Showing posts with label WTO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WTO. Show all posts

Sunday, January 18, 2015

Kazakhstan

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24-6-28 Booming Demographics of Kazakhstan - KaiserBauch > .23-1-10 1st anniversary of Elbasy’s ousting. Lessons for Pootin - Katz > .
Commonwealth of Independent States
Political Geography - Kazakhstan - GeoNow > .


Russian-led forces entered Kazakhstan 22-1-6, under the guise of a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) peacekeeping mission. The former Soviet state and significant oil producer has seen several days of sustained public protests turned violent after raising the price of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cannisters, a key local transportation fuel. Although the government reversed its decision to halt fuel subsidies, the move triggered widening protests outside the initial cluster in the resource-rich Mangystau region eventually reaching the largest city, Almaty. Several cabinet officials resigned as protests grew in scope and intensity; many Kazakhs are frustrated by the economic challenges of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, entrenched social inequality, and endemic corruption of the Kazakh state. After protestors stormed the Almaty airport January 5 and set fire to city administration building, Kazakh president Kassym-Jomart Tokayev allowed CSTO forces into the country to help quell unrest. Details are increasingly difficult to come by amidst an internet and media blackout, but security forces have already claimed to have killed dozens of protestors. The challenges facing Tokayev are legion, and easily discerned. What is a little less obvious are the opportunities now present for Moscow. Instability in former Soviet areas is always a delicate balancing act for Russia; protestor grievances in Kazakhstan likely mirror many of those not only in Russia, but throughout states on its periphery. Unrest is typically met with cracked skulls. But Kazakhstan's oil and gas wealth has afforded it more economic independence from Moscow than many of the other Central Asian states. Having Kazakhstan on the ropes and in need of aid--including an open invitation for Russian soldiers that are unlikely to leave after protestors go home--is right where Russia likes its neighbors to be.

Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country mainly located in Central Asia with a smaller portion west of the Ural River in Eastern Europe. It covers a land area of 2,724,900 square kilometres (1,052,100 sq mi), and shares land borders with Russia in the north, China in the east, and KyrgyzstanUzbekistan, and Turkmenistan in the south while also adjoining a large part of the Caspian Sea in the southwest. Kazakhstan does not border Mongolia, although they are only 37 kilometers apart, separated by a short portion of the border between Russia and China.

Kazakhstan is the world's largest landlocked country, and the ninth-largest country in the world. It has a population of 18.8 million residents, and has one of the lowest population densities in the world, at fewer than 6 people per square kilometre (15 people per sq mi). Since 1997, the capital is Nur-Sultan, formerly known as Astana. It was moved from Almaty, the country's largest city.

The territory of Kazakhstan has historically been inhabited by nomadic groups and empires. In antiquity, the nomadic Scythians inhabited the land and the Persian Achaemenid Empire expanded towards the southern territory of the modern country. Turkic nomads, who trace their ancestry to many Turkic states such as the First and Second Turkic Khaganates, have inhabited the country throughout its history. In the 13th century, the territory was subjugated by the Mongol Empire under Genghis Khan. By the 16th century, the Kazakh emerged as a distinct group, divided into three jüz. The Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century, they nominally ruled all of Kazakhstan as part of the Russian Empire. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, and subsequent civil war, the territory of Kazakhstan was reorganised several times. In 1936, it was made the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic, part of the Soviet Union. Kazakhstan was the last of the Soviet republics to declare independence during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. Human rights organisations have described the Kazakh government as authoritarian, and regularly describe Kazakhstan's human rights situation as poor.

Kazakhstan is the most dominant nation of Central Asia economically, generating 60% of the region's GDP, primarily through its oil and gas industry. It also has vast mineral resources, and is officially a democratic, secular, unitary, constitutional republic with a diverse cultural heritage. Kazakhstan is a member of the United Nations (UN), WTOCIS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the Eurasian Economic UnionCSTOOSCEOICCCTS, the Turkic Council and TURKSOY

In early 2022 riots of an unprecedented scale broke out in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Kazakhs decided to bluntly express their dissatisfaction with the regime, while the wave of protests was followed by several events with a major impact on the order in the Central Asian region.
00:00 Intro
00:55 Balancing Autocrat
04:40 Power Struggle
09:18 International Police Force
18:10 Outro

