With Japan against China

 

TOKYO/BRUSSELS/BERLIN(Own report) – With the conclusion of their free trade agreement, the EU and Japan are about to establish the world’s largest free trade zone. As was reported, the agreement between the two highly export oriented economic blocks, generating nearly 30 percent of the global economic output, could already take effect in early 2019. According to the EU Commission and German economic institutes the Japan-EU Free Trade Agreement (JEFTA) could lead to significant economic growth and the creation of hundreds of thousands of new jobs. On the one hand, the agreement is aimed at making up for eventual slumps on the US market and, on the other, is part of the containment strategy against China, the emerging powerhouse. Despite their differences, Berlin and Washington continue to cooperate in their opposition to Beijing. Parallel to the JEFTA agreement, the EU, Japan and the USA have declared that they will jointly take on China more aggressively over trade issues.

China’s First Overseas Military Base Nearing Completion

Chinese military officers bid farewell to members of a Chinese medical contingent as it leaves for West Africa to help in the fight against Ebola from the airport in Beijing, China, Friday, Nov. 14, 2014. China’s first overseas military base should be ready this summer close by the operations hub of U.S. Africa Command in Djibouti. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

 

Marine Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, commander of AfriCom, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that he expected the Chinese base on the Horn of Africa to be operational later this summer.

Without getting specific, Waldhauser said he recently met with Djibouti’s President Ismail Omar Guelleh “and expressed our concerns about some of the things that are important to us about what the Chinese should not do at that location.”

Iran Interested in Free Trade Zone With Eurasian Economic Union

“Iran is interested in the introduction of a free trade regime with the EEU and considers that the establishment of closer ties with the union may become the basis for the development of economic cooperation of Iran with the association’s member countries,” Sanaei told the Gaidar Forum in Moscow.

Iran Planning to Abolish Cash, Introduce Electronic Payment Systems

Iran is planning to give up cash and replace it with an electronic means of payment. The project is to be tested for the first time in a free trade zone in the south of the country.

Iranian Central Bank President Walliollah Sejf told Tasnim news agency on Monday that the plan should be tested first on the island of Kish in southern Iran.

Egypt Reaches Free Trade Agreement With Eurasian Economic Union

CAIRO (Sputnik) — Egypt has reached a free trade zone agreement with the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Sisi said Tuesday at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There was more than $4.5 billion of trade between Russia and Egypt in 2014, a more than 80 percent increase on the year before, said President Putin. Free trade agreement means that the markets of Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Armenia will be more easily accessible for Egyptian products and vice versa.

China Proposing to Establish Free Trade Zone With Eurasian Economic Union

BEIJING, (Sputnik) — China offered to establish a free trade zone with the Eurasian Economic Union in the future, Russian Ambassador to China Andrei Denisov told RIA Novosti.