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Month: November 2021

Москва заявляє про готовність допомогти Вірменії та Туреччині в нормалізації відносин

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Вірменсько-турецькі відносини упродовж понад століття загострені через турецьку роль у масових убивствах вірмен наприкінці Першої світової війни, Туреччина також  є головним союзником і постачальником військової техніки і зброї для Баку в конфлікті навколо Нагірного Карабаху

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Categories: Новини, Світ

Europe’s Christmas Markets Warily Open as COVID Cases Rise

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The holiday tree is towering over the main square in this central German city, the chestnuts and sugared almonds are roasted, and kids are clambering aboard the merry-go-round just like they did before the pandemic. But a surge in coronavirus infections has left an uneasy feeling hanging over Frankfurt’s Christmas market.

To savor a mug of mulled wine — a pleasurable rite of winter in pre-pandemic times — masked customers must pass through a one-way entrance to a fenced-off wine hut, stopping at the hand sanitizer station. Elsewhere, security officers check vaccination certificates before letting customers head for the steaming sausages and kebabs.

Despite the pandemic inconveniences, stall owners selling ornaments, roasted chestnuts and other holiday-themed items in Frankfurt and other European cities are relieved to be open at all for their first Christmas market in two years, especially with new restrictions taking effect in Germany, Austria and other countries as COVID-19 infections hit record highs. Merchants who have opened are hoping for at least a fraction of the pre-pandemic holiday sales that can make or break their businesses.

Others aren’t so lucky. Many of the famous holiday events have been canceled in Germany and Austria. With the market closures goes the money that tourists would spend in restaurants, hotels and other businesses.

Jens Knauer, who crafts intricate, lighted Christmas-themed silhouettes that people can hang in windows, said his hope was simply that the Frankfurt market “stays open as long as possible.”

While Christmas is 40% of annual revenue for many retailers and restaurateurs, “with me, it’s 100%,” Knauer said. “If I can stay open for three weeks, I can make it through the year.”

Purveyors are on edge after other Christmas markets were abruptly shut down in Germany’s Bavaria region, which includes Nuremberg, home of one of the biggest and best-known markets. Stunned exhibitors in Dresden had to pack up their goods when authorities in the eastern Saxony region suddenly imposed new restrictions amid soaring infections. Austria’s markets closed as a 10-day lockdown began Monday, with many stall owners hoping they can reopen if it’s not extended.

Markets usually attract elbow-to-elbow crowds to row upon row of ornament and food sellers, foot traffic that spills over into revenue for surrounding hotels and restaurants. This year, the crowds at Frankfurt’s market were vastly thinned out, with the stalls spread out over a larger area.

Heiner Roie, who runs a mulled wine hut in the shape of a wine barrel, said he’s assuming he will see half the business he had in 2019. A shutdown would cause “immense financial damage — it could lead to complete ruin since we haven’t made any income in two years, and at some point, the financial reserves are used up.”

But if people have a little discipline and observe the health measures, “I think we’ll manage it,” he said.

Next door, Bettina Roie’s guests are greeted with a sign asking them to show their vaccination certificates at her stand serving Swiss raclette, a popular melted cheese dish.

The market “has a good concept because what we need is space, room, to keep some distance from each other,” she said. “In contrast to a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, they have their building and their walls, but we can adjust ourselves to the circumstances.”

The extended Roie family is a fifth-generation exhibitor business that also operates the merry-go-round on Frankfurt’s central Roemerberg square, where the market opened Monday. 

Roie said it was important to reopen “so that we can bring the people even during the pandemic a little joy — that’s what we do, we bring back joy.”

The latest spike in COVID-19 cases has unsettled prospects for Europe’s economic recovery, leading some economists to hedge their expectations for growth in the final months of the year.

Holger Schmieding, chief economist at Berenberg Bank in London, has cut his forecast for the last three months of the year in the 19 countries that use the euro from 0.7% to 0.5%. But he noted that the wave of infections is having less impact across the broad economy because vaccinations have reduced serious illnesses and many companies have learned to adjust.

