#Ukraine biggest export

[anamseair]

Discover the major exports of Ukraine and its key export partners with Seair Exim Solutions. Gain insights into Ukraine's export market, trade statistics, and economic impact.

[mariacallous]

MYKOLAIV, UKRAINE���Kateryna Nahorna is getting ready to find trouble.

Part of an all-female team of dog handlers, the 22-year-old is training Ukraine’s technical survey dogs—Belgian Malinois that have learned to sniff out explosives.

The job is huge. Ukraine is now estimated to be the most heavily mined country on Earth. Deminers must survey every area that saw sustained fighting for unexploded mines, missiles, artillery shells, bombs, and a host of other ordnance—almost 25 percent of the country, according to government estimates.

The dogs can cover 1,500 square meters a day. In contrast, human deminers cover 10 square meters a day on average—by quickly narrowing down the areas that manual deminers will need to tackle, the dogs save valuable time.

“This job allows me to be a warrior for my country … but without having to kill anyone,” said Nahorna. “Our men protect us at war, and we do this to protect them at home.”

A highly practical reason drove the women’s recruitment. The specialized dog training was done in Cambodia, by the nonprofit Apopo, and military-aged men are currently not allowed to leave Ukraine.

War has shaken up gender dynamics in the Ukrainian economy, with women taking up jobs traditionally held by men, such as driving trucks or welding. Now, as mobilization ramps up once more, women are becoming increasingly important in roles that are critical for national security.

In Mykolaiv, in the industrial east, Nahorna and her dogs will soon take on one of the biggest targets of Russia’s military strategy when they start to demine the country’s energy infrastructure. Here, women have been stepping in to work in large numbers in steel mills, factories, and railways serving the front line.

It’s a big shift for Ukraine. Before the war, only 48 percent of women over age 15 took part in the workforce — one of the lowest rates in Europe. War has made collecting data on the gender composition of the workforce impossible, but today, 50,000 women serve in the Ukrainian army, compared to 30,000 before the war.

The catalyst came in 2017, years before the current war began. As conflict escalated with Russia in Crimea, the Ukrainian government overturned a Soviet-era law that had previously banned women from 450 occupations.

But obstacles still remain; for example, women are not allowed jobs the government deems too physically demanding. These barriers continue to be chipped away—most recently, women have been cleared to work in underground mines, something they were prevented from doing before.

Viktoriia Avramchuk never thought she would follow her father and husband into the coal mines for DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company.

Her lifelong fear of elevators was a big factor—but there was also the fact that it was illegal for women to work underground.

Her previous job working as a nanny in a local kindergarten disappeared overnight when schools were forced to close at the beginning of the war. After a year of being unemployed, she found that she had few other options.

“I would never have taken the job if I could have afforded not to,” Avramchuk said from her home in Pokrovsk. “But I also wanted to do something to help secure victory, and this was needed.”

The demining work that Nahorna does is urgent in part because more than 55 percent of the country is farmed.

Often called “the breadbasket of Europe,” Ukraine is one of the world’s top exporters of grain. The U.K.-based Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which has been advising the Ukrainian government on demining technology, estimates that landmines have resulted in annual GDP losses of $11 billion.

“Farmers feel the pressure to plow, which is dangerous,” said Jon Cunliffe, the Ukraine country director of Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British nonprofit. “So we need to do as much surveying as possible to reduce the size of the possible contamination.”

The dogs can quickly clear an area of heavy vegetation, which greatly speeds up the process of releasing noncontaminated lands back to farmers. If the area is found to be unsafe, human deminers step in to clear the field manually.

“I’m not brave enough to be on the front line,” 29-year-old Iryna Manzevyta said as she slowly and diligently hovered a metal detector over a patch of farmland. “But I had to do something to help, and this seemed like a good alternative to make a difference.”

Groups like MAG are increasingly targeting women. With skilled male deminers regularly being picked up by military recruiters, recruiting women reduces the chances that expensive and time-consuming training will be invested in people who could be drafted to the front line at a moment’s notice. The demining work is expected to take decades, and women, unlike men, cannot be conscripted in Ukraine.

This urgency to recruit women is accelerating a gender shift already underway in the demining sector. Organizations like MAG have looked to recruit women as a way to empower them in local communities. Demining was once a heavily male-dominated sector, but women now make up 30 percent of workers in Vietnam and Colombia, around 40 percent in Cambodia, and more than 50 percent in Myanmar.

In Ukraine, the idea is to make demining an enterprise with “very little expat footprint,” and Cunliffe said that will only be possible by recruiting more women.

“We should not be here in 10 years. Not like in Iraq or South Sudan, where we have been for 30 years, or Vietnam, or Laos,” Cunliffe said. “It’s common sense that we bring in as many women as we can to do that. In five to 10 years, a lot of these women are going to end up being technical field managers, the jobs that are currently being done by old former British military guys, and it will change the face of demining worldwide because they can take those skills across the world.”

Manzevyta is one of the many women whose new job has turned her family dynamics on their head. She has handed over her previous life, running a small online beauty retail site, to her husband, who—though he gripes—stays at home while she is out demining.

“Life is completely different now,” she said, giggling. “I had to teach him how to use the washing machine, which settings to use, everything around the house because I’m mostly absent now.”

More seriously, Manzevyta said that the war has likely changed many women’s career trajectories.

“I can’t imagine people who have done work like this going back and working as florists once the war is over,” she laughed.

