China said on Friday that it has imposed counter-sanctions on U.S. individuals including former U.S. commerce secretary Wilbur Ross in response to recent U.S. sanctions on Chinese officials in Hong Kong.

The sanctions are the first imposed by China under its new anti-foreign sanction law, passed in June, and come days before U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman is due to visit China amid deeply strained ties.

China also imposed unspecified “reciprocal counter-sanctions” on current and former representatives of a range of organisations, including the Congressional-Executive Commission on China and the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Other institutions named included the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, Human Rights Watch (HRW), and the Washington-based Hong Kong Democracy Council (HKDC).

“The U.S. side concocted the so-called Hong Kong business advisory, baselessly smeared Hong Kong’s commercial environment, and illegally sanctioned Chinese officials in Hong Kong,” China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“These actions seriously violated international law and the basic principles of international relations, and seriously interfered in China’s internal affairs,” the ministry said.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki told a regular news briefing that the United States was “undeterred” by China’s move, which came after Washington last week issued its business advisory for Hong Kong and imposed sanctions on more Chinese officials over Beijing’s crackdown on democracy in the former British colony.

“These actions are the latest examples of how Beijing punishes private citizens, companies and civil society organizations as a way to send political signals,” Psaki said, adding that they illustrated the very risks about which the U.S. government had warned.

Ross could not be immediately reached for comment.

It was the second time this year that China has imposed sanctions on officials who served under former President Donald Trump, who adopted a tough line on Beijing and confronted it over trade, business practices, human rights and other issues.

Around the time Biden was sworn in as president in January, China announced sanctions against outgoing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and 27 other top Trump officials.

The Biden administration called that move “unproductive and cynical.”

Biden has sought to rally allies and partners to help counter what the White House says are China’s increasingly coercive economic and foreign policies.

But U.S. officials say Sherman’s trip over the weekend to China, where she is due to meet Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, is an effort to ensure that competition between the two powers does not spill over into conflict.

Some of the groups hit by Beijing largely dismissed any negative impact of the sanctions. The HKDC said on Twitter that being targeted by China’s ruling Communist Party was the “best validation” of its fight for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement.

“HKDC and Six Individuals in the US Recognized by PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs for Human Rights Advocacy”

Human Rights Watch’s China director Sophie Richardson, who was sanctioned by China by name on Friday, called the move “hollow.”

“These are diplomatic tantrums that are designed to distract attention away from Beijing’s complicity in crimes against humanity,” she said, referring to China’s alleged human rights abuses in its western region of Xinjiang. China has dismissed the accusations.

(REUTERS)

The World Trade Organization kicked off a ministerial meeting Thursday aimed at breathing life into drawn-out negotiations towards banning subsidies that favour overfishing, but numerous sticking points remain.

Before the meeting, WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala voiced cautious optimism that trade ministers from the organisation’s 164 member states could finally move towards clinching a “historic” agreement after 20 years of negotiations.

“While no one expects a miracle, the meeting represents a golden opportunity to bring the negotiations within striking distance of a deal,” she said in an editorial published Wednesday in Project Syndicate.

“A failure to do so would jeopardise the ocean’s biodiversity and the sustainability of the fish stocks on which so many depend for food and income.”

The talks aim to ban subsidies that contribute to illegal and unregulated fishing, as well as to overfishing, threatening the sustainability of fish stocks and the industry.

While fishing should in theory be held in check by the environment, with low fish stocks pushing up costs, subsidies can keep unprofitable fleets at sea.

It is widely agreed that action is needed to protect a crucial resource that millions of people depend on for their livelihoods.

In 2017, the Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that one third of global fish stocks were overfished.

Global fisheries subsidies are meanwhile estimated at between $14 billion and $54 billion a year, according to the WTO.

But two decades of negotiations have stumbled over a range of issues, including a UN demand that developing countries and the poorest nations receive special treatment.

After missing the last UN deadline to reach an agreement by December 2020, talks have intensified in recent months however.

– ‘Historic’ –

Okonjo-Iweala, who took the reins of the global trade body in March, has made clinching the long-awaited fisheries deal by the end of this year a priority.