That is cold comfort to Germany’s DEHOGA restaurant and hotel association, which warned of a “hail of cancellations” and said members were reporting every second Christmas party or other special event was being called off.

Other European countries where the pandemic isn’t hitting as hard are returning to old ways. The traditional Christmas market in Madrid’s Plaza Mayor, in the heart of the Spanish capital, is slated to open Friday at the size it was before the pandemic.

It will have 104 stalls of nativity figures, decorations and traditional sweets in a country where 89% of those 12 or older are fully vaccinated. Last year, it had half the number of stalls and restricted the number of people allowed in the square. Masks and social distancing will remain mandatory, organizers said.

In Hungary’s capital of Budapest, Christmas markets have been fenced off and visitors must show proof of vaccination to enter.

Gyorgy Nagy, a producer and seller of handmade glazed crockery, said the restrictions initially stirred worries of fewer shoppers. But business has been good so far.

“I don’t think the fence is bad,” he said. “At the beginning, we were scared of it, really scared, but I think it’s fine. … I don’t think it will be a disadvantage.”

Markets opening reflects a broader spectrum of loose restrictions in Hungary, even as new COVID-19 cases have exceeded peaks seen during a devastating surge last spring. More infections were confirmed last week than in other week since the pandemic started.

A representative for the Advent Bazilika Christmas market said a number of its measures go beyond government requirements, including that all vendors wear masks and those selling food and drinks be vaccinated.

Bea Lakatos, a seller of fragrant soaps and oils at the Budapest market, said that while sales have been a bit weaker than before the pandemic, “I wasn’t expecting so many foreign visitors given the restrictions.”

“I think things aren’t that bad so far,” she said this week. “The weekend started particularly strong.”

In Vienna, markets were packed last weekend as people sought some Christmas cheer before Austria’s lockdown. Merchants say closures last year and the new restrictions have had disastrous consequences.

“The main sales for the whole year are made at the Christmas markets — this pause is a huge financial loss,” said Laura Brechmann who sold illuminated stars at the Spittelberg market before the lockdown began. “We hope things will reopen, but I personally don’t really expect it.”

In Austria’s Salzkammergut region, home to ski resorts and the picturesque town of Hallstatt, the tourism industry hopes the national lockdown won’t be extended past Dec. 13 and it can recover some much-needed revenue.

Last winter’s extended lockdowns cost the tourism board alone 1 million euros ($1.12 million) just in nightly tourist tax fees during that period — not to mention the huge financial losses sustained by hotels, restaurants and ski resorts.

“Overall, I do think that if things open up again before Christmas, we can save the winter season,” said Christian Schirlbauer, head of tourism for the Dachstein-Salzkammergut region. “But it will depend on whether or not the case numbers go down.” 

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Близько 200 мігрантів намагалися прорватися через польсько-білоруський кордон – прикордонники

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Новий інцидент стався біля села Черемха і є частиною щоденного протистояння між групами мігрантів, яким допомагають білоруські солдати, та польськими прикордонними військами

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Categories: Новини, Світ

Canada ‘Extremely Disappointed’ That US to Raise Softwood Lumber Duty

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The United States has decided to almost double the duties on Canadian softwood lumber from most producers to 17.9%, Canadian Trade Minister Mary Ng said on Wednesday, adding that Canada is “extremely disappointed.”

The current rate for most companies is about 9%.

Ng said that the U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday issued the final results of the second administrative reviews of its anti-dumping and countervailing duty orders regarding certain softwood lumber products from Canada.

“Canada is extremely disappointed that the United States has decided to increase the unfair duties it is imposing on Canadian softwood lumber from most producers to 17.9%,” Ng said in a statement. “Canada calls on the United States to cease imposing these unwarranted duties on Canadian softwood lumber products.”

The U.S. Commerce Department and the U.S. Trade Representative’s office did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday night. Earlier this year, Washington announced plans to double the duties on imports of Canadian lumber and requested a dispute panel on Canada’s dairy import quotas.

