Ash spewed by a Philippine volcano is being mixed with plastic waste to make bricks in an inventive response to the country’s persistent problems of pollution and frequent natural disasters.

The Taal volcano burst into life nearly a week ago, sending towering dust columns into the sky and leaving nearby Binan city coated in fine grey powder.

Environment officials did not just clean up the mess but decided to combine the ash with sand, cement and discarded plastic to form about 5,000 bricks per day for local building projects.

“Instead of just piling up the ashfall somewhere, we are able to turn it into something useful. And it includes plastics, too,” said city environmental officer Rodelio Lee.

The Philippines faces a waste crisis, with a report last year saying it uses a “shocking” amount of single-use plastic, including nearly 60 billion throwaway sachets per year.

It is also plagued by some 20 major storms annually and regular, powerful earthquakes which together kill hundreds of people each year.

Due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” zone of seismic activity, it also has periodic volcanic eruptions.

Taal’s jets of lava and 15-kilometer (nine-mile) walls of ash have sent more than 70,000 people into evacuation centres and prompted warnings that a far bigger eruption could happen at any time.

With volcanic ash and plastic both in plentiful supply, the officials in Binan see their project as a silver lining.

“During these times, our creativity becomes apparent,” said the mayor of Binan, Arman Dimaguila.

Source: AFP

The United States and China signed an initial trade deal on Wednesday that will roll back some tariffs and boost Chinese purchases of U.S. products, defusing an 18-month row between the world’s two largest economies but leaving a number of sore spots unresolved.

Beijing and Washington touted the “Phase 1” agreement as a step forward after months of start-and-stop talks, and investors greeted the news with relief. Even so, there was skepticism the U.S.-China trade relationship was now firmly on the mend.

The deal fails to address structural economic issues that led to the trade conflict, does not fully eliminate the tariffs that have slowed the global economy, and sets hard-to-achieve purchase targets, analysts and industry leaders said.

While acknowledging the need for further negotiations with China to solve a host of other problems, President Donald Trump hailed the agreement as a win for the U.S. economy and his administration’s trade policies.

“Together, we are righting the wrongs of the past and delivering a future of economic justice and security for American workers, farmers and families,” Trump said in rambling remarks at the White House alongside U.S. and Chinese officials.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He read a letter from President Xi Jinping in which the Chinese leader praised the deal as a sign the two countries could resolve their differences with dialogue.

The centerpiece of the deal is a pledge by China to purchase at least an additional $200 billion worth of U.S. farm products and other goods and services over two years, above a baseline of $186 billion in purchases in 2017, the White House said.

Commitments include $54 billion in additional energy purchases, $78 billion in additional manufacturing purchases, $32 billion more in farm products, and $38 billion in services, according to a deal document released by the White House.

Liu said Chinese companies would buy $40 billion in U.S. agricultural products annually over the next two years “based on market conditions.” Beijing had balked at committing to buy set amounts of U.S. farm goods earlier, and has inked new soybean contracts with Brazil since the trade war started.

Key world stock market indexes climbed to record highs on hopes the deal would reduce tensions, before closing below those highs, while oil prices slid on doubts the pact will spur world economic growth and boost crude demand.

Soybean futures, which traded 0.4% lower throughout much of the deal signing ceremony, sank even further after Liu’s remarks, a sign that farmers and traders were dubious about the purchase goals.

The deal does not end retaliatory tariffs on American farm exports, makes farmers “increasingly reliant” on Chinese state-controlled purchases, and does not address “big structural changes,” Michelle Erickson-Jones, a wheat farmer and spokeswoman for Farmers for Free Trade, said in a statement.

Trump and his economic advisers had pledged to attack Beijing’s long-standing practice of propping up state-owned companies and flooding international markets with low-priced goods as the trade war heated up.

Although the deal could be a boost to U.S. farmers, automakers and heavy equipment manufacturers, some analysts question China’s ability to divert imports from other trading partners to the United States.

“I find a radical shift in Chinese spending unlikely. I have low expectations for meeting stated goals,” said Jim Paulsen, chief investment strategist at Leuthold Group in Minneapolis. “But I do think the whole negotiation has moved the football forward for both the U.S. and China.”

