President Trump plans to meet next week with leaders from U.S. and foreign carmakers on trade and changes to emission standards.

“When the White House wants to meet with us about our sector and policy, we welcome the opportunity,” Alliance of American Automobile Manufacturers spokeswoman Gloria Bergquist said Wednesday.

The time and agenda of the talks are still to be announced. But the car builders want to make their concerns about possible changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement known to the president.

They are also expected to talk about Trump administration plans to revise strict Obama-era emission standards for U.S. cars and light trucks.

Seventeen states and Washington, D.C., are suing the administration over the plans, accusing the Environmental Protection Agency of breaking the law.

“This is about health. This is about life and death,” California Governor Jerry Brown said Tuesday. “Pollutants coming out of tailpipes does permanent damage to children. The only way we’re going to overcome this is by reducing emissions.”

Brown accused Trump of wanting people to buy more gasoline and create more pollution.

The lawsuit argues the EPA acted arbitrarily and violated the Clean Air Act when it decided emission standards were too high.

In 2012, former president Barack Obama ordered emission standards to be raised to about 21 kilometers per liter of gasoline by 2025. The goal was to cut pollution and make cars and small trucks more energy efficient.

The EPA is seeking to freeze fuel efficiency requirements at 2020 levels until 2026.

EPA chief Scott Pruitt said last month that Obama’s decision was politically based and the emission standards Obama set were too high and did not “comport with reality.”

Pruitt said his EPA will set fresh standards so new cars that use less gas and are safer than older models will be affordable.

But environmental groups said the American public overwhelmingly supports the stricter standards.
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The International Monetary Fund censured Venezuela on Wednesday for failing to hand over essential economic data to the fund.

“The [Executive] Board noted that adequate data provision was an essential first step to understanding Venezuela’s economic crisis and identifying possible solutions,” an IMF statement said.

The board is giving Venezuela another six months to comply or face possible expulsion from the IMF.

“The Fund stands ready to work constructively with Venezuela toward resolving its economic crisis when it is prepared to re-engage with the Fund,” the IMF said.

Venezuela has not responded to the IMF’s action. But President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist government has long declined to provide data to the IMF. It regards the IMF as a U.S. tool and part of a Washington-inspired economic war against Venezuela.

Corruption and the collapse of world energy prices has led to an economic calamity in oil-rich Venezuela, including hyperinflation and severe shortages of many basic goods.
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A Chinese company that manufactured Ivanka Trump shoes and has been accused of serious labor abuses is being celebrated in a blockbuster propaganda film for extending China’s influence around the globe.

 

The state-backed documentary “Amazing China” portrays the Huajian Group as a beneficent force spreading prosperity — in this case, by hiring thousands of Ethiopians at wages a fraction of what they’d have to pay in China. But in Ethiopia, Huajian workers told The Associated Press they work without safety equipment for pay so low they can barely make ends meet.

 

“I’m left with nothing at the end of the month,” said Ayelech Geletu, 21, who told the AP she earns a base monthly salary of 1,400 Birr ($51) at Huajian’s factory in Lebu, outside Addis Ababa. “Plus, their treatment is bad. They shout at us whenever they want.”

With epic cinematography, “Amazing China” — produced by China Central Television and the state-owned China Film Group Co. Ltd. — articulates a message of how China would like to be seen as it pursues President Xi Jinping’s vision of a globally resurgent nation, against a reality that doesn’t always measure up.

China’s ruling Communist Party recently announced it would take direct control of major broadcasters and assume regulatory power over everything from film and TV to books and news.

 

As the party deepens its ability to cultivate “unity of thought” among citizens, “Amazing China” demonstrates the scope of China’s propaganda machine, which not only crafted a stirring documentary about China’s renaissance under Xi but also helped manufacture an adoring audience for it.

 

The movie, which weaves together extraordinary feats of engineering and military, environmental and cultural achievements, hit theaters three days before China’s rubber-stamp legislature convened to amend the constitution and allow Xi to potentially rule China for life.

 

The star — duly noted by IMDb.com — is Xi himself, who appears more than 30 times in the 90-minute film.

 

“Amazing China” presents Huajian as an inspiring example of China exporting the success of its own economic miracle by creating transformative jobs for thousands of poor Ethiopians and sharing China’s knowledge, language and can-do discipline to build a new industrial foundation for Ethiopia’s economy.

The company is celebrated as a model of the inclusiveness at the heart of a much larger project: Xi’s signature One Belt One Road initiative, a plan to spread Chinese infrastructure and influence across dozens of countries so ambitious in scope that it’s been compared to the U.S.-led Marshall Plan after World War II.