Canada’s softwood lumber industry is a key component of the country’s forestry sector, which contributed more than $25 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product in 2020 and employed nearly 185,000 workers. The British Columbia Lumber Trade Council also expressed disappointment.

Ng said that “following completion of any legal challenges under the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement’s (CUSMA) Chapter 10 or in U.S. courts, these new anti-dumping and countervailing duty rates will apply retroactively to softwood lumber exports to the United States from companies that were subject to the second administrative reviews.”

“These unjustified duties harm Canadian communities, businesses, and workers,” she said, adding: “They are also a tax on U.S. consumers.” 

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As Gas Prices Spike, Americans Give Electric Cars a Closer Look 

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Persistently high prices for gasoline are frustrating many Americans and causing a political headache for the administration of President Joe Biden, but they also might be accelerating the process of transitioning the country to more widespread use of vehicles that run on renewable energy — particularly electricity. 

 

Experts say that sales of electric vehicles, or EVs, tend to rise when fuel prices do, though they cautioned it’s difficult to draw a straight line from prices at the pump to car purchases. 

 

“People buy electric cars for lots of reasons, so they’re not completely dependent on gas prices, but that’s certainly reinforcing it,” said Genevieve Cullen, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, a trade group representing manufacturers of electric vehicles.

 

An estimated 468,000 new EVs were sold in the U.S. from the beginning of the year through September, according to data collected by Atlas Public Policy, a group that tracks the market for EVs. That represents a 45%  increase over the 323,000 EVs sold during the entirety of 2020. 

 

Looking solely at the month of September 2021, U.S. consumers bought 57,000 new EVs. That was 63% more than the 35,000 sold in September of 2020, and a 90% increase over the 30,000 sold in September 2019. 

Gas prices make EVs attractive 

 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the cost of one kilowatt hour of electricity in the United States rose from 13.5 cents in October 2020 to 14.2 cents in October 2021, an increase of 5.2%. By contrast, the BLS found the average cost of a gallon of gas rose from $2.23 in October 2020 to $3.48 in October 2021, a 56.1% increase. 

 

“High gas prices are tough on Americans driving gasoline vehicles,” said Luke Tonachel, director of clean vehicles and fuels for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The volatility in the global price of the oil used to make gasoline is a constant worry.

 

In the U.S., though, the structure of the electricity market keeps prices from increasing sharply. 

 

“Electricity prices are regulated, and therefore quite stable,” said Tonachel. “An EV driver can expect to pay a quarter or less as much per mile as [someone] driving a gasoline vehicle.” 

 

US EV sales expected to rise further 

While electric vehicle sales are rising rapidly, the numbers begin from a low baseline. As recently as five years ago, EV sales accounted for less than 1% of new vehicles sold in the U.S. That figure has surged to what is expected to be about 4% this year, and the real increase is on the horizon. 

 

LMC Automotive, which tracks vehicle sales and estimates the future of the market, projects that by 2030, EVs, including purely electric cars and plug-in hybrid cars that can run on both electricity and gasoline, will make up 34.2% of new vehicle sales in the United States. 

 

That transition will continue, as the federal government increasingly crafts policies meant to bring the country in line with President Biden’s promise, made at the recent United Nations Climate Conference, to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions to about half of their 2005 levels by 2030. 

 

The Environmental Protection Agency announced this summer it would structure emissions guidelines for cars powered by internal combustion engines in order to “speed the transition of the light-duty vehicle fleet toward a zero emissions future.” 

 

“We’re going to see the car market accelerate the shift to EVs when the U.S. EPA sets emission standards that zero out pollution from vehicles,” said Tonachel. “That’s ultimately what we need to address the climate crisis, and it will result in cheaper mobility, too.” 

 

Another factor is the continued rollout of a network of charging stations across the country. The Energy Department currently lists more than 52,000 stations in the country, with upwards of 100,000 outlets. The infrastructure bill that President Biden recently signed into law contains $7.5 billion aimed at increasing that number by a factor of 10 within the next decade. 

 

Broader future for renewables 

 

There also is reason to believe that increased electrification of the transportation system will drive the adoption of renewables in other aspects of day-to-day life, as well. That’s because, as car battery technology continues to improve, it will make it easier and cheaper to store energy generated by wind and solar power sources. 

 

“Electrification of transportation is the key to growing renewables in the power sector,” said Cullen, of the Electric Drive Transportation Association. “Because batteries are one of the few effective and portable ways to store electricity. They’ll enable utilities and other power generators to manage demand so that you can save up excess wind or solar.” 

 

She added, “Battery storage is the path there. Electric transportation, this mobile electrical load, has the ability to be a grid asset.” 

 

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Суд у Лондоні визнав наклепом твердження про залежність мільярдера Абрамовича від російського лідера Путіна

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У книжці, зокрема, стверджувалося, що Абрамович купив лондонський футбольний клуб «Челсі» за розпорядженням президента Росії Володимира Путіна

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Categories: Новини, Світ

US Jobless Benefit Claims Drop to 52-year Low

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First-time claims for U.S. unemployment compensation dropped sharply last week to a 52-year low, easily falling below the figure recorded at the start of the coronavirus pandemic that has played havoc with the U.S. economy over the last 20 months, the Labor Department reported Wednesday

A total of 199,000 jobless workers filed for assistance last week, down 71,000 from the revised figure of the week before and the lowest recorded figure since November 1969, the government said. The new weekly figure was also well below the 256,000 total in mid-March of last year when the pandemic first swept into the country and employers started laying off workers by the hundreds of thousands.

The new figure was an indication the U.S. economy, the world’s largest, remains on a recovery path from the worst economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The advance is occurring even as President Joe Biden and Washington policy makers, along with consumers, voice concerns about the biggest increase in consumer prices in three decades and supply chain issues that have curtailed delivery of some products to retail store shelves.

The declining number of claims for unemployment benefits shows that many employers are hanging on to their workers even as millions have quit jobs to move to other companies offering higher pay and more benefits.

U.S. employers added 531,000 jobs in October, the biggest monthly gain in three months and the unemployment rate dropped to 4.6%. But the U.S. economy is still short more than four million jobs since February 2020.

Even as consumers worry about higher food and fuel prices, President Biden said Tuesday, “We’re experiencing the strongest economic recovery in the world.”

“Even after accounting for inflation, our economy is bigger and our families have more money in their pockets than they did before the pandemic,” Biden said. “And America is the only major economy in the world that can say that.”

About 7.4 million workers remain unemployed in the United States. There are 10.4 million available jobs in the country, but the skills of available workers often do not match what employers want, or the job openings are not where the unemployed live. In addition, many of the available jobs are low-wage service positions that the jobless are shunning.

The annual size of the U.S. economy — nearly $23 trillion — exceeds its pre-pandemic level as it recovers faster than many economists had predicted during the worst of the business closings more than a year ago.

The Federal Reserve, the country’s central bank, is curtailing its year-plus support for the U.S. economy during the worst of the pandemic. It announced earlier this month it would cut its $120-billion-per-month purchase of Treasury investments and mortgage-backed securities by $15 billion by the end of November. In addition, the Fed is reducing purchases to $90 billion per month in December but left its benchmark interest rate unchanged.

How fast U.S. economic growth continues is unclear. The delta variant of the coronavirus continues to pose a threat to the recovery, with more new cases being recorded again after the number had declined in recent weeks.

About 90,000 new cases have been added in recent days, up from about 75,000 daily in recent weeks. The number of deaths each day has been dropping, to about 1,000 a day, from the 2,000 total of a few weeks ago.

About 60 million eligible Americans remain unvaccinated against the coronavirus, a figure Biden says is “unacceptably high.” The president has mandated that 84 million workers at companies with 100 or more employees get vaccinated by January 4 or be tested frequently, but the order is being contested in a raft of lawsuits that have yet to be decided.

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Котирування міжбанківського ринку сягнули 27 гривень за долар

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Національний банк України на початку торгів виходив на ринок із запитом найкращого курсу і продав до 40 мільйонів доларів за ціною 26 гривень 92–94 копійки за долар

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Americans Prepare for Holidays as Inflation Squeezes Wallets 

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Tawanda Carter is a school librarian in New Orleans, Louisiana. She said preparing for the holidays has presented a unique set of challenges this year, a sentiment shared by millions of Americans.

“Food prices are higher, and a lot of items aren’t even in stock,” she said, as she gets ready to celebrate Thanksgiving with her family in Atlanta, Georgia. “We’ve been keeping an eye out for sales and also thinking about new dishes to make up for the traditional ones we might not be able to eat this year.”

Across the United States, prices on essentials such as groceries and gas are rising at a pace unseen in a generation. Experts say the cause is a mix of worker shortages, supply chain issues and stimulative economic policies enacted to support families and financial markets during the global pandemic. For many, however, the timing of the price increases couldn’t be worse as families prepare for their first holiday gatherings since the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine.

“The price of fresh produce has doubled,” said Maria Gallagher-Venable, co-owner of a pet-sitting business in a New Orleans suburb. “Meat prices are climbing every day, too. We’re trying to do all our Christmas shopping online to avoid shipping delays, but those prices are higher than usual, as well, and the cost of gasoline has already meant finances are tighter.”

“I went to the grocery store to buy a head of iceberg lettuce and it was $3.69!” said local restaurant owner Shane Finkelstein. “It’s usually a dollar. It costs more to cook at home than it used to. It costs more to eat at a restaurant than it used to. And I don’t think this is going to change. Restaurants need to charge more, or they’re going to go out of business. This is just how things are now.” ​

A worker shortage 

Gallagher-Venable thinks the worker shortage is largely the result of greedy companies unwilling to share profits with their workers.

“The minimum wage is a joke in this country, and people are tired of working like dogs just to stay in debt,” she said.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that as of last month, approximately 3 million fewer people in the U.S. were looking for work than in February 2020, the month before the pandemic began. While there’s no denying the economy faces a shortage of workers, the underlying cause is still under debate.

Megan Forman co-owns several bakeries in New Orleans. Labor shortages aren’t only being seen in the service industry, she said. A lack of workers throughout the supply chain is causing prices to fluctuate.

“When you don’t have enough employees, you can’t produce as much as you want,” she said. “And that’s not just at our bakery. When farmers can’t hire enough workers, they can’t plant and harvest enough. When trucking companies can’t hire enough drivers, they can’t ship as much.”

Economists have said that after accruing savings throughout the pandemic, Americans are eager to purchase goods and services again. Many businesses, however, have been unable to match the demand.

“Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays of the year for bakeries, and we’re returning to pre-pandemic sales,” Forman said. “But the ability for us to get the ingredients and supplies we need — it’s like the Wild West. So unpredictable.”

So, too, are the prices of those ingredients and supplies. Forman said these days one seller will offer eggs at $30 per case, while another has the same eggs priced at $17. The next day, she said, things can swing drastically.

“We need paper cups for our coffee, but they’re so difficult to find, or expensive when we do find them,” she said. “Everything is like that now. There’s high demand and not enough supply, so we’re getting charged more for what we need to run our bakery.” 

Getting lean 

For a while, Forman said she attempted to absorb the costs rather than passing them on to her customers. That couldn’t last, however.

“It got more expensive to purchase ingredients. It got more expensive to hire staff. And so, eventually, we need to raise the prices of what we sell, or we’re going to go out of business.”

In addition to raising prices, many business owners are reconsidering their business models and seeking ways to become more efficient. Forman, for example, said she’s begun training employees to do both “front of house” work, such as serving customers, as well as “back of house” work, such as food preparation and dishwashing. She’s also finding ways to operate at capacity with fewer staff members by, for example, making breakfast sandwiches ahead instead of offering them made-to-order.

“I think it’s forcing a lot of small companies to become better businesses,” said Grant Estrade, co-owner of a gardening supply shop and farm outside New Orleans. Estrade said that without a regular supply of employees, business leaders must evaluate what is the most profitable thing to pursue with the limited resources they have.