Trump, who has embraced an “America First” policy aimed at rebalancing global trade in favor of U.S. companies and workers, said China had pledged action to confront the problem of pirated or counterfeited goods and said the deal included strong protection of intellectual property rights.

U.S. Speaker of the House of Representative Nancy Pelosi said Trump’s China strategy had “inflicted deep, long-term damage to American agriculture and rattled our economy in exchange for more of the promises that Beijing has been breaking for years,” in a statement.

Earlier, top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Fox News the agreement would add 0.5 percentage point to U.S. gross domestic product growth in both 2020 and 2021.

Aviation industry sources said Boeing Co was expected to win a major order for wide-body jets from China, including its 787 or 777-9 models, or a mixture of both. Such a deal could ease pressure on the 787 Dreamliner, which has suffered from a broad downturn in demand for large jets, forcing the planemaker to trim production late last year.

CCTV, China’s state-run television outlet, said the deal would satisfy China’s increasingly demanding consumers by supplying products like dairy, poultry, beef, pork, and processed meat from the United States.

Source REUTERS

The German government on Tuesday agreed to pump 62 billion euros into modernising its rail network system, as part of a wider plan to incite commuters to opt for greener public transport options.

“We’ve just signed the most important programme of modernisation ever in Germany,” said Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer, adding that “this is the decade for railway”.

Besides the massive sum stumped up by the state, equivalent to $69 billion, German rail operator Deutsche Bahn will also plow an additional 24 billion euros into the renewal programme.

The investments will go towards “replacing obsolete installations”, improving access to disabled passengers as well as renovating rail bridges, said Scheuer.

Deutsche Bahn chief Richard Lutz also vowed to improve punctuality of trains — a key turn-off for commuters, even though he also called for patience in view of the disruptions that rail upgrading will undoubtedly bring.

Getting more people to switch to trains instead of the more polluting cars or planes is a central plank of a government climate package aimed at helping Germany lower its emissions by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

As part of the package, train fares are going down while air travel prices are set to rise with higher taxes to be imposed.

Source: AFP

Boeing Corp. has released hundreds of internal messages that contained harshly critical comments about the development of the 737 MAX, including one that said the plane was “designed by clowns who in turn are supervised by monkeys.”

The messages, disclosed on Thursday, show attempts to duck regulatory scrutiny with employees disparaging the plane, the company, the Federal Aviation Administration and foreign aviation regulators.

In an instant messaging exchange on February 8, 2018 — when the plane was in the air and eight months before the first of two fatal crashes, an employee asks another: “Would you put your family on a MAX simulator trained aircraft? I wouldn’t.”

The second employee responds, “No.”

The 737 MAX has been grounded since March after an Ethiopian Airlines flight nose-dived, just five months after a similar Lion Air crash. The two disasters killed 346.

In particular, some of the communications reveal efforts by Boeing to avoid making pilot simulator training – an expensive and time-consuming process — a requirement for the 737 MAX.

The aircraft manufacturer changed tack just this week, saying it would recommend pilots do simulator training before they resume flying the 737 MAX – a major shift from its long-held position that computer-based training was sufficient as the plane was similar to its predecessor, the 737 NG.

The release of the messages, which highlight an aggressive culture of cost-cutting and disrespect towards the FAA, is set to deepen the crisis at Boeing which is struggling to get its best-selling plane back in the air and restore public confidence.

The FAA said, however, that the messages do not raise new safety concerns although “the tone and content of some of the language contained in the documents is disappointing.”

Boeing said the communications “do not reflect the company we are and need to be, and they are completely unacceptable.”

Pearly gates closed

The disclosure, which Boeing said was in the interest of transparency with the FAA, prompted renewed outrage from US lawmakers and puts more pressure on Boeing’s new CEO David Calhoun to overhaul the company’s corporate culture when he takes the reins on Monday.

House Transportation Committee Chairman, Peter DeFazio, who has been investigating the 737MAX, said the messages “paint a deeply disturbing picture of the lengths Boeing was, apparently, willing to go to in order to evade scrutiny from regulators, flight crews, and the flying public, even as its own employees were sounding alarms internally.”

Senator Roger Wicker, who chairs the commerce committee leading the Senate’s probe into Boeing, also said the latest documents “raise questions about the efficacy of the FAA’s oversight of the certification process.”

