Trade Agreement Re-evaluation Commission

[Kaine for Senate '18]

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The members are myself, Joyce, and Nix.  Let us begin!

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I nominate Secretary Joyce.

[Donerail]

Signing in and accepting the nomination by unanimous consent.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

So, we have a little under a month to present a report.  Let's get cracking, Joyce!

[Donerail]

Bump. I should probably get on this.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

If I don't get this on time, I can just say that all of you are so thoroughly screwed.... starts laughing maniacally 

[Donerail]

Currently we have FTAs with the following:

Republic of Costa Rica
Republic of El Salvador
Republic of Guatemala
Republic of Honduras
Nicaragua
Dominican Republic
Canada
Mexico
Colombia
Suriname
Brazil
Ecuador
Peru
Paraguay
Uruguay
Argentina
Chile
Angiulla
Aruba
British Virgin Islands
Cayman Islands
Haiti
Montserrat
Netherland Antilles
Australia
Israel
New Zealand
Thailand
Jordan
Switzerland
South Africa
Philippines
Iraq
Japan
South Korea
European Union member-states
Norway
Turkey
Iceland

Under the Omnibus Trade Reorganization Act; that act also did not repeal our free trade agreement with India.

[Donerail]

And here is my proposed free trade arrangements, based on trading with developed nations:

Free Trade With Europe: Norway, the European Union, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Iceland, Andorra, Croatia, San Marino, the Faroe Islands [part of Denmark but not the EU], the Holy See, Monaco, the Channel Islands [part of the UK but not the EU], Russia, and the Isle of Man [same situation as the Channel Islands].

Free Trade With Asia: Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Singapore, Brunei, Taiwan, French Polynesia, and New Caledonia.

Free Trade With the Middle East: Israel, Turkey, and the current members of the GCC.

Free Trade With Africa: The Southern African Customs Union, Equatorial Guinea [has a developed economy but not a great place politically; unsure on this], and Mayotte.

Free Trade With the Americas: Canada, Chile, Argentina, Barbados, Bermuda, Mexico, Aruba, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Curacao, Greenland, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Martin, Sint Maarten, the Caribbean Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks & Caicos Islands, and Antigua & Barbuda.

Not quite sure what to do with the Commonwealth of Independent States.

So we'd need Atlasia-EU, Atlasia-EFTA, Atlasia-Croatia, Atlasia-European microstates, Atlasia-Russia (or Atlasia-CIS), Atlasia-Denmark, Atlasia-Netherlands, Atlasia-UK, Atlasia-France, Atlasia-Australia, Atlasia-NZ, Atlasia-Japan, Atlasia-Chinese SARs, Atlasia-South Korea, Atlasia-Singapore, Atlasia-Brunei, Atlasia-'Taiwan Province of China', Atlasia-GCC, Atlasia-Israel, Atlasia-Turkey, Atlasia-SACU, Atlasia-Equatorial Guinea, Atlasia-Canada, Atlasia-Chile, Atlasia-Argentina, Atlasia-Barbados, Atlasia-Mexico, Atlasia-Saint Kitts & Nevis, Atlasia-Trinidad & Tobago, and Atlasia-Antigua & Barbuda.

[Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee]

Starts to sharpen my knives


Ben? Nix? Where are you?

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Just looking things over, Yank.  I have no problems with what Joyce proposed.

[Donerail]

Okay, here's the Europe map. Light blue are members of the EU and dark blue are members of EFTA; red are not members of either.

Breakdown: The European Union, EFTA, and the following non-members: Andorra, the former Yugoslavia (Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia) excluding Kosovo (due to issues regarding political rights and civil liberties), Turkey, Georgia, Moldova, San Marino, Ukraine, and the Vatican City.

San Marino is included because we are on excellent terms and San Marino is supportive of Atlasian foreign policy positions, such as in the UN. Monaco is also on excellent terms with Atlasia. We recently signed a legal assistance treaty with Liechtenstein to combat money laundering and illegal banking. The economic impacts of free trade with the nations would not be great, but they are friends of Atlasia and free nations and do not need to be unnecessarily discriminated against.

A trade agreement with the Holy See would serve no purpose; it's been changed to Vatican City. It would mean no tariffs on Vatican products (printed goods, coins/stamps and other collectables, and mosaics).

[Donerail]

And the proposed trade with Africa, striking those Nix objected to and adding several more.

Northern Africa: Libya, Tunisia
Western Africa: Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Benin, Cape Verde, Ghana
Central Africa: São Tomé and Príncipe
Eastern Africa: Zambia, Tanzania, Comoros, Malawi, Mauritius, Seychelles
Southern Africa: South Africa, Lesotho, Namibia, Botswana

[Donerail]

And Asia...



In the Middle East, that's Turkey, Georgia, Israel (excluding settlement goods), and Cyprus.

In Southern Asia, it's India and Bangladesh.

In the Pacific, it's Indonesia, East Timor, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines, Mongolia, and Taiwan.

[Donerail]

And the Americas (blue means territory of Europe and addressed in the Europe map, while red means trading partner and green means Atlasia).

Lesser Antilles: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.
Other Caribbean: Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Jamaica.
South America: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname.
North/Central America: Belize, Canada, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Panama, Uruguay.

[Donerail]

And Oceania (this is also an illustration of a possible Trans-Pacific Partnership; nations in blue are covered in other maps, while nations in red are trade partners; Atlasia is in green).

Nations: Australia, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

[Donerail]

Great work, Sjoyce. Now that I've done some additional reasearch, I'm fine with all of the agreements that you outline other than Monaco.

On Monaco: in my view, bilateral agreements are far more likely to reduce the potential for abuse of the system than refusing free trade; a tax information exchange agreement of some kind to exchange tax-related information to promote greater transparency would, in my mind, be a better solution than not having free trade (with a nation that's part of the EU market and is in a customs union with France, so I'm not certain to what extent we could impact our already-modest trade).

[Kaine for Senate '18]

I'm content with the proposed changes.

[Donerail]

Unless Nix wants to discuss more about Monégasque economics (always a fascinating topic ), I'll open a vote on affirming the new trade suggestions later tonight. After that, we can move on to foreign aid.

[Donerail]

A vote is now open on whether or not to recommend to the Senate the free trade proposals presented above (excluding Europe since there's still discussion on that). Please vote Aye, Nay, or Abstain on each.


Africa: Aye
Asia: Aye
Americas: Aye
Oceania: Aye

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Africa: Aye
Asia: Aye
Americas: Aye
Oceania: Aye

[Donerail]

Those 4 pass. A vote is now open on the European proposal.

Europe: Aye.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Aye

[Donerail]

All the trade agreement proposals pass. We will now move on to considering foreign aid disbursements.

[Kaine for Senate '18]

Joyce?  What's the status of our aid to Egypt?

[Donerail]

The current foreign aid budget is $18 billion, with $15 billion allotted for international development and humanitarian assistance and $3 billion to international military aid. There is also $5 billion for 'conduct of foreign affairs' and $1.15 billion for 'foreign information and exchange activities.'

International affairs ($24.15 billion)               
$15.00 billion ...... International development and humanitarian assistance               
$3.0 billion ...... International military aid               
$5.0 billion ...... Conduct of foreign affairs               
$1.15 billion ...... Foreign information and exchange activities               

Under the Foreign Aid Clarification Act the SoEA (SoS now) is supposed to provide a report saying how much is going where; I can't seem to find it.