South Carolina flooding: Rains start moving off, but trouble isn't over

ATLANTA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal on the most sweepingtrade liberalization pact in a generation that will cut trade barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an official familiar with the talks said on Monday.
Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would affect 40 percent of the world economy and would stand as a legacy-defining achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama, if it is ratified by Congress.
Lawmakers in other TPP countries must also approve the deal.
The final round of negotiations in Atlanta, which began on Wednesday, had snared on the question of how long a monopoly period should be allowed on next-generation biotech drugs, until the United States and Australia negotiated a compromise.
The TPP deal has been controversial because of the secret negotiations that have shaped it over the past five years and the perceived threat to an array of interest groups from Mexican auto workers to Canadian dairy farmers.
Although the complex deal sets tariff reduction schedules on hundreds of imported items from pork and beef in Japan to pickup trucks in the United States, one issue had threatened to derail talks until the end - the length of the monopolies awarded to the developers of new biological drugs.
Negotiating teams had been deadlocked over the question of the minimum period of protection to the rights for data used to make biologic drugs, made by companies including Pfizer Inc , Roche Group's Genentech and Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.
The United States had sought 12 years of protection to encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in expensive biological treatments like Genentech's cancer treatment Avastin. Australia, New Zealand and public health groups had sought a period of five years to bring down drug costs and the burden on state-subsidized medical programs.
Negotiators agreed on a compromise on minimum terms that was short of what U.S. negotiators had sought and that would effectively grant biologic drugs a period of about years free from the threat of competition from generic versions, people involved in the closed-door talks said.
The Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Association said it was "very disappointed" by reports that U.S. negotiators had not been able to convince Australia and other TPP members to adopt the 12-year standard approved by Congress.
"We will carefully review the entire TPP agreement once the text is released by the ministers," the industry lobby said in a statement.

FINAL HOURS
A politically charged set of issues surrounding protections for dairy farmers was also addressed in the final hours of talks, officials said. New Zealand, home to the world's biggest dairy exporter, Fonterra, wanted increased access to U.S., Canadian and Japanese markets.
Separately, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan also agreed rules governing the autotrade that dictate how much of a vehicle must be made within the TPP region in order to qualify for duty-free status.
The North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico mandates that vehicles have a local content of 62.5 percent. The way that rule is implemented means that just over half of a vehicle needs to be manufactured locally. It has been credited with driving a boom in auto-related in investment in Mexico.
The TPP would give Japan's automakers, led by Toyota Motor Corp, a freer hand to buy parts from Asia for vehicles sold in the United States but sets long phase-out periods for U.S. tariffs on Japanese cars and light trucks.

The TPP deal being readied for expected announcement on Monday also sets minimum standards on issues ranging from workers' rights to environmental protection. It also sets up dispute settlement guidelines between governments and foreign investors separate from national courts.
 (Reporting by Krista Hughes and Kevin Krolicki; Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City; Editing by Will Waterman and Chizu Nomiyama)

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NATO denounces 'unacceptable' Russian incursion into Turkey in Syria air war

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, September 23, 2015.

 

Reuters/Ivan Sekretarev/Pool

The United States and its NATO allies denounced Russia on Monday for violating Turkish air space along the frontier with Syria, and Ankara threatened to respond if provoked again, raising the prospect of direct confrontation between the Cold War enemies.
NATO summoned the ambassadors of its 28 member states for an emergency meeting to respond to what Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called "unacceptable violations of Turkish air space".
Moscow's unexpected move last week to launch air strikes in Syria has brought the greatest threat of an accidental clash between Russian and Western forces since the Cold War.

Russian war planes and those of the United States and its allies are now flying combat missions over the same country for the first time since World War Two, with Moscow repeatedly targeting insurgents trained and armed by Washington's allies.
Turkey, which has the second-largest army in NATO, scrambled two F-16 jets on Saturday after a Russian aircraft crossed into its airspace near its southern province of Hatay, the Turkish foreign ministry said.

In a second incident, the Turkish military said a MiG-29 fighter jet - an aircraft used both by Russia and Syria's own air force - had harassed two of its F-16s by locking its radar on to them on Sunday as they patrolled the border.

Turkey summoned Moscow's ambassador to protest against the violation and said Russia would be held "responsible for any undesired incident that may occur" if it were repeated. Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, as well as key NATO partners.
By Monday afternoon, Russia had not given its own public account of the incidents. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the Russian ambassador had been summoned and said "some facts were mentioned there which are to be checked", but gave no further details.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he had been told by Russia that the violation was a "mistake" that would not happen again.
"Turkey's rules of engagement apply to all planes, be they Syrian, Russian or from elsewhere ... Necessary steps would be taken against whoever violates Turkey’s borders, even if it’s a bird," he said in a live interview on HaberTurk TV.