[ohsalome]

the intention of comparing the reaction to Palestine vs Ukraine is typically not to criticize Ukrainian victims of war. The criticism is directed at American spectators, because the people in power here are insanely anti Palestinian but have made overtures to help Ukraines resistance efforts despite comparable situations. Regular citizens also mostly support Ukraine but many hate Palestinians. People are just comparing palestine to Ukraine as a point of reference to try to make those people understand.

As kindly as possible, I do not think you can educate people out of islamophobia by appealing to their conscience, at the very least because if they had one they wouldn't be islamophobic in the first place.

And when it comes to people in power, appealing to their empathy in the case with Palestine is fruitless because the help Ukraine got wasn't motivated by emotion either. I do not expect you to know the history of current russo-ukrainian war well, so you probably don't know that the western world was perfectly happy to watch russia roll all over us punishment-free as long as they felt that other "properly european countries" won't be involved. Russia has been butchering us since 2014, and nobody gave a fuck about it. Even during the first few weeks of the full-scale invasion NATO refused to send us any military help, because they expected us to fall and were okay with it.

The current support we have did not fall on us from the sky by the graceful kindness of "our american overlords" - it is a consequence of the cumulative effort of our diplomats, pre-existing agreements with NATO countries, and the economical ripples the full-scale war caused (Ukraine being one of the major world exporters of grain being one of the most relevant).

This is why, sadly Palestine cannot follow the Ukrainian scenario of foreign support. The surrounding circumstances of both of our wars are way to different, and while it is easy to ignore them while making simplistic quick-dopamine-hit posts on hellbr dot com, they do influence the real-world situation on the ground. Which is what posts like the one I replied to do - they create a no-nuance misinformed image of the war in Ukraine. Which amplifies the problem even more, because even though "most americans" can agree on a generic "war in Ukraine bad", their idea of what is going on here is hugely misinformed as it is. And this has harmful real-life consequences on which our very survival depends.

Look. I understand that the war between Palestine and Israel has been going on for decades. I understand that there are many contexts that are obvious to the people in the respective countries that I am oblivious to by the virtue of never being there and not speaking arabic nor hebrew. I understand that there is a lot of propaganda that I may accidentally spread out of my ignorance, and therefore I try to be careful to avoid doing so, out of respect to the people living there. So why is it too much to ask you to give the same respect to us?

Like I have said before, the biggest issue with that infographic post is that it spreads misinformation. In the simplest of terms, misinformation is bad. People are trying to do any smallest thing to help Palestinians - who are currently barely surviving in inhumanely horrifying conditions - and out of ignorance they are spreading anti-ukrainian propaganda. Downplaying the number of ukrainian victims (and, as a result, making russian war crimes look "not as bad") is anti-ukrainian propaganda. Making it seem as we are getting "too much american help" is anti-ukrainian propaganda, because USA is our biggest military exporter, and getting less ammo/vehicles/etc will have catastrophic effect on the amount of death.

Which is why am not staying silent on this, even if your collective intentions are noble and good. Because, I will repeat myself again, your intentions do not matter if the consequences of your actions are harmful. And if (a) comparing Ukraine and Palestine is uneffective; (b) it portrays your ignorance of either one or both of the wars; and (c) simultaneously with spreading support for the palestinian cause you are spreading harmful anti-ukrainian pro-russian propaganda, I do not think it is too much to ask you to stop.

[pattern-recognition]

i don’t have the time to articulate this idea in a throwaway tumblr dot com post but it’s revolting how much art has been destroyed by imperialism. obviously this comes as no great revelation, the systematic destruction and suppression of art is an integral facet of the destruction and suppression of people. specifically thinking of palestine though I always feel furious when i see the architecture of cities like Gaza leveled. the destruction of ancient buildings and cultural sites are the most obvious examples, but even the loss of modern architecture is an incredible loss. the high rise apartment blocs, shops, homes, bakeries, cafes, etc are, if they were allowed the proposer without the strangulation of imperialism, superior to anything you’ll see in a U.S. city from the perspective of providing a truly dynamic, adaptable, and cohesive habitat for people to live. I had similar thoughts seeing the destruction of cities in Ukraine, all of that Soviet era planned architecture that had such a optimistic vision for the future behind it leveled to the ground by the effects of neoliberalism. the same goes for textiles too, which i seem to talk about ad nauseam. reading all the articles on places like Hirbawi, the last kufiya factory in the west bank, which speak not only to the forced de-industrialization of palestine but also of syria, iran, iraq, etc, and the beautiful and idiosyncratic quilt patterns from different regions in palestine from that one documentary i posted earlier are all examples. nothing is new under the sun, and it’s all part of the imperial leviathan that not only destroys the potential for prosperous industry, and the industrial aspect should not be forgotten for a simplistic argument that it’s purely the burial of something nondescript and patronizing like ‘ancient culture,’ that creates fundamentally better material conditions for proletarian organization, but replaces them with parasitic import/export economies, atomized living conditions, and overly complex ‘labor saving’ technology, all tailor made to stifle class consciousness and impede cohesion of working people. the biggest crime of imperial capitalism isn’t that you’ll find young men wearing polo shirts and jeans across the world, it’s that they’re all made on the behest of (mostly) western corporations in outsourced factories, distrusted around the globe through the anarchic, wasteful, explorative, and pollutive neoliberal system when the alternatives are so much more practical and human

[milkboydotnet]

Marcos Jr. sells out PH sovereignty for US war preparations vs China

NDF-International | National Democratic Front of the Philippines

April 10, 2024

Marcos Jr.’s trip to the United States for a trilateral summit with US President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida is an utter and complete sell-out of Philippine sovereignty to US war designs in Asia. The so-called “trilateral summit” is set to discuss “maritime security cooperation” between the three countries.

