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The coronavirus is on the cusp of having killed at least 5 million people since it first emerged in Wuhan, China, in late 2019, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

Nearly a quarter billion cases of the coronavirus have been reported. Despite the rollout of vaccines, global health experts warn that the pandemic is set to continue.

“With almost 50,000 deaths a week, the pandemic is far from over – and that’s just the reported deaths,” World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at the World Health Summit in Berlin on Oct. 24.

Vaccines have blunted the worst impact of the pandemic in many countries, though their distribution has been marked by inequities that has meant they have not stopped the virus’s spread.

China leads the world in the number of vaccine doses administered, though some other nations have vaccinated a greater share of their population. A number of vaccines were developed and rolled out at record speed, and studies show most have impressive efficacy.

Billions of doses have been administered around the world, far more than the number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic – though a large number of cases were probably never recorded, experts caution.

But the vaccine rollout has faced problems with global supply and pockets of opposition in many nations. Covax, a program backed by the World Health Organization to fairly distribute vaccines, only belatedly began distributing doses to low-income nations.

“I can’t say it’s surprising,” said Thomas J. Bollyky, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, earlier this year. “In every previous pandemic where we have our global health crisis, where there has been limited supplies of medical intervention, wealthy nations have hoarded.”

The United States continues to have the highest cumulative number of confirmed cases and deaths globally. In early October, the U.S. death toll from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, surpassed 700,000, despite the widespread availability of vaccines in the country.

Behind the United States, Brazil, India, Mexico and Russia have the largest cumulative numbers of cases.

India’s record-setting surge in spring 2021 meant that the country accounted then for about 1 in 3 of all new confirmed cases. The spike, which was blamed on complacency and the lifting of restrictions, along with the spread of variants, saw the country’s health-care system overwhelmed amid widespread oxygen shortages. Even after the surge in new cases subsided in mid-May, India still set records for the number of new daily deaths, with more than 4,500 deaths from covid-19 reported in a single 24-hour period.

In India, as in Britain and Brazil before it, the spread of the virus was blamed on fast-spreading variants rampant in the country, including the delta variant that was first identified in India.

Delta, also known as B.1.617.2, has become the dominant variant in many parts of the world. The variant is more virulent than many others and studies have shown that vaccines do not provide the same levels of protection against it, though they do still significantly reduce the likelihood of serious illness.

Some countries have seen success at controlling the virus – at a price.

In New Zealand, which closed its borders and ordered people to stay home as a first wave hit in the spring of 2020, confirmed that infections went down to zero for a time. Taiwan and Singapore have kept their outbreaks far smaller than those in other parts of the world, which some experts attribute to their early responses and sophisticated tracking and tracing.

China, the early epicenter of the crisis, has seen much of daily life return to normal. In the early months of the outbreak, it reported more cases than any other country. Its tally of new infections peaked in mid-February of 2020 and approached zero by mid-March of that year, although questions surround the accuracy of its data.

But maintaining these “zero covid” policies for almost two years has proved difficult. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said this month that the country would phase out its pursuit of zero coronavirus cases and instead manage the spread of the virus through vaccines and “everyday public health measures” to keep residents safe.

“The Chinese government is keeping a close eye on what is happening overseas to work out whether giving up a ‘zero covid’ policy requires accepting a spike in cases,” Huang Yanzhong, a senior fellow for global public health at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Washington Post in October. “That prospect is not acceptable for China.”

Countries that have successfully rolled out vaccines are also seeing gains. Britain, one of the hardest-hit countries in terms of cases and deaths, has excelled in the distribution of vaccine doses. It was the first country to roll out a fully tested vaccine to the general public in December, when it began distributing the vaccine developed by Pfizer.

Data released by Public Health England in March suggested that vaccinations had saved over 6,000 lives among people over 70, if not more.

But vaccinations have not ended the pandemic in Britain. Cases have risen since the country dropped its last remaining restrictions in July, despite high levels of vaccination across the country. Some scientists have suggested waning immunity from doses administered in the spring.

Though the WHO has officially called for a moratorium on “booster” shots for those already fully vaccinated, many nations around the world have begun rolling out the shots as official policy for at least part of their population – including the United States.