Comment:
This video is interesting because it mentions the realities involving Kazakhstan and getting rid of the western lens of how people in the US and Europe see the world and events. Though one thing I would like to add is even though recently China has become important for investments into Kazakhstan it must be made clear that Kazakhstan along with the rest of central Asia is firmly in Moscow's grip. Russia has military bases in these countries and helps to facilitate the corruption in each of them to maintain it's influence. China doesn't come close to having this influence. Though that doesn't mean in the future they will [not] try to usurp Russia's position in the region

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

WTO - World Trade Organization

2015 World Trade Organization (WTO) > .22-12-6 Biden's Pro-American Present for Europe - PZ > .

The World Trade Organization (WTO) is an intergovernmental organization that regulates and facilitates international trade between nations. It officially commenced operations on 1 January 1995, pursuant to the 1994 Marrakesh Agreement, thus replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) that had been established in 1948. The WTO is the world's largest international economic organization, with 164 member states representing over 96% of global trade and global GDP.

The WTO precursor General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), was established by a multilateral treaty of 23 countries in 1947 after WW2 in the wake of other new multilateral institutions dedicated to international economic cooperation—such as the World Bank (founded 1944) and the International Monetary Fund (founded 1944 or 1945). A comparable international institution for trade, named the International Trade Organization never started as the U.S. and other signatories did not ratify the establishment treaty, and so GATT slowly became a de facto international organization.

The WTO facilitates trade in goods, services and intellectual property among participating countries by providing a framework for negotiating trade agreements, which usually aim to reduce or eliminate tariffs, quotas, and other restrictions; these agreements are signed by representatives of member governments and ratified by their legislatures. The WTO also administers independent dispute resolution for enforcing participants' adherence to trade agreements and resolving trade-related disputes. The organization prohibits discrimination between trading partners, but provides exceptions for environmental protection, national security, and other important goals.

The WTO is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Its top decision making body is the Ministerial Conference, which is composed of all member states and usually convenes biannually; consensus is emphasized in all decisions. Day-to-day functions are handled by the General Council, made up of representatives from all members. A Secretariat of over 600 personnel, led by the Director-General and four deputies, provides administrative, professional, and technical services. The WTO's annual budget is roughly 220 million USD, which is contributed by members based on their proportion of international trade.

Studies show the WTO has boosted trade and reduced trade barriers. It has also influenced trade agreement generally; a 2017 analysis found that the vast majority of preferential trade agreements (PTAs) up to that point explicitly reference the WTO, with substantial portions of text copied from WTO agreements. Goal 10 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals also referenced WTO agreements as instruments of reducing inequality. However, critics contend that the benefits of WTO-facilitated free trade are not shared equally, citing the outcomes of negotiations and data showing a continually widening gap between rich and poor nations.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

15 - Imports, Exports, and Exchange Rates

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Imports, Exports, and Exchange Rates - CrCo > .Could The Whole World Use Just One Currency? - EcEx > .

Devaluation Risks - X ..

a. Net exports - the annual difference between a country's exports and imports
b. Trade surplus - when a country exports more than it imports
c. Trade deficit - when a country imports more than it exports
1) International trade
+ It doesn't make sense to make everything on your own if you can trade with other countries that have a comparative advantage.
- Unsafe and unfair working conditions and environmental degradation.
2) NAFTA, 1994
- Dropped trade barriers between Canada, the US and Mexico.
- Increased US trade deficits. Decreased manufacturing jobs.
- Millions of jobs created. Reduced prices. Net positive impact on 3 countries.
3) Protectionism - Placing high tariffs on imports and limiting the number of foreign goods to protect local businesses. Limited by the WTO or World Trade Organization.
a. Exchange rate - how much your currency is worth when you trade it for another country's currency.
b. Currency appreciation - An increase in the value of one currency in terms of another.
c. Currency depreciation - A decrease in the level of a currency in a floating exchange rate system due to market forces. Foreign imports get more expensive, which makes them fall. Exports to other countries get cheaper, which makes them rise.
d. Floating exchange rates - they change based on supply and demand.
e. Balance of payments - accounting statement that records all International transactions in a country. It's made up of two sub-accounts, the current account and the financial account.
f. Current account - records the sale and purchase of goods and services, investment income earned abroad, and other transfers like donations and foreign aid.
g. Financial account - records the purchase and sale of financial assets like stocks and bonds. There is a reason why the flow of goods and the flow of money are symmetric. If consumers, businesses and the government want to buy more stuff than their country is producing symmetrically, they have to import it. So there's a trade deficit.

sī vīs pācem, parā bellum

igitur quī dēsīderat pācem praeparet bellum    therefore, he who desires peace, let him prepare for war sī vīs pācem, parā bellum if you wan...