Marcos Jr. is willingly offering the Philippine archipelago to serve as a ‘theater of war’ by allowing the US to position its military arsenal on land, sea, and air. The Philippines is a crucial piece in the “US Island Chain strategy” to contain China. The Philippines’ strategic location allows the US to constrict regional waterways and position readily deployable military air power in close proximity to China. In order to achieve its objectives, the US is escalating war preparations in the region by encouraging Japan and other imperialist allies to join the geopolitical chess game.

In the said trilateral meeting, Marcos Jr. seeks to further increase US military footprint in Philippine soil while talks are underway with Japan for a reciprocal access agreement that will allow Japanese military presence in the country. In fact, preparations are already ongoing for the biggest Balikatan Exercises in history which is expected to draw at least 16,000 troops to participate. The Balikatan war games this year aims to test the so-called ‘Comprehensive Archipelagic Defense Concept (CDAC)’ patterned after US imperialist war plans in the region. These actions form part of the US strategy to provoke China into “firing the first shot” demonstrating the US government’s bloodthirst.

On the other hand, Marcos Jr.’s actions prove his outright subservience to US imperialist war preparations and his readiness to drag the Filipino people in the middle of a brewing inter-imperialist conflict. Marcos Jr. must be held accountable for his reprehensible sell-out of Philippine sovereignty and his blatant disregard for the lives of the Filipino masses. More importantly, the Biden administration must be denounced for its continued exportation of wars of aggression from Ukraine to Palestine and now using the Philippines as a pawn in its attempt to stifle China’s growing influence.

[tomorrowusa]

Russia started its unprovoked full scale invasion of Ukraine 864 days ago. Putin knows he cannot win the war but he continues it despite enormous losses of Russian military personnel and equipment. And he certainly hasn't done anything for Russia's reputation as a competent military power.

If these sorts of losses don't do anything to make Russia change course, it's time to seize Russian assets and use them to defend and rebuild Ukraine. But there's some reluctance to do so in some countries.

The biggest slice of the pie is Russian state assets (reserves of the Russian Central Bank, Russia’s central financial institution) – approximately $300 billion. They’ve been frozen in banking institutions across the G7 countries. So why are these assets parked there in the first place? At the time of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia kept some assets in money and securities abroad in reliable banks, scooping up foreign currency. The lion’s share of these assets, €192 billion, is held in Euroclear, a financial institution headquartered in Brussels specializing in the safekeeping and settlement of securities. The rest of the assets’ exact size and location are a bit of a mystery since that information is classified, but it’s a safe bet that a hefty chunk is in the USA.

The USA, you say? Now that the US Supreme Court has given presidents immunity, Biden should just scoop up all that Russian loot and put it into an account which Ukraine could draw from for its national security and reconstruction. 😉

Our G7 partners are a bit more skittish about seizing Russian assets. This is what happens when certain countries become too dependent on Russian fossil fuels and other trade with Russia.

One big step forward to the confiscation of these funds was the US passing the REPO (Rebuilding Economic Prosperity and Opportunity for Ukrainians) Act on 23 April 2024. While successfully implementing it depends on further actions and certifications, the REPO Act lays out a legal mechanism for asset confiscation, gives the President the power to start the confiscation process, and allows for coordination with G7 countries, the EU, and other partners. It could potentially give Ukraine access to several billions of Russian sovereign assets located in the US. However, the G7 did not follow the US’s lead. Instead, on 3 May 2024, the Financial Times reported that the G7 was no longer considering a full confiscation of frozen Russian assets for Ukraine, with an official saying that these assets could be used as leverage in potential peace negotiations with Russia. This stance fails to recognize Russia’s true objectives and the pointlessness of using these assets as a bargaining chip, given Russia’s continued escalation of aggression and substantial revenues from fossil fuel exports.

On a slightly different note, the change in government in the UK will make no difference regarding support for Ukraine. It's one area where Labour and the Conservatives see eye to eye. Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer visited President Zelenskyy in Kyiv last year.

Sir Keir spoke with President Zelenskyy on Friday – his first day in office.

Zelenskyy had a conversation with the new British Prime Minister: an unprecedented agreement was discussed

[learnukrainian]

23 August - Day of the National Flag of Ukraine

Day of the National/State Flag of Ukraine - День державного прапора України

What is the meaning behind the National Flag?

It is comprised of two colours - blue and yellow, which represent the clear blue sky and the golden wheat field underneath. Why so? Well, generally speaking, it is a very typical scenery for Ukraine, as Ukrainians have had a strong connection with nature and agriculture for centuries. Moreover, even nowadays (at least, prior to the full-scale russian invasion in 2022) the majority of produced goods are grains, in particular wheat, corn, and sunflower seeds/oil (for this reason some people even referred to Ukraine as 'the bread basket of Europe').