The US Justice Department has an active criminal investigation underway into matters related to the 737 MAX aircraft.

Some of the messages pointed to problems with the simulators. Boeing said on Thursday it is confident “all of Boeing’s MAX simulators are functioning effectively” after repeated testing since the messages were written.

The messages, however, show Boeing was doing all it could to lobby aviation regulators to avoid the need for airlines to train pilots in a simulator on the differences between the 737 MAX and the 737 NG.

“I want to stress the importance of holding firm that there will not be any type of simulator training required to transition from NG to MAX,” Boeing’s 737 chief technical pilot said in a March 2017 email.

“Boeing will not allow that to happen. We’ll go face to face with any regulator who tries to make that a requirement.”

Before the grounding, pilot training on the differences consisted of a one-hour lesson on an iPad and no time in the simulator, according to the union representing pilots at American Airlines.

Shukor Yusof, the head of Malaysia-based aviation consultancy Endau Analytics, said Boeing should get credit for disclosing the “destructive diatribes.”

“Initially the flying public will understandably have reservations but the aircraft – having been completely and responsibly resurrected – will likely be one of the safest planes around,” he said.

In other emails and instant messages, employees spoke of their frustration with the company’s culture, complaining about the drive to find the cheapest suppliers and “impossible schedules.”

“I don’t know how to fix these things…it’s systemic. It’s culture. It’s the fact we have a senior leadership team that understand very little about the business and yet are driving us to certain objectives,” said an employee in an email dated June 2018.

And in a May 2018 message, an unnamed Boeing employee said: “I still haven’t been forgiven by god for the covering up I did last year.”

Without referencing what was covered up, the employee added, “Can’t do it one more time. The Pearly gates will be closed…”

(Source: Reuters)

Prosecutors in Japan on Tuesday obtained an arrest warrant for Carole Ghosn, wife of former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn, who last month jumped bail and fled the country.

The warrant was issued as the fallout from the escape of one of Japan’s most high-profile criminal suspects continues, with authorities pledging tighter border controls and seizing the bail money that Ghosn forfeited by fleeing the country.

He had been facing trial in Japan on charges of financial misconduct, which he denies, before fleeing the country in late December for Lebanon, where he was reunited with his wife.

In a statement, prosecutors said they had obtained the warrant on suspicion that Carole Ghosn “made false statements” during April testimony to the Tokyo district court about meetings with an unnamed individual.

He had been freed on bail after agreeing to strict conditions, with prosecutors arguing he posed a flight risk.

The conditions included restrictions on contact with Carole, which was reportedly among the reasons he decided to jump bail and flee the country in an elaborately planned escape that has outraged Japanese officials.

– Elaborate escape plan –

Ghosn’s second wife, Carole vocally led the campaign for her husband’s freedom, insisting on his innocence and slamming Japanese prosecutors for what she deemed ill-treatment after his shock November 19, 2018 arrest.

She was initially prevented from seeing her husband, who was held in detention for more than 100 days after his arrest, and petitioned everyone from French President Emmanuel Macron to the White House in seeking his release.

Ghosn, a globe-trotting auto titan who was once a giant of the industry, accuses executives at Japanese automaker Nissan of manufacturing the allegations against him in a “plot” to prevent closer integration with alliance partner Renault.

The warrant for Carole’s arrest comes as Japanese authorities piece together how Ghosn was able to evade surveillance and airport security.

Snippets have emerged suggesting he was aided by a security expert, and took advantage of loopholes in security at Japan’s Kansai airport.

He appears to have left his residence in Tokyo, which was monitored by surveillance cameras under his bail conditions, alone. He reportedly later met up with two US citizens and boarded a bullet train to Osaka on December 29.

In Osaka, he is reported to have been put into a large box with holes drilled into it to ensure he could breathe and then loaded onto a private jet that flew to Istanbul.

Airport security rules meant large items loaded onto private planes were exempt from screening — a loophole that appears to have allowed Ghosn to escape unnoticed.

– Ghosn plans press conference –

In Istanbul he boarded a second private jet that took him to Lebanon, where he entered on a French passport.

Under his bail conditions, his French, Lebanese and Brazilian passports were confiscated and held by his lawyers.