 

“In opening to the outside world, China’s pursuit is not to only make our lives better, but to make the lives of others better,” the narrator says.

 

In the film, Huajian chairman Zhang Huarong stands before neat rows of Ethiopian workers singing a song about unity, describing himself as a father to his employees, who “like me very much.”

 

But four current and former Huajian employees told the AP their wages were so low that they struggled to pay their bills. They said they had no protective gear, were forced to work 12 hours a day and participate in military-style physical drills, were not permitted to form a union and were regularly yelled at by their Chinese managers.

 

All that made it hard for them to relate to the inspirational video about Huajian circulated by mobile phone with its sweeping shots of a gleaming factory and a soundtrack that repeats in operatic Mandarin: “Huajian has come, Huajian has come … holding the torch of hope.”

 

“If someone complains, he will be accused of disturbing the workplace and will be fired right away,” said Ebissa Gari, a 22-year-old who estimated he earns 960 Birr ($35) a month. “That’s why we keep quiet and work no matter how much we are subdued.”

Getahun Alemu, a 20-year-old who quit Huajian last year to continue his studies, complained of inadequate safety gear.

 

“There are chemicals that hurt our eyes and nose, and machines that cut our hands,” he said. “They have no idea about hand gloves! If you refuse to work without that protective gear, then you will be told to leave the company.”

 

Huajian declined the AP’s requests for comment. Ivanka Trump’s brand said it no longer does business with Huajian and “has always and continues to take supply chain integrity very seriously.”

 

Huajian’s investment in Ethiopia was part of a government-led industrialization drive. In the last few years, Ethiopia’s leaders and business allies came under intense criticism, with more than 300 businesses attacked by protesters who saw them as bolstering a repressive regime.

 

These days, armed soldiers stand guard at the entrance to the Eastern Industrial Zone in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, where Huajian opened its first factory.

 

Six years after the company’s arrival, the dream of turning Ethiopia into a shoe-manufacturing hub remains unrealized, and few harbor illusions about the main incentive for Huajian’s investment in a country where there is no legal minimum wage.

 

“These companies are moving out of Asia and coming to Africa to save labor costs,” said Fitsum Arega, who recently stepped down as head of the Ethiopian Investment Commission to become an adviser to the new prime minister. He praised Huajian for employing more than 5,000 Ethiopians, but said the company “could have done better.”

 

“I’m not saying all employees are happy and there are no abuses here and there,” Arega said, adding that the government pushes companies to protect workers. “There’s a labor law which actually the companies say favors the employees.”

 

The Chinese-owned Eastern Industrial Zone effectively took fertile land from Ethiopian farmers and handed it over to foreign investors — a strategy the Ethiopian government is rethinking, according to Nemera Mamo, a teaching fellow in economics at the University of London.

 

“You can clearly see that these industrial zones are absolutely favorable to the Chinese investors, but not to the local communities or the local private investors,” he said. Huajian workers told the AP they made 960 Birr ($35) to 1,700 Birr ($62) a month. A basic living wage in Ethiopia is about 3,000 Birr ($109) a month, according to Ayele Gelan, a research economist at the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research.

 

In a post promoting “Amazing China” on its official WeChat account, Huajian claimed to be Ethiopia’s largest exporter — an exaggeration also promulgated by China’s official Xinhua News Agency.

Huajian is Ethiopia’s largest shoe exporter, shipping out $19.3 million worth of goods last fiscal year, according to Ethiopia’s Leather Industry Development Institute. But coffee producer Mullege PLC said it exported $42 million worth of coffee during the same period and that other companies export even more.

 

Huajian’s record within China also has been troubled. In at least five cases since 2015, Huajian sued workers in Chinese court rather than pay compensation mandated by a government arbitration panel. Huajian lost every case, court records show, and the court had to freeze Huajian’s assets to get one worker the 44,174 yuan ($7,000) he was owed.

 

Last year, Huajian found itself entangled in labor and human rights controversies that made global headlines but attracted little attention in China’s official media. Three men working with the New York-based non-profit group China Labor Watch were arrested after their investigation of Ivanka Trump’s suppliers zeroed in on Huajian. The men are out on bail, but remain under police surveillance.

 

China Labor Watch founder Li Qiang said Huajian’s factory in Ganzhou, in southeastern Jiangxi province, had some of the worst conditions he has ever encountered, including excessive overtime, low pay, and verbal and physical abuse.