Thursday’s meeting, which is taking place virtually due to Covid restrictions, is focusing on a draft text presented in May by Colombian ambassador Santiago Wills, who chairs the WTO fisheries subsidies negotiations.

Okonjo-Iweala voiced optimism that “marathon discussions” on the text, which according to Wills proposes “compromise language” in a range of areas, would succeed.

“We are on the cusp of forging an agreement at the WTO that is historic in more ways than one,” she said, stressing that a deal would also show that “members can come together and act on issues of the global commons.”

Reaching any kind of an agreement at the WTO can be hard, because all decisions require a consensus among all member states.

But observers said there had been a clear boost in momentum towards finding a deal.

“We have never had more political attention on the issue, (nor) the degree of political attention from a director general, and the degree of commitment from WTO members to really advanced this text,” Alice Tipping of the International Institute for Sustainable Development told reporters in Geneva.

– Special treatment? –

But a number of sticking points remain and NGOs warn against rushing to the finish line at any cost.

“It’s critical that WTO members do not sacrifice environmental outcomes for the sake of speed when negotiating a fisheries subsidies agreement,” Isabel Jarrett of The Pew Charitable Trusts told AFP.

One of the main stumbling blocks has been a UN demand that developing countries and the poorest nations receive so-called special and differential treatment, or SDT.

While special treatment for the poorest countries is widely accepted, demands from some self-identified developing countries to be exempt from subsidy constraints has proved difficult to swallow.

Many of the major fishing nations are considered developing countries by WTO, including China, which has one of the world’s biggest fishing fleets.

An EU official told reporters this week that a declaration from China that it was prepared to assume “full commitments without claiming SDT” would be “very helpful” to the talks.

There is also disagreement over how broad the fisheries deal should be.

There appears to be consensus around excluding fish-farming and continental fishing from subsidy constraints.

But some developing countries are calling for fuel subsidies, including through tax deduction schemes like those widely used in the EU, to be included in the deal — something the bloc flatly rejects.

Source: AFP

Lloyd’s List, a shipping industry journal, says its “rough calculations” suggest that the massive container vessel Ever Given, which has blocked Egypt’s Suez Canal since Tuesday, is halting about $9.6 billion worth of daily marine traffic.

Lloyd’s List puts westbound traffic at around $5.1 billion a day and eastbound traffic at approximately $4.5 billion.

Satellite pictures released by Planet Labs Inc show the 400-meter long vessel wedged diagonally across the entire canal, one of the busiest trade routes in the world.

Lloyd’s estimates that about 165 vessels are waiting to transit the waterway, while data compiled by Bloomberg show that the figure is 185.

The Suez Canal Authority (SCA) on Thursday announced it was “temporarily suspending navigation” along the waterway, which connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea and drastically shortens travel between Asia and Europe, as efforts by tugs and diggers to dislodge the vessel have failed.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s advisor on seaports, Mohab Mamish, told AFP late Thursday that “maritime navigation will resume again within 48-72 hours, maximum”.

“I have experience with several rescue operations of this kind and as the former chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, I know every centimeter of the canal,” Mamish added.

However, salvage experts had warned earlier on Thursday the Suez blockage could last days or even weeks.

Vortexa senior freight analyst, Arthur Richier, said about 13 million barrels of crude oil on 10 tankers could be affected by the disruption, adding nine vessels carrying clean petroleum products, along with biodiesel, sitting outside Suez, were awaiting the resumption of northbound convoys.

How long it takes to refloat the grounded megaship will dictate further impact on markets.

According to shipping data compiled by Bloomberg, around 300 vessels globally are either stuck in the Suez Canal, waiting to transit the waterway or signaling it as their next destination.

Amid the continued closure of the waterway, shiping giants are looking into re-routing cargo ships around the southern tip of Africa.

Japanese ship-leasing firm Shoei Kisen Kaisha, the owner of the giant vessel, said it was facing “extreme difficulty” trying to refloat it.

“We sincerely apologize for causing a great deal of worry to ships in the Suez Canal and those planning to go through the canal,” it said in a statement.

On Wednesday, historic sections of the canal were reopened in a bid to ease the congestion.

In 2018, the canal was temporarily shut after a Greek-owned bulk carrier suffered engine failure that led to a five-ship collision.

