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INTRODUCTION

SOLIDAR is a network of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) that are working to improve economic and social rights inside and outside of Europe. On an international level, SOLIDAR is immersed in the process to create the SOLIDAR Network through the Organising International SOLIDARity (OIS) programme, the purpose of which is to strengthen the collaboration between our members and their capacities for greater, more fruitful impact. The OIS programme is strongly focussed on Central America. Specifically, on a national level, our priority countries are Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua.

One goal of the OIS programme is to monitor the progress of economic and social rights in Central America. The current situation with respect to the spread of COVID-19 in Central America has led to greater uncertainty and alarm regarding the impact of the pandemic on the region, which is one of the most polarised in the world. Through the SOLIDAR Network, we have carried out an initial analysis of the measures that are currently being implemented to combat COVID-19 and how these are contributing to the dilapidation of an already fragile social structure, while also putting at risk the achievement of these countries development objectives and of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

In this context, the SOLIDAR Network in Central America calls on their governments, the international community and the EU to redouble their efforts in ensuring the attainment of the SDGs, paying special regards to:

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Impact of COVID-19 on Central America: Analysis and recommendations for the European Union - Costa Rica - ReliefWeb

The decision, which is final and cannot be appealed, is part of a string of long-running disputes between Boeing and Airbus.

GENEVA, Switzerland World Trade Organization arbitrators said Tuesday that the European Union can sanction up to $4 billion in U.S. goods over Washington's illegal support for plane maker Boeing.

The ruling, which could inflame Trump administration criticism of the Geneva-based trade body, amounts to one of the largest penalties handed down by the WTO. It comes a year after another ruling authorized billions in penalties against the European Union over support for Boeing rival Airbus.

The decision, which is final and cannot be appealed, dates back to 2006 and is part of a string of long-running disputes between the two plane-making giants at the Geneva trade body.

The arbitrators were tasked with setting a dollar value in sanctions such as tariffs that the EU could impose a year after the WTOs appellate body found that Boeing had received at least $5 billion in subsidies that were prohibited under international trade rules.

The United States had argued that the illegal support merited no more than $412 million in penalties, while the EU had countered that they deserved some $8 billion. The award in essence was 10 times more than what the U.S. had claimed, and half that the EU wanted.

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Trade body says EU can sanction $4B worth of US goods, including Boeing jets - KING5.com

A European Union flag and a U.K. flag during a special meeting of the European Council on November 25, 2018 in Brussels, Belgium. AFP via Getty Images

The U.K. and the European Union have now entered either their ultimate bluffing session before striking a last-minute compromise on their future relationship, or the inexorable slide toward the no-deal Brexit both sides promised to avoid ever since the 2016 U.K. referendum on the countrys membership.

A summit of EU leaders on Thursday sternly noted that progress on the key issues of interest to the Union [was] still not sufficient for an agreement to be reached, and called on the U.K. to make the necessary moves to make an agreement possible.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson then retorted on Friday that the EU had refused to negotiate seriously, and said that the U.K. would get ready for arrangements with its biggest trade partner that would be more like Australia from January 1 next year, when the so-called transition period of the countrys exit from the union expires.

Translation from the two-day drama: Things go on as usual, albeit with heightened rhetoric and now tighter deadlines.

Read: U.K. will quit talks if no trade deal agreed upon by Oct. 15, Boris Johnson said in September

What mattered in Johnsons BBC interview is what he didnt say: After warning two weeks ago that he would walk away from the long-running trade talks if no progress had been made before the EU summit, Johnson is, in fact, ready to keep talking despite the absence of progress. His intended threat of a no-deal Brexit came with the caveat, repeated three times in the six-minute interview, that it would only happen unless some fundamental change of approach is perceptible on the EU side.

The EU, for its part, had urged the U.K. to keep talking, and instructed its key negotiator Michel Barnier to keep doing what he has been doing for months. And Barnier said indeed that he would be in London next week to do just that, in a meeting with his counterpart, the U.K. Brexit negotiator David Frost.

Read: Ursula von der Leyen self-isolates after mixing with all 27 EU presidents and prime ministers from the bloc

Talking about what? That will be the real question. The no-deal scenario is constantly described by Johnson and other U.K. governments ministers as the Australian option, meaning that the U.K. would simply trade with the EU according to the very basic, and costlier, rules of the World Trade Organization. But that is seemingly ignoring that Australia has a range of other agreements and bilateral deals with the EU which it deems so unsatisfying that it engaged in proper free-trade negotiations with the union two years ago.