 

Huajian has called those allegations “completely not true to the facts, taken out of context, exaggerated” and accused the investigators of conducting industrial espionage — a charge that was parroted in China’s party-controlled media.

Wei Tie, the director of “Amazing China,” said he wasn’t aware of the controversy surrounding Huajian until the AP informed him. That’s not too surprising given the years of positive coverage of Huajian in party-controlled media and the fact that many foreign news sites, especially Chinese-language ones, are blocked inside China.

 

Wei said he included the company in the film because it is “introducing China’s experience of prosperity to Africa.”

 

He said he prefers to focus on the good. “What I did was absorb the essence and discard the dross,” he said, citing a longstanding aphorism of Chinese political thought.

 

At first glance, Wei’s selective approach appears to have resonated with Chinese audiences. “Amazing China” smashed box-office records for documentary films, raking in 456 million yuan ($72 million) in its first five weeks, according to ticketing website Maoyan.com. It even thumped “Star Wars: The Last Jedi.”

 

Wei attributed this success to the “spontaneous feeling” of citizens inspired by the arc of tremendous progress they’ve witnessed, a national rejuvenation forged with sweat and skill that he compared to Europe’s Renaissance and the pioneering days of the American republic.

In Shanghai, midday screenings during the week sold out immediately, suggesting either unquenchable public appetite or organized bulk ticket sales.

 

None of the viewers surveyed by AP had purchased their own tickets. Instead, they said they got them from state-run companies, neighborhood committees or government departments that handed them out as part of their “party building work.”

 

Douban, a popular film review website, blocked users from rating and commenting on the movie. The only entries came from official media, which gave it an 8.5 out of 10 ranking. On IMDb.com, a subsidiary of Amazon, “Amazing China” earned only one star.

 

But for some, “Amazing China” is balm for old feelings of inferiority and a welcome reaffirmation that China is ready to resume its rightful place in the community of great nations.

 

“I did not know how good our country is until I watched this movie,” said Zuo Qianyi, a 68-year-old retiree. “I have been to many countries, Britain, Spain, and they are not as good as China, at least not as Shanghai. I am very happy, and I will love my country more.”
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U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Tuesday that the Trump administration was prepared to levy tariffs on China if an American delegation heading to Beijing did not reach a negotiated settlement to reduce trade imbalances.

Ross, speaking to CNBC television before traveling to China for talks on Thursday and Friday with top Chinese officials, said he had “some hope” agreements could be reached to resolve the trade tensions between the world’s two largest economies.

But he added that U.S. President Donald Trump, who has made reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China a key part of his administration’s trade policy, would have to first approve any deals.

Top economic officials

The U.S. delegation to Beijing also includes Trump’s top economic officials, including Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, White House trade and manufacturing adviser Peter Navarro, and top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow.

Ross said Trump was ready to impose tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum imports and to further punish Beijing over its intellectual property practices under so-called Section 232 and Section 301 trade investigations.

“If we don’t make a negotiated settlement, we will pursue the 232s and impose them, we will pursue the 301 and impose them. So, one way or another, we are going to deal with this recurring problem of trade with China,” Ross told CNBC.

No details

Ross did not provide details on the Trump administration’s specific demands on China but said, “We have a pretty good idea of what we need to come out with.”

Trump administration officials have called for a $100 billion reduction in the United States’ $375 billion trade deficit with China, a reduction in China’s car tariffs, and more U.S. access to the Asian nation’s vast markets.

“If they gave in on most of the things that we wanted, for sure there are some things that perhaps are not totally satisfactory, so this is going to come back to the president,” Ross said. “This won’t be, suddenly in Beijing, a breathtaking release (that) everything is solved.”
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Workers and protesters throughout the world observed May Day Tuesday with rallies and strikes demanding their governments address better working conditions and other labor issues.

In addition to being an international day honoring workers or a traditional spring time festival, Tuesday is also International Worker’s Day in many countries.

Russia

In Moscow, about 120,000 people marched from Red Square to the main streets in a traditional May Day parade.

In St. Petersburg, Russia, several hundred citizens upset over the Kremlin’s efforts to restrict internet freedom, joined the official May Day celebration. They protested the ban of the messaging application Telegram, a move that triggered a rally in Moscow that was attended by 10,000 people.

Spain

Marches calling for gender equality, higher salaries and better pensions were held in more than 70 cities in Spain. Thousands of people turned out for the largest rally in Madrid, displaying a show of unity behind the slogan “Time to Win.”

General Union Workers’ Union of Spain leader Pepe Alvarez said meeting the demands of feminists, youths and workers are necessary to “redistribute wealth.”

