#Trade Agreement

[kazifatagar]

Malaysia-UAE CEPA Now on Track for Year-End Enforcement

Malaysia’s first free trade agreement (FTA) with a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is expected to be signed in two months, said Investment, Trade and Industry Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz. Malaysia-UAE CEPA on track The minister said the first Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) would pave the way for more FTAs with the GCC countries. “From today,…

[newnewz]

India-Africa free trade agreement in making, says EAM Jaishankar

India finds a unified market in Africa but unified markets still require points of entry, regional hubs. That is why it is important for India to be connected to countries within Africa individually.

NEW DELHI: India has a fairly substantial presence in Africa and trade and investments in the continent are increasing. It is for the same reason that India is looking at a Pan-Africa Free Trade Agreement.“India’s trade is $98 billion with Africa. India’s investments are $75 billion, and we are expecting both this trade and investments in Africa to grow, so there is a pan-African larger continental Free Trade arrangement in the making. As it unfolds, I think it makes it easier to both trade with Africa and invest in Africa,’’ said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar while addressing the Indian diaspora in Tanzania.

It may be recalled that less than a month ago, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal after interacting with 15 Ambassadors from the African region had said India was open to FTA with Africa as a whole or with individual countries.

“India and Africa share remarkable friendship across decades and have the potential of becoming the powerhouse of the future. India would act as a trusted partner to expand trade, commerce, business, investment and opportunities with Africa,” Goyal had said in June.

Meanwhile, Africa is becoming the second-largest recipient of credit from India. 42 African nations have received about $32 billion which translates into a little less than 40 per cent of all credit extended by India during the last decade. India is trying to catch up with China which has a deep imprint across Africa primarily through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

India finds a unified market in Africa but unified markets still require points of entry, regional hubs. That is why it is important for India to be connected with countries within Africa individually too.

India has just signed a Memorandum of Understanding for establishing the first IIT campus in Zanzibar.

[minecraft-sideblog-tm]

After watching Grian and Mumbo's failed negotiation over the prismarine permit, I think it'd be really funny if instead of actually trading permits they just became the wholesaler for the other's shop.

Ah yes this is Grian's iron and gold shop which sells iron and gold bought in bulk exclusively from Mumbo's farms. Still Grian's shop though! And that over there is Mumbo's prismarine shop, where he sells products bought from Grian and also let Grian decorate with the 5000 cod heads he doesn't want to talk about

[cassielsunstone]

Childhood friends 🐬

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Paul Blest at More Perfect Union:

The Federal Trade Commission voted Tuesday to ban new noncompete agreements for all workers and make existing noncompetes null and void for everyone except senior executives. These agreements are used to restrict 30 million American workers from changing jobs or starting their own businesses due to claims that they could use “trade secrets” in their new roles.  Noncompete agreements can restrict job mobility based on geographic area (i.e., a doctor joining a new practice within 50 miles of their old one) or a time period after leaving the position (anywhere between several months to more than a year). They have been banned in multiple states in the past few years. 

But the FTC has issued a uniform ban that will cover hundreds of millions of workers following a 180-day period for for-profit companies to enter into compliance. More than 26,000 comments were submitted on the rule, more than 25,000 of which supported a noncompete ban, FTC staff said Tuesday.  The FTC estimated that the new rule will increase workers’ wages by up to $488 billion over 10 years, which FTC staff said would mean a $524 increase in annual wages for the average worker. The FTC also estimated that the rule would lead to more than 8,500 new businesses per year.   “Right now workers are stuck in place because of these noncompetes,” FTC chair Lina Khan told More Perfect Union in an interview about the rule. “So even if they get a better job opportunity with higher wages, with better benefits, they can't actually switch jobs, which is bad for those workers. It's also bad for other workers who won't have the opportunities that are not being created because of these noncompetes.”

Five states have passed bans on noncompetes, not including New York, where lawmakers passed a ban last year that was then vetoed by Gov. Kathy Hochul. After Oregon banned noncompete agreements in 2008, researchers found, average hourly wages for all workers were boosted by up to 3 percent; the same analysis found that low-wage workers subjected to noncompetes saw a substantial negative impact on their wages.  The final rule differs from the proposal in that “senior executives,” those in a “policy-making position” making more than $151,000 per year, will still be subjected to noncompete agreements signed before the effective date of the new rule.