But he was allowed to retain a second French passport — in a locked case with the key held by his lawyers — so he could prove his short-term visa status if needed when travelling in Japan — which was allowed in the terms of his bail.

His lawyers in Japan said they had no idea about Ghosn’s plans to escape, with his lead attorney saying he learned of the news from the media.

Interpol, the international police cooperation body, has issued a “red notice” for Carlos Ghosn’s arrest, but Beirut and Tokyo do not have an extradition treaty.

It was not immediately clear whether a similar notice would be issued for Carole Ghosn.

The shock arrest of the leading executive rocked the auto industry, where he was once a leading figure credited with turning around Nissan.

Ghosn alleges the case against him was manufactured by disgruntled Nissan executives and Japanese officials opposed to his plans to more closely integrate the firm with Renault.

He is due to give a press conference in Beirut on Wednesday, and has told Fox Business that he has “actual evidence” that will prove the charges were a plot against him.

Source:  AFP

Ousted Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn has escaped Japan, where he is facing charges of financial misconduct, and arrived in Lebanon, slamming the Japanese justice system as “rigged.”

“I am now in Lebanon and will no longer be held hostage by a rigged Japanese justice system where guilt is presumed, discrimination is rampant, and basic human rights are denied,” the 65-year-old Ghosn, who is of Lebanese origin, said in a brief statement on Tuesday.

“I have not fled justice — I have escaped injustice and political persecution. I can now finally communicate freely with the media, and look forward to starting next week,” he added.

It was unclear how Ghosn, who was out on bail, was able to escape Japan, where he had been under strict surveillance.

Japanese public broadcaster NHK cited an unidentified Lebanese security official as saying that a person resembling Ghosn had entered Beirut international airport under a different name after flying in aboard a private jet.

NHK also reported that Japanese immigration authorities had no record of Ghosn departing the country.

Ghosn, who holds French, Brazilian, and Lebanese citizenship, fell from grace in Japan after his arrest last year, but he still retains more popularity in Lebanon.

One of Ghosn’s lawyers said on Tuesday that his client’s three passports were held by his lawyers as required by the terms of his bail and he could not have used any of them to escape Japan.

Junichiro Hironaka, speaking to reporters in comments broadcast live by NHK, slammed Ghosn’s escape as “inexcusable.”

Ghosn was arrested at a Tokyo airport shortly after his private jet landed there in November 2018. He faces four charges, including enriching himself through payments to dealerships in the Middle East. He denies the charges.

Nissan dismissed him as chairman for misconduct.

Ghosn’s lawyers have asked the court to dismiss all charges, accusing prosecutors of colluding with government officials and Nissan executives to dismiss him to block any takeover by the Japanese automaker’s biggest shareholder Renault.

He was released in March on a nine-million-dollar bail, and was placed under surveillance.

Source: Presstv

US aerospace company Boeing has fired Chief Executive Officer Dennis Muilenburg, following a year of intense scrutiny and industrial setbacks set off by twin fatal crashes of its 737 MAX jetliner.

The management shakeup comes as the world’s largest planemaker struggles to win regulatory approvals for its grounded best-selling jetliner while trying to regain trust with passengers and airline customers.

Boeing’s chairman David Calhoun will take over as CEO and president, effective January 13, the company said Monday, adding that a change in leadership was necessary to restore confidence in the company.

The 737 MAX grounding was the biggest crisis of Muilenburg’s 34-year tenure at Boeing, where he started as an intern in 1985, rising through the company’s defense and services ranks to the top job in 2015.

The company said this month it would stop production of the 737 Max in January after the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Boeing was pushing for an unrealistically quick return of the grounded jets.

A senior industry source called the wording of Boeing’s statement “brutal”. Another said the decision was inevitable after spiraling pressures from the 737 production halt to a public slap-down from the FAA, topped off by an embarrassing space launch snafu on Friday.

Speculation that Muilenburg would be fired had been circulating in the industry for months, intensifying in October when the board stripped him of his chairman title.

A Boeing official said the board deliberated over the weekend and they made the decision to fire Muilenburg in a phone call on Sunday.

In keeping Muilenburg in the job as long as Boeing has, the company was ignoring elements of the classic crisis communications playbook used by other companies, said Paul Argenti, a professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business.