That, he said, can make a company leaner and more efficient. Estrade said he’s dropped parts of his business he can’t do right now and instead sought partnerships with other small businesses to do some of that work.

“If we make great soil but we don’t have the staff to deliver it, I can pay another small business to deliver it for us,” he said. “It’s economical. Maybe that’s what we should have been doing all along.”

A new way

It’s not just businesses that are reconsidering how they operate in a changing economy. Individual Americans are also looking to adapt as the cost of the holidays rises.

Rebecca Urrutia is a mother of four young children in Tolland, Connecticut. As she looks ahead to holiday gift shopping, she’s certain product shortages, shipping delays and increased prices mean the status quo will no longer work for her family.

“Our holiday shopping looks a little different this year,” she said. “We’ve decided to scale back and to shop at local bazaars, thrift shops and community share sites instead of buying brand new items for all of our shopping.”

Urrutia sees it as a silver lining that she hopes other Americans will embrace this season, she said.

“I think, after the pandemic, many of us are choosing to live more simply and to be grateful for what we have.”

Tawanda Carter, the school librarian in New Orleans, said she’s seeing something similar in her friend circle.

“A lot of us are reevaluating what we need versus what we want in life,” Carter said. The rising cost of gasoline, she said, has her thinking more about climate change and her own health. She decided to purchase a bicycle and use it for many of her daily trips. She’s living more like she imagined her great-grandmother and grandmother might have lived, she said.

“They told me their adage was ‘use it up, wear it out or make do,'” Carter said. “And our generation always talks about ‘reduce, reuse and recycle.’ I’m trying to use the current situation as an opportunity to live by a combination of both sayings.” 

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Путін: іноземне програмне забезпечення може стати недоступним для держкомпаній Росії

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Російський лідер погодився з пропозицією про запровадження персональної відповідальності голів держкомпаній за досягнення показників щодо частки закупівлі російського софту

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Categories: Новини, Світ

State Department Official Discusses Chip Shortage, Taiwan Talks, 5G ‘Trusted Network’

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A senior U.S. State Department official said the United States is not asking the world’s top chipmakers to provide “trade secrets” in response to a request for supply chain information to help address the global chip shortage. 

“We’re not asking for information that will be public. It’s confidential information that will be kept confidential,” said Undersecretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Jose Fernandez in an interview with VOA on Tuesday. 

“It’s intended to do what we need to do, which is to find ways to ease the bottleneck in supply chains.” 

Fernandez led U.S. participation in the second U.S.-Taiwan Economic Prosperity Partnership Dialogue (EPPD), an initiative launched last November, as the United States seeks closer economic ties with Taiwan. 

Taiwan is home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). Any disruption in Taiwan affecting TSMC production could strain the global supply chain to the snapping point. Many link the survival of this self-ruled democracy to U.S. supply chain security. 

Fernandez said TSMC’s decision to build a new plant in Japan, which is slated to open in 2024, is a good move that “diversifies” the supply chain locations. 

 

He also confirmed the State Department has changed the name of the Clean Network, an initiative launched during the Trump administration to promote a trusted 5G network supplier while discouraging other nations from using equipment from Chinese telecom Huawei to build theirs. It is now called the Trusted Network. 

“I like ‘Trusted Network.’ It’s not a question of cleanliness. It’s a question of who do you trust,” Fernandez said. 

The following are excerpts from the interview. It has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

VOA: On Monday, you led U.S. officials’ participation in the second U.S.-Taiwan EPPD. What was discussed? What was agreed on? And what can we look forward to? 

FERNANDEZ: We discussed a number of items that are important to both the U.S. and to Taiwan: supply chain issues, economic coercion, science and technology changes, things that we can do to try and deepen our people-to-people relations as well as to deepen our economic partnership. And I think you will see a number of suggestions implemented from that dialogue. For example, we are going to start creating private-sector engagement between the two private sectors to make sure that both Taiwan and the United States are able to benefit from our deep economic ties. 