Just to give you some infographics

In 2021, Ukraine was

• one of the top 5 world wheat exporters (5th place) (The World’s Top Wheat Exporters In 2021 (rferl.org)

• one of the top 3 world corn exporters (3rd place) Corn | OEC - The Observatory of Economic Complexity

• and the biggest sunflower oil exporter in the world (1st place) quote: "Since 2012, Ukraine has been the world's leading exporter of sunflower oil with a 47% share of global sunflower oil exports in 2021." (Ukraine: Sunflower oil production (October 2022) - Ukraine | ReliefWeb)

Vocabulary:

День - den - day

Прапор - prapor - flag

Національний - natseeonalny - national (masculine form of the adjective)

Державний - derzhavny - state (masculine form of the adjective)

Україна - Oo-kra-yee-na - Ukraine

Серпень - serpen - August

[frostyyyroyalmilktea]

Why Vesna’s “My sister’s crown” in no feminist anthem but a Trojan horse filled with pro-russian messaging

My thoughts as a Ukrainian with a poli-sci degree.

I was debating whether to write this post but as the discourse around this song grows, I want to give people from other countries some context on the messaging used in the song and why Ukrainians are grossed out by it.

While I was writing it this post grew a mind of its own and I even ended up adding pictures so I'll fold the post here in case you don't care and just want to scroll through quickly.

First of all, it’s worth mentioning that this song attracted so much attention from Ukrainians because they use UKRAINIAN LANGUAGE in the chorus. It’s an important detail seeing how one of the singers is russian. A lot of Ukrainians share the opinion that letting a russian woman sing in our language is a completely vile thing to do to our culture. I agree with it too. But the abuse of our culture doesn’t stop there.

See this shot? This is supposed to be Borsch, a traditional Ukrainian dish. It’s worth mentioning that russia tried to appropriate this dish and in 2022 we fought tooth and nail to have UNESCO protect it as part of Ukrainian heritage. But back to the shot. The letters around it are supposed to symbolize russian propaganda. Great start🙄

But it gets better, lads. They start “feeding the propaganda” to the girl that —judging by stylistic choices as well as matryoshka makeup—  is supposed to represent russian people.

Right, so they *checks notes* use Ukrainian cultural dish —that russians almost succeeded in stealing from us— to show… what exactly? “Poor russians🥺 uwu” getting brainwashed? Oh, then let me grab my handkerchief. This is so so sad I think I’m about to cry😶😶😶

I mean, just a thought but if they wanted to show how shitty russian government treats its people, they could’ve recreated the historically accurate moment when russian tzar Ivan the Terrible shoved his underling’s face into a boiling soup. What does Ukraine and our long-suffering dish has to do with all this bs???

Now let’s talk about that “Crown”, that is supposed to belong to the sister (aka Ukraine). To me, as a poli-sci major, this is so stupid I don’t even know whether to laugh or cry. From the words of the band themself, where they explain —quite poorly might I say— the meaning of their song, we learn that “Crown” symbolizes the sovereignty of the 13 Eastern-European countries. Sounds perfectly valid. Here's a few random countries that I can remember from the top of my head in no particular order that have crowns in their symbols:

Coat of arms of the Czech Republic, Coat of arms of Serbia, Flag of Poland and Flag of Croatia

I actually decided that I don't want to have russian flag and emblem in this post because I don't want to look at it every time I scroll through, but you can go google it if you want, they have not one but two crowns on their emblem actually.

So what am I leading up to with all this flag-talk, you might ask. Well, the kicker is that THIS ⬇️ is Ukrainian emblem:

Not a crown in sight as you can see. I guess as a nation that was constantly fighting against imperial colonisation we’re not very fond of those. Who could’ve guessed🤷‍♀️

But the aforementioned two points are pretty circumstantial and in the grand scheme of things are not particularly significant. I felt compelled to point them out first to give people from other countries a bit of insight into the music video's visual. You are free to disagree with me on those. The main problem that triggers the majority of Ukrainians is the use of the word "sister". Listen, I know you don’t want to read a lecture on the nuance of Slav politics and I don’t really want to write it, I know you know how to google. So here’s the gist:

One of the BIGGEST narratives that russia is pushing in its export propaganda (aside from their go-to claim that all ukrainians are nazis) is that Slavs are all a family. Talk about shitty relatives, eh? But basically, it’s a lingering thing from USSR where russia exploited a bunch of neighboring countries and called this shit a “Union” (while convincing the rest of the world that those countries entered that union willingly and not under threats ���or as a result of— hostile invasions, but I digress). So the way russia frames it is that russia is this big brother that "takes care of other little siblings”. Even writing it down made me want to barf🤢🤢🤢. This narrative was specifically very actively weaponized against Ukraine before the 2022 invasion. Its goal is to infantilize Ukraine as if we're not a whole-ass independent country, but a little sibling that doesn't know how to wipe their own ass. And that we just need good ol’ russia to come and save us from our own stupidity. I hope I shed some light on why this word specifically triggers us so much and why I think that this song has 0 to do with solidarity and overall is complete populistic bs with a generous dash of russian propaganda.

I want to emphasize that I didn’t make this post to fight or argue with anyone  but to give people another perspective if you’re interested in it from my pov as a Ukrainian. If you have other takes on it, I’d love to read them in the comments. Just please be respectful or I won’t interact.

This is all I have to say for today. Love, love, peace, peace, my dudes.

[zvaigzdelasas]

countries neighboring Mozambique, particularly fellow members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), also hope to benefit from gas exploitation [along with Europe]. They are counting on the 3.4 trillion cubic meters (tcm) of natural gas reserves in Mozambique and Tanzania to provide electrification and economic growth for the continent. [...]

