Brazil's tax on ketchup to jump to 38%
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Brazil is taking up its option, approved by the Geneva-based World Trade Organization, to slap a 30 percent import tax on fruit from the US after what it calls eight years of negotiations and four years of trying to get the US to end its cotton subsidies. The US remains the world’s largest cotton producer, while Brazil is fifth. Brazil handed its list of taxes to the WTO Monday 8 March. Cars will also be taxed and ketchup will be taxed at 38 percent instead of 18 percent.
Links to other sites: AP/Yahoo news, Fruitnet, World Trade Organization
Lugano, Ticino, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Rosa Rein, who would have turned 113 in March, has died in a nursing home in canton Ticino. She was Switzerland’s oldest person and, according to wikipedia, one of the 15 oldest “verified” people in the world. When she celebrated her birthday in 2009 she was still able to walk, although she had some vision and hearing loss.
Rosa Rein was born in 1897 in Dzietzkowitz, now part of Poland, the daughter of relatively comfortable farmers, according to RTI, Swiss Italian radio. She married for the first time in 1935, at age 38, after running a textile business, but the young Jewish woman and her German husband fled to Brazil at the time of the Nazi Kristallnacht pogrom.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sugar stocks may increase in the 2010-11 season if the sugar harvest in Brazil is not spoiled by rains in April, Jonathan Kingsman told the Dubai Sugar Conference 9 February. It is nevertheless unlikely to meet demand. The conference is organized by Lausanne-based Kingsman SA, an international sugar consultancy and brokerage.
World stocks have been depleted by two years of shortages. World sugar demand significantly outstripped supply in fiscal 2009, which ends in March 2010, pushing up the price of the white crystal and eating into world stocks. The price of white sugar rose 9 February for a second day in London trading on speculation that shortages will continue, reports Bloomberg. The price reached almost $724 for a metric ton (mt).
China and India are committed to communicating their emissions reduction targets to the UN by the deadline imposed by the Copenhagen Conference in December, following talks in New Delhi 24 January. The four countries seen as key to any climate deal, Brazil, South Africa, China and India, have indicated that they will submit mitigation goals. But India’s prime minister, Manmohan Singh, confirmed in a letter to the president of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that the four continued to be bound only by the Kyoto Protocoll and not the Copenhagen meeting’s accord, which was not formally adopted by participants.
Links to other sites: Business Week, The Hindu, Times of India
China and US dethroned as Internet attack traffic sources
Taking a break from the speedy Internet in Lausanne
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Lausanne was the city with the fastest broadband connection in Europe in the third quarter of 2009, at 24MBps (megabytes per second) says Akamai in its most recent study of the state of the Internet.
The company is one of the world’s major managers of Internet connectivity, with a vast international network of servers.
The report also notes that 75 percent of the Lausanne’s Internet users are working with broadband speeds of 5MBps, which means that it’s not just multinationals benefiting from high speed networks. “As the quantity of HD-quality media increases over time, and the consumption of that media increases, end users are likely to require ever-increasing amounts of bandwidth. A connection speed of 2 Mbps is arguably sufficient for standard definition TV-quality video content, and 5 Mbps for standard-definition DVD quality video content, while Blu-Ray (1080p) video content has a maximum video bit rate of 40 Mbps,” according to the report.
Switzerland as a whole remains one of the top countries for fast (over 5MBps) broadband access, in eighth place, with 31 percent and a growth rate of 7.6 percent, Q3 2009 compared to a year earlier. Korea remains the world champion of high speed Internet use, with 76 percent of users at over 5MBps and a growth rate of 28 percent, well beyond that of other countries.
US Senator Frank Lautenberg from New Jersey has lifted a hold he had placed on a trade export tariffs relief bill that affects 130 countries, and the bill quickly passed the Senate. One of the countries is Brazil, which stands to benefit by $2.75 billion, reports CNN. Lautenberg placed the hold on the bill to put pressure on Brazil over the case of Sean and David Goldman. Tuesday, a Brazilian Supreme Court justice gave David, the father, custody of his son Sean, lifting an earlier stay on the case designed to give the justices time to review the case.