“You want to bring somebody from the outside to bring fresh perspective to ‘save the day,’” Argenti said. “He should have been gone a long time ago. He is part of the problem.”

The 737 Max was grounded worldwide after two crashes — one in October 2018 off the cost of Indonesia and another in March 2019 in Ethiopia — which killed a combined total of 346 people.

Investigators say that in both crashes, a faulty sensor caused the plane’s MCAS system to push the nose of the plane down and pilots were unable to regain control.

“This is something that we have been asking and struggling for quite some time,” said Ababu Amha, who lost his wife, a flight attendant, in the second crash involving an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft. “The CEO reluctantly and deliberately kept the aircraft in service after the Lion Air crash. The Ethiopian Airlines crash was a preventable accident.”

The resignation, however, is not enough, Amha said. “They should further be held accountable for their actions because what they did was a crime.”

(Source: Agencies)

Boeing’s temporary halt in production of its 737 MAX jet lays bare a deepening crisis that could soon weigh even more heavily on the American economy.

The aviation giant’s announcement late Monday put no timeframe on the stoppage. But Wall Street analysts immediately began accounting for a bigger earnings hit — with effects that could extend well into the 2020s as Boeing remains stuck in crisis mode after two deadly crashes.

Analysts said the halt will be a blow to key MAX suppliers, potentially dooming some companies, and will mar US growth through the loss of investment and exports on the macroeconomic ledger.

Boeing’s announcement “creates more questions than answers,” Bank of America analyst Ronald Epstein said in a client note, adding that both the length of the shutdown and its effects on the supply chain were crucial but unanswered questions.

Gregory Daco, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, put the hit to first-quarter growth at about 0.5 percent. Such a drag is “relatively large for one specific company,” Daco told AFP in an interview.

“The US is facing a number of headwinds and the US economy is cooling as we head into 2020,” he said. “So this is a shock.”

Shutdown floated in July

Halting production puts into effect a scenario the company first floated in July as a contingency measure.

A stoppage “is not something we want to do but it is an alternative we have to prepare for as a smart part of our thorough and disciplined process here to make sure we’re covering all scenarios,” Boeing’s Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg said at the time.

Boeing in April cut production on the plane to 42 from 52, weeks after the second of two deadly crashes that together killed 346 people.

Since mentioning the possibility of the halt, Muilenburg and other executives had indicated a strong preference against the idea because of its effect on the Boeing supply chain.

In October, Muilenburg said the company was in close contact with more than 600 US suppliers for the 737 program, many of the them “small and medium-sized businesses that have also been affected by the 737 grounding.”

But Boeing on Monday opted for the temporary shutdown, saying the move was necessary because of a lengthier-than-expected regulatory process and the need to safely deliver some 400 airplanes that have been built and stored since the grounding in March.

“It is our plan that affected employees will continue 737-related work or be temporarily assigned to other teams in Puget Sound,” Boeing said.

The company said it will continue to keep “our customers, employees and supply chain top of mind as we continue to assess appropriate actions.”

The announcement came four days after Boeing conceded that the MAX would not return to the skies before 2020, an acknowledgement that came only after the Federal Aviation Administration publicly criticized Boeing’s return-to-service schedule as unrealistic.

Drag on 2023 earnings?

For Boeing itself, analysts at JPMorgan Chase estimated a potential impact at more than $1 billion per month to maintain staff and supply chain resources throughout the production halt.

But there will be a bigger overall drag to revenues from the pushing out of new plane deliveries, an action that likely also increasing Boeing compensation payments to airlines, analysts said.

On Tuesday, Southwest Airlines again extended its grounding of the MAX due to regulatory uncertainty, this time through April 13, 2020.

The stoppage also almost certainly scotches Boeing’s plan — confirmed as recently as October — to fully restore output on the MAX to 52 per month before raising production to 57 per month by the end of 2020.

Morningstar said such a ramp-up was “unlikely” and that MAX profit margins would be negatively affected by the crisis through 2023.

“We believe the supply chain will be unable to easily increase production to its highest-ever levels after a total shutdown,” Morningstar said in the note.

A key question concerns supply companies, especially if there is a prolonged shutdown. These include Spirit Aerosystems, which builds fuselage systems for the MAX.

