08 FOREIGN NEWS
Wednesday, 18 January, 2017
Trump adviser scaramucci says parTs, noT all, of naTo are obsoleTe d AGENCIES
ONALD Trump’s comments about NATO being “obsolete” reflect how the world has changed, but should not be interpreted as meaning that it needs to be consigned to history, a senior adviser to the U.S. presidentelect said on Tuesday. Germany’s Foreign Minister FrankWalter Steinmeier said on Monday that Trump’s comments had aroused concern across the 28-member alliance. Trump, who is due to be sworn in on Friday, criticized NATO for not defending against terrorist attacks. “NATO is working but there are things about it that need to change and there are parts of it that are, in the words of Trump, ‘obsolete’”, Anthony Scaramucci, a hedge fund manager who is joining Trump’s White House staff as an adviser, told an audience at the World Economic Forum (WEF). NATO has been seen since the 1950s as the keystone of western European defenses, extending its zone of activity in the post-Cold War period to the borders of Russia.
“We have to think about changing the (NATO) treaty to front face the 21st and 22nd centuries,” Scaramucci said, adding the focus should now be on find-
ing common cause with Russia. “Let’s try to find a way to get along better (with Russia). We need to focus less on combatting Commu-
nism and more on rejecting radical Islam,” he said. Trump’s comments about countries needing to pay their way in NATO reflected his background as a businessman and property developer and made sense, Scaramucci said. Scaramucci also said the United States wanted to create more symmetry in trade agreements and have a “phenomenal relationship” with China, calling on Beijing to “reach now towards us and allow us to create this symmetry”. In Washington, Trump’s views on NATO are not shared by many fellow Republicans. John McCain, the influential Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, noted how NATO allies sent their troops to fight in the war on terrorism declared by then President George W. Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacked plane attacks on New York and Washington. “I don’t think we should ever forget that – that they were willing to send their young people to Afghanistan to fight, not because they were attacked, but because we were attacked,” McCain told CNN on Tuesday.
Russia expects dialogue with Trump on nuclear weapons: Lavrov Russia expects to have a dialogue with the Trump administration on strategic stability, including on nuclear weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday. Lavrov added to reporters that such a dialogue could cover hypersonic weapons, a U.S. missile shield in Europe, space weapons and nuclear testing. He said that Russia was ready to meet with Donald Trump’s administration to discuss these issues after the U.S. president-elect takes office. AGENCIES
Underwater search for missing Malaysian flight ends without a trace SYDNEY AGENCIES
The deep sea hunt for missing flight MH370 has been suspended after nearly three years without result, the Australian, Malaysian and Chinese governments said on Tuesday. The Malaysia Airlines aircraft disappeared en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 passengers and crew. The plane “has not been located” in the 120,000 square kilometre (46,000 square mile) search area of the southern Indian Ocean, a statement from the three nations said. “Despite every effort using the best science available, cutting edge technology, as well as modelling and advice from highly skilled professionals who are the best in their field, unfortunately, the search has not been able to locate the aircraft,” the statement added. “Accordingly, the underwater search for MH370 has been suspended.” The governments said the suspension, which was flagged by Malaysia earlier this month, was not “taken lightly nor without sadness” but that “to date no new information has been discovered to determine the specific location of the aircraft”. “We remain hopeful that new information will come to light and that at some point in the future the aircraft will be located.” Investigators have so far confirmed that three pieces of debris washed up and recovered on western Indian Ocean shorelines came from MH370. Other pieces recovered mostly on western Indian Ocean shorelines have been identified as likely, though not definitely, from MH370. New analysis by Australian and international experts released in December concluded MH370 was not in the search zone – a long stretch of water within the so-called seventh arc where the plane was calculated to have emitted a final satellite “handshake” – and might be further north. They identified an area of approximately 25,000 square kilometres with the highest probability of containing wreckage, but Australia and Malaysia said the report did not constitute a strong enough lead to extend the search. Nextof-kin association Voice370 said it was “dismayed” with the search’s suspension and called on authorities to extend the hunt. “In our view, extending the search to the new area defined by the experts is an inescapable duty owed to the flying public in the interest of aviation safety,” Voice370 said in a statement. “Commercial planes cannot just be allowed to disappear without a trace.
