US President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law free-trade pacts with South Korea, Panama and Colombia that were long delayed over implementation wrangles and political disputes in Washington.
Obama also signed an extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program that helps US workers who lose jobs to foreign competition, which he insisted upon before sending the deals to Congress for ratification.
The president ratified the deals, which he says will support tens of thousands of jobs and promote good labor practices, a week after they were endorsed by wide margins in Congress.
By his side as he signed the pacts in the Oval Office were US business leaders, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and the ambassadors to Washington of South Korea, Panama and Colombia.
Obama later called Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and President Ricardo Martinelli of Panama to congratulate them over the deals and stress the importance of properly implementing them.
“The president noted that the agreements indicate the deep and enduring ties between the United States and both Colombia and Panama,” the White House said in a statement.
Obama last week described the deals, which were passed despite opposition from some US unions, as a major win for US workers and businesses and as engines of economic growth.
The Obama administration says the deals will boost US exports by US$13 billion and benefit US agriculture and manufacturing, as well as bolster diplomatic ties with all three countries.
The pacts’ Republican and Democratic backers raced to pass them on the eve of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s speech to a joint session of the US Congress last week.
However, many Democrats, notably from the hard-hit US heartland, expressed worries about possible US job losses.
The Business Roundtable, an umbrella grouping of chief executives, praised the pacts and said it was now time to expand the US trade agenda.
“It’s now time to build on this milestone and focus on the future,” said Jim McNerney, the chief executive of Boeing and chairman of the roundtable. “With 95 percent of the world’s consumers living outside the United States, our manufacturers, service providers and farmers stand to benefit from a fair and accountable international trading system.”
He said that pursuing new international trade and investment initiatives “will open new markets for businesses of all sizes and fuel US economic growth and job creation.”
“If we do not seize the opportunity to lead, others will, and the accompanying economic benefits will accrue to their nations rather than ours,” he added.
When Shanghai-based designer Guo Qingshan posted a vacation photo on Valentine’s Day and captioned it “Puppy Mountain,” it became a sensation in China and even created a tourist destination. Guo had gone on a hike while visiting his hometown of Yichang in central China’s Hubei Province late last month. When reviewing the photographs, he saw something he had not noticed before: A mountain shaped like a dog’s head rested on the ground next to the Yangtze River, its snout perched at the water’s edge. “It was so magical and cute. I was so excited and happy when I discovered it,” Guo said.
TURNAROUND: The Liberal Party had trailed the Conservatives by a wide margin, but that was before Trump threatened to make Canada the US’ 51st state Canada’s ruling Liberals, who a few weeks ago looked certain to lose an election this year, are mounting a major comeback amid the threat of US tariffs and are tied with their rival Conservatives, according to three new polls. An Ipsos survey released late on Tuesday showed that the left-leaning Liberals have 38 percent public support and the official opposition center-right Conservatives have 36 percent. The Liberals have overturned a 26-point deficit in six weeks, and run advertisements comparing the Conservative leader to Trump. The Conservative strategy had long been to attack unpopular Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, but last month he
Chinese authorities said they began live-fire exercises in the Gulf of Tonkin on Monday, only days after Vietnam announced a new line marking what it considers its territory in the body of water between the nations. The Chinese Maritime Safety Administration said the exercises would be focused on the Beibu Gulf area, closer to the Chinese side of the Gulf of Tonkin, and would run until tomorrow evening. It gave no further details, but the drills follow an announcement last week by Vietnam establishing a baseline used to calculate the width of its territorial waters in the Gulf of Tonkin. State-run Vietnam News
PROBE: Last week, Romanian prosecutors launched a criminal investigation against presidential candidate Calin Georgescu accusing him of supporting fascist groups Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in Romania’s capital on Saturday in the latest anti-government demonstration by far-right groups after a top court canceled a presidential election in the EU country last year. Protesters converged in front of the government building in Bucharest, waving Romania’s tricolor flags and chanting slogans such as “down with the government” and “thieves.” Many expressed support for Calin Georgescu, who emerged as the frontrunner in December’s canceled election, and demanded they be resumed from the second round. George Simion, the leader of the far-right Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), which organized the protest,
RSS