by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodities, Commodities News, Economy, Markets, Medium Enterprise, News
Canberra : Australia and Brazil have decided to escalate a trade dispute with India over sugar subsidies before the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Canberra said.
Trade Minister Simon Birmingham announced this late Wednesday after it was decided that subsidies paid to Indian sugar farmers was leading to an abundant global supply of sugar and significantly lower prices, disadvantaging other country’s farmers.
The global sugar price has hit a 10-year low, crippling sugar farmers in Australia who have also had to combat drought and floods, he said.
“That’s hurting canegrowers and sugar millers whether they’re in Australia, Brazil, or any other country in the world,” Birmingham told reporters.
Birmingham said that Australia has voiced its concerns to India to no avail, leaving the government with “no other choice but to initiate formal WTO dispute action, together with Brazil”, Xinhua news agency said.
“Last year, we saw around 1 billion Australian dollars (AUD) of additional new subsidies to Indian sugar farmers,” he said.
According to the Australian Sugar Mining Council, the subsidies could amount to 360 million AUD in losses for Australian farmers over the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 financial years.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Caracas : Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Thursday ordered the country’s southern border with Brazil be sealed off, media reported.
“I have decided: in south Venezuela, starting at 8 p.m. today Thursday (February 21), the land border with Brazil will be totally and absolutely closed,” said Maduro.
The measure will be in effect until further notice, the president said during a meeting with the high command of the National Bolivarian Armed Forces.
The move comes amid what he called “provocation” from Brazil’s right-wing government, reports Xinhua news agency.
Venezuela is also considering sealing its border with Colombia, he added.
“I don’t want to have to make these types of decisions, but I am evaluating it — the total closure of the border with Colombia,” said Maduro.
Both Colombia and Brazil have aligned themselves with Venezuela’s right-wing opposition and its campaign to oust Maduro and the ruling socialist PSUV party from power.
The president called on Colombia’s armed forces to refrain from taking part in the Washington-orchestrated maneuvers, including an announced February 23 attempt to deliver humanitarian aid, which Venezuelan officials believe is a pretext for military intervention.
The responsibility “for any outbreak of violence on the border between Colombia and Venezuela rests on (Colombian President) Ivan Duque,” Maduro said.
According to Maduro, Duque informed his US counterpart Donald Trump that “he does not have the backing of the Colombian armed forces for an attack on Venezuela.”
On Wednesday, Caracas announced the indefinite suspension of air and maritime connections with the neighbouring islands of Aruba, Curacao and Bonaire, which face Venezuela’s Caribbean coast.
Political tensions between the government and opposition groups in Venezuela came to a head after Maduro was sworn in to a new term on January 10.
The opposition, which largely boycotted the presidential elections in May, refuses to recognize Maduro’s re-election win and has been demanding a new round of voting.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Brasilia : Brazilian President-elect Jair Bolsonaro plans to create a “super ministry” of economy when he takes office in January, his economic adviser has said.
The 63-year-old far-right leader, who previously suggested that Brazil could pull out of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change, plans to merge ministries agriculture and environment, an aide said.
The move, part of the incoming government’s push to cut spending, has drawn sharp criticism as it could endanger the Amazon region, the largest tropical rainforest in the world and home to plant and animal species that are still being discovered by scientists, the BBC reported.
Hundreds of Brazilians, mostly students, on Tuesday protested in several cities against Bolsonaro’s future plans and demanded that he respect democracy during his term in office.
Following behind-closed-door talks on Tuesday, Bolsonaro’s top economic adviser Paulo Guedes confirmed that an economic super-ministry would be formed combining finance, planning, industry and trade.
Bolsonaro had already made it clear before the polls that the Paris climate pact requirements compromise the South American giant’s sovereignty over the Amazon region.
The goal is to reduce by half some 29 ministries by combining others, such as Agriculture and Environment, said Deputy Onyx Lorenzoni, who may become Bolsonaro’s next chief of staff.
In the run-up to the election, Bolsonaro, whose first foreign visits would be to Chile, Israel and the US — that according to him “share our worldview” — has said: “The future ministry will come from the productive sector.” However he was “open to negotiation on that issue”.
Bolsonaro swept to victory in Sunday’s election, easily beating his left-wing rival Fernando Haddad.
The former paratrooper is a deeply polarising figure who has in the past defended the actions of the country’s former military regime and said he is “in favour of dictatorship”.
His populist approach has led to some media dubbing him “Trump of the Tropics”. He is supported by the agribusiness lobby.
A former environment minister tweeted that the move was “tragic”.
“This disastrous decision will bring serious damage to Brazil and will pass on to consumers abroad the idea that all Brazilian agribusiness survives thanks to the destruction of forests,” Marina Silva said.
In the nation’s most emblematic city, Rio de Janeiro, over 200 people marched up the stairs of the Municipal Chamber with banners such as “No More Torture” or “Not Him” and shouting slogans against Bolsonaro and his ideology, Efe news reported.
However, these protests were much smaller than the Sunday celebrations that were witnessed on Bolsonaro’s victory. He will assume Office on January 1.
“There has been a deindustrialisation for more than 30 years. We are going to save Brazilian industry,” Guedes said.
Bolsonaro plans to be here on November 6 to meet with outgoing President Michel Temer.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Malala Yousafzai
Brasilia : Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai said here that voting is the most powerful weapon for change and improve the country and suggested that girls’ education should be a priority for every presidential candidate in Brazil’s forthcoming elections.
In a debate on education and the empowerment of women held in Sao Paulo, the young winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize on Monday stressed that voting is power and it is now in the hands of every Brazilian, so they should use this power to choose the one that will best represent them, reports Efe news.
In front of Brazilian activists and educators, Yousafzai, 20, said that girls’ education in the long term is the most worthwhile investment and should be the top priority in the campaigns of those who vie for the presidency of Brazil in the elections in October.
“Education is more than just about learning and reading. It was about emancipation. It was about empowerment of women,” Yousafzai told some 800 members of the audience in the Ibirapuera Park Auditorium.
Yousafzai also announced that she will launch her personal project very soon in Brazil to promote girls’ education, although she did not offer details about the initiative.
According to the activist, it is estimated that some 1.5 million women in the South American country have been denied this basic right.
Yousafzai, one of the most well-known and influential figures for her fight for women’s rights, was shot by the Taliban at age 15 for her campaign for and defence of girls’ right to go to school.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | World
Minister Coelho, right, and Minister Ferreira, center, with Dr Birol in Brazilia as Brazil joins the IEA as an Association country
Brasilia : Brazil has joined the International Energy Agency (IEA) as an association nation, a move that will further drive the country to develop clean energy, a media report said.
Brazilian Minister of Mines and Energy Fernando Coelho Filho and IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol signed a three-year working program here on Tuesday that details cooperation between the two sides, Xinhua news agency reported.
“We are taking another important step to place Brazil at the centre of global debate on key energy policy issues, including renewable energy, energy efficiency, rational use of fossil fuels, energy security and sustainable development,” Coelho said.
The IEA said Brazil’s decision to join the agency will open “new avenues for cooperation towards a more secure and sustainable energy future with Latin America’s largest country.”
Brazil, which is part of the BRICS nation, relies on hydroelectric power plants and bio-energy. In addition, the country has significant potential in developing wind and solar power.
—IANS
