinstate unannounced" inspections of prescription drug manufacturing facilities in foreign countries, especially in India and China.
The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee said this was needed as these facilities provided most of the ingredients for production inside the US.
In the light of the administration's new Safe Importation Action Plan, Grassley, said it was important to determine more accurately if these facilities meet set standards of quality and safety for both domestic and importation purposes.
Unbeknownst to many consumers 80 per cent of active pharmaceutical ingredients are produced abroad, the majority in China and India; however, the FDA only inspected one in five registered human drug manufacturing facilities abroad last year, he said
Grassley raised the issue in a letter, dated August 7, to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acting Commissioner Norman Sharpless.
"I strongly encourage the administration's demonstration projects to include unannounced inspections in foreign manufacturing facilities to determine whether they meet the required active pharmaceutical ingredients and drug quality and safety standards to include sufficient record-keeping, testing and protections against counterfeiting, the senator said.

 Grassley had also sent a letter in June to Azar and Sharpless on the issue.The senator has sought information on the quality controls for prescription drugs and their components manufactured in foreign countries, specifically China and India...Read More

'I don't know what he will do': Europe braces for Brexit with Boris Johnson

International News

Boris Johnson’s last act as Britain’s foreign secretary was to gather a host of European dignitaries in London and fail to turn up.
As the group of ministers waited in a conference center in London’s docklands last summer, text messages flooded in: Mr. Johnson had just quit the British government in protest over its handling of Brexit. “Well, it’s all rather happening, isn’t it?” said Alan Duncan, a British foreign office minister who was playing host amid the diplomatic mess, according to people present. European officials laughed, and some expressed relief that Mr. Johnson was gone.
Mr. Johnson may now be set to return this week, this time as Britain’s prime minister, and European officials say they don’t know what to expect.
Over the course of his career—including his leadership of the Brexit campaign and his rocky tenure as Britain’s foreign secretary—Mr. Johnson has proved to be unpredictable. He has survived scandals, and against the odds won the race to be mayor of London as well as the referendum to quit the EU. He promotes leaving the world’s biggest trade bloc but also markets himself as pro-globalization and pro-business.
In his two years as foreign secretary, he at times alarmed his European counterparts: He once compared former French President François Hollande to a World War II prison guard and likened the highly technical Brexit talks to trading Legos for candy.

 Other times, he charmed them. His former aides recall being overwhelmed by demands from foreign ministers for bilateral meetings with the man they just called “Boris.” He has delved into deep discussions with officials about ancient Greek history and lobbied hard in Washington to defend the EU’s stance on Iran...Read More

Democrats condemn Trump's tweet against four women lawmakers as 'racist'

International News

The Democratic party, which has a majority in the House of Representatives, introduced a resolution on Monday condemning the tweets of US President Donald Trump against four of their women lawmakers as "racist".
The opposition leaders and the president continued to clash over the issue that has caught the national attention for the past few days.
"The Dems were trying to distance themselves from the four "progressives," but now they are forced to embrace them. That means they are endorsing Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA! Not good for the Democrats" Trump said as he unleashed a series of tweets against four Democratic Congresswomen.
Congresswomen Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib and Ayanna Pressley held a news conference at the Capitol to denounce a tweet by the president in which he apparently suggested that they leave.
"This is a president who has overseen the most corrupt administration in our history," Omar said.
"To distract from that, he's launching a blatantly racist attack on four duly elected members of the United States House of Representatives, all of whom are women of colour," she said. "This is the agenda of white nationalists, whether it is happening in chat rooms or it's happening on national TV. And now it's reached the White House garden."

 Trump had in a tweet, which was widely considered as against these four Democratic progressive lawmakers, said they should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came" before speaking out about how the United States government should be run...Read More

I blame past presidents for allowing other nations to steal US jobs: Trump

International News

US President Donald Trump alleged on Monday that previous administrations allowed foreign countries to steal jobs and plunder its wealth.
"Today, American manufacturers are contributing $250 billion more to our economy than they contributed before this great election that took place in 2016," Trump said at the White House. "We're heeding the wisdom of our Founding Fathers by restoring our economic independence and reawakening our industrial might."
In his address to the "Made in America" event at the White House, Trump said: "They stole our wealth. They stole so much, and it was allowed to go on so long. But it's not going on any longer."
The president also pointed out to China's lowest level of GDP growth in nearly three decades.
"You take a look at what's happening. Look at today's front page in the Wall Street Journal. You'll see where China has had its worst year in 27 years," he said.
"I'm not looking for that. But we had a deal with China and they decided not to make that deal. They said, 'Let's renegotiate'. I said, 'No, thank you'. And we put very big tariffs on China," he added amidst applause from the audience.
The United States under him, Trump said, was taking the toughest-ever action to confront China's "chronic trade abuse".