Barnier, in any case, is unlikely to come back to London just to talk about the wine trade or the mutual exchange of passenger records topics covered by two of the current EU-Australia agreements.

So the U.K.-EU comprehensive trade treaty that both sides swear they want to conclude will once again depend on whether or not European fishermen will be able to keep trawling in British waters, what kind of guarantees the U.K. will give the EU that it wont engage in a race to the bottom in environmental or social regulations, and what assurances the two sides will provide each other that the disputes will be dealt with in good faith and following strict legality.

Read: U.K. asks consumers to go easy on fish & chips its all about Brexit, but theres a catch

What has been surprising in the last two days is that the official tone set by EU leaders and Johnson was more dramatic than the upbeat noises emanating from the two sides negotiating teams in the preceding days. That suggests that the rhetoric ramp-up is more political than technical, and that a deal might be in sight after all, once everyone has taken the ultimate posture.

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It was billed as the final showdown between the EU and U.K. this is what will happen next - MarketWatch

Though time is quickly running out for a trade pact between the United Kingdom and the European Union in the critical final hours of Brexit divorce talks, both sides will continue to be linked together regardless of what happens, according to a panel of European business executives hosted by Northeastern University.

The U.K. left the EU in January but continued to apply the blocs rules through the end of 2020 as it attempted to hammer out new border agreements. But talkswhich have a deadline of Oct. 15have hit a snag around several key trading issues and it remains to be seen what happens next.

With or without a deal, the EU is the most important export destination, the most important trading partner for the U.K., said Sara Hewin, chief economist at investment banking giant Standard Chartered, speaking on a live teleconference from London.

The U.K. is an important trading partner for the EU, so no matter what happens with the Brexit talks, the two sides are closely linked together, she said.

Joseph E. Aoun, president of Northeastern, kicked off the panel by noting that the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the international community to grapple with a range of issues that were unforeseen at the start of the year.

We are living in a new situation for all of us, whether we are in Asia, in Europe, in Africa, in the Middle East, in Australia, or in the United States, or in the Americas. Obviously, everybody is looking at the impact of COVID-19 on on our everyday lives, but also on how we interact with other people, on our businesses, our communications, and our travels, he said.

Oct. 15, which also coincides with an EU summit in Brussels, was supposed to be the line in the sand for striking a deal. An arrangement by that date would still have left enough time in the rest of 2020 for the legal and bureaucratic details to be worked out and for the treaty to be drawn up, Hewin said.

Negotiations between U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, slated for the evening of Oct. 14, may smooth out some of the remaining hurdles, which include state aid, trade with Northern Ireland, and sovereignty over fishing waters, panelists said.

More precisely, the EU is keen on the U.K. not turning into an aggressive competitor, Hewin explained. There are state aid rules in the European Union that prevent governments from giving an unfair advantage to certain businesses through financial support. Meanwhile, the pressing issue with fisheries is that while they are a small part of the U.K.s economy, they are a significant sector politically.

The U.K. wants to gain sovereignty over fishing waters, but the EU wants to have certainty that fishermen from France, Belgium, and the Netherlands will have access to U.K. waters, and they dont want this to be negotiated on an annual basis, said Hewin.

Solidarity will be key to moving the broader, post-pandemic European economy forward, added Doris Honold, who worked in corporate banking in Europe and Asia before taking a fellowship with Harvard Universitys Advanced Leadership Initiative.

She and other panelists also discussed the effect of the coronavirus on other aspects of the European economy.

I think the economic outlook for Europe, like for most of the rest of the world other than China, is grim, Honold said from Germany. Forecasts call for a K-shaped recovery in which certain sectors of the economy recover more quickly and have an upward trajectory while other sectors lag behind, causing a downward slide, she said.

The clear shift from consuming services to consuming goods means that goods-producing sectors are thriving while service-oriented industries like restaurants and travel industries are hurting. The situation will not change until the global pandemic ends, and Honold said forecasts dont predict a recovery until 2022.

