A ?100 billion plan to create a single market between Europe and the US will be unveiled this week as part of a British government effort to show that having a close relationship with America is worth jobs and money.
Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister), will announce an independent inquiry into removing all trade barriers between the US, Britain the rest of the EU.
Officials hope the deal will put the row over steel tariffs into context, by saying that difficulties over specific areas pale into insignificance against the wider need to stay close to the US economically.
Brown will say that the new inquiry should mirror the Cecchini report in 1988 that paved the way for the introduction of a single market in Europe. The report said that removing tariffs would add 4.5 percent to Europe's GDP, cut prices by 6 percent and increase employment by 1.75 percent.
Treasury officials will say that such a deal would be worth ?100 billion annually to the EU, which would be able to export its goods much more easily to America. It will also mean growth would increase by 2 percent and that it could create as many as 1 million jobs across the continent, thous-ands of them in Britain.
"Just as in 1988, when Europe was at the outset of the great project to move towards deeper ... integration, the Cecchini report broke down the barriers preventing the creation of a single market in Europe by clearly showing the benefits in commerce and jobs," Brown will say in a speech today.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique