Free Republic

Brothers Charged With Sending Computers to Syria, Libya Overwhelmed by Export Rules, Lawyers Say David Koenig/Associated Press Jun 10, 2004 DALLAS (AP) - Attorneys for five Middle Eastern brothers accused of shipping computers to countries that help terrorists said Thursday their clients were small businessmen who were overwhelmed by complicated export regulations. Defense lawyers also suggested the men were singled out for criminal prosecution because they are Muslims. One asked for a mistrial when a federal prosecutor mentioned nationality and religion in his opening statement, but the judge denied the request. Ghassan Elashi, Bayan Elashi, Basman Elashi, Hazim Elashi and...

The North Korean Uranium Challenge By DAVID E. SANGER Published: May 24, 2004 ASHINGTON, May 23 - The discovery that North Korea may have supplied uranium to Libya poses an immediate challenge to the White House: while President Bush is preoccupied on the other side of the world, an economically desperate nation may be engaging in exactly the kind of nuclear proliferation that the president says he went to war in Iraq to halt. Yet to listen to many in the White House, concern about North Korea's nuclear program brings little of the urgency that surrounded the decision 14 months...

The largest nickel producer in the world, Russian company Norilsk Nickel, announced first-quarter profit increased on 82 percent under Russian accounting standards as metals prices rised to record high. Net income rose to $600 million from $330 million a year earlier, according to company’s spokeswoman. "In subsequent quarters their earnings should be a little bit lower," said Scott Semet, an analyst at MDM Bank. Market prices for nickel and other metals fell last month as buyers turned to cheaper substitutes and investors speculated that demand may slow in China. Nickel reached a 14-year high, platinum a 24-year peak and palladium...

  International Trade market events: Index Definition International Trade measures the difference between imports and exports of both tangible goods and services. The level of the international trade balance, as well as changes in exports and imports, indicate trends in foreign trade. Why Investors Care Released on 4/14/04 For Feb 2004 Trade Deficit Consensus $ -43.0 B Actual $ -42.1 B Highlights In a mild plus for the economic outlook, the nation's international trade deficit narrowed in February to $42.1 billion from $43.5 billion in January. Exports showed life in the month, rising 4 percent to $92.4 billion. The...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States warned North Korea that it would face action from the international community if it does not stop exporting dangerous weapons and other illegal activities. "If North Korea will not act, it will find the United States, its allies and other partners equally prepared to respond with measures that ensure North Korea cannot threaten our countries or international stability," said Mitchell Reiss, the department's director of policy planning. Speaking at the Heritage Foundation, one of Washington's leading repositories of expertise on East Asia, Reiss said the United States was taking steps to enforce its laws...

The dollar keeps going down, and the trade deficit keeps going up. Economists and reporters explain this in terms of American appetite for foreign goods outstripping overseas demand for US goods. There is another explanation, one perhaps closer to the truth. Americans are buying the same goods as in the past made by the same US multinational corporations; only the goods are no longer made in the USA. Their production has been outsourced or offshored to Asia. The same goods now count as imports, because they are produced offshore. A country cannot close its trade deficit if its economy is...

What's gotten into Lou Dobbs? Once a sensible, if self-important and sycophantic, CNN anchor, he has suddenly become a table-thumping protectionist. Dobbs has been running a series -- praised by the AFL-CIO's Rich Trumka as a "nightly crusade" -- called "Exporting America." Slanted and inflammatory, it decries "outsourcing" or "offshoring" -- that is, U.S. businesses using suppliers in other countries, like workers in Ghana processing New York parking tickets or programmers in India writing IBM software. Another word for outsourcing is "trade" -- an endeavor, as economists learned early on, that benefits both parties to the exchange. Nothing has changed...

TRI-CITY HERALD: French fries blocked from Asian markets This story was published Wednesday, December 31st, 2003 By Anna King, Herald staff writer More than $500,000 worth of french fries is being held in limbo at Northwest and Asian ports in an unexpected spin-off of the mad cow scare that is alarming one of the Mid-Columbia's biggest industries. Tons of Columbia Basin frozen potato products that were prefried in beef tallow have been delayed as Asian governments and customers have reacted to last week's announcement that a cow slaughtered in Mabton had the disease. At risk is part of an export...

For at least 4,730 IBM computer programmers, the Christmas and New Year holiday will not be too festive. According to the Wall Street Journal, IBM plans on "moving their work" to India, China and "elsewhere." It's not alone. High-tech companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Sun and others have similar plans. Citing research by International Data Corp., the Journal estimates that by 2007, 23 percent of all information-technology services jobs will move to "emerging markets." If the trend continues, we may see a dramatic shift in the labor landscape: more retail jobs, fewer knowledge jobs. Understanding this impetus begins with a recognition...

While Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and President Bush discussed Taiwan, currency rates and North Korea on December 9, a more important and far-reaching development in U.S.-China relations was going on far from the White House. Under the North China Plain, which produces half of China's wheat and a third of its corn, water tables are falling by 3 to 10 feet per year. Along with rising temperatures and the loss of cropland to non-farm uses, this trend is shrinking the Chinese grain harvest, which has fallen in four of the past five years. To get an idea of the magnitude,...

