Dec 14, 2017 - The European Union (EU) and Japan have concluded negotiations on a free trade deal to create the world’s largest open economic area, signalling their rejection of the protectionist stance of US president Donald Trump.
The two parties, who agreed in principle the outlines of the deal in July, said negotiators had now finished a legal text that would open up trade for economies generating about 30% of global GDP.
In a joint statement, Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe and European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker said the deal had “considerable economic value” and “strategic importance”.
“With the finalisation of the negotiations, the path is now clear to complete the internal procedures leading to the signature, ratification and full implementation of the agreement,” they said.
They added that the deal demonstrated their commitment to “keeping the world economy working on the basis of free open and fair markets with clear and transparent rules”.
The deal, the Economic Partnership Agreement, combining the 28-nation bloc and world’s third largest economy, will remove EU tariffs of 10% on Japanese cars and the 3% rate typically applied to parts.
For the EU, it will scrap Japanese duties of 30% on EU cheese and 15% on wines, as well as allowing it to increase its beef and pork exports and gain access to large public tenders in Japan.
Cecilia Malmstrom, EU trade chief, said amid widening protectionist movements the deal demonstrates to the world the flag of free trade would keep waving.
“This is biggest trade agreement we have ever negotiated for the EU. It sends a powerful message in defence of open trade based on global rules,” she said.
In the past five months negotiators worked on stabilising tariffs in services, regulatory cooperation and the means to protect food and drink categories, including only naming sparkling wines from a specific Italian region prosecco.
However, Malmstrom said that discussions are set to continue on the contentious issue of investor protection.
Japan has been reluctant to adopt the investment court system the EU has devised in answer to criticism of traditional dispute settlement arrangements intended to protect investors.
Campaigners argue the system, known as ISDS, hands companies the power to undermine social and economic rules. Brussels responded by devising an alternative system of investment courts but has so far not convinced Tokyo to back it.
Malmstrom said negotiations would continue separately on this issue outside the scope of the main deal, helping smooth the path towards ratification.
“This needs further discussion at the beginning of next year but the rest of the agreement is there,” she said.
The absence of investor protection from the deal means that the EU can ratify the agreement through the European Parliament and Council of Brussels, rather than through lengthy national ratification procedures.
She added that the EU is also hoping to seal free trade agreements with Mexico and the Mercosur bloc of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay.
“The fact that we managed to finalise this today when we and Japan go to Buenos Aires, sends a powerful signal that we can make good trade agreements that are win-win,” she said.
| A Supply Management release || December 13, 2017 |||
Dec 13, 2017 - Earlier this year, we committed to placing 55 billion XRP in a cryptographically-secured escrow account to create certainty of XRP supply at any given time. As promised, today we completed the lockup. By securing the lion’s share of XRP in escrow, people can now mathematically verify the maximum supply that can enter the market. While Ripple has proved to be a responsible steward of XRP supply for almost five years – and has clearly demonstrated a tremendous track record of investing in and supporting the XRP ecosystem – this lockup eliminates any concern that Ripple could flood the market, which we’ve pointed out before is a scenario that would be bad for Ripple!
This move underscores Ripple’s commitment to building XRP liquidity and a healthy and trusted market. Long term, the value of digital assets will be determined by their utility. XRP has emerged as the only digital asset with a clear institutional use case designed to solve a multi-trillion dollar problem – the global payment and liquidity challenges that banks, payment providers and corporates face.
Unlike other digital assets purely driven by unexplained speculation, real institutional customers are already using and finding value in XRP, and governments, regulators and central banks are increasingly recognizing the role it could play in the global system.
XRP goes beyond what Bitcoin does well — a store of value — and delivers transaction speed and throughput that is orders of magnitude faster than BTC or ETH. While other digital assets continue to bump against their transaction limits, XRP remains the fastest, most efficient and most scalable digital asset in the world – making it the best digital asset for payments. It’s no surprise that institutions are looking to XRP to provide much-needed on-demand liquidity for cross-border payments.
Game changer for $XRP! 55 billion XRP now in escrow Tweet This
Here’s how the escrow works:
The Escrow feature in the XRP Ledger allows parties to secure XRP for an allotted amount of time or until specific conditions are met. For example, Escrow allows a sender of XRP to put conditions on exactly when a payment can be completed, so the payment remains cryptographically locked until the due date.
We use Escrow to establish 55 contracts of 1 billion XRP each that will expire on the first day of every month from months 0 to 54. As each contract expires, the XRP will become available for Ripple’s use. You can expect us to continue to use XRP for incentives to market makers who offer tighter spreads for payments and selling XRP to institutional investors.