Source: Presstv

A cargo container ship that’s among the largest in the world has turned sideways and blocked all traffic in Egypt’s Suez Canal, officials said Wednesday, threatening to disrupt a global shipping system already strained by the coronavirus pandemic.

The MV Ever Given, a Panama-flagged container ship that carries trade between Asia and Europe, became grounded Tuesday in the narrow, man-made waterway dividing continental Africa from the Sinai Peninsula.

It wasn’t immediately clear what caused the Ever Given to turn sideways in the canal. GAC, a global shipping and logistics company, described the Ever Given as suffering “a blackout while transiting in a northerly direction,” without elaborating.

Evergreen Marine Corp., a major Taiwan-based shipping company that operates the ship, said in a statement provided to The Associated Press that the Ever Given had been overcome by strong winds as it entered the Suez Canal from the Red Sea but none of its containers had sunk.

An Egyptian official, who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity as he wasn’t authorized to brief journalists similarly blamed a strong wind in the area for the incident. Egyptian forecasters said high winds and a sandstorm plagued the area Tuesday, with winds gusting as much as 50 kph (31 mph).

Source: AFP

Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala looks set to be confirmed Monday as the first woman and first African leader of the beleaguered World Trade Organization, a near-paralysed institution desperately needing a kick-start.

The WTO has called a special general council meeting at which the former Nigerian finance minister and World Bank veteran is expected to be formally selected as the global trade body’s new director-general.

US President Joe Biden strongly swung behind her candidacy shortly after the only other remaining contender, South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, pulled out.

“I look forward to finalising the process,” Okonjo-Iweala said on February 6 after securing the Biden administration’s support.

The organisation is also eager to conclude the drawn-out process, having been leaderless since Brazilian career diplomat Roberto Azevedo stepped down last August, a year ahead of schedule.

The process of picking one of eight candidates to succeed him had been expected to wrap up by November, but the administration of former US president Donald Trump blocked the consensus to appoint Okonjo-Iweala. 

‘Reform candidate’

The 66-year-old will not be at the WTO’s Geneva headquarters for Monday’s virtual session and it is not known when she would take up her duties.

The 164-member organisation’s special session gets under way at 1400 GMT and Okonjo-Iweala is scheduled to hold an online press conference two hours later.

The WTO picks its leaders through consensus-finding, so even though she is the only candidate still in the race — boasting US, EU and African backing — there is always the chance of a spanner being thrown in the works.

She will take over an organisation mired in multiple crises and struggling to help member states navigate the severe global economic slump triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Okonjo-Iweala argued during the race that she was best placed out of the eight candidates for the post to steer the WTO through the crises.

“I am a reform candidate,” she insisted.

She has among other things warned that growing protectionism and nationalism have been spurred on by the pandemic and insists barriers need to be lowered to help the world recover.

Even before Covid-19 battered the global economy, the WTO was weighed down by stalled trade talks and struggled to curb trade tensions between the United States and China.

The WTO also faced relentless attacks from Washington under Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump. Among other things, Trump brought the WTO’s dispute settlement appeal system to a grinding halt in late 2019.

‘Boldness, courage’

Okonjo-Iweala has said her priorities include getting long-blocked trade talks on fishery subsidies across the finish line and breathing life back into WTO’s Appellate Body.

Twice Nigeria’s finance minister (2003-2006 and 2011-2015) and its first female foreign minister in a two-month stint in 2006, Okonjo-Iweala is seen as a trailblazer in her west African homeland.

She has brushed off claims she lacks experience as a trade minister or negotiator, insisting that what is needed to lead the WTO is not technical skills but “boldness, courage”.

She has portrayed herself as a champion against Nigeria’s rampant corruption — saying her own mother was even kidnapped over her attempts to tackle the scourge.

But her critics argue she should have done more to tackle it while in power.

A development economist by training with degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Okonjo-Iweala has also had a 25-year career as a development economist at the World Bank, eventually becoming its number two.

She is on the Twitter board of directors and chaired Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

(AFP)

New Age has received formal approval from Cameroon’s government to apply for a new Etinde Exploitation Agreement (EEA) for the Etinde offshore license.