The new demand from high-income countries for both booster shots and vaccines for children has furthered the competition for doses, often leaving low- and middle-income nations further down the line. The WHO-backed Covax effort has struggled with supply and funding issues.

Only five African countries out of 54 are expected to hit the target of vaccinating 40 percent of their population by the end of the year, according to data from the WHO. Experts say the spread of the virus in countries with little protection from vaccines could lead to more variants and prolong the pandemic.

“Vaccine inequity is not just holding the poorest countries back – it is holding the world back,” Henrietta Fore, executive director of UNICEF, said in a statement released Oct. 27.

Published : November 01, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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The Food and Drug Administration is delaying a decision on whether to make Modernas coronavirus vaccine available to adolescents because the agency needs more time to evaluate if the shot increases the risk of a rare cardiac side effect, the company said Sunday.

Moderna, a Cambridge, Mass., biotechnology company, said in a news release that the FDA indicated it will take until at least January to complete the review of Moderna’s application for use in 12- to 17-year- olds. The agency told the vaccine maker Friday evening it needed more time to analyze emerging international data on the risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle that in rare instances occurs after vaccination.

The agency’s action comes after several countries, including Japan and Nordic nations, raised concerns that the Moderna vaccine increases the risk of myocarditis in men 18 to 30 years old. In Finland and Sweden, authorities have recommended against the use of Moderna for men younger than 30.

Moderna asked the FDA in June to authorize its vaccine for adolescents. The shot is authorized for people 18 and older. The proposed vaccine regimen for adolescents is the same as that for adults – two 100-microgram shots, given 28 days apart.

The company also said Sunday it will delay asking the FDA for authorization of its vaccine for children 6 to 11 years old. That age group would receive two shots of a half dose of 50 micrograms.

The Moderna delays are occurring as Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, make rapid inroads with their vaccine into younger age groups.

The FDA last spring authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for adolescents 12 to 15 years old. And on Friday, the agency cleared the vaccine for children 5 to 11, administered in two shots of 10 micrograms. That dose is one-third the adolescent and adult dose. The vaccine is expected to be available for younger children this week, following a review by immunization advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and likely recommendation by CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.

In its statement, Moderna said “the safety of vaccine recipients is of paramount importance” and that it is working closely with the FDA.

The Washington Post reported in August that Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine for adolescents had been delayed. Federal health officials were scrutinizing reports that the shot might be associated with a higher risk of myocarditis in young men than the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to two people familiar with the review at the time who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the situation.

Federal officials concluded at that time that there was not a problem. But soon afterward, several Nordic countries said new information on the myocarditis rate in Moderna recipients was raising concerns, prompting the FDA to take another look, The Wall Street Journal reported recently. The Nordic data has not been publicly released.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines have been linked to an increased risk of myocarditis among young men after the second shot. Federal officials and physicians have said the vaccine-induced myocarditis tends to be mild and easily treated – and that covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, can cause much more severe myocarditis and other serious problems.

The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines use the same technological platform, known as messenger RNA.

Data from the United States on whether the myocarditis incidence in Moderna is higher than with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has been mixed, with one data set showing a higher risk and other data not showing an increased risk.

Moderna said more than 1.5 million adolescents have received its coronavirus vaccine worldwide and that its global safety database does not suggest an increased risk of myocarditis in that age group. It added that it does not yet have access to data from some recent international analyses.

Published : November 01, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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LONDON – A group of LGBTQ Afghans who fled their home country have arrived in Britain, the first in a wave that London has said it will evacuate, as advocates warn they have received calls from hundreds more people who fear being persecuted for their sexual orientation and gender identity after the Taliban takeover.

The 29 people, including students and activists who spoke out about their rights in Afghanistan, are the first of many more vulnerable LGBTQ Afghans that will arrive “in the coming months,” the Foreign Office said Saturday. It did not detail how they managed to leave.

The refugees landed Friday, just as a Taliban ministry official, appealing for the release of billions of dollars of central bank reserves, emphasized again that the Islamist militants did not recognize gay rights.

