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AS IT IS
US Treasury Official Nominated to Lead World Bank
February 07, 2019
President Donald Trump has nominated David Malpass to lead the World Bank.
Malpass is currently an official with the United States Treasury Department. Trump called him the “right person to take on this…important job.”
Malpass has been a sharp critic of the 189-nation World Bank. He has said that the bank has worked too much on its own growth and not enough on its main duties, like fighting poverty.
On Wednesday, Trump spoke to White House reporters about his nominee.
“He has fought to ensure financing is (for) the places and projects that truly need assistance, including people living in extreme poverty,” the U.S. president said.
Malpass was an economic adviser to Trump’s presidential election campaign in 2016.
The nomination shows that the Trump administration wants more control over the World Bank. The bank is an international lending organization that assists developing countries. Its most recent president, Jim Yong Kim, left the position in January, three years before his term was to end.
Malpass has said that he will work at the World Bank to push the Trump administration’s goals for developing countries. One goal, he said, would be to make changes to the bank that he and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin helped negotiate.
Malpass also said he would work to improve the standing of women around the world. An important “goal will be to ensure that women achieve full participation in developing economies,” he said.
Criticism of international lending agencies
On Wednesday, the nominee met with reporters to explain his longtime criticism of the bank and its sister lending organization, the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Malpass said his efforts dating back more than 30 years have been aimed at reforming both organizations. He noted the work he had done in the Trump administration to get approval for a $13 billion capital increase for the World Bank. It was the bank’s first increase in eight years, and it included several lending reforms.
Malpass said he hopes to carry out other reforms, including enacting restrictions on loans to major developing nations, such as China and India.
Malpass said he believes these countries are too wealthy to receive economic aid. He said the bank’s loans to those countries took money that should be going to poorer nations.
“I am looking forward to working with China and others” to get repayment on their loans," Malpass said.
The World Bank and IMF were created in the 1940s. Since then, the bank has always been led by an American and the IMF has always been led by a European. The United States is the largest shareholder in both organizations.
Malpass served in Treasury and State Department jobs during the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also worked at investment bank Bear Stearns, where he was chief economist before its 2008 collapse.
I'm Susan Shand.
The Associated Press and the Reuters news agency reported on this story. Susan Shand adapted the report for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
________________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
achieve – v. to meet a goal
participation – n. joining in
AS IT IS
Brexit Could Bring Economic Problems to EU Countries
February 07, 2019
Workers at the Pedrosa & Rodrigues clothing factory in Portugal are worried that something 2,000 kilometers away could endanger their jobs.
Sales to Britain make up about half of this family business’s yearly earnings of about 14 million euros. But a British withdrawal from the European Union could make products from Portugal more costly.
The factory could possibly lose up to 7 million euros a year, says Ana Pedrosa Rodrigues, who works with buyers of the company’s products. “It would be extremely worrying.”
Businesses like Pedrosa & Rodrigues fear they could be hurt by Brexit – Britain’s exit from the EU’s single market.
The single market ensures that there are no tariffs on trade and free movement for goods, workers and money. As Brexit-related economic changes hit Europe, small countries like Portugal could be badly hurt. But no one is sure about the exact effects because the terms of Brexit have yet to be decided.
Some economic predictions are worrisome. Portugal says Brexit could destroy up to 26 percent of Portuguese exports of goods and services and take 1 percentage point off the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) serves as a policy adviser to developed economies. It estimates that if Britain leaves without an agreement on new trade terms with the EU, it could reduce the EU’s GDP by about 1 percentage point by 2020. That represents more than half a year’s economic growth at current rates. It could be three times worse for Britain, the OECD says.
The organization also said that some countries and businesses across the EU will feel more pain than others.
Last year, the European Committee of the Regions said Ireland would be greatly hurt by Brexit because it is so close to Britain. That closeness has tied their economies.
Cities like Stuttgart, in Germany, could also have economic problems, it said. The automobile industry in and around Stuttgart earns a lot from exports to Britain. Chemical and plastics companies in Belgium and the Netherlands also are at risk, the committee said.
Portugal has had close ties with Britain since the Treaty of Windsor in 1386. The Portuguese textile industries could be badly hurt. Its factories are based in one of the poorest areas in Portugal and Western Europe.
The textile companies have already experienced problems. Sales to Britain have fallen by more than 3 percent since the 2016 Brexit decision, according to Paulo Vaz. He is the director-general of the Portuguese Textile and Clothing Association, which represents about 500 textile companies.
Vaz noted that one reason for the drop in sales is weakness in the value of British money, the pound. This makes purchases from countries like Portugal that use the euro more costly. It is also because of worried British businesses and citizens who are cutting back on purchases as Brexit nears.
