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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hoa Hao who wrote (96159)	1/21/2005 12:37:14 PM
From: Hoa Hao	Respond to of 793895

Tsunami-hit Thais told: Buy six planes or face EU tariffs FRASER NELSON POLITICAL EDITOR TSUNAMI-struck Thailand has been told by the European Commission that it must buy six A380 Airbus aircraft if it wants to escape the tariffs against its fishing industry. While millions of Europeans are sending aid to Thailand to help its recovery, trade authorities in Brussels are demanding that Thai Airlines, its national carrier, pays £1.3 billion to buy its double-decker aircraft. The demand will come as a deep embarrassment to Peter Mandelson, the trade commissioner, whose officials started the negotiation before the disaster struck Thailand - killing tens of thousands of people and damaging its economy. While aid workers from across Europe are helping to rebuild Thai livelihoods, trade officials in Brussels are concluding a jets-for-prawns deal, which they had hoped to announce next month. As the world’s largest producer of prawns, Thailand has become so efficient that its wares are half the price of those caught by Norway, the main producer of prawns for the EU. To ensure the Thais cannot compete, EU officials five years ago removed its shrimp industry from the EU’s generalised system of preferential tariffs - designed to share Western wealth with developing countries by trade. The EU has instead slapped a tariff of 12 per cent on its fish - three times that imposed on prawns from Malaysia, its neighbour. This is still less than the US tariff on Thai prawns: 97 per cent. The prawn tax is one in a series of protectionist measures expected to cost east Asia some £130 million each year - money being taken from its economies while EU citizens donate millions in charity. Five days after the tsunami struck, the EU legislated against Thailand by slapping a new tariff designed to extinguish its booming trade in cumarin, a plant extract used in perfume. On 31 December, the EU imposed duties of €3,480 (£2,430) a tonne for Thai exports of cumarin - a move entirely designed to protect Rhodia, a French chemicals firm and the EU’s only producer of cumarin. Oxfam has attacked the tariffs, saying: "When countries are lying prostrate before us, it is criminal to continue to tax them on what they sell." Sri Lanka has already pleaded to be exempt from EU and US textiles tariffs as it tries to recover. thescotsman.scotsman.com General Supatra comments: "Please excuse you have this wrong. We are not being offered deal reduced Tariff if we buy A380. We are told if we do not buy A380 aircraft then EU will not follow instruction from WTO to reduce unfair tariff. Make this clear Thai Inter does not want A380 and our airports cannot handle this. If we buy A380 we must change runways on our airports at great cost to us. Is blackmail. EU use disaster of tsunami to force us to buy aircraft we do not want." "You know something else? We have UN people here. They make lots of speeches walk around much but do nothing to help repair tsunami damage. Nothing. We ask them when they will do something they say why ask us you side with the enemy when you send troops to Iraq." "So UN openly call America the enemy. Interesting na?" Build a man a fire you warm him for a night Set a man on fire you warm him for all his life

To: Hoa Hao who wrote (96159)	1/21/2005 2:21:19 PM
From: Ilaine	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793895

Too bad Ed Stanton didn't see it as part of his mission to reach out to the "long haired creeps" and try to get them on his side. They pay taxes, too, and they vote. You get more flies with honey than you do with vinegar.

To: Hoa Hao who wrote (96159)	1/22/2005 12:04:39 AM
From: KLP	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793895

I wonder if "Ed Stanton" is a "real" person, and a "real career" Navy officer ...This could be written by someone who had an axe to grind with the US, or with any of the relief groups, and so many etcs come to mind. One would think that the Captain/Commander of the USS Lincoln would have made arrangements for any group who was to come aboard the vessel that was/is in his command. And that would mean arrangements were shared with the officers of the ship. Meal charges would have been determined ahead of time by the heads of each group. ID's would have been processed, and people checked aboard. Maybe someday we will know more about this 'story'....