David Goldman, a US citizen, has been trying to obtain custody of his son, Sean, age 9, who is a dual national with US and Brazilian citizenship, since the boy’s mother took him to Brazil in 2004 and refused to return to the US. She died in 2008. The case has had international attention since because the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was designed to avoid situations like this, and the case has strained US-Brazil relations. The Convention calls for courts to rule on such a case within six weeks, but Brazil has taken far longer to move the case through its judicial system.
Links to other sites: CNN, CS Monitor
A Brazilian federal appeals court has upheld an earlier ruling in favour of US father David Goldman, who has been trying to obtain custody and the return of his son since the child was taken to Brazil by his mother in 2004. The case has gained international attention as a test case for the Hague Convention on International Child Abduction. The boy, who was four at the time he was taken for what Goldman says was supposed to be a two-week vacation, has US and Brazilian citizenship. His mother died in 2008 and Goldman argues that as the sole surviving parent, he should have custody, but the boy’s maternal family and stepfather argue that he wants to stay with them and have said they intend to appeal.
Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Lausanne-based Tetra Pak, the world’s largest food packaging company, has signed a contract with Brazilian company Braksem for plastic packaging that will be made from sugar cane. Tetra Pak says “the agreement represents the first move toward using green polyethylene in the carton packaging industry.” Braksem, Brazil’s largest petrochemical company, will use ethanol derived from sugar cane to produce ethylene, which will then be converted into polyethylene, the world’s most commonly used plastic.
First deliveries to Tetra Pak are expected in the first half of 2011. The companies say they expect the process to result in a reduction of CO2 emissions compared to traditional methods of making polyethylene. The contract calls for Braksem to deliver 5,000 tons a year, which Tetra Pak will use mainly for plastic caps and seals. The order represents about 1 percent of the company’s plastic purchases.
Zurich to San Francisco non-stop, from June 2010
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Swiss International Airlines will fly non-stop six days a week from Zurich to San Francisco starting in June 2010, the airline announced 1 December. San Francisco is already the USA’s third biggest air travel market, and the regional headquarters of several major Swiss corporations.
Swiss says that it will use existing airplane capacity to cover the new routes. It is also increasing the frequency of flights to India, Brazil and Canada.
Timetable details:
Zurich – San Francisco LX 38 dep 13:15 arr 16:30
San Francisco – Zurich LX 39 dep 19:25 arr 15:40 + the following day
Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is calling on world leaders to develop new tactics with Iran, to engage the country rather than isolating it. Lula da Silva and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Brazil Monday 23 November and Lula, the rare leader to welcome Ahmadinejad, said in a joint press conference at the end that he supports Iran’s efforts to develop a peaceful nuclear energy programme. Lula’s background includes years as a union negotiator.
Power has been restored to much of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil after the two cities experienced four hours of electrical blackout. The power outage, apparently caused by transmission problems at a hydroelectrical station at the Itaipu dam, also briefly affected neighbouring Paraguay and, for longer, nine of Brazil’s 27 states. MCNBC reports that the dam is the world’s second largest, after China’s Three Gorges dam. The blackout is raising concerns about the country’s management of its electricity infrastructure, with recent accusations that earlier accusations that smaller blackouts have been caused by hackers, and with worries that power problems could be a problem in the runup to the 2016 Olympic Games.
Links to other sites: BrazzilMag, MSNBC, Shanghai Daily
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Nineteen countries have now secured their places in the Fifa World Cup finals to be held in South Africa in 2010 after the penultimate games in the qualification series. In the African group Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire are through and six places are up for grabs. Australia, Japan and the two Koreas take the Asian places with one more team entering a playoff with New Zealand. Seven of the 13 European places are decided:
The Honduran government issued a decree 27 September limiting civil rights on the eve of an expected massive demonstration in the capital Tegucigalpa in favour of ousted President Manuel Zelaya. The measures make it easier for the army to arrest protesters, and allows the government to act against pro-Zelaya media. The government refused entry into the country 27 September of a delegation from the Organisation of Amerian States (OAS) that flew into Tegucigalpa in the hope of reopening talks aimed at defusing the crisis. In Washington, the US representative to the OAS called on the de facto government to exercise restraint and caution and said Zelaya’s return to the country without a settlement was “irresponsible and foolish”, adding that he should “desist … from acting as though he were starring in an old movie.”