“We estimate that the supply chain could begin to lose players after three months of no orders from Boeing,” said Ernest Arvai of Air Insight.

“It may be the case that some smaller suppliers will either need financial assistance from Boeing or face insolvency, which would mean that Boeing would need to find new suppliers on the return to production.”

(Source: AFP)

Africa is on the cusp of a new period in its history, its renaissance. Freed from centuries of colonialism and neo-imperialism, Africa has the opportunity to become a center of economic might to provide prosperity to the continent’s growing population. Yet, at present, Africa unfortunately faces a new danger: Sino-imperialism, the risk of falling under the control of China largely through Chinese economic investment and loans. The People’s Republic of China has long supported African states since the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came to power in 1949. Under Mao, China’s backed African liberation movements in an effort to advance Maoism and offset Soviet and American influence. In much of Africa today, China is the imperialist power. 

China is in Africa now not to advance Maoism, but to control its resources, people, and potential. From building railways in Kenya and roads in rural Ethiopia to running mines in the Congo, China has drastically changed the African economic landscape in the twentieth century. China lent nearly $125 billion to Africa between 2000 and 2006 and recently pledged $60 billion at the 2018 Forum on China-Africa Co-operation. The Chinese superficially appear to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with Africa by providing financial and technical assistance to Africa’s pressing developmental needs. Trade between China and Africa has grown from $10 billion in 2000 to $190 billion by 2017. It is estimated that 12 percent of Africa industrial production, or $500 billion annually—nearly half of Africa’s internationally contracted construction market—is carried out by Chinese firms.

China’s activities in the African continent have yet to receive the attention they deserve in the West. China’s behavior in Africa is important for three major reasons. First, China is the source of significant investment capital twinned with a prodigious ability to create infrastructure, both of which are needed by many African states. Second, China’s behavior in Africa provides the rest of the world with insight into how it will behave towards other states, particularly the states of the Global South, as it becomes equal in power with the United States. Third, what China is doing in Africa does not augur well for the rest of the world. China’s activities and behavior in Africa may only be described as neo-colonial and exploitative of African peoples and the environment.

China’s abusive behavior towards African states has occurred for decades. In 2007, Guy Scott, the former agricultural minister in the Zambian government told The Guardian, “We’ve had bad people before. The whites were bad, the Indians were worse, but the Chinese are worst of all.” But Sino-imperialism is getting worse as China grows in power and seeks evermore resources.

There are copious examples of the negative consequences of Sino-imperialism. One archetypical case is the China National Petroleum Corporation, the state-owned oil and gas company, which is a major investor operating in South Sudanese oil fields. The Chinese pollute the local environment with impunity, resulting in children born with deformities, the poisoning of livestock, destruction of fertile land, and the pollution of rivers. Additionally, the Chinese cause environmental destruction in the Northern Upper Nile and Ruweng states affects the indigenous Dinka Padang communities of South Sudan. The Chinese help produce oil generating revenue and economic opportunities but are not bound with environmental standards.

The Chinese influence in South Sudan also results from road construction and infrastructure development. South Sudan will provide thirty thousand barrels per day of crude to the Export-Import Bank of China to fund the construction of roads and infrastructure development. This includes the construction of a 392-kilometer (244-mile) road from Juba to Rumbek and from Juba to Nadapal on the Kenyan border, which is being built by a Chinese firm using Chinese technology and manpower.

South Sudan’s neighbors, Ethiopia and Kenya, received loans for infrastructure projects from the Chinese. The Chinese Belt and Road Initiative has introduced dynamic infrastructure projects such as the Standard Gauge Railway. The railway connects Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. The railway was Ethiopia’s first railway in over a century and Africa’s first fully electrified line. The railways cuts travel time from the capital Addis Ababa to Djibouti from two days by road to twelve hours.

The Standard Gauge Railway appears to be providing revolutionary infrastructure to stimulate economic growth, but the details demand scrutiny. The project cost nearly $4.5 billion, partly financed by the China Export-Import Bank. The railway uses Chinese trains, Chinese construction companies, Chinese standards and specifications, and operated by the China Railway Group Limited (CREC) and China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation.

