US- Russia international trade policy FROM A RUSSIA PERSPECTIVE

Good afternoon,

Welcome to another podcast under the scope of Ariane Brito Analysis.

Today, during Part 1 of this podcast we are  analysing Senator Rob Portman and Senator  Chris Coons live discussion on  the US trade policy from a Russian perspective and during Part 2 Who will win the trade wars and our roles in the war.

Senator Chris Coons has been at the front line of actions of support to Ukraine since the first days of invasion by Russia. Last month, in the capacity of  Chairman of SPOOFS he created and sent for President Biden approval a  $39 billion aid package to Ukraine, he speaks at every opportunity to the press and international community on how Ukraine is about to become the next Syria , forgotten and ignored by the international community and several times appealed  for his colleagues to discuss how the US can send troops to Ukraine.

Senator Rob Portman, Co-chair of the Ukraine Caucasus, works in close liaison with Ukrainian politicians and Ukrainian Americans in bringing the Ukraine security and sovereign integrity to the legislative debate from a humanitarian perspective from which he appeals for an American stance of guaranteeing the Ukrainians lives as a way of guaranteeing international security and democratic rule across the globe.

With a unique foresight, this Republican was one of seven US Senators to have travelled early mid January to Ukraine to offer assistance in case Russia was to invade.

This bipartisan effort is much in the style of both Senator Rob Portman( Republican) and Senator Chris Coons ( Democrat), who today discuss the US Trade policy at the Bipartisan Policy centre, from a privileged view of the Trade Preservation Act they are apologetically pushing to move forward in the international arena.

They are equally enthusiastic about an Act also popular in the UK, the Bipartisan Trading Systems Preservation Act.

But my question is, 'How tech and trade interests safeguard American trade international success if the WTO points system is in place when today piracy and illegal trade is winning the war?'.  These two senators are quite confident that their bipartisan efforts will produce fruitful fruits for present and future American trade policies, guaranteeing therefore that the individual trading is at the centre of fruitful successes of American trade.

Back in 2006, Senator Portman  successfully pushed and executed the Top-to-bottom review of US-China trade review, pushing for a China more accountable under the WTO rules, and this year , just like in 2013, he wrote to the European Commission highlighting his concerns of how Europe needs to pair the needles with the US, so countries like China are working by WTO rules and not breaking the rules at every opportunity like by not enforcing western intellectual property rights.

Half time into the senators discussion on American Trade Policy, and the Bipartisan Policy Centre has not mentioned Russia yet. However, earlier today, the WTO Ministerial Commission published a statement warning Russia to stop military actions against Ukraine:

"Together, we insist that the Russian Federation must urgently stop its military aggression against Ukraine and immediately withdraw its troops. We are firmly convinced that the Russian Federation must be held accountable and must cease its actions, which undermine global peace, security and international law.

We will continue to take actions, as WTO Members, that we each consider necessary to protect our essential security interests, and we will continue to impress upon the Russian Federation the urgent need for it to live up to its responsibility to restore and maintain international peace and security".

In WTO Ministerial Conference: Joint Statement on Russian aggression against Ukraine - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)  , accessed 17th of June 2022, 16:34

This statement is not the first action taken against Russia, as a matter of fact, in April 2022, the European Union  suspended Russia's MFN ( Most Favoured Nation ) status , coincidentally, in the same period when President Biden signed the law HR 6968, ' Ending Importation of Russia Oil Act', and HR7108 ' Suspending Normal Trade Relations with Russia and Belarus act' .

It's 16:44 in the UK and the conversation just ended, living me with the vacuum to fill on why Russia was ignored from the conversation when today was given such a centre stage in achieving  condemnation by the WTO Ministerial Conference.  

Perhaps this is it, and WTO is fully recovered from the 2001 terrorist attack and from the trauma of physical building reconstruction when now we are facing legal reconstruction efforts by these two senators , who put their political differences aside to attempt to preserve the tariff points system and other classic rules of the WTO.

Ariane Brito 

Senator Rob Portman and Senator Chris Coons live discussion on the US trade policy from a Russian perspective. Part 2

Russia for Americans means more than the vodka sold all over the country 'Russia standards”' means also an enemy built in the opposite side of the spectrum of the American Dream image: the Russian communist who passively won the Cold war while aggressively taking over one by one of American interests abroad while making America’s enemies their best friends.

