2017 Solar Eclipse

https://eclipse2017.nasa.gov/

Iceberg Breaks Off Antarctica

http://www.businessinsider.com/third-largest-iceberg-broke-off-antarctica-trillion-ton-climate-change-global-warming-science-2017-7

http://www.businessinsider.com/antarctica-calves-larsen-c-iceberg-2017-7

Planetary Discoveries II

NASA finds 10 more planets with the potential for life.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/nasa-telescope-finds-10-more-planets-could-life-163326487.html

American Wealth

The Conversation GlobalThe Conversation is a collaboration between editors and academics to provide informed news analysis and commentary that’s free to read and republish.
These Three Firms Own Corporate America






https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-02-08/the-big-reason-whites-are-richer-than-blacks-in-america


https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-02-01/dashed-expectations-power-white-anger

FTAs and NAFTA

The history of trade is that two or more parties enter into agreement to exchange goods or resources exclusively within their respective territories of negotiated values. It happened the World over as exploration expanded the reach of humanity. The purpose and usage of the traded resources was not discussed but was intrinsic to valuations placed upon the resources exchanged. Also, of importance, is the stage of development of the societal communities engaged in trade partnership. Industrial developed societies were trading for raw materials to supply manufacturing while their trading partners were farmers and tribesmen that thrived from livestock and agriculture. The result was strip mining of territories for commodities such as precious metals, oil & gas, gems, etc. in exchange for livestock and developed economy coinage (money).

Trade balances (surplus and deficit) result from a multivariate dependence of development levels of trading countries, among other things. While one country conducts trade in manufactured goods, its partner may be trading livestock or even the labor of it citizens to manufacture goods with a lesser expense of capital. The NAFTA agreement is an example of the creation of a three country trading bloc establishing a North American marketplace where corporations, to take advantage of the variances, created business strategies to break up the manufacturing process for a comparatively lower wage labor in Mexico. The strategy also gets reflected in the Foreign Direct Investment comparisons between Mexico and the United States and Canada. Politics recognize the foreign direct investment in Mexico as the United States’ lost opportunity to create jobs for its citizens. However, no evidence supports the fact that the FDI in Mexico would take place in the United States absent NAFTA. This leads to the geopolitics of renegotiating trade agreements for better job creation and location of the creation.

The Congressional Research Service published a NAFTA report authored by M. Angeles Villarreal and Ian F. Fergusson summarizing NAFTA and its impact along with possible renegotiations. Potential topics include:

Automotive sector – rules of origin

Services – removal of barriers to electronic payment card services, electronic signatures, mobile telecommunications, international roaming rates, and additional market access in areas such as audiovisual services.

E-Commerce, Data Flows, and Data Localization – cross-border transfer of information by electronic means or forced localization of data centers.

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) – consideration for expanded provisions related to widespread use of the Internet on copyright in the digital environment.

State Owned Enterprises (SOEs)- addressing potential commercial disadvantages to private sector firms from state supported competitors receiving preferential treatment.

Investment – NAFTA was the first FTA to contain investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provision, which allows investors to bring arbitration against a host government to binding arbitration to resolve disputes over alleged violations of a host government’s investment obligations.

Dispute Settlement – a binational dispute settlement mechanism to review anti-dumping (AD) and countervailing duty (CVD) decisions of a domestic administrative body.

Labor – strengthening provisions related to the protection of worker rights.

Environment – hold parties to more enforceable environmental provisions such as those that require parties to adopt, enforce and not derogate from their environmental laws to attract trade and investment.

Energy – The United States may seek greater access to Mexico’s oil sector or to enhance bilateral cooperation on energy production and security.

Customs and Trade Facilitation – Discussions could address customs automation procedures, the creation of a single-access window at one entry point for importers and exporters.

Sanitary and Phytosanitary Standards (SPS) – considerations such as science-based and transparent regulatory activities, including the use of risk analysis to improve the scientific basis of SPS regulation, notification to importers or exporters of shipments detained for SPS issues, or consultative mechanisms to seek quick resolution of such detentions.

As evidenced by the topics and renegotiation summaries, a major alteration of NAFTA is not likely. What is likely is a tightening of the trading bloc integration to create a more seamless marketplace similar to the European Union and the economic political developments of China – Asia.