Spain’s economy has been among the fastest growing in Europe in recent years.

United States

May Day Demonstrations for immigrant and labor rights were planned in California, New York, Florida and other U.S. cities.

“The Trump administration has made very clear that they’ve declared war on the immigrant community on all levels,” said Javier Valdez of the advocacy group Make the Road New York.

Immigration rights organizations have participated in May Day activities for over a decade to resist anti-immigration legislation. Now the advocates are focusing on voter turnout in the November mid-term elections.

South Korea

In downtown Seoul, South Korea, about 10,000 labor union members took to the streets to call for a higher minimum wage and to make other demands.

The rally, organized by the Korean Federation of Trade Unions, urged the government to approve a $9.34 minimum wage and convert non-regular workers to regular employees with equal pay.

Turkey

Dozens of demonstrators were detained during May Day events in Istanbul, most of whom tried to march toward the city’s main square in defiance of a government ban.

Citing security concerns, the Turkish government declared Taksim Square off-limits. Nevertheless, small groups of people chanting “Taskim cannot be off limits on May 1” tried to push their way into the square, resulting in scuffles and the detention of 45 demonstrators.

Taksim Square is symbolically significant to Turkey’s labor movement. Thirty-four people were killed there during a May Day event in 1977 when shots were fired into the crowd from a nearby building.

Indonesia

Some 10,000 workers rallied near the presidential palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, urging the government to raise wages and to refrain from outsourcing. They also called for a ban on foreign laborers in Indonesia, saying their presence reduces job opportunities for local workers.

Greece

Thousands of Greeks marched through central Athens in several May Day demonstrations.

Museums were closed and public transportation operated on a reduced schedule.

Police said at least 7,000 people attended one rally in Athens that was planned by the communist party-led union. They marched past parliament toward the United States Embassy.

Cambodia

Prime Minister Hun Sun observed May Day in Cambodia with about 5,000 garment workers just outside the capital of Phnom Penh.

About 2,000 other garment workers gathered at a park in Phnom Penh for a rally. They wanted to march to the National Assembly to convince lawmakers to assist them with labor issues, but the group was stopped by riot police.

Philippines

Some 5,000 people demonstrated near the presidential palace in Manila to protest Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s failure to fulfill a campaign promise to halt the practice of short-term employment.

They also demanded that the government provide higher wages and address joblessness and trade union repression.  

South Africa

Separate May Day marches organized by rival trade unions were held in the coastal South African city of Durban and in other parts of the country.

Riot police were deployed as members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Federation of Trade Unions marched through routes that were designed to put distance between the two unions.

On Monday, COSATU President S’dumo Diamini said at a news conference, “We call upon all workers to work together. Their enemy is one: Monopoly capital.”
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Pakistan has formally reopened a major trade route with landlocked Afghanistan after nearly four years.

Authorities had closed the remote Ghulam Khan border crossing in North Waziristan in 2014 after launching a major army-led counter-militancy offensive in the tribal district, once condemned as the “epicenter” of international terrorism.

Military officials say the Waziristan region has since been almost completely secured and rehabilitation as well as reconstruction activities are currently under way there.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi traveled to the tribal region on Monday and inaugurated a newly constructed terminal to formally resume cross-border trading activities.

Ghulam Khan is the third-largest official crossing point on the nearly 2,600-kilometer, largely porous frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Torkham and Chaman are the other two crossings that Afghans use for bilateral trade and transit through Pakistani land and sea routes. Additionally, the two installations are used by visitors traveling in either direction.

The United States and NATO also rely heavily on Pakistan’s ground and air lines of communications for ferrying supplies and non-lethal military equipment to thousands of international troops stationed in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s relations with Afghanistan have deteriorated in recent years over mutual allegations of supporting militant attacks against each other.

Political tensions often have prompted Pakistani authorities to abruptly close the Torkham and Chaman border crossings, reducing bilateral trade to just over $1 billion from $2.6 billion about two years ago.

Officials and traders on both sides have welcomed resumption of trade through Ghulam Khan, hoping the move will help ease political tensions and increase bilateral trade.

Afghan and Pakistani traders have long urged their respective governments to “segregate” business and trade ties from political and security tensions for promoting mutual trust.

Lately, troubled relations have prompted Afghans to look for alternate routes and they have turned their attention to the India-funded Iranian port of Chabahar for transit trade, bypassing Pakistan.

The Pakistani port of Karachi, however, is still the most economical route for Afghan transit trade, say business leaders in both countries.
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