If Americans once slept uneasy nights with premonitions of a future Russia conquering the world that was once devoted to America, now that American values are put in question all over the world, Americans wake up to a nightmare of not having quite planned how the Russian standard for international trade is now based on running away from direct confrontation while inciting America and allies to come to the other side of Europe – that side where wars never end well- to guarantee the safety and national integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine.

This month, more than ever, will be all about public display of force, peacocks’ style, with feathers of all national flags backing the American message to the world: that Russia’s time is up.

If we are to take this peacock display as arrogance or isolation, we are taken by the uneasiness with which we must contemplate the other option in the cards: that Russia is really bad, and the world is really heading for World War 3 as all the feathers are in this wings together for better winds of change.

On Russia side, the messenger for peace is not a Russian white dove, because Ukraine is not seeing such on sight, nor a Cape Petrel, because Russia colonisers or oligarchs are now sanctioned and barred from most prominent American banks; rather , the Russian peace messenger flies at 4.1 km/s and though radiates luminosity is not the kind to fall in love for, is the nuclear luminosity that will blast our cities but also our understanding as to why Russia and the US lead us to such a dead end of bad trade deals that now are officially at record high of trade deficit for understanding, partnership and basic common sense.

Back in 2019 when US and Russia relationships were at a all-time low because of mutual recriminations regarding Libya ruthless dictator Gadhafi, and Syria Assad versus Isis, both Russian and American concerned exporters put a series of actions with the goal of bringing those countries together, being the Russian American Business Council, a perfect example of dual nationalities concerted effort for a positive outcome of a vicious crisis.

The Russian American Business Council believed back in 2019 that the focus of attention for a positive outcome was to start by looking at how both countries depended of each other for trade and how Russia wanted to avoid sanctions in sectors like the aluminium with high import volumes on the part of America, however, now in 2022, there is a passive acceptance that sanctions against Russia are here to stay and its business council need assurance by both parts, US and Russia Governments on how business owners can navigate both systems , now not viewing their interdependency for a solution to any conflict but to avoid financial losses and progress in America and Russia transitions to green gas and oil, without making the waters between both countries murky with attempts on how to make whatever is forever broken work as a partnership.

Members of the Russian American Council can opt for Russian or English versions of the site, for informative talks with high representatives of both Russia and America about sanctions, frozen assets, suspended trade, future taxes to discourage American businesses from taking Russian products, but can’t opt out of what is here to stay as radioactive Chernobyl nuclear plant: a vodka that is no longer available in American shelves and a McDonalds no longer available in Russian streets.

So now, that trade is what is yours is yours and what is mine is mine, we progress for that type of trade , which when is competitive trade resembles the baseline reason for the beginning of world war 1, which when is expansionist territorial trade resembles the beginning of world war 2, which when is ideological expansionist territorial trade resembles the beginning of the Cold war and when is financial expansionist trade based on environmental policies resembles the beginning of World War 3 , but this time, on our screens only as we go to sleep with good time stories, where we are always the good guys and we wake up with awakening calls of people somewhere in a Washington parade or a London square burning American and British flags in the name of anti-capitalist movements pro social justice, and then we see…

Protests, riots, movements being financed by Russia and China labelling themselves as the Black Lives Matter and influencing American elections and we realise that Russian meddling with elections are really a fancy way of saying that the little Russian lives not just among us but in all of us, for as long as we trade privileges for unprivileged views of the very unprivileged who championed the most vibrant labour movements of Europe.

There is no other way to put it, we are sentenced by guilty verdict by the mainstream western media that if we are pro social justice we are traitors, communists and most likely Russia intelligence, but we need a space between America and Russia trade wars and this place we will only find when Ukraine is at the centre of a much traded concept of justice and injustice, moral or immorality where we in the west are always the aggressor and Russia in the East is always the social justice causes saviour and protector : But will we concede or be played into a check mate where we doubt our values for peace and security ?

This is the type of trade that depends of a peace messenger that we use to silence our inner voices that we cannot be guilty of being pro social justice because Russia has nuclear bombs and poverty within us never really dies, only grows and takes us all with it : even the poverty of spirit that even when facing nuclear  iridescence missiles down the skies towards us, we can’t see above, nor below, what crashes us from within: un-tradable positions of safety for us and ours – so yes, Russia wins the trade war and America loses with a deficit created by default.

Ariane Brito