But six years of conflict in Cabo Delgado has kept everyone waiting. The Mozambique LNG Project, the region’s largest, has had construction on hold since 2021, when it declared force majeure after insurgents captured the port town of Palma. African troops and international military aid have since helped subdue the insurgency.[...]

Stretching from just above the Comoros Islands to below the southern tip of Madagascar, the Mozambique Channel separates Madagascar from the African continent. It is an essential route for maritime traffic heading towards East Africa, the western side of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Persian Gulf. About 30% of global tanker traffic passes through there. The channel is vital for East Africa’s economy since the major Madagascar rivers empty into it, and it includes the exclusive economic zones of Mozambique, Tanzania, Madagascar, the Comoros, and France. Landlocked and southern African countries also rely on the channel to export goods to Asia and Europe. [...]

insurgents seized the port towns of Mocimboa da Praia in August 2020 and Palma in March 2021. Rwandan, SADC, and Mozambican forces have since retaken the port towns[...]

Both regions, particularly the EU, have increased resources to end the conflict. In 2022, the SADC Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) and Rwandan forces received $35 million from the European Peace Facility Fund, making Mozambique the biggest recipient after Ukraine. India has been the most active in protecting the Mozambique Channel. An Indian Navy P81 maritime patrol aircraft has been staging joint channel patrols with the French Navy since 2020. India also donated two patrol boats to Mozambique in 2021[...]

The SADC has a particularly keen interest in Mozambique’s gas as many member countries rely on imported petroleum, which puts their economies at the mercy of fluctuations in global oil prices. As the SADC’s economic powerhouse, South Africa has led efforts to stabilize Cabo Delgado. With 205 days of countrywide blackouts in 2022 due to failing coal-powered plants, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is counting on gas imports to ensure their energy security. He said, “Mozambique is endowed with significant volumes of natural gas. This can benefit the people of Mozambique and South Africa and the rest of the SADC region.” He emphasized that energy security was “vital to economic growth in our respective countries.”

3 Sep 23

[beardedmrbean]

French farming unions are taking aim at the European Union’s free-trade agreements, which they say open the door to unfair competition from products arriving from overseas. At a time when the EU is urging farmers to adopt more sustainable – and sometimes more costly – agricultural practices, unions say these trade deals are making it hard for them to stay solvent.

French farmers say that one of their biggest fears is that Chilean apples, Brazilian grains and Canadian beef will flood the European market, thereby undermining their livelihoods. France’s farmers continued to demonstrate on the country’s motorways on Wednesday, protesting against rising costs, over-regulation and free-trade agreements –partnerships between the EU and exporting nations that the farming unions say leads to unfair competition. 

The EU has signed several free-trade agreements in recent years, all with the objective of facilitating the movement of goods and services. But farmers say the deals bring with them insurmountable challenges.

"These agreements aim to reduce customs duties, with maximum quotas for certain agricultural products and non-tariff barriers," said Elvire Fabry, senior researcher at the Jacques Delors Institute, a French think-tank dedicated to European affairs. "They also have an increasingly broad regulatory scope to promote European standards for investment, protection of intellectual property, geographical indications and sustainable development standards."

South American trade deal in the crosshairs

Some non-EU countries – such as Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland – maintain comprehensive free-trade agreements with the EU because they are part of the European Economic Area. This allows them to benefit from the free movement of goods, services, capital and people.

Other nations farther afield have signed more variable agreements with the EU, including Canada, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam and Ukraine. The EU also recently signed an accord with Kenya and a deal with New Zealand that will come into force this year; negotiations are also under way with India and Australia.    

However, a draft agreement between the EU and the South American trade bloc Mercosur is creating the most concern. Under discussion since the 1990s, this trade partnership between Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Paraguay would create the world's largest free-trade area, a market encompassing 780 million people. 

French farmers are particularly concerned about the deal’s possible effect on agriculture. The most recent version of the text introduces quotas for Mercosur countries to export 99,000 tonnes of beef, 100,000 tonnes of poultry and 180,000 tonnes of sugar per year, with little or no customs duties imposed. In exchange, duties would also be lowered on exports from the EU on many “protected designation of origin” (PDO) products. 

At a time when the EU is urging farmers to adopt more sustainable agricultural practices, French unions say these agreements would open the door to massive imports – at more competitive prices – of products that do not meet the same environmental standards as those originating in Europe. French farmers are calling out what they say is unfair competition from farmers in South America who can grow GMO crops and use growth-promoting antibiotics on livestock, which is banned in the EU. 

Trade unions from various sectors went into action after the European Commission informed them on January 24 that negotiations with Mercosur could be concluded "before the end of this mandate", i.e., before the European Parliament elections in June.      

The FNSEA, France’s biggest farming union, immediately called for a "clear rejection of free-trade agreements" while the pro-environmental farming group Confédération Paysanne (Farmers' Confederation) called for an "immediate end to negotiations" on this type of agreement.   

A mixed record

"In reality, the impact of these free-trade agreements varies from sector to sector," said Fabry. "Negotiations prior to agreements aim to calibrate the opening up of trade to limit the negative impact on the most exposed sectors. And, at the same time, these sectors can benefit from other agreements. In the end, it's a question of finding an overall balance."