VOA: Countering economic coercion was among the topics discussed. What specific measures is the United States considering? 

 FERNANDEZ: One of the things that the U.S. can do is to try and, first of all, provide moral support and statements of support to countries such as Lithuania, Australia and others who are being pressured. But also, we can do things such as replacing export credits that China takes away when it doesn’t like the actions that are being taken. …One of the points that we discussed with Taiwan is what can the U.S. do going forward to anticipate and to try and counter economic coercion on the part of China. 

VOA: There is a very strong pushback in Taiwan about the U.S. asking Taiwan to share semiconductor chip data such as inventory, orders and sales records, which are considered trade secrets. What exactly is the U.S. asking for? If the situation were reversed, the U.S. would probably not comply with such a request. 

FERNANDEZ: I’m so glad that you asked that question, because there’s a lot of misinformation as to what we’re asking. What we’re trying to do is to figure out why there are supply chain bottlenecks in countries. Why, for example, … are car companies unable to receive those kinds of semiconductors that they need in order to build their cars? What we’re asking for is information from consumers, also from producers, from intermediaries, we want to find out why is there a bottleneck so that we can actually work to get rid of those bottlenecks. We’re not asking for information on trade secrets. We’re not asking for information that will be public. It’s confidential information that will be kept confidential. … We are not going to use it in order to benefit our companies. 

VOA: TSMC announced plans to build a new plant in Japan and start operations there in 2024. Do you think this will diversify the supply chain?   

FERNANDEZ: I think, you know, it’s a commercial decision. But what we try to promote on any supply chains, not just semiconductors, is diversity of suppliers, diversity of locations, diversity of products. Anything that diversifies the supply chains is good both for our industry and for the world economy.    

VOA: Concerning 5G network security, is it fair to say the U.S. is still discouraging countries from using Huawei equipment to build their 5G networks? If so, why not continue using the name “Clean Network.” Why call it “Trusted Network”? What is the difference? 

FERNANDEZ: We are going to continue to talk to countries about the danger of unsecure networks. The bottom line is, telecommunications equipment has to be secure. It is in many ways the backbone of our economy. It is a national security asset. And so we talked to countries about why they need to make sure that their telecom networks are secure.

We in the United States … believe very strongly that Huawei is not secure. Why is it not secure? Because it depends on the PRC government. It is an entity that has to follow the dictates of the PRC. And so we talked to countries about what are the risks, and we talked a little bit about alternatives. There are alternatives, not just the traditional 5G telecom network providers but also new technologies such as O-RAN and many others. And, you know, these are not just U.S. companies — they’re companies from around the world.

I think our main concern is to make sure that these are trusted networks that will not impair and will not jeopardize the security of a national telecommunication system. I like “Trusted Network.” It’s not a question of cleanliness. It’s a question of who do you trust. 

VOA: You came to the U.S. as an immigrant from Cuba. Can you share your personal journey with our audience?

FERNANDEZ: Oh, you don’t have time for that! We came to this country when I was 11 from Cuba. We settled in New Jersey. Cubans, for most part, either go to Miami or they go to northern New Jersey. You know, my mother worked in a factory as a seamstress. My father worked at a bank. It was hard. But we also got a lot of help from many people in this country — from teachers, from churches. And I think back on those days, of the courage of my parents for basically leaving it all behind. But also with a lot of gratitude. I had a lot of luck, but I also had a lot of people who were willing to help. 

VOA: What went through your mind when you were coordinating the charter flights to bring Afghans out of the country? 

FERNANDEZ: So this happened a day or two after I got into this job. I was confirmed on a Tuesday and on Thursday we had to start dealing with this here. So I didn’t have a lot of time to get prepared. I saw a lot of faces that reminded me of the faces that I had seen as I was leaving [Cuba]. … I didn’t go home for three weeks. You know we were able to, after August 31, we were able to get out hundreds and hundreds of Americans, and not just Americans but also locally employed staff, humanitarian workers. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done. And I’m also very proud of my colleagues because they showed the devotion that makes the State Department such a special place. 

 

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