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NEWHAVEN, United Kingdom (AFP) — As a row over post-Brexit fishing rights between Britain and France escalated on Thursday, British fishermen complained they were being worn down as their livelihoods were forgotten during the standoff. In Newhaven on Britain’s southern coast, the fishing town’s main quay was almost deserted as a week of bad weather forced the local fleet, comprised of small trawlers, to remain in harbour. But amid threats from Paris to target British […]
LUXEMBOURG, Luxembourg (AFP) – The impact of surging gas and electricity prices globally threatens the EU’s energy market, but the bloc will not react hastily, officials said on Tuesday. An emergency meeting of EU ministers in Luxembourg to discuss the issue largely backed 11 member countries in rejecting proposals from Spain and France for deep-rooted reforms to the market. The ministers recognised the price hikes “jeopardised the integrity of the European energy market,” the chair of […]
ZHUHAI, China (AFP) — China on Tuesday showed off its increasingly sophisticated air power including surveillance drones and jets able to jam hostile electronic equipment, with an eye on disputed territories from Taiwan to the South China Sea and rivalry with the United States. The country’s biggest airshow, in the southern coastal city of Zhuhai, comes as Beijing pushes to meet a 2035 deadline to retool its military for modern warfare. China still lags the […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AFP) — Taiwan has applied to join a major trans-Pacific trade deal, officials confirmed Thursday, days after China said it also wanted to become a member of the agreement. Signed by 11 Asia-Pacific countries in 2018, the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is the region’s biggest free-trade pact and accounts for around 13.5 percent of the global economy. “Most of (the CPTPP’s) member countries are Taiwan’s key trade partners, accounting […]
by Benoît PELEGRIN LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — The OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries are to meet Thursday and are expected to agree to boost output in August to meet demand and limit recent price rises. The cost of crude oil has surged back to levels last seen in October 2018, which would normally support arguments in favour of boosting production. India, the world’s third-largest consumer of crude, has urged OPEC+ to phase out its […]
by Dave CLARK Agence France Presse BRUSSELS, Belgium (AFP) — The European Commission will tighten its export guidelines on Wednesday to prevent what it sees as an unfair one-way flow of vaccines, according to a draft seen by AFP. Brussels has been infuriated that Britain has laid claim to vaccines produced at a plant in the Netherlands by AstraZeneca, while the UK-based firm falls short on deliveries promised to the EU. While negotiations with […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AFP) — China will consider joining a free trade pact once championed by the US but abandoned by Donald Trump, President Xi Jinping said Friday, as Beijing increasingly seeks to influence the global rules of commerce. The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) is an updated version of a giant deal originally backed by former US president Barack Obama as an effort to counter China’s rising might in Asia. Trump […]
by Alice Philipson, with Martin Abbugao in Singapore Agence France Presse HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Fifteen Asia-Pacific countries on Sunday signed the world’s biggest free trade deal, seen as a huge coup for China in extending its influence. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) includes 10 Southeast Asian economies along with China, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand and Australia, with members accounting for around 30 percent of global GDP. First proposed in 2012, the […]
by Alice Philipson with Martin Abbugao in Singapore HANOI, Vietnam (AFP) — Fifteen Asia-Pacific nations are set to sign an enormous free trade deal at an online summit that started Thursday, with the pact seen as a coup for China in extending its influence across the region. Once signed, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will be the world’s largest trade pact in terms of GDP, according to analysts. The pact, which was first proposed […]
by Kang Jin-kyu SEOUL, South Korea (AFP) — South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee, one of the two women vying to be the next head of the World Trade Organization, is known at home as a glass-ceiling breaker in still male-dominated society. An English literature graduate of the elite Seoul National University, she set aside her dreams of a literary career to become a trade ministry civil servant in 1995. “There were no veteran trade […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — The United States has banned imports from a Malaysian palm oil giant whose products are found in numerous everyday goods worldwide over concerns its workers face a litany of abuse. Palm oil is a common ingredient in items ranging from processed foods to cosmetics, and Malaysia is the second-biggest producer of the commodity after neighbouring Indonesia. Together, the countries produce 85 percent of the world’s supply. But the industry […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — Beijing on Thursday slammed Washington’s “tyrannical logic” over the latest US sanctions targeting Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, worsening tensions between the two superpowers. In recent years, China has aggressively pursued its territorial claims in the South China Sea, building small shoals and reefs into military bases with airstrips and port facilities. Both the US and Chinese militaries have recently ramped up their actions in the region, raising tensions […]