This disparity is glaringly obvious in the agricultural sector. "The wine and spirits industry as well as the dairy industry stand to gain more than livestock farmers, for example," said Fabry. These sectors are the main beneficiaries of free-trade agreements, according to a 2023 report by the French National Assembly.

"The existence of trade agreements that allow customs duty differentials to be eliminated is an 'over-determining factor' in the competitiveness of French wines," wrote FranceAgriMer, a national establishment for agriculture and maritime products under the authority of the French ministry of agriculture in a 2021 report. The majority of free-trade agreements lower or abolish customs duties to allow the export of many PDO products, a category to which many wines belong.

However, the impact on meat is less clear-cut. While FranceAgriMer says the balance between imports and exports appears to be in the EU's favour for pork, poultry exports seem to be declining as a result of the agreements. Hence the fears over the planned treaty with New Zealand, which provides for 36,000 tonnes of mutton to be imported into the EU, equivalent to 45% of French production in 2022. France,however, still has a large surplus of grains except for soya. 

‘A bargaining chip’

Beyond the impact on agriculture, "this debate on free-trade agreements must take into account other issues", said Fabry. "We are in a situation where the EU is seeking to secure its supplies and in particular its supplies of strategic minerals. Brazil's lithium, cobalt, graphite and other resource reserves should not be overlooked."

The agreement with Chile should enable strategic minerals to be exported in exchange for agricultural products. Germany strongly supports the agreement with Mercosur, as it sees it as an outlet for its industrial sectors, according to Fabry.

"In virtually all free-trade agreements, agriculture is always used as a bargaining chip in exchange for selling cars or Airbus planes," Véronique Marchesseau, general-secretary of the Confédération Paysanne, told AFP.

Michèle Boudoin, president of the French National Sheep Federation, told AFP that the agreement with New Zealand will "destabilise the lamb market in France".  

"We know that Germany needs to export its cars, that France needs to sell its wheat, and we're told that we need an ally in the Pacific tocounter China and Russia. But if that is the case, then we need help to be able to produce top-of-the-line lamb, for example," she said.

Finally, "there is a question of influence", said Fabry. "These agreements also remain a way for the EU to promote its environmental standards to lead its partners along the path of ecological transition, even if this has to be negotiated," said Fabry. 

Marc Fesneau, the French minister of agriculture, made the same argument. "In most cases, the agreements have been beneficial, including to French agriculture," Fesneau wrote on X last week, adding: "They will be even more so if we ensure that our standards are respected."

Mercosur negotiations suspended? 

As the farmers’ promised “siege” of Paris and other major locations across France continues, the French government has been trying to reassure agricultural workers about Mercosur, even though President Emmanuel Macron and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva relaunched negotiations in December. "France is clearly opposed to the signing of the Mercosur treaty," Prime Minister Gabriel Attal acknowledged last week.

The Élysée Palace even said on Monday evening that EU negotiations with the South American bloc had been suspended because of France's opposition to the treaty. The conditions are "not ripe" for concluding the negotiations, said Eric Mamer, spokesman for the European Commission. "However, discussions are ongoing." 

Before being adopted, the agreement would have to be passed unanimously by the European Parliament, then ratified individually by the 27 EU member states.

[thoughtlessarse]

Extreme weather events such as floods and droughts are especially disruptive to tea production, as the crop often relies solely on rain for its water needs, with little facilities for irrigation and water processing. Heatwaves and floods have had a hugely detrimental impact on India’s tea production, with excessive heat in May followed by flooding in Assam hitting output level. As a result it's estimated that the average price of tea could rise by up to a fifth. Currently, China, India, Sri Lanka and Kenya are the biggest tea producing nations globally, accounting for about 75% of worldwide supply, according to Palais des Thes. At the time of writing, one kilogram of tea was INR 223.46 (€2.47), having risen more than 47% since the start of this year. On a year-on-year basis, tea prices have risen about 22%. In May this year, Indian tea production dropped to 90.92 million kgs, from 130.56 million kgs in May 2023. This was the lowest May figure for the country in more than 10 years. The Indian government’s decision to ban the use of 20 pesticides is also contributing heavily to increasing tea prices, as several buyers are once again buying Indian tea. Previously, a number of countries were rejecting Indian tea exports, due to the high amount of pesticides used in some varieties. Some of the key buyers of Indian tea are members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which includes Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Russia, Ukraine, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Several rejections of tea exports were coming from these countries, however, following the pesticides ban, demand for Indian tea has risen once again. However, production is still suffering considerably due to this decision, with several tea growers having to scramble to find pesticide alternatives.  

continue reading

[anamseair]

https://www.seair.co.in/blog/exports-of-ukraine.aspx

Discover major exports of Ukraine, including cereals, iron and steel, and sunflower oil. Learn about Ukraine's top export partners like Poland and China, and explore the country's significant role in global trade.

[mariacallous]

When U.S. President-elect Donald Trump was first elected in November 2016, many European countries rallied around German Chancellor Angela Merkel as the new leader of the free world. This time around, they will have to look somewhere else: The three-party coalition in Berlin under Chancellor Olaf Scholz has just collapsed after the Free Democrats—a small pro-business party—rebelled on the economic direction of the country.

The timing seems terrible after Trump’s reelection just the day before, which threatens to throw Europe and Germany into an era of instability. In reality, however, the crisis in Berlin could prove to be good news. The coalition of Scholz’s Social Democrats, Greens, and Free Democrats was the most dysfunctional, dithering, and divided German government in decades. The members of the coalition actively worked against one another on European Union affairs, Ukraine aid, China policy, and economic reform. With Trump returning to the White House, Germany and Europe cannot afford near-total paralysis in Berlin.