A spokesman for the finance ministry told Reuters that the Taliban would respect human rights and allow women to go to school within their harsh version of Islamic law, but added: “LGBT . . . That’s against our Sharia law.”

Afghanistan’s new leaders, who seized control in August, want foreign governments to “just give us our money” as the country grapples with a battered economy and rising hunger, he said.

While some aid has trickled in, the United Nations warns the country is on the verge of a starvation crisis. Experts also say untangling terrorism sanctions on the militant group which limit aid, many enshrined in U.N. resolutions, will be tricky.

The United States and European nations have frozen key sources of funding, wary of Taliban promises that it has changed. During its last reign in power, from 1996 to 2001, those who broke the rules, not least women and gay men, faced execution.

In a massive military evacuation – marked by violence and harrowing images – U.S. troops, British forces and their allies airlifted more than 100,000 people, though they acknowledged that many other vulnerable Afghans did not make it out.

Afghans worried about reprisal for working with Western forces or for their human-rights work scrambled to escape as the evacuation ended with the withdrawal of U.S. forces after 20 years of war. Those left behind include people who identify as LGBT and said they went into hiding, fearing they could be killed in a country where some had already felt unwelcome.

Friday’s new evacuees join 1,300 British and Afghan nationals whom the British government said it helped leave since the evacuation ended in late August.

Rainbow Railroad, a Canadian LGBTQ charity that helped organize the escape along with British rights group Stonewall, said it had fielded more than 700 requests for help and identified at least 200 people who need immediate rescue from Afghanistan. It also called on the Canadian and U.S. governments to step in to help airlift more people out.

“These 29 people faced grave and immediate threats to their lives because they are LGBTQI+ . . . They will begin to resettle and rebuild their lives in the country,” it said. “However, it is only the beginning.”

Published : October 31, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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MOSCOW – A routine medical checkup in mid-September nearly cost Alexander Ivanov his life. The clinic was packed with people, almost no one wearing masks.

“Or distancing,” he said – a common sight in Russian public spaces and on transport. “I even told some of the people that they should be wearing masks, but people didn’t care.”

Three days later he fell ill with the coronavirus and wound up in intensive care in Yekaterinburg, in Russia’s Urals region. The 47-year-old resident – who was not vaccinated – watched other patients dying, thinking he was next.

Russia’s catastrophic “fourth wave” is a cautionary tale for a failing vaccination campaign, showing the difficulties in correcting course after the government’s confused, on-off messaging about covid-19.

Russia’s pandemic measures began with a strict lockdown in early 2020 and dropped before a crucial July 2020 vote on constitutional changes. This summer, Moscow brought in QR codes to prove vaccine status to enter bars, restaurants and cafes, but the unpopular measure was abandoned after a few weeks.

Some analysts say Russians’ distrust of authorities and skepticism of doctors – going back to Soviet times – helps explain the country’s vaccine reticence. Others blame anti-vaccine activists and rampant disinformation on social media.

But the result leaves Russia as a pandemic hot spot, while countries with higher vaccination rates are lifting restrictions.

Almost daily, a grim record of Russian deaths is marked: more than 1,100 a day, according to official figures. That is still understated, many independent analysts say. Hospitals are struggling and small business owners are angered by the reimposition of restrictions, including a partial lockdown from Thursday.

As authorities played down the crisis before September parliamentary elections, Russia’s vaccination rate hovered among the lowest globally. In recent weeks, officials have ramped up warnings about the coronavirus and the need for vaccines.

Russia’s Ministry of Health says it has fully vaccinated 8 million Russians since Oct. 14, bringing the current total to 50.9 million, or about 35 percent of the population. That compares to 74% in Canada, 72% in Japan, 68% in France, 67% in Britain, 66% in Germany and 57% in the United States, according to the Britain-based Global Change Data Lab.

Ivanov is not against the vaccine, but his attitude illustrates how the government failed to convince even those not opposed to vaccines. A retired policeman who spends a lot of time with his dogs and chickens at his small farm outside Yekaterinburg, he didn’t think the jab was necessary.

