USA & Canada : News, Updates & Discussions

US tells G7 that it is back at the table to help with global recovery​

US President Joe Biden’s administration told allies on Friday it was re-engaging with them to help steer the global economy out of its worst slump since the Great Depression, a contrast with the go-it-alone approach of Donald Trump.

US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told her peers from the Group of Seven rich democracies that Washington was committed to multilateralism and “places a high priority on deepening our international engagement and strengthening our alliances.”

Yellen spoke to the G7 in a virtual video meeting, chaired by Britain, at which she called for continued fiscal support to secure the recovery, saying “the time to go big is now.”

Britain said officials discussed giving help to workers and businesses hit by the pandemic while ensuring sustainability of public finances “in the long term.”

As well as the United States and Britain, the G7 includes Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Canada.

Italian Economy Minister Roberto Gualtieri said the group had committed to continuing coordinated action to support the economy. “The withdrawal of policy support is premature,” he wrote on Twitter.

Biden has proposed a further $1.9 trillion in spending and tax cuts on top of more than $4 trillion of coronavirus relief measures enacted by his predecessor Trump.

British finance minister Rishi Sunak is expected to say next month that he will extend his economic rescue programs and that reining in public finances will have to be addressed later.

Britain said G7 officials also agreed that making progress on reaching “an international solution to the tax challenges of the digital economy” was a key priority.

Countries have been trying to revive attempts at a global approach to taxing giant digital firms - many of them American, such as Amazon and Alphabet’s Google - after progress was blocked by Trump’s administration.

Britain called on G7 countries to agree a joint approach to taxing internet giants by mid-2021, a deadline agreed by the wider Group of 20 nations.

NEW IMF RESOURCES
Some G7 countries are keen to back a new issuance of the International Monetary Fund’s own currency, known as special drawing rights (SDRs), to help low-income countries hit by the coronavirus crisis, a step last taken in 2009.

Officials from the United States, the IMF’s biggest shareholder, had signaled they were open to a new issuance of $500 billion, sources said on Thursday - another Biden shift away from Trump administration opposition.


A G7 source, who asked not to be named, said the United States told other countries it needed a few weeks to finalize the SDR increase.

The move is politically tricky for Yellen because it would provide new resources to all IMF members, including rich countries, China, and US adversaries such as Iran and Venezuela, drawing Republican opposition.

“Over the last year, the G7 has not even spoken about special drawing rights, so considering that was part of this agenda, it certainly is progress,” said Eric LeCompte, executive director of Jubilee USA Network, a charity group that focuses on reducing poverty. “In terms of getting to a strong global stimulus, SDRs have to be a part of the equation.”

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva did not mention SDRs in a tweet about the meeting, but said that G7 members were in “full alignment” on vaccines, fiscal stimulus, climate and “comprehensive support for vulnerable countries.”

Sunak called on private creditors to give debt help to the poorest countries and said climate change and nature preservation would be priorities for Britain’s G7 presidency. Britain is due to host the first in-person summit of G7 leaders in nearly two years in June.

Yellen said the G7 should expect to see the US Treasury’s engagement on climate change to “change dramatically relative to the last four years.”

The Treasury declined comment on a Wall Street Journal report that Yellen is considering Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former deputy Treasury secretary, for a new high-level climate “czar” position at the department. — Reuters
 

In US, Push For Law To "Outcompete" China, Invest In Alliances Like India​

Washington:
US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has asked his Democratic colleagues to draft a legislative package to "outcompete" China, create new American jobs and invest in strategic partners and alliances like NATO and India.

On a caucus call on Tuesday, Mr Schumer discussed his push to direct Senate committees to draft a legislation to protect American jobs and outcompete China.

He said his intention is to put the legislation on the Senate floor for a vote this spring.

"Today I directed the chairs and members of our relevant committees to start drafting a legislative package to outcompete China and create new American jobs," Mr Schumer said.

The new legislation, he said, must achieve three goals. They should enhance American competitiveness with China by investing in US innovation, American workers and American manufacturing; invest in strategic partners and alliances: NATO, Southeast Asia and India; and expose, curb, and end once and for all China's predatory practices which have hurt so many American jobs, Mr Schumer said.

The legislation will have as its centrepiece a bicameral, bipartisan bill, the Endless Frontiers Act, which Mr Schumer introduced last year with Senator Todd Young, Indian-American Congressman Ro Khanna and Senator Mike Gallagh in the House.

