Looming Metal Tariffs | Taliban in Talks? | South Sudan Sanctions Vote

Council on Foreign Relations Newsletter If you are unable to see the message below, click here to view. May 31, 2018 Daily News Brief   TOP OF THE AGENDA Metal Tariffs Loom for U.S. Allies The European Union's top trade envoy met with her U.S. counterpart in Paris yesterday in a bid to prevent new U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from taking effect on Friday. Canada, the United States' largest source of imported steel, and Mexico are also expected to be hit by the tariffs (WaPo). Ahead of their meeting, the EU negotiator, Cecilia Malmstrom, told European lawmakers (Bloomberg) that she did not expect a full reprieve from U.S. tariffs and quotas. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross rebuffed the bloc's call to waive the tariffs, saying that it should follow China's example (FT) by remaining open to trade negotiations despite not being exempt from the U.S. move. ANALYSIS "This is a huge escalation in what has so far been a trade phony war. The repercussions will be severe," says CFR's Edward Alden. "Any short-term wins gained through such threats are likely to be more than negated by the rising perception, even among longstanding allies, that the U.S. has become an unreliable and untrustworthy trading partner," Eswar Prasad said in an interview with the New York Times. "A decision to impose tariffs would be a shock to Canada and Mexico, as both countries thought that they would be spared from the levies because of earnest negotiations that they have had with administration officials over NAFTA," Megan Cassella and Ben White write for Politico. PACIFIC RIM Russian Foreign Minister Meets North Korea's Kim Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that talks on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula cannot succeed until sanctions are lifted (Tass). He made the comments after talks in Pyongyang (RFE/RL) on Thursday with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho. In this CFR interview, Melissa Hanham lays out what North Korean denuclearization could look like. JAPAN: Scrap materials are piling up in Japan after China, the world's largest importer of used paper for recycling, raised its purity standards (Nikkei) for wastepaper. SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA Some Taliban Fighters Talking With Government, Says U.S. Commander Some mid- and senior-level Taliban militants are communicating with Afghan officials "off the stage" (Reuters), General John Nicholson, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said yesterday. He compared the Taliban's engagement to that between Marxist rebels and the Colombian government ahead of a 2016 peace deal. INDIAN OCEAN: The U.S. military renamed its Pacific Command (Hindustan Times) the Indo-Pacific Command to reflect what it called growing connectivity between the region's two oceans. CFR's Alyssa Ayres discusses the centrality of India to the new U.S. Indo-Pacific strategy. MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA U.S.-Backed Forces 'Only Problem' Left in Syria, Says Assad Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he is ready to use force to retake the one-third of the country that is controlled by U.S.-backed, largely Kurdish forces (Al Jazeera) and that Syrians "will not accept foreigners in this region anymore." ISRAEL: The Interior Ministry announced it will bar Indonesian passport holders (Jakarta Post) from traveling to Israel starting June 9. Many Christian and Muslim Indonesians visit religious sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank. SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA South Sudan Asks Ethiopia to Reject Proposed Sanctions South Sudanese President Salva Kiir, in Addis Ababa yesterday, urged Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to oppose U.S.-drafted sanctions (VOA) on his country, which the UN Security Council is expected to vote on today. Ethiopia is a nonpermanent member of the council. ZIMBABWE: A Harare court ruled that Zimbabweans living abroad, totaling an estimated five million people, may not vote (DW) in a July presidential election. In Foreign Affairs, John Rapley examines Zimbabwe's post-Mugabe era. EUROPE EU Court Rules Lithuania, Romania Violated Torture Ban The European Court of Human Rights ruled that the countries violated the EU prohibition on torture (BBC) by allowing the CIA to set up secret prisons there for the interrogation of Saudi and Palestinian suspected militants. UKRAINE: Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko, who police reported was killed in Kiev on Tuesday, said in a press conference yesterday that he worked with authorities to stage his own death (NYT) as part of a sting operation. AMERICAS Gunmen Fire on Protesters in Nicaragua At least a dozen people were reportedly injured when assailants opened fire on thousands of demonstrators in Managua protesting the government of President Daniel Ortega (AP), who has been in power for eleven years. BRAZIL: Oil workers began a seventy-two-hour strike (Reuters) to demand that the head of the state oil company resign. The move comes on the heels of a ten-day strike by truckers that caused nationwide shortages of fuel and basic necessities. UNITED STATES A Million Immigrants in U.S. Face Being Sent Home Up to a million immigrants in the United States risk losing their rights to live and work in the country (VOA), as more than three hundred thousand will lose temporary protected status (TPS) over the next eighteen months and immigrants brought to the country as children face having their protection from deportation rescinded. The first TPS expirations take effect in November. CFR looks at which countries are set to lose their TPS designations.         Council on Foreign Relations — 58 East 68th Street — New York, NY 10065 CFR does not share email addresses with third parties. Forward This Email | Subscribe to CFR Newsletters | Unsubscribe - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  

From: dailybrief@e.cfr.org

Date: May 31, 2018 at 10:08PM