“I was planning to do it, but I just thought tomorrow. And tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. I just didn’t get around to it,” said Ivanov. “I didn’t take this virus seriously at all. I thought it was like the flu, not dangerous at all. I was not afraid.”

In intensive care for several weeks, his only contact with the outside world was a doctor who reported his condition to his family and read them notes he wrote.

“So I wrote, ‘Don’t worry, I’m OK.’ But of course I was thinking I could die, especially when I saw people around me dying,” Ivanov said.

Vlad Nesterov – father-in-law of Ivanov’s daughter – had similar views about getting the virus. He also fell sick in late September, along with his family and almost everyone in the office where he worked.

Nesterov, a journalist, thinks he picked it up at an office birthday party. There was plenty of vodka and toasts and many guests later came down with covid-19.

“I’m not against the vaccine. It’s just that I thought that Jesus Christ would help me, and whatever should happen would happen,” said Nesterov. He spent four weeks battling the coronavirus at home, ill and constantly exhausted.

St. Petersburg doctor Lev Averbakh feels as is if he is wading against a tide of ignorance, apathy and disinformation. “I am so sick and tired of explaining to people what this virus is about and why they need to be vaccinated. This resistance from the population is huge,” he said in an interview.

Another doctor, Sergei, working in the “red zone” – or the coronavirus treatment unit – at a regional hospital, no longer feels much compassion for unvaccinated patients. He just thinks about the generous red zone bonus payments that means he earns double his normal pay.

“But we covid doctors are very cynical now, because of these covid payments. For us, covid is good, as awful as that might sound,” said the doctor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisals. “For us, the worse the covid situation is the better,” he saidreferring to doctors’ bonuses.

Afew months ago, he asked every one of 120 coronavirus patients under his direct care if they had been vaccinated. All said no, citing vague reasons such as “side effects or genetic problems,” he said.

His 200-bed hospital was ordered to add 70 extra beds when the disease peaked.

“And there was no space to put beds. We had to stick beds in the corridors, in the operating theaters, anywhere we could find a space,” said the doctor. Patients without coronavirus-related illnesses were sent home prematurely, he said, only to return soon after, sicker than ever.

With cases hitting record highs, hospitals across Russia are under similar intense pressures.

One person in Siberia took drastic action: he bought PPE gear, disguised himself as a nurse and snuck into the “red zone” at Tomsk Medical Sanitary Unit No. 2 to check on his 80-year-old grandmother.

Identifying himself only as Sergei, he videoed himself pulling on a white protective suit, surgical gloves, blue goggles and a mask, and walking up the hospital’s interior stairs.

“Grandma, hi. Quiet, quiet,” he said, approaching her bed, recording multiple black bruises on her arms and discovering that her diaper had not been changed and pressure sores had not been bandaged. The video was aired Wednesday on Tomsk independent television TV2.

He spent nearly nine and a half hours in the hospital the first day and returned a day later to find her unwashed, lying again in a dirty diaper, he said. On day three, a doctor confronted him and he fled.

Antonina Stoilova, head of therapeutics at the hospital, said all patients are properly cared for, TV2 reported.

Russian authorities have ordered a partial lockdown to regain control, including a nonworking week until Nov. 8. But instead of staying home, many people are jetting off on vacation to Egypt, Turkey or Russia’s Black Sea coast, according to travel agents cited in Russia media.

One Russian posted a TikTok video on Oct. 26 from Cide on Turkey’s Black Sea coast, panning across crowds frolicking in the sea. “The beaches are packed. The sea is warm. The temperature is 30 degrees (86 degrees Fahrenheit). People are delighted, resting. Only in Russia is there a lockdown,” she said.

Kremlin propagandist Margarita Simonyan, editor in chief of state-run RT, said on Telegram she had a change of heart about anti-vaccine claims because children were dying “en masse.”

“At first, the anti-vaxers evoked my understandable sympathy. People are afraid, people are not explained, people are confused,” she wrote Oct. 20. But now she calls them a threat to children’s lives.

“Choke on ventilators, crawl with an [oxygen] saturation of 70 in the corridors of jam-packed hospitals,” she wrote. “That’s your choice. But I cannot forgive you the deaths of my country’s children.”