"For Russia, which long opposed foreign intervention in Syria and blocked UN Security Council resolutions, to be actively involved in Syria is both a contradiction and a move that has escalated the crisis."
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington doubted the incursions were an accident.
"We’re deeply concerned about it and consider it something that just contributes to our overall sense that there’s real strategic and tactical problems with the way Russia is conducting itself in Syria right now."

The United States and its allies are waging their own air campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria, while demanding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down and supporting other insurgents fighting against him.
Russia says it is targeting Islamic State, but the anti-Assad coalition including Washington, European powers, Turkey and most Arab states, say Moscow has mainly targeted other insurgents and hit few Islamic State targets.

The potential confrontation comes at a time when relations between Russia and the West are at their worst since the Cold War, with the United States and European Union having imposed financial sanctions on Moscow over its intervention in Ukraine.
Over the past year, NATO has repeatedly accused Moscow of sending planes to violate the air space of the alliance's member countries in Europe.
Speaking during a trip to Spain, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter compared Moscow's effort to bolster Assad to tethering itself to a sinking ship.
"By taking military action in Syria against moderate groups targets, Russia has escalated the civil war," Carter said in a speech in Madrid.
More than 40 Syrian insurgent groups, including some of the most powerful groups fighting against Assad and armed by Arab states, called on regional states to forge an alliance against Russia and Assad's other big foreign backer, Iran.
Regional cooperation was needed to counter "the Russian-Iranian alliance occupying Syria", they said. "Civilians have been directly targeted in a manner that reminds us of the scorched earth policy pursued by Russia in its past wars."
ENEMIES LIST

By infuriating Ankara, Russian President Vladimir Putin risks adding another name his costly and expanding enemies list: fast-growing Turkey is a big buyer of Russian gas and Moscow has announced ambitious plans to build pipelines across it to reach markets further west.
Turkey is one of Assad's fiercest foes in the region, has by far the biggest army on the border with Syria and has taken in the largest number of refugees.

President Tayyip Erdogan said Russia's defense of Assad was a "grave mistake".
"Assad has committed state terrorism, and unfortunately you find Russia and Iran defending (him)," Erdogan was quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper as telling a crowd of supporters in Strasbourg, France, late on Sunday.

"Those countries that collaborate with the regime will account for it in history," he said.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Twitter: "(The) Russian incursion into Turkish air space raises stakes in what is already a high risk situation."
(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow, Phil Stewart in Madrid, Robin Emmott in Brussels; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Coast Guard: Missing cargo ship El Faro sank

(CNN)[Breaking news update, 10:15 a.m. ET]

The U.S. Coast Guard is no longer searching for the missing cargo ship El Faro but focusing on any signs of survivors. Searchers have found life rafts and survival suits, including one survival suit with human remains, Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor said Monday. The body inside the survival suit was unidentifiable, he said.

[Previous story, published at 9:45 a.m. ET]

The U.S. Coast Guard believes the missing cargo ship El Faro sank, an agency spokesman told CNN. The search for the 33 people aboard continues, the Coast Guard said. Contact with El Faro was lost on Thursday.

The massive search for a container ship in the Caribbean Sea has yielded a 225-square-mile debris field, but no sign of the ship itself.

The vessel was carrying a crew of 28 Americans and five Polish nationals when it went missing near the Bahamas last week as Hurricane Joaquin, with winds blowing at 130 mph, passed over the archipelago.

El Faro, based in Jacksonville, Florida, was headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported Sunday evening that it had discovered the 225-square-mile debris field, which consisted of Styrofoam, wood, cargo and other items.

The announcement came hours after the agency said searchers had found "multiple items," including an oil sheen, life jackets and containers in the same search area.

The company that owns the 790-foot ship, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, released a statement saying that a recovered container "appears to be from the El Faro," but according to the Coast Guard, there is no confirmation at this point that it or any of the other objects belong to the missing vessel.

"We located the objects via aircraft," explained Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma, who also said that Coast Guard cutters were still fighting the weather as they try to get to the ship's last known position, about 35 nautical miles northeast of the Bahamas.

The Coast Guard said Sunday evening that the search teams, which also include personnel and resources from U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy, have covered more than 70,000 square miles.

Still, no sign of El Faro or of any lifeboats, according to TOTE.

"With every passing hour, the search expands. When you're searching for something in the ocean, tracking the drift patterns and dealing with weather elements -- things are moving," said Somma, describing the challenges of the search.

Chief Petty Officer Bobby Nash said search teams have had to weather 150-mph gusts, 30-foot waves and heavy rain.

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Deal reached on Pacific Rim trade pact in boost for Obama economic agenda

Protestors in Atlanta stage marches against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which was reached Monday after years of talks. (Paul Handley/AFP/Getty Images)

 

 

By David Nakamura October 5 at 10:10 AM

 
ATLANTA — The United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations reached agreement Monday on the largest free-trade accord in a generation, an ambitious effort led by the Obama administration to knit together economies across a vast region.

