trade

UK envoy visits Israel despite suspending trade talks

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https://www.thenational.scot/news/25192770.uk-envoy-visits-israel-despite-suspending-trade-talks

Lord Ian Austin said the UK was still ‘open for business’ with Israel despite suspending trade talks (Image: @ukinisrael, via Twitter/X)

THE UK Government’s trade envoy to Israel has visited the country to “promote trade”, just days after Labour said they were calling off negotiations with the Israeli government on a new free trade deal.

Lord Ian Austin was pictured in Haifa in northern Israel visiting various projects, where he said the Government would continue to “[encourage] British businesses to export to Israel and Israeli businesses to invest in the UK”.

On Monday, the British embassy in Israel shared an image of Austin and wrote: “Great to welcome @LordIanAustin to Haifa!

“In a day full of innovation by the Carmel, the UK Trade Envoy to Israel visited the cutting-edge Customs Scanning Centre, Haifa Bayport, the Haifa–Nazareth Light Rail project, and the Technion – witnessing [Great Britain flag emoji, Israel flag emoji] cooperation at every stop.”

Last week, the UK Government called off trade negotiations with Israel, describing Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government as “extremists”.

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Article continues at https://www.thenational.scot/news/25192770.uk-envoy-visits-israel-despite-suspending-trade-talks

UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel's Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don't do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
UK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.
Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Vote For Genocide Vote Labour.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Continue ReadingUK envoy visits Israel despite suspending trade talks

Morning Star Editorial: Neither ‘free trade’ nor protection but socialism

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-neither-free-trade-nor-protection-socialism

President-elect Donald Trump speaks at meeting of the House GOP conference, November 13, 2024, in Washington

DONALD TRUMP is forcing the labour movement around the world to take an attitude towards trade.

The bland assumptions of free trade which have been accepted as the norm for decades are going to be challenged by the new US administration.

This week Trump has announced that he will impose punitive tariffs “on day one” on China and on immediate neighbours Canada and Mexico.

These are in response to alleged failures in the three countries in controlling migration towards the United States and/or the illicit export of constitutive elements of fentanyl, part of the vast drug addiction problem that has developed in the US.

As such, these tariffs can be seen for what they are — attempts to bully countries into line with US policy, including into dealing with internal problems which Washington seems unable to fix on its own.

They are of a piece with the promiscuous use of sanctions by both Republican and Democratic administrations to coerce foreign states into supporting aggressive US policies around the world. Those should be opposed by anyone who values national independence and international law.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-neither-free-trade-nor-protection-socialism

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Neither ‘free trade’ nor protection but socialism

UK sees privatisation ‘opportunities’ in Ukraine war

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https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-sees-privatisation-opportunities-in-ukraine-war/

Zelensky meets Starmer and NATO secretary general Mark Rutte. (Photo: Simon Dawson / No 10 handout)

British aid is being used to open up Ukraine’s wrecked economy to foreign investors and enhance trade with the UK.

Amid the devastating war in Ukraine, British economic aid to the country is focused on promoting pro-private sector reforms and on pressing the government to open up its economy to foreign investors. 

Recently-published Foreign Office documents on its flagship aid project in Ukraine, which supports privatisation, note that the war provides “opportunities” for Ukraine delivering on “some hugely important reforms”.

The government in Kyiv has in recent months been responding positively to these calls. Last month, president Volodymyr Zelensky signed a new law expanding the privatisation of state-owned banks in the country. 

It follows the Ukrainian government’s announcement in July of its ‘Large-Scale Privatisation 2024’ programme that is intended to drive foreign investment into the country and raise money for Ukraine’s struggling national budget, not least to fight Russia.

Large assets slated for privatisation currently include the country’s biggest producer of titanium ore, a leading producer of concrete products and a mining and processing plant. 

Ukraine envisaged privatising the country’s roughly 3,500 state-owned enterprises in a law of 2018, which said foreign citizens and companies could become owners.

The process stalled as a result of coronavirus and then Russia’s invasion in February 2022. But hundreds of smaller-scale enterprises are now being privatised, bringing in revenues of UAH 9.6bn (£181m) in the past two years. 

“The resumption of privatisation amid the full-scale war is an important step, which is already yielding results,” Ukraine’s economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko said last month. 

Another law enacted in June 2023 allows large-scale assets to be sold to foreigners or Ukrainians during the current martial law regime.  

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Article continues at https://www.declassifieduk.org/uk-sees-privatisation-opportunities-in-ukraine-war/

Continue ReadingUK sees privatisation ‘opportunities’ in Ukraine war