Published on TaipeiTimes http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2003/12/01/2003077964 Modernize, but don't Americanize America's economy is good, Germany's is bad-that's how the received wisdom goes, but this view is not tenable By Will Hutton THE OBSERVER Monday, Dec 01, 2003,Page 9 Britain signed a landmark enterprise agreement last month with the US to celebrate its aspiration to follow the American way. Yet this alleged enterprise capital of the world has a trade deficit equal to 5 percent of its GNP, has racked up international debts now close to US$3 trillion and last April lost its place as number one world exporter to Germany. This latter...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.The following analysis was adapted from testimony given by USBICEF Research Fellow Alan Tonelson before the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing on international trade policy, August 1, 2001. I. TRADE AND INVESTMENT AGREEMENTS ARE DIFFERENT The flurry of U.S. trade agreements negotiated during the 1990s has generally been presented to Congress and the public as net creators of American jobs and growth, and boosters of wages for American workers. The key supposedly was their capacity to increase exports. The stated logic behind these agreements was compelling. The United States was the world's...

An Iranian man has been charged with attempting to export components for an F-14 fighter jet to his country, immigration officials said Wednesday. Serzhik Avasappian, 40, was arrested on charges he attempted to ship the parts to Iran without obtaining an export license from the U.S. State Department. Avasappian said he was a Tehran-based broker attempting to purchase the plane parts for the Iranian government, according to immigration officials. Agents began negotiating with Avasappian in January 2002 over the export of the components, according to the criminal complaint. It alleges there was discussion of illegally exporting F-14 fighter jet parts,...

N Korea to export missiles to Iran - report August 06 2003 at 10:37AM North Korea is in talks to export its Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile to Iran and to jointly develop nuclear warheads with Tehran, a Japanese newspaper reported on Monday. The conservative Sankei Shimbun, quoting military sources familiar with North Korea, said the communist state planned to export components and Iran would then assemble the Taepodongs at a factory near Tehran. The paper, known for its hardline stance on Pyongyang, said North Korea would also send experts to provide Iran with assistance on missile technology and the...

HOOVER INSTITUTIONHOOVER DIGEST 1997 No. 4Milton Friedman and Rose Friedman THE CASE FOR FREE TRADE In international trade, Hoover fellow Charles Wolf Jr. argues in a previous article, deficits don't much matter. Here the Friedmans discuss what does: freedom. A ringing statement of logic and principle.It is often said that bad economic policy reflects disagreement among the experts; that if all economists gave the same advice, economic policy would be good. Economists often do disagree, but that has not been true with respect to international trade. Ever since Adam Smith there has been virtual unanimity among economists, whatever their...

<p>The 2004 Saturn VUE;the first General Motors Corp. vehicle to be offered with a Honda-built engine;is more "American" than the 2003 VUE that doesn't have the Honda engine. What? How can this be?</p> <p>The proof is there in the federal government-mandated content labels affixed to the VUEs' windows.</p> <p>Keith Chartrau, launch planner for VUE, said the so-called domestic content label on 2004 VUEs with Honda's 3.5-liter V6 will show "an increase" in domestic content, because the Honda-supplied engine is built in Ohio. Final, exact percentages on the 2004 VUE's content were still being worked up, he added.</p>

North’s air cargo: missiles North Korea has continued to export its missiles to a frequent buyer, Iran, South Korea and U.S. intelligence sources said yesterday. But the shipments are now going by air; the officials believe that the North switched to air shipments because one of its ships loaded with missiles was intercepted on its way to Yemen in December. The new intelligence was apparently one of the reasons for the timing of the meeting last week in Spain, led by the United States, to discuss with other countries ways to cut off the proliferation of mass weapons. The intelligence...

Everyone in the room, from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to Buffalo Mayor Anthony Masiello, was beaming at last week's announcement. The news was that Asia's largest computer consultant has become a deep-pocket partner of the University at Buffalo. Under an agreement signed Monday, Tata Consultancy Services of India will partner with local researchers and help transform their discoveries into money-making products. Products mean jobs, the strongly desired byproduct of Buffalo's $140 million Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics. But jobs where? Advocates say the Indian company's capital and business links will mean economic spin-off benefits in Western New York and abroad....

<p>PLEASANTON -- PeopleSoft Inc., whose software is used to process payroll and track inventory, will shift some consulting work to India to lower the costs of customizing programs for clients. Pleasanton-based PeopleSoft is working with Hexaware Technologies Ltd., an Indian consulting company, to open an office in Bangalore in June. Hexaware consultants will configure PeopleSoft programs for customers' specific needs, said Bill Henry, a PeopleSoft vice president of strategy and marketing.</p>

Quietly and with stunning speed the Australians are invading the United States--with wine. Following a detailed production and marketing plan, and taking aim at California's place in the wine market, Australia is about to pass Italy as the No. 1 supplier of imported wine in America. The Australians are leveraging their dramatically lower costs of production to catapult themselves forward at a time when American vintners are struggling to stay afloat in a worldwide glut of wine. With 90 percent of the Australian imports to the U.S. priced between $6 and $11 a bottle, this segment of the wine business--already...