The Pedrosa & Rodrigues factory sits on the end of a small town in Portugal’s industrial center, where textile companies make about 130,000 jobs.
Ana Pedrosa Rodrigues remembers when her parents started the company with five employees in 1982.
She and her two older brothers recently joined their parents at the company. The other employees include husbands and their wives, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters. Almost all of the workers live in town.
A loss of British business would create job losses.
Sofia Cardoso and her husband both work at the company. She is not afraid.
“We’ve been through crises before and we’ve survived,” she said. “I think we’ll get through this one, too.”
The Associated Press' Barry Hatton reported this story. Susan Shand adapted it for VOA Learning English. George Grow was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
___________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
tariffs – n. a tax on goods coming into or leaving a country
Gross Domestic Product – n. the value of goods manufactured and services provided in a country during a year
textile – n. a fabric that is woven or knit
according – adv. as stated by or in
AS IT IS
China's Space Station in Argentina Is a Mystery
February 07, 2019
A tall, powerful antenna looks up to the sky from the Patagonia desert in Argentina.
It is part of a Chinese space station built there over 200 hectares. A 2.5-meter high fence surrounds the area. The space station came with a promise of a visitor’s center to explain its purpose.
China’s space program, including the space station, is run by its military, the People’s Liberation Army. The Chinese foreign ministry says the station in Patagonia is for civilian use only and is open to the public and media.
The station became operational in April.
Chinese media have presented the station as a peaceful space observation and exploration tool. They also say it played a key role in China’s landing of a spacecraft on the dark side of the moon in January.
The space station operates with little oversight by the Argentine authorities. That is the conclusion of international law experts who reviewed hundreds of pages of Argentine government documents obtained by the Reuters news agency.
Visits to the station are by appointment only. Experts say the United States is concerned about the station’s true purpose. That secrecy also has worried those who live near the area.
The agreement with China
The agreement to build the space station came in 2015, during the presidency of Cristina Fernandez. Opposition lawmakers questioned why there was nothing within the agreement that required the station to be for civilian use only. But, the Argentine Congress approved the deal.
Former Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra said in 2016 that Argentina has no control over the station’s operations. That year, she negotiated a new deal that required it to be for civilian use only. But international law experts say the deal does not provide a process for Argentina to make sure the station is not being used for military purposes.
Argentina’s space agency CONAE told Reuters it has no workers based at the station but CONAE members do make “periodic” visits and listen to radio transmissions. But experts agree that the Chinese could easily hide data in these transmissions.
Juan Uriburu is an Argentine lawyer who worked on two major Argentina-China joint projects. He asked, “How do you make sure they play by the rules?”
Concerns over spying
Garrett Marquis is a spokesman for the White House National Security Council. He said the deal was “another example of opaque and predatory Chinese dealings.”
Some radio astronomy experts say the concerns of the United States have been overblown. Tony Beasley is director of the U.S. National Radio Astronomy Observatory. He said the Patagonian station could, in theory, “listen” to other governments’ satellites to gather data. But he added that could be done with other equipment, too.
“Anyone can do that. I can do that with a dish in my back yard…” Beasley said.
Argentine officials have defended the Chinese station. They have said the agreement with China is similar to the one it signed with the European Space Agency (ESA).
However, the law experts who examined the documents said there is one notable difference: ESA is a civilian agency.
“All of the ESA governments play by democratic rules,” Uriburu said. “The party is not the state. But that’s not the case in China. The party is the state.”
Reuters asked CONAE, the local government and China’s embassy for permission to visit the station. CONAE said it was not able to approve the visit, but said it was planning a media day.
“They don’t let you see”
The space station is a 40 minutes away by car from Las Lajas, a town of 7,000 people. Maria Espinosa, the mayor of Las Lajas, said 30 Chinese employees work and live on the station. It employs no local people. Espinosa said she rented her house to Chinese space station workers before they moved to the base. She said she had visited the site herself at least eight times.
Other than Espinosa, Reuters could not find anyone else in the town who had visited the station. One local said his sister was among a group of students who visited last year. They saw an eating room and a game room, he said.
Others in Las Lajas said they rarely see anyone from the station. Alfredo Garrido is a shop owner in the town. He said, “These people don’t allow you access, they don’t let you see.” He says he believes the station “is not a scientific research base, but rather a Chinese military base.”
I’m Jonathan Evans. And I'm Ashley Thompson.
Hai Do adapted this story for Learning English based on Reuters news report. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
Write to us in the Comments Section or on our Facebook page.
_______________________________________________________________
Words in This Story
oversight - n. the act or job of directing work that is being done
transmission - n. the act or process of sending signals
opaque - adj. difficult to understand or explain
predatory - adj. wrongly harming or using others
overblown - adj. made to seem very important
province - n. a large part of a country
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