Any success over the pandemic is only temporary unless its beaten everywhere, which requires more global collaboration across Europe and also across the world, Honold said. I think Germany always showed solidarity with its neighbors and will do so in the future.

Over in France, where Philippe dOrnano runs the high-end cosmetics firm Sisley, the coronavirus financially impacted the family business. The initial hits to the business came from China before moving to other Asian countries, Europe, the United States and the Middle East, dOrnano said. Still, the companys digital business helped offset some losses.

The pandemic had a severe impact in March and April before Sisley started to recover in May, dOrnano said.

Being a mid-sized company was an advantage, dOrnano said, in that it allowed the business to keep factories open despite some employees working from home, while bigger companies shut everything down.

Prime Minister Jean Castex has warned that France could face further restrictions, including a lockdown, as the nation faces a strong second wave of new infections.

Several large cities, including Paris and Marseille, were recently placed under maximum virus alert. While local governments have objected, bars and other public establishments will be closed in high-infection areas. The prime minister has called on French residents to limit private gatherings in their homes to limit the viruss spread.

I think the real question will be whether we can go forward or whether were going to be confined again, dOrnano said. The uncertainty surrounding the pandemic has caused people and companies to hold the line on spending, crimping the economy, he added.

The virtual panel discussion was sponsored by Northeasterns Young Global Leaders program and hosted by graduates Emilio Botin and Alia Malik. Prior discussions have focused on climate change, Africa, and Latin America.

For media inquiries, please contact media@northeastern.edu.

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What happens to Europe if a Brexit trade deal isn't reached? - News@Northeastern

In March, New Delhi hosted a virtual conference of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation leaders on the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and also proposed the creation of an emergency response fund. It was seen by many observers as a sign of new life in the regional cooperation project in South Asia, after years of inertia. However, within six months, ground realities have once again revealed the limitations of cooperation in the region.

Since its formation, the SAARC has remained a textbook example of the challenges of regional cooperation. While the hostile India-Pakistan bilateral relationship has been frequently cited for this failure, inherent structural challenges, including glaring geographic and demographic inequalities in terms of size and strengths of countries in the region, limiting the scope of wider cooperation needs to be acknowledged.

While many of the arguments rely on trade as an incentive for regional cooperation, they often ignore the necessary compatibilities for successful trade transactions. Unlike the European Union and Association of Southeast Asian Nations, countries in South Asia are relatively less industrialised and as a result, intra-regional trade is primarily either agri-commodities or relatively lower valued manufactured goods.

Stronger and sustainable trading relationship primarily depends on the essential element of complementarities of demand and supply, which lacks in case of SAARC and that dampens the potential for trade in the region.

While not discounting a case for easing of tariff and non-tariff barriers in the region, lower trade compatibility is a glaring reality and a primary reason for the dismal intra-regional trade, despite the cost benefit offered by proximity. Unless the economies in the region mature with an increased focus on exports of value-added goods and services, the possibility of booming intra-regional trade is distant.

Further, the history of conflicts and disputes in the region have only reinforced mutual mistrust and often hindered cooperation in multilateral forums. While India is wary of growing external influence in the region, the others are driven by their perception of the fear of Indian hegemony.

Despite a long history of shared culture and New Delhi being land-locked Nepals long-trusted and largest trading partner, Kathmandus recent territorial claims and revitalised boundary dispute is illustrative of increasingly fragile bilateral relationships.

In South Asian context trade has served neither as an effective deterrent to conflicts nor a useful incentive for more cooperation. Rather, it is seen as a potential vulnerability. For example, many in India are sceptical of ambitious but long-delayed TurkmenistanAfghanistanPakistanIndia gas pipeline project for natural gas sourcing from Turkmenistan, despite its importance in diversifying energy sourcing and enhancing energy security, as it could be a crucial vulnerability in the region where the relations are already stressed.

And as a pragmatic choice, countries find reduced regional or neighbourhood dependence as a preferred alternative for safeguarding long-term national interests.

In sync with ground realities, the project of regional cooperation in South Asia is poised to remain limited to often delayed and cancelled bi-annual summits and platitudes from government functionaries without any serious actual impact. And the steam of on paper potential for intra-regional trade is running out to fuel this project.

The author is an Academic Associate at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

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Why SAARC has not been able to replicate the success of the European Union or ASEAN - Scroll.in