The existing EEA came into force by presidential decree in January 2015.

According to New Age’s partner Bowleven, the new EEA would cover production of hydrocarbons, including delivery of gas to thermal power plants or other projects confirmed by the state.

The decision followed discussions with the state oil and gas company, Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures (SNH).

Eli Chahin, CEO of Bowleven, said: “This is very positive news for the Etinde development, as it essentially eliminates the possibility of the government of Cameroon removing the Etinde license from the JV partners, following the end of the initial six-year development implementation period in January 2021.”

Bowleven expects the partners to take a final investment decision on the license later this year.

Source: Offshore-mag.com

A historic deal on the UK’s future trading and security relationship with the European Union has been struck on Christmas Eve, a week before the end of the Brexit transition period.

As the country leaves the single market and customs union on 31 December, new arrangements allowing for tariff-free trade in goods and close police and judicial cooperation will come into force.

The announcement followed a final call between Boris Johnson in Downing Street and the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, in her Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels – at least the fifth such telephone conversation over the last 24 hours.

The trade agreement – running to 2,000 pages – is unprecedented in scope, containing provisions on subjects varying from civil nuclear cooperation and energy interconnections to fishing and aviation.

A No.10 spokesman said: “The Deal is done. Everything that the British public was promised during the 2016 referendum and in the general election last year is delivered by this deal.

“We have taken back control of our money, borders, laws, trade and our fishing waters. The deal is fantastic news for families and businesses in every part of the UK. We have signed the first free trade agreement based on zero tariffs and zero quotas that has ever been achieved.”

Von der Leyen was more sombre in her comments at a press conference in Brussels.

“At the end of a successful negotiation I normally feel joy. But today I only feel quiet satisfaction and frankly speaking relief,” she said. “I know this is a difficult day for some and to our friends in the United Kingdom, I want to say parting is such sweet sorrow but to use the line from TS Elliot, what we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is often a beginning. So to all Europeans I think it is time to leave Brexit behind.”

The deal guarantees “zero tariff and zero quota” trade on goods worth £668bn in 2019. But it will also mean significant costs to businesses as exporters face a host of border checks from 1 January and its ends freedom of movement for most UK nationals.

The Downing Street spokesman said, however, that the agreement would guarantee that the UK was “no longer in the lunar pull of the EU, we are not bound by EU rules, there is no role for the European Court of Justice and all of our key red lines about returning sovereignty have been achieved”.

The statement went on: “It means that we will have full political and economic independence on 1st January 2021. A points-based immigration system will put us in full control of who enters the UK and free movement will end

“We have delivered this great deal for the entire United Kingdom in record time, and under extremely challenging conditions, which protects the integrity of our internal market and Northern Ireland’s place within it.

“We have got Brexit done and we can now take full advantage of the fantastic opportunities available to us as an independent trading nation, striking trade deals with other partners around the world.”

The prime minister told his cabinet late on Wednesday night that the deal respected the sovereignty of both sides, as he urged senior figures to help him sell it.

On Wednesday, the Brexiter European Research Group of Conservative MPs said it would ask a self-styled “star chamber” of lawyers to scrutinise the terms before giving its support.

The agreement avoids a no-deal exit that the Office for Budget Responsibility had warned would reduce Britain’s economic output by £40bn in 2021 and cost more than 300,000 jobs.

The UK left the EU on 31 January but has benefited from continued membership of the single market and customs union over the last year, with British citizens retaining the right to freedom of movement around the bloc.

The end of the transition period will bring widespread changes for British businesses and citizens, as a new chapter in the country’s relationship with its neighbours begins.

Businesses will face extra paperwork and costs when trading with the UK’s biggest export market. Freedom of movement for most UK nationals will end, with restrictions imposed on stays in EU member states. As a “third country” to the EU, coronavirus travel restrictions could be imposed on UK nationals as of 1 January.

The agreement will nevertheless be a matter of huge relief to millions of people on both sides, four and a half years since the UK decided to leave the EU in June 2016. The negotiations, staged in Brussels and London, had weaved precariously through a pandemic, appearing doomed to failure at several points.

Only two weeks ago, Johnson told the cabinet to prepare for a no-deal exit, warning the public that such an eventuality was “very, very likely”.

The sticking points at the end of the talks had been on EU access to British fishing waters and Brussels’ demand for rules that would ensure neither side could gain a competitive advantage in trade as their rulebook diverged over time.

In the final days, it had been future EU access and quotas in British fishing waters, an issue of small economic impact but high political salience for both sides, that was the difference between a deal and a breakdown in talks.

The EU had offered a six-year transition period for phasing in a 25% reduction in the catch by value taken by European fleets in British waters, with access guaranteed to a six to 12 nautical mile zone from the British coastline.

Downing Street had tabled a counter-proposal of a three-year transition period with a 60% reduction – and no access to the nautical zone.

The compromise involves a transition period of five and a half years to phase in the changes, according to sources, with the UK accepting a 25% repatriation of quotas. But Downing Street has knocked back attempts by the EU to establish a mechanism under which changes to the quotas in the future could lead to tariffs on British exports. The issue had been key to No 10’s claims to have taken back control of British waters.

Following the announcement of a deal, the European commission sent the draft treaty to the member states. Should the 27 capitals be content with the deal, ministers on the council of the EU will agree on provisional application of the agreement on 1 January.

EU ambassadors were due to meet on Thurday morning to take the first step. The European parliament declined to stage a vote of consent this year given the lack of time for scrutiny. MEPs will have their say later next month.

Source: The Guardian

Shares of gun makers have been gaining ground as Democratic candidate Joe Biden leads polls, and if he wins the presidential election in November there are expectations of a renewed surge in gun sales that could drive shares even higher.

Shares of Smith & Wesson Brands and Sturm Ruger  have both rallied around 8% since late September, mirroring Biden’s widening lead in the polls since his debate against President Donald Trump. The S&P 500 is up 4% in that period.

Fears about the coronavirus pandemic, civil unrest related to protests over racial justice and worries about a potentially disputed presidential election on Nov. 3 have created a surge in gun demand this year. Smith & Wesson CEO Mark Smith last month said the industry was unable to keep up with demand.

A victory by Biden and his vice presidential running mate Kamala Harris, who favor increased gun regulation, could further stoke demand for firearms – and shares of firearms makers – particularly if Democrats wrest control of the Senate from Republicans, giving them majorities in both houses of Congress and making it easier to approve legislation.

“Should we see a Biden-Harris administration get elected, I would anticipate a surge in sales of modern sporting rifles, high-capacity magazines and corresponding ammunition,” said Aegis Capital analyst Rommel Dionisio, using an industry term for military-style rifles, a high-margin product category for firearm manufacturers.

An aggregation of betting odds by RealClearPolitics reflects a 65% chance Biden will defeat Trump, up from 55% before the Sept. 29 presidential debate.

Smith & Wesson’s stock is up 135% this year, while Sturm Ruger has gained 51%.

Shares of Sturm Ruger surged nearly 900% in the eight years from Democratic President Barack Obama’s election victory in November 2008 to the November 2016 election, which Trump won. Sturm Ruger is up just 10% during Trump’s nearly years in office. During the same 2008 to 2016 period, the S&P 500 rose about 113%.

Biden has promised to prohibit the sale of military-style rifles and high-capacity magazines, similar to a 10-year ban that expired in 2004. He also promises to require owners of military-style weapons to either sell them to the government or register them with the government.

Shares of gun makers surged ahead of the 2016 election on expectations Democratic candidate Hilary Clinton would win. Trump’s victory drove the industry into a two-year slump, with customers no longer worried they would lose access to firearms.

Firearm sales surged anew in 2020 due to fears related to the pandemic, and following social unrest in several U.S. cities and calls to defund police departments.

Federal background checks, a proxy for firearm sales to U.S. consumers, in the first nine months of 2020 reached 28.8 million, even before the typically busy holiday shopping season, topping the record 28.4 million checks done in the 2019 full year.

First-time buyers made up 40% of gun sales in early 2020, compared to an average of 24% in recent years, according to a survey of gun shops by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association.

Even if Trump wins a second term and dispels expectations of gun control measures, the potential for renewed protests against across the deeply divided country could drive additional demand for handguns for self-defense, Dionisio said.

(Source: Reuters)