On the heels of Obama’s visit to the UK in support of Cameron to avoid Brexit in upcoming referendum …
Hillary Clinton urges Britain to remain in the European Union | The Guardian |
Hillary Clinton has thrown her weight behind the campaign to keep Britain inside the European Union in a major new boost to David Cameron’s hopes of winning a Remain vote on 23 June.
After Barack Obama used his farewell trip to the UK as president to make the economic and security arguments for membership, Clinton, who is the favourite to win the Democratic nomination in July and become the first female US president, makes clear that if she enters the White House she will want the UK to be fully engaged, and leading the debate, within the EU.
In a statement to the Observer, her senior policy adviser, Jake Sullivan, said: “Hillary Clinton believes that transatlantic cooperation is essential, and that cooperation is strongest when Europe is united. She has always valued a strong United Kingdom in a strong EU. And she values a strong British voice in the EU.” Sources close to the former secretary of state’s campaign said she stood fully behind Obama’s opposition to Brexit, which the president said on Friday would not only undermine the international institutions, including the EU, that had bound nations closer together since 1945, but would also mean the UK being at “the back of the queue” when negotiating new trade deals.
Obama’s remarks drew angry responses from leading figures in the Leave campaign, including the mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who questioned the president’s right to intervene. Leading backers of Brexit also tried to dismiss Obama’s view as that of a “lame duck president” soon to be out of office.
The former Tory defence secretary Liam Fox, a Brexit enthusiast, said on Friday night that Obama’s opinions would be irrelevant after the US elections in November. “Whoever it is that will be at the helm of the United States won’t be Barack Obama.”
Post-Brexit UK-U.S. trade deal could take a decade, Obama tells BBC
Groups lobbying on trade paid Hillary Clinton $2.5M in speaking fees | CBS News |
A number of Clinton’s appearances before the organizations lobbying on trade were among her most lucrative speeches.
Clinton earned $335,000 from Qualcomm for a speech in San Diego on October 14, 2014; $335,000 from the Biotechnology Industry Organization on June 25, 2014; and $325,000 from Cisco Systems for a speech in Las Vegas on August 28, 2014. According to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, both tech companies lobbied in support of TPA in 2014 and 2015. They’re also members of the Trade Benefits America Coalition, which in November 2014 sent a letter to congressional leaders saying, “As members of the Trade Benefits America Coalition, we write to urge passage of bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) legislation this year….Congressional action on TPA is needed to help ensure high-standard outcomes in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, which the United States and 11 other Asia-Pacific countries are striving to complete.”
That letter was also signed by General Electric and Xerox, companies that paid Hillary Clinton to give speeches in 2014. Clinton earned $225,000 from GE on January 6, 2014 and $225,000 from Xerox Corporation on March 18, 2014. In total, she earned at least $1.4 million from companies signing that letter.
To be sure, these companies have lobbied on a variety of issues. Qualcomm, for example, lobbied on more than 15 policy areas including transportation and taxes in 2015.
Likewise, trade has traditionally been a thorny issue for Democratic presidential candidates who are courting progressives and union support. In 2008, Clinton and then-Sen. Obama sparred over NAFTA, the trade deal with the U.S., Canada and Mexico, struck Bill Clinton signed during his presidency.
As secretary of state, Clinton publicly promoted the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). In her book, “Hard Choices,” she said it would level the playing field for American workers in a global marketplace, and that it would “link markets throughout Asia.”
Now, the Clinton campaign says she’ll be watching negotiations closely.
Hillary sucks up to the middle class: What her TPP flip-flop is really about | Salon |
TTIP protest in Hanover ahead of Obama visit | Deutsche Welle |
Thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets of Hanover to protest a planned trans-Atlantic free trade agreement. The rally comes just a day ahead of US President Obama’s visit to the German city.
Environmental activists, consumer protection groups and aid organizations demonstrated Saturday against the proposed Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) accord, which they say puts Europe’s ecological and social standards at risk.
“Obama and Merkel are coming: stop TTIP and CETA,” organizers said would be the motto for Saturday’s protest. CETA refers to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement [under PM Stephen Harper] between the EU and Canada.
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Last november in Berlin, even larger crowds took part in anti-TTIP protests
Brexit is necessary to protect NHS from TTIP, says David Owen | The Guardian |
The NHS will be at risk of further privatisation if Britain stays in the EU because of the major trade deal being negotiated with the US, according to David Owen.
Lord Owen, who was health secretary for Labour in the mid-1970s before co-founding the SDP, said it would be impossible to take the NHS back to its original purpose unless the UK votes to leave in the June referendum.
Speaking to the Guardian, Owen said the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the EU and the US could put the NHS in “serious danger” unless there are more special protections to exclude the health service from the terms of the deal.
Under the clause of TTIP that most worries campaigners, US companies will be able to sue governments for pursuing policies that harm their business. A legal opinion commissioned by Unite argues the deal would mean privatisation of elements of the NHS could become irreversible for future governments that want to restore services to public ownership.
“The legal opinion is very clear that there are a myriad of dangers if health comes under the current TTIP system,” Owen said.
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His alarm at the idea of privatisation in the NHS is unlikely to be shared by some of his Vote Leave colleagues on the right. The remain campaign has claimed many leading Brexiteers “spent their political lives championing policies which would destroy the NHS as we know it”.But in his speech, Owen is due to say: “We are agreed in Vote Leave that, whatever our political views on the present marketisation of the NHS, decisions on the NHS should for the future be for the UK parliament and devolved administrations to take. It should not be for the European commission nor the European parliament.”
He said leaving the EU was the only way to regain control over the NHS and the referendum was now wide open.
“We went through a market, insurance-based health system in the 1920s and 30s. I spent my childhood being told by my father what that was like and why he voted for the NHS in 1948,” Owen said.
The nation’s “recent economic performance has been strong, and considerable progress has been achieved in addressing underlying vulnerabilities”, the report read. George Osborne, the Chancellor, said that the fund’s so-called “Article IV” report was the most positive published during his five years in the role.
The IMF said that it expects the UK to deliver “steady growth … over the next few years, and inflation should gradually return to target”. The fund’s assessment “could hardly be more positive”, Mr Osborne said.
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Ms Lagarde also said that rapid falls in UK unemployment would mean that higher wage growth would be here to stay. We are “as sure as economists can be”, she said.However, Ms Lagarde said that the IMF must identify risks to the UK’s outlook, “no matter how strong a performer a country is”. She said that the upcoming referendum on the UK’s membership of the European Union could create uncertainty , where certainty would be preferable.
Among the major risks to the UK flagged by the fund was the country’s “strikingly large” currenct account deficit, which could flare up if international investors lost confidence in the event of a vote for Brexit. Such uncertainty “could weigh on the outlook,” the IMF’s report warned.
While Brexit fears have not yet shown up in financial markets, she said, the fund will be paying more attention to the issue in the months to come. The IMF intends to devote much of its “collective brainpower” to the next Article IV update on the UK to the possible outcomes of a vote for Brexit, Ms Lagarde said.
The IMF chief said that her personal preference was for the UK to remain within the EU, although the IMF as an organisation has no house view. The UK may think that life is tough in the EU, but Ms Lagarde said that it should ask itself, “compared with what”?