 "They were doing numbers on us for many years. I watched sleepy Joe Biden the other day talking about China: 'We would fight China on trade'."Well, he didn't do it for -- he's been there for like 45 years. And he didn't do it in eight years because they ate our lunch during the Obama administration," Trump said...Read More

No easy exit in sight from worst Japan-South Korea spat in decades

International News
Japan and South Korea plan to meet over Tokyo’s move to restrict vital exports to its neighbor, but neither has much political incentive to climb down from their worst dispute in decades.
Decades of mistrust make it difficult for Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in to retreat from their budding trade feud. A series of looming deadlines, including a Japanese upper house election on July 21, are only raising the political pressure on both men, who can’t afford to look weak dealing with disagreements rooted in Japan’s 1910-45 occupation of the Korean Peninsula.
On Wednesday, Moon, who was elected in 2017 on a promise to reconsider his predecessor’s moves to ease historical spats with Japan, warned business leaders in Seoul of a “prolonged” battle. At an election debate last week, Abe accused South Korea of reneging on its promises.
“The leaders on both sides are incompatible with any sort of political rapprochement,” said Jonathan Berkshire Miller, a senior fellow with the Japan Institute of International Affairs in Tokyo who specializes in Northeast Asian security issues. “The sense on Moon here is negative and Abe is obviously persona non grata in South Korea.”

 The flare-up stems from a series of South Korean court decisions ordering the seizure of Japanese corporate assets as compensation for Koreans conscripted to work in factories and mines during the colonial era. The issue escalated from a regional diplomatic spat to a global trade worry last week after Abe’s government moved to curb the export of specialty materials vital to South Korea’s technology sector.The restrictions give Japan a mechanism to slow production by chipmakers such as Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix, squeeze the South Korean economy and disrupt supply chains dependent on their memory chips and components...Read More

Legislation to protect work authorisation of spouses of H-1B visa holders?

International News

Two influential lawmakers from California have introduced a legislation in the US House of Representatives to protect work authorisation of H-4 visa workers, a significant number of whom are Indian-American women.
The introduction of such a legislation comes days after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said that it would publish this month the long-promised regulation that would prevent the work authorisation to spouses on H-4 visas.
H-4 visas are issued to the spouses of H-1B visa holders, a significantly large number of whom are high-skilled professionals from India.
This week, the Trump administration announced plans to overturn the current DHS regulations that allow certain H-4 dependent spouses of H-1B visa holders who are stuck in green card backlogs to obtain employment authorisation, pursue their own professional goals and contribute to the US economy, said the lawmakers Anna G Eshoo and Zoe Lofgren.
Many H-4 visa holders are highly skilled professionals, and the DHS previously extended eligibility for employment authorisation to them recognising the economic burdens of families of many H-1B workers, particularly those who live in high cost areas like Silicon Valley on a single income as they await green card approvals, they said.
Since the rule was implemented, over 100,000 workers, mainly women, have received employment authorisation, and the H-4 Employment Protection Act prohibits the Trump administration from revoking this important rule.

 "H-4 visa holders deserve a chance to contribute to their local economies and provide for their families," Eshoo said."This is a matter of economic fairness and this legislation ensures it will continue," she added.

25 US lawmakers urge Trump admin not to cancel GSP trade benefits to India

International News

A group of 25 influential American lawmakers has urged the US Trade Representative not to terminate the GSP programme with India after the expiry of the 60-day notice on Friday, saying the country's companies seeking to expand their exports to India could be affected.

The Generalized System of Preference (GSP) is the largest and oldest US trade preference programme and is designed to promote economic development by a
llowing duty-free entry for thousands of products from designated beneficiary countries.
On March 4, President Donald Trump announced that the US intends to terminate India's designations as a beneficiary developing country under the GSP programme.The 60-day notice period ends on May 3.

On the eve of the end of the notice period, the 25 US lawmakers made a last-ditch effort to convince the Trump administration from going ahead with its decision.

The 25 members of the US House of Representatives in a passionate letter urged US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer to continue negotiating a deal that protects and promotes jobs that rely on trade both imports and exports with India.They argued that terminating GSP for India would hurt American companies seeking to expand their exports to India.