"It will take the key cutting industries and make American investments so we will outcompete China in all of them. In addition, we will make serious investments in strengthening the US semiconductor industry to outcompete China and stop depending on foreign sources," Mr Schumer said.

He said at present semiconductor manufacturing is a dangerous weak spot in US economy and national security and that has to change.

"You've all seen that auto plants throughout America are closed because they can't get the chips. We cannot rely on foreign processors for the chips. We cannot let China get ahead of us in chip production. This will be part of the proposal that we will introduce," Mr Schumer said.

"We will also talk about the build out of 5G and how America can remain number one there. And all of these have bipartisan support. The bill we will intend to introduce...will be bipartisan. Our intention is to put this legislation on the Senate floor for a vote this spring," he said.

This month alone, nearly 20 anti-China legislations have been tabled or reintroduced in either chambers of the US Congress.

During a US Senate Finance Committee hearing, Senator Todd Young pushed the Department of the Treasury to assure Americans that they are not unknowingly investing in US-sanctioned and other questionable Chinese corporations that are linked to human rights abuses.

Also in a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Mr Young wrote that if the Biden administration were to undo policies of the last four years, Americans could be unwittingly supporting Chinese companies affiliated with the Chinese military and others who are committing genocide against the Uyghur population in China, manufacturing advanced weapons systems, and constructing an oppressive surveillance state.

"One of China's most glaring weaknesses is access to the kind of large-scale financing that only US capital markets can adequately provide," Mr Young wrote.

"As this is one of our country's greatest strengths, we must take every measure necessary to protect it. We must place American investor protection and our national security interests ahead of any fleeting investment gains when it comes to the financing of the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated enterprises and activities," he said.

Four Republican senators Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Chuck Grassley and Rob Portman in a letter to President Joe Biden have urged him to implement the proposed rule requiring US academic institutions disclose their relationships with Confucius Institutes, which are funded by the Chinese Communist Party.

"We have significant concerns regarding the CCP's nefarious actions and urge you to follow through on your commitments to advancing the interests of the American people as we collectively respond to the challenge that the CCP poses," they wrote.

"We believe it is critically important to better understand and reduce the CCP's influence on the American people, including through the Hanban, its propaganda arm that runs Confucius Institutes through the PRC Ministry of Education. The proposed rule is a necessary step in that effort and would bring needed transparency to Confucius Institutes," the senators said.

They alleged that Confucius Institute funding comes with strings that can compromise academic freedom.

The Chinese teachers sign contracts with the Chinese government pledging they will not damage the national interests of China. Such limitations attempt to export China's censorship of political debate and prevent discussion of potentially politically sensitive topics, the senators said.

"Confucius Institutes exist as one part of China's broader, long-term strategy. Through Confucius Institutes, the Chinese government is attempting to change the impression in the US and around the world that China is an economic and security threat.

"Confucius Institutes' soft power encourages complacency towards China''s pervasive, long-term initiatives against both government critics at home and businesses and academic institutions abroad," they said.
 
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The fossil has spoken. Probably too embarrassed at his age of the legacy he's bequeathing his adopted nation which literally granted him refuge when his life was threatened. And what a brilliant legacy it's going to be?!?

The architect of a plan to bail out a rogue regime when they were down & literally out,for tactical gains, ends up resurrecting them & create a Frankenstein. Probably the first time in recorded history where one superpower helped in creating another one which'd ultimately challenge it .


That's what Jewboy here is terrified of. Of being remembered as the most craftyJew alive who got outjewed by a yellow man. He'd never be able to live this one down.From being the toast of town when he's alive to his reputation in tatters when he's gone.
 
Sometimes this is how BLM protestors should be dealt with:

 

I don't believe this. When was the last time we heard of 200+ people being shot dead in India on a single day or within 2 days? I don't think the toll was as much even during the height of the Punjab insurgency or the routine massacre of CAPFs in CG during the heights of the Maoist movement.


Probably during the post Babri Masjid riots but then too I'm not sure if the single day toll was as high as 200+ & these *censored*ers keep writing on the law & order situation in India as if we're about to collapse duly aided by brown sepoys who still willingly answer to calls of " Koi Hain? " & consider it a privilege to serve white man's interests.