Brazil’s president Lula da Silva said while in Venezuela that he would ignore a Honduran government demand to hand Zelaya over to Honduran authorities within 10 days to face trial, or to grant him asylum in Brazil. Zelaya has spent the past week in the Brazilian embassy after secretly returning to the country. Lula has warned the Honduran de facto government to respect the integrity of the Brazilian embassy in Honduras. Honduras has cut electricity and water supplies to the embassy. The Vienna convention on diplomatic rights prohibits the use of force against diplomatic personnel and installations. It also proscribes the use of diplomatic installations for political purposes. Zelaya has been using the media to call for his supporters to converge on Tegucigalpa to force an end to the political crisis. At least one person was killed following clashes with the police over the weekend.
The leaders of the G-20 group of the world’s 20 most important economies, meeting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, have said that the grouping will become the world’s foremost economic coordination body, the White House announced late 24 September. This is a recognition of the importance of emerging economic powers such as Brazil, China and India. The G-8 comprised only the world’s top industrialized nations. In Pittsburgh the US is urging that institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reflect the changing economic circumstances as well. South Korea will preside the next G-20 meeting. Los Angeles Times, New York Times
The G20 group of the world’s largest economies has a large menu to work through when it meets Thursday and Friday in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in the US, with changes to the banking world heading the list. The debate over limiting bankers’ bonuses continues from their last meeting earlier this year: the group will, according to the Wall Street Journal, decide ” how draconian the restrictions on banker compensation should be.” Brazil will be suggesting that bank regulation should be tightened and that recent changes to bank capitalization should be extended to include derivatives markets, referring to the Basel II agreement that have recently gone into effect, which are designed to help avoid the kind of global banking meltdown seen in 2008. US President Barack Obama faces a second major international test in less than a week, after the UN General Assembly, convincing G20 leaders that the buzz words “sustainable” and “balanced” are the keys to getting the world economy back on track, according to AP/NPR. Financial Times (subscription), Forbes/Reuters, MSNBC news roundup
Ousted president Manuel Zelaya returned to Honduras overland from Guatemala, and immediately took refuge in the Brazilian embassy in the capital, Tegucigalpa. Zelaya called on his supporters from a balcony at the Brazilian embassy to converge on the capital to reverse the coup. The interim government of Roberto Micheletti said Brazil would have to accept responsibility for any violence, and imposed a 24-hour curfew, which provoked chaos in the streets as tens of thousands of people tried to get home in time before the curfew took effect. The airports were closed.
Interim President Roberto Micheletti called on Brazil to give Zelaya up to face charges. “I insist that the courts are waiting so he can present himself there and pay for the crimes he committed.” he said. Organization of American States President Miguel Insulzo said he was ready to travel to Tegucigalpa to work out a solution to the crisis. BBC, CNN, El Heraldo, La Prensa, Reuters
Basel, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland moved to the top of its qualifying group for the 2010 Fifa World Cup with a 2-0 win over Greece in their match. The Swiss scored two goals in the final 10 minutes after playing much of the game with an extra man as Vyntra was sent off for receiving two yellow cards.
Energy conversion
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland’s main industrial engineering group, ABB, announced 4 September it had won a contract worth $41mn to upgrade the urban rail network in the city of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Sao Paulo’s light rail network moves 2mn commuters daily over 261km of tracks, and the city has plans to increase capacity by four times, making this the largest public transportation project in Brazil.
Ronald Biggs, a man who committed one of the most notorious crimes of the 20th century, then escaped from jail and lived on the run in Brazil for more than 30 years, was granted parole 6 August. He suffered a series of strokes and is in the final stages of pneumonia, and is not expected to live much longer, doctors have told British authorities. Biggs was a member of a gang that attacked the London-Glasgow mail train in 1963 and made off with £2.6 million in used banknotes that were to be incinerated.