 "India's termination from GSP follows its failure to provide the United States with assurances that it will provide equitable and reasonable access to its markets in numerous sectors," Trump had said in a letter to Congress, providing a notice of his intent to terminate the designation of India as a beneficiary developing country under GSP programme.In his letter, Trump said that he was determined that New Delhi had "not assured" the US that it would "provide equitable and reasonable access" to the markets of India...Read More

Azhar's listing shows int'l commitment to root terrorism out of Pak: US

International News

The UN declaring Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar a global terrorist demonstrates international commitment to rooting out terrorism in Pakistan and bringing security and stability to South Asia, the Trump administration said Wednesday, expressing hope that Islamabad will take sustained and irreversible action against terror groups operating from its soil.

Welcoming China's decision to lift its hold on the proposal to blacklist the Pakistan-based JeM chief, a senior Trump administration official during a conference call with reporters said after 10 years China has done the right thing by lifting its blockade.

"I think China seems to have understood that it was increasingly important that it's actions on the international stage on terrorism matched it's rhetoric, the White House official said on the condition of anonymity.

Pulwama attack, the official noted was just the latest in the terrorist attacks that this deadly group has conducted.

"Designating Azhar demonstrates international commitment to rooting out terrorism in Pakistan and bringing security and stability to South Asia," the official said, adding that this designation is critically important and it was a long time coming.

This designation, the official said, is in line with Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's stated commitment to crackdown on militancy inside Pakistan and his acknowledgment that prosperity and development in Pakistan is contingent on maintaining regional stability.

 So we acknowledged that this designation is a good step forward and we look forward to how Pakistan would use this international designation press forward on its own stated commitment, the official said...Read More

Trump promoted strategic India-US relations in sustained manner: Report

International News

The Trump administration has worked to make India a more prominent part of its regional strategy, a top American think-tank has said in a report, lauding President Donald Trump for promoting strategic ties with India in a "sustained manner".

Asserting that the Trump administration has maintained the success story of US-India relations initiated by George W Bush, the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in its report gives the US President a high B+ grade when it comes to America's ties with India.

The CFR in its special report Trump's Foreign Policy are Better Than They Seem said President Trump "deserves credit for promoting strategic ties with India in a sustained manner".

The Trump administration has worked to make India a more prominent part of its regional strategy. After changing the name of US Pacific Command to US Indo-Pacific Command in May 2018, the United States is now planning its first tri-service exercise with the Indian military, said the report authored by former US Ambassador to India, Robert Blackwill.

President Trump's inclinations, as conveyed through his South Asia strategy, which accords primacy to India; his release of advanced weapons systems, such as unmanned aerial vehicles, for sale to New Delhi; and his decision to treat India on par with NATO allies where strategic technology release is concerned are all viewed as favourable toward India, it said.


The report said that New Delhi has accordingly responded with bold initiatives of its own."Although it has not entirely endorsed the Trump administration's Indo-Pacific strategy, it has applauded the strategy's declared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific regiona concept first articulated by Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, with whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoys an exceptionally close relationship," the CFR said.

India defers higher duties on 29 key imports from US for 6th time

Economy & Policy:

India has decided to again defer the imposition of higher duties on 29 key imports from the US, for the unprecedented sixth time.

Originally set to go live from June 28, 2018, the tariffs have been repeatedly postponed by the government and are now expected to take hold from April 1 as opposed to March 2.
Despite them being notified by the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs, the tariffs have been postponed repeatedly. In the meantime, four delegation level talks with Washington DC have been unable to solve the issue.

In response to an unilateral increase in steel and aluminium duties from India and other countries by the Trump administration, New Delhi had announced higher tax by up to 50 per cent on import of mostly agri goods like apples, almonds, walnuts and some industrial products.

The new taxes are proposed to rake in an estimated $240 million worth of additional taxes. Spread across sectors from which imports stood at $1.5 billion in 2017-18, New Delhi claimed the amount was equal to the estimated loss faced by India after the Trump Administration imposed a 25 percent extra levy on steel and 10 percent on aluminium products from many countries, including India in May, 2018.

Since then, other nations have been given an exemption by the US from the steel, aluminium duties. Now, we are working on a trade package to resolve this and other issues; a senior commerce ministry official said.


  This will include changes in import duties on the US information and communication technology products, and preferential tariffs for Indian exports, apart from data localisation norms, he added...Read More