After the 2021 national election in Germany, the three parties declared “a new beginning” to break the reform stagnation of the Merkel era. Then, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they promised a reckoning with Germany’s old business model, which had depended on Russia for cheap gas, China for growing exports and investment, and the United States for military protection.

Two years on, even the rosiest of optimists would struggle to see the glass of change as even half full. Rather than step up as a leader of Europe and the West, the coalition abdicated leadership in Europe, avoided pressing strategic decisions, and pursued narrow national interests first. On Ukraine, Germany can scrape together a passing record at best. Yes, it has been one of the biggest donors, leads in commitments for heavy weapons deliveries, ranks second in total aid to Ukraine after the United States (although only 15th by aid as a percentage of GDP), and has accepted the most voluntary Ukrainian refugees of any country.

However, Germany has no strategic focus or sense of urgency. Going against his coalition partners and contrary to his own claims of being in lockstep with allies, Scholz has continued to prohibit the delivery of German-made Taurus missiles, even after Britain, France, and the United States delivered their own long-range strike missiles. And support for Ukraine has been cut and deprioritized in the 2025 federal budget, with the German government disingenuously declaring that loans backed by the interest earned by frozen Russian assets would offset the cuts. This clever use of Russian assets was supposed to expand Western aid, not replace it.

For its own defense spending, Germany finally reached NATO’s minimum of 2 percent of GDP this year, but the special off-budget fund created to boost spending to this level will run out in 2027. How Berlin intends to finance defense in 2028 and beyond is entirely unclear; the coalition simply kicked that can down the road. Social Democratic Defense Minister Boris Pistorius—the most popular politician in Germany, which is why the unpopular Scholz has largely sidelined him—said that the 2025 budget does not provide the necessary funds to cover increased personnel costs, much less to invest in new capabilities. Germany’s discussion about restoring conscription to its depleted forces led nowhere beyond a voluntary option. Far from becoming a leading security player and the “best-equipped armed force” in Europe, as Scholz promised, Germany looks to be continuing business as usual.

In Europe, the Scholz government has been seen as the most unilateral, inward-looking, and uncooperative German leadership in a long time. Not only did Berlin unilaterally reintroduce border controls in a panicked reaction to right-wing populists surging in opinion polls following a series of violent attacks involving migrants, but the German government’s representatives at the European Union were also increasingly abstaining from votes because the coalition’s three parties had no unified position.

Broader European interests seemed completely absent from German calculations; for example, when Germany joined Hungary, Malta, Slovakia, and Slovenia to vote against imposing tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles. And Free Democrat Finance Minister Christian Lindner, whom Scholz fired on Nov. 6, was the first to say “no” to former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi’s proposal to increase European competitiveness with large-scale investments financed through joint debt.

With early elections expected by the end of March, it will be a new opportunity for Germany to assert leadership on these strategic issues. If a vote were held today, the most likely result would be a grand coalition of the right-of-center Christian Democrats and the left-of-center Social Democrats—with the former coming out on top and thus providing the chancellor. They collectively poll at about 48 percent of the vote. When Merkel, a Christian Democrat, was the chancellor, she ruled under this constellation for 12 of her 16 years in power, and although this time was marred by perceptions of inertia, a change of chancellorship could bring new strength to Germany’s foreign policy.

Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democrats’ party chairman and likely chancellor of a grand coalition, would finally achieve his life goal after having been pushed out from politics by Merkel two decades ago. On security, Merz has already signaled that he is more forward-leaning on Ukraine than Scholz. He publicly challenged Scholz to deliver Russian President Vladimir Putin an ultimatum: Stop attacking Ukrainian civilian infrastructure within 24 hours, or Germany will deliver Taurus missiles. Although Merz would need to follow up his rhetoric with action if and when he actually moves into government, a grand coalition could also provide new fiscal flexibility to underwrite defense spending and aid to Ukraine, since both parties could agree to loosen Germany’s fiscal restrictions, which Lindner and the Free Democrats opposed.

This would be the kind of leadership that Germany’s European partners have waited for since 2022, when Scholz proclaimed a Zeitenwende—or new era—in security and defense without ever following up. And that kind of leadership will be indispensable with war raging in Europe and Trump in the White House for a second term.

[loneberry]

The new route Russia is using to export its oil to China. Unfortunately global warming and the melting of the icecaps only benefits Russia geopolitically. What’s the big deal? you might wonder. A 10-day reduction in transport time is huge when it comes to the velocity of capital. Power accrues to the nations that control key maritime trade routes.

*

Between climate change and the new Cold War, the future doesn’t look pretty. China’s economy is imploding thanks to their reliance on a debt-fueled real estate bonanza, their misguided zero COVID policy, and Xi Jinping’s head-scratchingly bad policies (and of course, his consolidation of power). Siding with Russia was a huge mistake… Now China’s biggest export markets are trying to decouple or at least diversify away from them. Youth unemployment is so bad in China (21%, but possibly significantly higher) that the government has decided to stop publishing such data. The Philippines and Vietnam are pivoting toward the US. South Korea and Japan are putting their long, historical feud aside to join forces against China. Japanese military neutrality is over. Meanwhile a tiny island called Taiwan makes over 92% of the world’s advanced semiconductors and will likely be invaded in our lifetime. Will an (economically) weakened China make it more or less likely that Xi will invade Taiwan? (Strongmen facing a domestic crisis and loss of popular support do often start wars as a kind of “gamble for resurrection,” but Xi might have become more risk adverse as he observes Russia’s debacle in Ukraine. Plus, an amphibious invasion is logistically extremely difficult to pull off.)