Top TrUMp Trade adviser offshored ThoUsands of jobs WASHINGTON AGENCIES
Billionaire Wilbur Ross, chosen by Donald Trump to help implement the president-elect’s trade agenda, earned his fortune in part by running businesses that have offshored thousands of US jobs, according to Labor Department data attained by Reuters. As a high-stakes investor a decade ago, Ross specialized in turning around troubled manufacturing companies at a time when the US economy was losing more than 100,000 jobs yearly due to global trade. A Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to become commerce secretary is set for Wednesday. Supporters say Ross saved thousands of US jobs by rescuing firms from failure. Data attained by Reuters through a Freedom of Information Act request shows that rescue effort came at a price: textile, finance and auto-parts companies controlled by the private-equity titan eliminated about 2,700 US positions since 2004 because they shipped production to other countries, according to a Labor Department program that assists workers who lose their jobs due to global trade. The figures, which have not previously been disclosed, amount to a small fraction of the US economy, which sees employment fluctuate by the tens of thousands of jobs each month. But Ross’s
track record clashes with Trump’s promise to protect American workers from the ravages of global trade. Recently, Trump claimed credit for saving 800 jobs at a Carrier Corp. factory in Indiana, even touring the plant to shake hands with employees. He has targeted Ford Motor Co and other automakers to keep hundreds of jobs inside the US borders. That disconnect could draw atten-
tion at his hearing, one of many scheduled this week for Cabinet nominees ahead of Trump’s Jan 20 inauguration. “He is not the man to be protecting American workers when he’s shipping this stuff overseas himself,” said Don Coy, who lost his job at the end of 2016 when a company Ross created – International Automotive Components Group – closed a factory in Canton, Ohio and shifted pro-
duction of rubber floor mats to Mexico, eliminating the final 16 jobs in a factory that once employed 450 workers. Ross resigned from the IAC board of directors in November 2014 and was named chairman emeritus. Ross did not respond to several requests for comment. His offshoring activities are not unusual in an era when globalization has lowered international trade barriers. Auto-parts maker Delphi Corp., for example, has offshored 11,700 US jobs since 2004, while textile makers have offshored at least 17,000 jobs since then, the Labor Department said. As IAC shuttered its Canton plant in the final months of 2016, Ross argued on behalf of Trump that free-trade agreements hurt the United States. “When Ford offshores new production facilities to Mexico, that both boosts the Mexican economy and reduces investment in this country,” he wrote in September in a Washington Post opinion piece penned with Peter Navarro, another Trump economic adviser who has been tapped to direct a White House trade council. In a bid to reverse offshoring, Trump has threatened to impose “a big border tax” on automakers that choose to build cars in Mexico rather than the United States and has talked of resetting free-trade deals such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). A Trump transition spokesperson said
personnel decisions at Ross’s auto-parts and textile companies were driven by the need to put operations near customers and keep U.S. plants competitive, echoing arguments made by other auto industry executives who face pressure from Trump. “Few people have done as much to defend American jobs and negotiate good deals for American workers as Wilbur Ross,” said the spokesperson, who asked not to be named. The offshoring figures for Ross’s companies came from the Labor Department’s Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program, which provides retraining benefits to some workers who lose their jobs due to outsourcing or cheap imports. The program does not cover everybody who is hurt by global trade: service-sector workers were not eligible until 2009, and those who don’t apply for the program don’t show up in its records. Only 1.6 million factory workers qualified for TAA benefits between 2001 and 2010, a time when the United States shed 6 million manufacturing jobs. Despite Trump’s campaign rhetoric about countries like Mexico and China taking U.S. jobs, the TAA figures show globalization has claimed fewer jobs in recent years. The program covered roughly 80,000 workers last year, down from about 340,000 in 2009.