APEC says ‘concerned’ over challenges to global trade
The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation group said Friday that it was “concerned” over the challenges to global trade, as ministers from APEC countries met in South Korea in the shadow of growing woes from US tariffs.Trade ministers from the top economies that make up APEC are meeting on South Korea’s Jeju Island amid concerns for the global trading system since US President Donald Trump unveiled bombshell levies on most partners.The United States is a key APEC member and was represented by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, who held a series of bilateral meetings with nations eager to soften the blow of Washington’s tariffs.”We are concerned with the fundamental challenges faced by the global trading system,” trade ministers from the 21-member group, which includes China, said in a joint statement.They urged greater cooperation, saying they “remain committed” to APEC as a means of “bringing us together to address the economic challenges facing our region”.South Korea’s Minister for Trade, Cheong In-Kyo, said the joint statement was hard-won, with “significant differences” in positions clear early on in the talks.But at the last minute, the countries “dramatically” reached an agreement, he said, with the APEC emphasising the importance of global trading mechanisms such as the World Trade Organisation (WTO), as well as sustainable supply chains. This “sends a highly positive signal to global markets”, he said, adding that “APEC members can work together to navigate the current highly uncertain global trade environment effectively”.- No joint response to US -Cheong said there had been no discussion of “joint responses” to US tariffs, saying it was not possible as “each country faces significantly different circumstances”.South Korea recorded a $66 billion trade surplus with the United States last year — behind only Vietnam, Taiwan, and Japan — making it a key target of Trump’s trade tirade.Highly dependent on exports, the country has been hit hard by the 25 percent tariffs on automobiles imposed by Trump in early April. Greer also met South Korea’s Trade, Industry and Energy minister, Ahn Duk-geun, later in the day.Ahn said in a press conference that the two sides agreed to hold a “second round of technical consultations”.The South Korean delegation will fly to Washington next week to discuss issues such as trade and economic security.Ahn said he emphasised to Greer that South Korea has a free trade agreement with the United States. “I made it clear that, against this backdrop of strong industrial cooperation, the current tariff issue has become a significant concern.”Trump announced additional “reciprocal” tariffs of up to 25 percent on South Korean exports last month, but later suspended them until early July.”Our objective is to finalise an agreement before that date, and we are making every effort to meet this timeline,” said Ahn. “I believe other countries are in a similar situation, and the United States has no reason to delay either.”Seoul aims to leverage the talks with commitments to purchase more US liquefied natural gas (LNG) and offer support in shipbuilding, a sector in which South Korea is a leader, after China.Earlier on Friday, Greer met Chung Ki-sun, the vice chairman of HD Hyundai, which owns South Korea’s largest shipbuilding company.HD Hyundai said in a statement that discussions covered cooperation with US shipmaker Huntington Ingalls Industries.Greer also met the CEO of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, which provides maintenance, repair and overhaul services for US Navy vessels.Shares of Hanwha Ocean rose nearly three percent on Friday morning, while HD Hyundai Heavy Industries gained as much as 3.6 percent.
Hundreds of VOA contractors set to lose their jobs
Hundreds of Voice of America contractors are expected to lose their jobs over the coming days, campaigners said, as the Trump administration moves to dismantle the US government-backed news service’s parent agency.Most of VOA’s roughly 1,300 staffers have been placed on administrative leave and its broadcasts suspended after a March 14 executive order gutted the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees US-funded international media.The Trump administration decided to terminate “hundreds of contractors over the following days,” advocacy group Save VOA wrote on social media on Thursday night. Some of the terminations affect J-1 visa holders who will have to leave the country within 30 days, it added in a statement.”Several of these journalists come from countries where they could be arrested or worse because of their reporting for VOA,” Save VOA wrote, adding that it was working with lawyers to try and reinstate the contractors. US President Donald Trump’s appointee to oversee USAGM, Kari Lake, told the Washington Post that 584 employees across the federal agency had been terminated, the majority from VOA. “In accordance with President Trump’s executive order dated March 14, we are in the process of rightsizing the agency and reducing the federal bureaucracy to meet administration priorities,” Lake told the Post.VOA director Michael Abramowitz said in a Facebook post that he was “heartbroken to learn about today’s mass terminations of personal service contractors.””Some of VOA’s most talented journalists have been [personal service contractors] — many of whom have escaped tyranny in their home countries to tell America’s story of freedom and democracy,” he wrote. VOA supervisory editor Fatima Tlis posted on social media on Thursday that her “entire team got terminated today, all of us granted political asylum by US administrations.” “How does throwing on the streets the journalists you brought in on a promise of liberty and security help the American people?” she wrote.Almost all of the networks affected by the March executive order — including VOA — have sued, accusing Trump of executive overreach. Created during the Second World War as an instrument of American soft power, USAGM is an independent agency tasked with promoting democracy and countering propaganda overseas through entities that include VOA, Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. Before suspending service, Washington-based VOA broadcast in 49 languages to a weekly audience estimated at 354 million people. The White House has criticised the news service for its alleged leftist bias, dubbing it “Voice of Radical America” in official documents.