Defense spending worldwide is skyrocketing, climbing back toward Cold War levels. The lines on the map are hardening, particularly in the Asian/Pacific theater and the European theater. A nuclear trifecta of Russia-China-North Korea is emerging. Yes, it is a marriage of convenience, but quite a dangerous one given that Russia will likely transfer technology (specifically, platforms to deliver nuclear warheads) to North Korea in exchange for Soviet-compatible ammunition/arms to use in Ukraine. I hate feeling like the world is a frog getting boiled but as I finish this 26-part BBC documentary on World War I, I can’t help but feel that the geopolitical situation is very unstable.

Oh, the madness of nation states! Wake me up when it’s over.

[highlights-of-the-lowlife]

so china has completely dropped the mask when it comes to wanting peace in ukraine. currently the russian minister of defense sergei shoigu and a chinese delegation are in north korea to make an arms deal. its long been the case that north korea can’t do anything on the international stage without china’s permission and assistance.

as a side note chinese shell companies are the reason why sanctions against north korea have to be updated every few months. once a company is proven to have ties with north korea its shut down, renamed and reopened for business. but thats how sanctions actually work in the real world. china taking their cut ensures that north korean import/export power is reduced. a similar dynamic is working with shell companies in georgia and kazakhstan aiding russia.

at least now we can put to bed the idea that china wanted a peace negotiation to end this war. point blank they profit from it too much to halt it. rock bottom oil prices from russia in exchange for (so far) plausibly deniable aid like electronic components, generic body armour and gun accessories. but now china gets to skim off the top of a new north korean partnership with russia.

there’s a lot of speculation that china sees the russian invasion as a legitimisation of the plans to annex taiwan but firstly the CCP has never really cared about international law but the biggest reason for their shallow support of russia is the profit margin. but its apparently only the US military industrial complex funding the war for stock prices if you listen to the tankies,

[libertariantaoist]

News Roundup 12/6/2023 | The Libertarian Institute

Here is your daily roundup of today's news:

News Roundup 12/6/2023

by Kyle Anzalone

US News

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has hit out at Americans who prefer a less interventionist foreign policy, smearing them as isolationists who want to see the US “retreat from responsibility.” AWC

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has scheduled a vote for Wednesday to advance President Biden’s massive $106 billion emergency spending request that includes military aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan, as well as additional funding for the border, POLITICO reported. AWC

Adm. Christopher Grady: US Can Handle Middle East, Russia and China All at Once. YouTubeThe Institute

China

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo called for tighter export controls on advanced technologies going to China and labeled Beijing “the biggest threat we’ve ever had.” AWC

Russia

White House Will Run Out of Funds to Arm Ukraine By the End of the Year. FTAWC

US Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffrey Pyatt explained that Washington was plotting a decade-long economic war targeting Moscow. The US has maintained sanctions on Russia since the 2014 Washington-backed coup in Ukraine sparked Moscow’s annexation of Crimea. Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the economic war on the Russian economy was significantly intensified. The Institute

Bulgarian President Blocks Weapons Transfer to Ukraine. Newsweek

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is turning Ukraine into an authoritarian state as public criticism of Ukrainian leadership is becoming more common. AWC

Zelensky Cancels Address to US Senate. Forbes 

Israel

Biden Admin Says US Intel Had No Knowledge of Hamas Battle Plans for October 7. Axios

The UK announced on Saturday that it would begin surveillance flights in the skies above Gaza in search of captives held by Hamas. Over the past month, the US has conducted drone operations seeking hostages. Both Washington and London have engaged in a military buildup in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea in support of Tel Aviv. The Institute 

UN Warns Israel Against Exacerbating the Already Catastrophic Humanitarian Situation in Gaza. VOA

Israel Hayom reported last week that some members of Congress have reviewed a plan to condition US aid to Arab countries on their willingness to accept refugees from Gaza, which would facilitate the Israeli goal of cleansing the territory of Palestinians. AWC

Israel intensified airstrikes in southern Gaza on Monday and bombed areas where it told Palestinians to seek shelter, Reuters reported. AWC

Amnesty International: “US-made Weapons Facilitated the Mass Killings of Extended Families” in Gaza. Press ReleaseThe Institute

Polling continues to show that the majority of Americans favor a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, a position the Biden administration has rejected. AWC

The IDF Ignored Warnings Hours Before October 7 Hamas Attack. Haaretz 

The House on Tuesday passed a resolution that says “anti-Zionism is antisemitism,” the chamber’s latest piece of legislation conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism. AWC

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reaffirmed on Tuesday that he wants Israel’s military to maintain an open-ended occupation of the Gaza Strip after the current war. AWC

 Middle East

Officials Tell Politico that US Ships Under Threat in Red Sea and Persian Gulf. Politico 

The US Approves Arms Sales to UAE and Saudi Arabia. MEE

US officials are considering forming a Red Sea task force with other nations after a series of attacks by Yemen’s Houthis against commercial shipping that’s come in response to the Israeli onslaught in Gaza. AWC

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