As might be expected from this Sino-imperialist project, the railway has been plagued with technical and financial challenges, which calls into question Ethiopia’s dependence on Chinese technology and debt-finance. The African country is struggling to repay its loan to China and reap the benefits of this dynamic infrastructure project. In 2018, Addis Ababa negotiated with China and structured its loan terms from fifteen to thirty years. In next door Kenya, as a result of heavy borrowing by the government, China may seize the port of Mombasa. According to Kenya’s Daily Nation newspaper, the terms are Draconian and state “neither the borrower [Kenya] nor any of its assets is entitled to any right of immunity on the grounds of sovereignty, with respect to its obligations.”

In addition to these abuses, the Chinese presence in Africa is defined by a purposeful isolation from the indigenous population. Chinese firms bring in their own drivers, construction workers, and support staff, denying these employment opportunities to Africans, and often live apart from the African societies in which they reside.

These activities are only an example of China’s abusive behavior in Africa. Africa endured colonialism and neo-imperialism for hundreds of years. Just as Africa has freed itself from those bonds, it needs to work with the West and other states to provide alternatives to Chinese money and infrastructure. The greatest threat Africa faces today is Sino-imperialism. It is now in danger of being captured by China’s sinister Sino-imperialism that will keep Africa from entering its renaissance.

Source: The National Interest

Cameroon has shrugged off U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement last week to suspend the country’s preferential trade status over alleged human rights abuses by security forces. 

Cameroonian economists say U.S. plans to withdraw the central African nation from the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beginning Jan. 1, 2020, would have little economic impact as bilateral trade is very low, making it mostly symbolic.

The 2000 law aims to stimulate U.S. trade and investment in sub-Saharan Africa by giving 39 countries duty-free access to the U.S. market.

But participants must work toward a market-based economy, upholding labor standards, establishing the rule of law, and respecting human rights.

University of Yaounde economist Gladys Mebenga said Cameroon can be an economic success without the U.S. trade support.

Cameroon’s export to the U.S. is less than 3 percent of its total exports, she said, adding that petroleum products, which form a majority of Cameroon’s trade exports, are in high demand by many of the 127 countries where Cameroon does business. 

Cameroon’s National Institute of Statistics reports that its leading trade partner in 2018 was China, which accounted for 23 percent of exports. The U.S. was in 12th position, importing 2.8 percent of Cameroon’s exported goods.

In a press release issued after Trump’s statement, the U.S. embassy in Yaounde said relations between Cameroon and the U.S. remain strong despite the change in AGOA status.

It said that in 2018, Cameroon exported roughly $220 million in goods and services to the U.S.; $63 million of it under AGOA, over 90 percent of which was crude oil.

Frederrick Ekouda, visiting economic analyst at the Catholic University of Central Africa, said there is little dependence on the U.S. market.

America is not the only destination where Cameroon can sell its petroleum products, he said, adding that Cameroon also has economic partners in Brazil, China, South Korea and Russia.

But while the loss of AGOA status may not have an immediate impact on Cameroon’s economy, it would be a black mark on the country’s record, according to rights groups.

Roger Essoh of the Center for the Protection of People Traumatized by Conflicts (CEPPTC) said that stigma could deter other nations from offering Cameroon such trade deals.

Cameroon willfully committed itself to respect the terms of AGOA, Essoh said, and it is imperative for President Paul Biya to fix the human rights record instead of allowing his country to continue to sink economically.

US accusations

Trump’s message to Congress said despite intensive engagement between the U.S. and Cameroon, Yaounde had failed to address persistent human rights violations by security forces. The allegations included extrajudicial killings, arbitrary and unlawful detention, and torture.

Cameroon’s government has denied frequent accusations of rights abuses in its fight against Anglophone separatists and Boko Haram militants.

Government spokesperson Rene Emmanuel Sadi said U.S. claims of gross violations are unfounded.

Cameroon’s military forces respect all human rights norms, he said, adding that they are restoring order and protecting Cameroon’s territorial integrity and the lives and properties of its people.

But rights groups point out evidence of abuses by both Cameroon’s military and the militants they are fighting.

Cameroon’s five-year fight against Boko Haram insurgents has left more than 27,000 people dead and two million displaced.

Since 2017, Yaounde’s conflict with Anglophone separatists has killed about 3,000 people.

VOA