But Tatiana Stanovaya, an analyst at Moscow-based think tank R. Politik, said President Vladimir Putin’s uneven messaging and resistance to mandatory vaccinations were more to blame.

“If any other country had the same information policy as Russia,” she said, “everything would be the same.”

Published : October 31, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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NAIROBI, Kenya – Amid a near-total communications blackout, tens of thousands of protesters across Sudan took a well-coordinated protest movement back onto city streets Saturday after a military coup earlier this week.

The coup was the second in three years, and led by the same generals who ousted longtime dictator Omar Hassan al-Bashir in April 2019. A power-sharing arrangement with civilian leaders crumbled Monday as Lt. Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan dissolved the joint government, detained prime minister Abdalla Hamdok, suspended the constitution and gave himself control.

Saturday’s mass protests – which were mirrored by rallies in global cities with large Sudanese populations – were part of a sustained effort by Sudanese professional organizations, political parties and ordinary citizens to force Sudan’s military into ceding the reins of government to civilians in the lead-up to democratic elections two years from now.

Despite a disruption of Internet service, organizations leading the protests posted videos of mass marches in different parts of the capital, Khartoum. Protesters reprised chants from 2019 and added slogans such as, “We are revolutionaries, we are free, and we will go the distance.”

In protests earlier this week, doctors’ associations said at least 11 people had been killed and more than 100 injured. On Saturday, one of the associations said two protesters had died from gunshot injuries sustained earlier in the day.

Sudan’s international partners including the United States, a major donor and creditor in the years since Bashir fell, had warned the military on Friday that further bloodshed would be “unacceptable.” No public investigation into the killings has been announced.

The United States, European nations and the World Bank all suspended aid to Sudan this week, and they worked behind the scenes to get Arab allies such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Emirates to pressure their partners in Sudan’s military to exercise restraint during the protests Saturday, multiple diplomats familiar with the negotiations said. The African Union suspended Sudan’s membership.

The protests are a bellwether for the military’s resolve to push forward with a coup that has provoked stronger international pushback than expected, the diplomats said, echoing analysts within and outside the country.

Civilian ministers and ambassadors have remained defiant, refusing to cooperate with the military, and dozens of officials – not to mention their supporters in the streets – were detained throughout the week. Hamdok was released, but Burhan said others will be freed only if they have been determined to have not committed crimes. Strikes have paralyzed the country and halted daily business.

“They’re failing coup d’etat 101,” said a former senior Western diplomat with years of experience in Sudan, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with diplomatic protocol. “Civilian leaders are emerging as heroes for resisting, and even close allies in Riyadh, Cairo and Abu Dhabi are questioning whether the coup was reckless.”

The American special envoy to the region, Jeffrey Feltman, had been in Khartoum in the hours before the coup, warning military leaders that hundreds of millions of dollars in assistance would be withdrawn if they took power. Burhan went ahead with the coup as soon as Feltman departed.

The aid suspensions have not forced Burhan’s hand so far, and Feltman released a statement Friday echoing an earlier one from President Joe Biden saying that “the Sudanese people must be allowed to protest peacefully this weekend, and the United States will be watching closely.”

A senior State Department official, also speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that although Hamdok had been released, he was still under what amounted to “house arrest” and that there was broad consensus among Washington and Sudan’s Arab allies that detained civilian leaders should be released.

Hamdok and Burhan had worked together with Washington to have Sudan removed from the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism, paving the way for Sudan’s reintegration into the global economy. The transitional civilian-military government also had passed a number of liberalizing reforms affecting public life after decades of Islamic law under Bashir.

In this week’s protests, placards and chants have often denounced the alleged role of the military’s allies in the Arab world in approving the coup. While details of such assurances remained murky, analysts said each ally had its own reasons for wanting the military to consolidate control in Sudan.

“Among Arab powers, there’s an unease about the prospect of a successful civilian transition in Sudan,” said Jonas Horner, an analyst with the International Crisis Group who was in Khartoum in the days leading up to the coup. “In Egypt especially, they worry it would provide a clear demonstrative effect to disaffected Egyptians after their own revolution was derailed.”