Since announcing the proposal in early 2023, the FTC’s rule has come under fire from the business lobby. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said before Tuesday’s meeting that it will file a lawsuit to block the proposal as soon as Wednesday. A top Chamber official said earlier this week that the rule “opens up a Pandora’s box where this commission or future commissions could be literally micromanaging every aspect of the economy,” Bloomberg reported.  But the FTC argues that noncompete agreements are “an unfair method of competition” that affect both high- and l0w-wage earners. In the medical profession, nearly half of all physicians are subject to noncompete agreements, according to the American Medical Association, which backs the effort to end the practice. (The FTC estimated that the new rule will result in “$74-$194 billion in reduced spending on physician services over the next decade.”)

The Federal Trade Commission voted to ban competition-stifling noncompete agreements except for senior executives.

[thebisexualwreckoning]

You know what I find funny? That people across the world expect Palestinian people to just sit there and be bombed like good little victims and never retaliate against Israel because ‘thAt mAKes YOu JuST aS bAD as THem’ while not truly believing that Israel is actually doing anything bad because it’s so much better to be tragic pure victims with no ‘shameful and violent’ incidents behind them because that makes western media less likely to paint you as a tragic hero decades after Palestine is finely free and everyone can agree without being accused os anti semitism (despite the fact that Zionism =/= Judaism) that what Israel is doing is very bad actually. Which is genuinely hilarious because most of the people who are supporting Israel and condemning Palestinian for violent revolution are countries and states that gained freedom through violent revolution themselves.

Like, the USA, France, India, all of them had violent revolution to be where they are at today. And I know most of the anti-Palestinian movement is motivated by Islamophobia (not surprising considering the mentioned countries have some of the highest number of Islamophobic citizens) which also completely ignores the high Jewish and Christian Palestinians population might I add, but the genuine mental disassociation required to believe that violent revolution is not most often the only resolution left at the hands of the oppressed, especially after using violent revolution yourself to gain your freedom is not just hypocrisy but just downright evil.

Anyway, if you want to help Palestinians out and not be a genocide supporter, then please donate to relief funds and gofundmes so that the Palestinian people may one day again thrive in their ancestral land. Since I am not personally supporting any family from Palestine, I’m just going to link @/el-shab-hussein and @/nabulsi vetted gaza fundraiser spreadsheet, please donate if you can and share if you cant.

[sanguinesorcery]

Carefully sets the teacup on its saucer at her side, taking a deep breath.

"...Oh please keep going. Tonight has been fretfully boring, I am in need of some entertainment..."

[sciralta]

Do you think everyone in the European Union is laughing behind Drakovia’s back about how they’re kinda cringe.

[wmnylander]

the mismanagement from the bruins with the swayman situation is fascinating to me

[mzminola]

That said I think the most fun fusion fic would be to give Bruce the Mance Rayder role. Ex Night's Watch still trying to save the Realms of Men the best way he knows how (by breaking all the rules).

Dick is an orphan Bruce picks up during one of his first self-appointed climbing-back-over-the-Wall-to-spy missions. Barbara is a kissed-by-fire Wildling greenseer. Jason is a Wildling orphan that tries to steal Bruce's Night Brother sword. Cass is a warg who's been feral since running from her dad.

At some point Jason gets it into his head that he needs to Prove He's A Man Now, climbs over the Wall without Bruce, and bridenaps Tim. Whether Tim is a girl or Jason just mistook Tim for one is dealer's choice.

They bicker the entire way back to main camp until Dick runs over to defuse whatever disaster this is, at which point Tim & Dick go "You!!!" because the Drakes were at the Flying Grayson Troupe's last performance before the bandits got them.

[thekingofchungus]

so for anyone who wants an idea of how invasive AI's getting my bf clicked on a 16 pixel image of my face sent on discord and we got 5 seconds of a poorly formed homunculus of myself singing the chinese lunar new year song Gong Xi Fa Cai. and the AI was called Viggle

[hoyt-and-cavanaugh]

[andytheoverthinker]

Can someone please tell me the world won't end if i don't get into university please i need the reassurance

[senterya]

"Oooh your lab exploded? Anyway--"

lil' inquest shit