Captured soon after, he was imprisoned at Wandsworth Prison in Britain, but then escaped by climbing a 10-metre wall. For 31 years, he lived in Brazil, which has no extraditon treaty with the UK, and he married a local woman. In 2001 he gave himself up and returned to the UK, where he was sent back to prison. He has been released on compassionate grounds, after having his request for parole denied last month. He celebrates his 80th birthday tomorrow 8 August. BBC, Telegraph, UK
Boxer Arturo Gatti, who was found dead in a hotel room in Brazil 11 July, with a bloodied purse strap next to him, committed suicide by hanging himself in a stairwell, Brazilian authorities have ruled. His wife was arrested on suspicion of murder after his death. She was released Thursday 30 July. The couple, who lived in Canada, had gone to Brazil for a holiday. Batti, 37, had been an International Boxing Federation junior lightweight champion and World Boxing Council junior welterweight champion. CNN, Toronto Sun
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Brazil is increasing pressure on the UK to take back the 1,400 tons of hazardous waste in 41 containers exported from the UK to Brazil early July 2009. The foreign ministry has asked its permanent mission in Geneva “to report the traffic of hazardous waste from the UK under the terms of the Basel Convention”, according to Brazil’s official government (Por) site.
Update 12:23 Geneva, Switzerland and Brazil (GenevaLunch) – Brazil is being widely reported as saying it will lodge a complaint with the Geneva-based World Trade Organization over illegal waste shipments from Britain, the government announced Friday 24 July.
A large number of containers (Ed. note: reports vary from 41 to 99) of possibly toxic waste that were shipped from Britain to Brazil have been at the centre of heated debate and diplomatic discussions since the waste was discovered in mid-July in Brazil. Three men have been arrested in Swindon, Wiltshire, UK while officials investigate if they used loopholes in the law to mix household and clinical waste illegally.
The Times, UK, reports that “The Brazilian Institute for the Environment and Renewable Resources (Ibama) said that the waste included syringes, bags of blood, condoms, nappies and used bandages. The shipping manifest stated that the contents were recyclable plastic.” Shipping waste is subject to the Basel Convention and, according to Reuters, Brazil’s plans to return to England the rotting piles of some 1,600 tons of garbage could run into problems.
Related, Guardian, UK
Canadian boxer Arturo Gatti, 37, former world welterweight champion, was murdered in his hotel in Brazil Saturday 11 July and police have charged his 23-year-old wife, Amanda Rodrigues, with strangling him with a purse strap while he was in a drunken sleep. Her lawyer argues that the small woman is “too skinny” to have committed the murder, reports the Globe & Mail. Gatti grew up in Montreal and family members there told the Canadian newspaper that they believe he fell into a trap and was lured to Brazil by his wife. Sports Illustrated/AP
Johannesburg, South Africa (GenevaLunch) – The USA team dominated a scrappy Brazil side for the first half of the Confederations Cup Final, deserving the 2-0 lead with goals from Dempsey and Donovan. It was a different story in the second half as Brazil struck back with two goals from Fabiano and one from Lucio. Kaka won the Golden Shoe award for best player of the tournament. Details, The Sun, UK
Update 15:40 Various sources report that French air crash investigators have denied having “located” the flight recorders, as reported by Le Monde earlier today. The black boxes, or flight recorders, emit weak radio signals that will last for 30 days and can be detected up to 2 km away. Yesterday, the French navy launched an unmanned submarine to investigate an electronic signal, thought to have come from the black boxes. This turned out to be a false alarm, Reuters reports.
The black boxes, or cockpit voice and data recorders, from Air France’s AF447 flight that was lost over the Atlantic 1 June reportedly have been found. A French mini-submarine, Nautile de l’Ifremer located them 22 June, thanks to very weak signals they emit from the bottom of the ocean. The French navy reports that the ocean floor is extremely rugged and there is no guarantee of being able to recover the recorders. Investigators trying to unravel the mystery of the crash, with 228 people on board the plane, hope the recorders will provide essential information on the doomed aircraft’s final moments. Le Monde (Fre)
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