We’ll then return whatever is unused at the end of each month to the back of the escrow rotation. For example, if 500M XRP remain unspent at the end of the first month, those 500M XRP will be placed into a new escrow account set to expire in month 55. For comparison, Ripple has sold on average 300M XRP per month for the past 18 months.
Ripple’s vision remains the same – to enable the Internet of Value in which money moves like information moves today – and XRP is at the heart.
To learn more, please visit ripple.com/xrp.
| A Ripple release || December 7, 2017 |||
Dec 13, 2017 - : Rocket Lab has completed analysis of the Electron test flight abort that occurred during the company’s ‘Still Testing’ launch attempt yesterday. The analysis determined the launch was aborted due to rising liquid oxygen (LOx) temperatures feeding into one of the Electron’s nine Rutherford engines on the vehicle’s first stage. Rocket Lab has implemented corrective actions ahead of the next launch attempt, which is currently targeted for no earlier than 2.30 pm, Thursday 14 December NZDT.
The slight LOx temperature increase was a result of a LOx chilldown bleed schedule that was not compatible with the warm conditions of the day at Launch Complex-1. Rocket Lab has modified the bleed schedule to ensure components are sufficiently chilled ahead of a new launch attempt tomorrow.
While the temperatures were within safe parameters for launch, Rocket Lab had set conservative parameters for the test flight campaign that led to the vehicle performing a safe auto-sequence abort at T-2 seconds prior to a lift-off. The abort caused no damage to the vehicle or launch pad infrastructure, with the vehicle performing exactly as expected in accordance with the launch criteria.
Rocket Lab CEO and founder Peter Beck said the rapid and safe abort was yet another advantage of Rocket Lab’s advanced electric-turbopump engine technology, which can shutdown significantly faster than traditional turbopump engines.
“Electron performed as it should if it detects anything off-nominal during the auto-sequence and the electric turbopumps shut down in milliseconds. Our team developed very advanced systems to prevent launch if any one of thousands of factors isn’t perfectly aligned, and yesterday we proved those systems are performing well,” he said.
“We quickly identified the cause, put corrective actions in place and are looking forward to another launch attempt soon.”
For real-time updates from Rocket Lab, follow us on Twitter @RocketLab
| A RocketLab release || December 13, 2017 |||
Dec 13, 2017 - Minister for Agriculture, Biosecurity, Food Safety and Rural Communities Damien O’Connor announced today that the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) will reorganise its functions to create a stronger focus on core responsibilities. Mr O’Connor says government will set up four portfolio-based entities, Fisheries New Zealand, Forestry New Zealand, Biosecurity New Zealand and New Zealand Food Safety.
“Our priority is to achieve greater clarity and unity of purpose for these areas. We are seeking enhanced visibility of government policy and regulatory activities and clearer lines of accountability and engagement for stakeholders.
“We are now looking to the Director General of MPI to work with his team to achieve this, while ensuring prudent and efficient use of taxpayer and industry funds.
“MPI will continue to meet the expectations of our international trading partners as the competent authority.’’
MPI will build up its forestry presence in Rotorua, Mr O’Connor says.
“Rotorua’s location puts it at the heart of our forestry sector and makes it the most appropriate site for a dedicated forestry presence to support the Government’s ambition in this important sector.
“It’s likely further change in the forest space will occur after policy and operational work to deliver the Government’s ambitious goals in this area.”
Reorganisation of MPI’s functions will occur in the early part of 2018 and will be in place by April.
“I would like to thank MPI staff for their commitment and hard work in the primary sector and assure them that there will be no reduction in staff numbers as a result of these changes. This change is about increasing focus and ensuring greater visibility of fisheries, forestry, biosecurity and food safety,” Mr O’Connor says.
The estimated cost to implement the changes is $6.8 million to establish the four portfolio-based business units. Additional ongoing operating costs are estimated at $2.3m per annum.
Mr O’Connor says reprioritised money from the Primary Growth Partnership Fund will pay for the changes so there will be no additional cost to taxpayers.
“This is a prudent and cost-effective change that can be managed with existing monies.’’
| A Beehive release || December 13, 2017 |||
Palace of the Alhambra, Spain
By: Charles Nathaniel Worsley (1862-1923)
From the collection of Sir Heaton Rhodes
Oil on canvas - 118cm x 162cm
Valued $12,000 - $18,000
Offers invited over $9,000
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242
Mount Egmont with Lake
By: John Philemon Backhouse (1845-1908)
Oil on Sea Shell - 13cm x 14cm
Valued $2,000-$3,000
Offers invited over $1,500
Contact: Henry Newrick – (+64 ) 27 471 2242