The deal capped more than five years of arduous negotiations on a project central to President Obama’s economic agenda and potentially hands him a legacy-defining victory late in his presidency.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael B. Froman described the pact as a “historic agreement” that addresses economic and international trade “challenges faced in the 21st century.”

The deal “helps define the rules of the road for the Asian-Pacific region” for decades ahead, he told journalists.

Negotiators spent a feverish week of talks to find consensus on terms for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). On Sunday, plans to publicly announce a deal were delayed several times as the parties wrangled over the technical details related to market access for dairy products and new-generation biologic medicines.

“We achieved something that some people thought was unachievable,” said Canada’s envoy in the talks, Trade Minister Ed Fast.

Those are just two sections of a sprawling, multiple-chapter pact that addresses tariff reductions for agriculture and automobiles as well as intellectual-property rights for pharmaceutical drugs and movies, the free flow of information on the Internet, wildlife conservation, online commerce and dispute settlements for multinational corporations.

During the crunch-time talks, the sense of urgency was elevated by elections in Canada this month and the United States next year. Opponents of the deal have staged demonstrations inside and outside a Westin hotel in Atlanta, where the negotiators were meeting.

The Obama administration has cast the accord as a landmark effort to establish new rules of international commerce among a dozen nations at a time when evolving technologies are disrupting old industries and creating new ones.
But in a sign of possible political head winds for Obama, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), described the deal as falling “woefully short” of goals such as opening more foreign markets to U.S. exports and boosting domestic jobs. Hatch was a strong backer of giving the White House so-called “fast track” powers to pursue the pact.
The 12 TPP nations — the others are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — account for a combined 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.
Obama, who announced in 2011 that his administration would take a leading role in the negotiations, stands to realize a major victory with just over a year left in office. Initially skeptical of large trade deals when he entered the White House, Obama came to embrace the Pacific Rim pact as a way to bolster his strategy of rebalancing U.S. foreign policy toward Asia and maintaining an economic edge in the face of China’s growing clout.

“We can promote growth through trade that meets a higher standard,” Obama said in a speech at the United Nations in New York last week. “And that’s what we’re doing through the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a trade agreement that encompasses nearly 40 percent of the global economy, an agreement that will open markets while protecting the rights of workers and protecting the environment that enables development to be sustained.”

The president personally intervened in the final days of talks, having phone conversations with several leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The final sticking points in Atlanta centered on the length of market protections for an emerging class of pharmaceuticals, tariffs for dairy products and rules governing how to classify where automobiles are manufactured.
Even if the deal is completed, Obama’s work is not yet done, however. Though he won new “fast-track” trade powers from Congress in the spring to help smooth negotiations, the president still must get the final pact ratified by a vote in Congress, which probably will take place early next year.
Lawmakers will not be allowed to amend or filibuster the TPP deal, but the vote will come during the presidential primary nominating contests. Candidates from both parties have lambasted U.S. trade policies as contributing to a reordering of the American economy that has led to a growing income gap.

Opponents of the deal, including labor unions, environmental groups and liberal Democrats, have pledged to mount a final campaign to block the accord on Capitol Hill. They have criticized the TPP as a regulatory framework aimed at protecting the interests of large multinational corporations while doing little to protect worker rights and the environment. U.S. officials have said that there are chapters in the agreement with enforceable provisions to do just that.
On Sunday morning, a handful of protesters unfurled a large banner reading “#StopTPP!” They chanted “TPP is corporate greed. Affordable medicine is what we need” before being removed from the lobby of the Westin hotel.

The TPP represents the largest U.S. trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1993. The accord has its roots in the mid-2000s, when Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore began discussing a tiny regional trade pact.
The United States first declared an interest in joining the talks in the final year of the George W. Bush administration, and the negotiations grew to encompass eight nations. But Obama put a halt on U.S. efforts after taking office in 2009, amid a global recession.

A year later, Obama notified Congress of his administration’s intent to reenter the talks, and the White House’s support helped draw in additional countries, including Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, whose entry in 2013 helped boost the global scale of the pact.
In all, the 12 nations held more than three dozen negotiating sessions over the past five years.
Obama’s decision to make a concerted push to close the deal this year put the White House in a rare partnership with Republican leaders to push the fast-track powers through Congress in the spring.

That effort angered much of his liberal base, but the legislation was approved in June after fierce political wrangling, passing with broad GOP support and a fraction of Democrats.
Under the terms of the fast-track legislation, Obama must wait 90 days after the TPP agreement is completed before he signs it and sends it to Congress for a vote, and the text of the accord must be made public for at least 60 of those days.

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