Léon XIV insiste sur son engagement social devant les ambassadeurs étrangers
Le pape Léon XIV a insisté vendredi sur son engagement social devant le corps diplomatique, appelant à lutter contre les “inégalités mondiales” et les “conditions de travail indignes” tout en évoquant ses propres racines liées à l’immigration.Lors de sa première rencontre avec les ambassadeurs accrédités près le Saint-Siège, le pape américain a exhorté à “remédier aux inégalités mondiales, qui voient l’opulence et la misère creuser des fossés profonds entre les continents, entre les pays et même au sein d’une même société.””Le Saint-Siège ne peut s’empêcher de faire entendre sa voix face aux nombreux déséquilibres et injustices qui conduisent, entre autres, à des conditions de travail indignes et à des sociétés de plus en plus fragmentées et conflictuelles”, a-t-il déclaré lors de cette rencontre dans la salle Clémentine du palais apostolique.Le successeur de François a de nouveau expliqué avoir choisi son nom en référence à “Léon XIII, le pape de la première grande encyclique sociale, Rerum novarum”. Ce texte, publié en 1891, dessine la doctrine sociale de l’Eglise dans le contexte de la première grande révolution industrielle.Se présentant comme un “citoyen, descendant d’immigrés, lui-même émigré”, Robert Francis Prevost, né d’un père d’origine italienne et française et d’une mère d’origine espagnole, a appelé à la protection de “la dignité de chaque personne”.En soulignant la vision de la “famille fondée sur l’union stable entre un homme et une femme”, et en insistant sur le respect de la dignité de “chaque personne”, de “l’enfant à naître à la personne âgée”, Léon XIV a défendu les positions traditionnelles de l’Eglise catholique sur le mariage et l’avortement.Léon XIV, qui a vécu plus de 20 ans au Pérou, a également rappelé son parcours “entre l’Amérique du Nord, l’Amérique du Sud et l’Europe”, représentatif selon lui “de cette aspiration à dépasser les frontières pour rencontrer des personnes et des cultures différentes”.Évoquant les “défis qui marquent notre temps”, il a mentionné pour la première fois la cause écologique avec la “sauvegarde de notre Terre bien-aimée” et a de nouveau insisté sur l’utilisation éthique de l’intelligence artificielle, un thème qu’il a déjà abordé à plusieurs reprises depuis son élection le 8 mai.Le pape de 69 ans a aussi jugé “nécessaire de redonner un souffle à la diplomatie multilatérale et aux institutions internationales”, plaidant pour le désarmement, le dialogue interreligieux et “le plein respect de la liberté religieuse”.Peu avant, le doyen du corps diplomatique, l’ambassadeur chypriote George Poulides, a évoqué devant lui “une époque de plus en plus complexe où l’humanité apparaît fragile, désorientée et en quête d’un refuge”.Le Saint-Siège entretient des relations diplomatiques avec 184 Etats, dont quelque 90 ont une représentation officielle à Rome, ainsi qu’avec l’Union européenne et l’Ordre souverain de Malte.Dimanche, Léon XIV avait déjà appelé les “grands de ce monde” à arrêter les guerres, notamment en Ukraine et à Gaza, reprenant la formule d’une “Troisième guerre mondiale par morceaux” utilisée couramment par son prédécesseur François.