Sudan also has provided those allies with easy access to agricultural land and gold mining – parts of the economy that are largely controlled by military figures. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as Hemedti, cultivated close ties with the UAE in recent years by providing soldiers from his paramilitary group, known as the Rapid Support Forces, to fight in wars in Yemen and Libya. Hemedti has supported Burhan’s power grab.

Sudanese protesters, in addition to demanding the restoration of a government that would eventually be civilian-led, have called for an end to military control of key economic sectors, creating a sort of “existential question” for military leaders, Horner said.

The senior former diplomat said that he was aware “as long as a month ago that the military was operating on the assurances of UAE, Egypt and the Saudis, each with varying degrees of certainty of giving a nod of support to a move to wrest power away from the civilian side.”

Since protests emerged in late 2018 over rising bread prices and morphed into a much larger movement against Bashir and the military, they have remained peaceful despite being met repeatedly with deadly violence from security forces.

Faced with public rage and the prospect of more damaging international sanctions, Burhan has pledged to create a new civilian government, though it is unclear who outside of the military will be keen to be the face of an isolated government with major legitimacy problems.

The State Department official said the Biden administration’s stance was that “the military cannot choose their civilian partners in the framework of a transitional government, and the civilians also cannot choose their military partner. Neither side can sideline the other.”

Even before the coup, the military had kept more than enough control to remain the country’s most powerful institution, Horner said. That control dates into the Bashir era, when Burhan and Hemedti were key commanders and the military focused on extracting Sudan’s natural resources and trading with Arab partners during decades of Western sanctions.

“The international community was working on an expectation of magnanimity – that the military would relinquish control – but what incentive do they have to just step away?” he said. “Burhan and Hemedti are thrashing out against the reality of their unpopularity, and, unfortunately, there are some regional actors protecting and even emboldening them to keep facing down the huge popular anger that just keeps growing.”

Published : October 31, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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ROME – The Biden administration has struck a deal with European Union officials to lift some tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, resolving at this years Group of 20 summit a bitter trade standoff that began under president Donald Trump three years ago.

The deal announced Saturday allows “limited volumes” of steel and aluminum products from the EU to enter the United States tariff-free, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said.

In return, the European Union will drop their retaliatory tariffs on American goods. The EU had been poised on Dec. 1 to boost tariffs to 50% on various U.S. products, including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and bourbon from Kentucky.

“This agreement is significant in that it will reduce costs for American manufacturers and consumers,” Raimondo said.

Biden officials have faced a difficult task in deciding how or whether to unwind Trump’s duties on imports, which were panned by many economists as raising prices for American consumers but in many cases were cheered by labor groups powerful among Democrats for shielding industry groups from foreign competition.

Administration officials said they expect the tariff agreement to help alleviate the current supply chain issues that are currently hampering manufacturing and distribution of key goods throughout the United States. It also will help ensure that all steel entering the United States from Europe will be made entirely on the continent, according to the administration.

It also calls on future negotiations to take “carbon intensity” levels in steel and aluminum into account in future trade talks, which Raimondo said would allow production of products that are “significantly cleaner” than steel and aluminum produced in China.

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said the tariff agreement removes “one of the largest bilateral irritants in the U.S.-EU relationship.”

Some experts said the measure is coming dispiritingly late given how long Biden has president and the high prices on many goods roiling the U.S. economy.

“I’m surprised it took this long. Trump put that on, it seemed, in a pique of anger with no obvious logic and it seemed easy to do to take it off. We’re eight, nine, months into his term of office,” said Dean Baker, a liberal economist. “It raises the prices at a time we’re having these supply chain problems.”

But the administration has been reluctant to antagonize the steel industry and other domestic producers protected by the tariffs.

In the electorally crucial state of Pennsylvania, for instance, the administration faces strong political pressure to maintain the tariffs on behalf of state steelworkers. An analysis by the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, found that the tariffs created more than 3,000 steelmaking jobs. Raimondo this month said the tariffs “helped save American jobs in the steel and aluminum industries.”

In a sign that the tariffs may , the American Iron and Steel institute praised Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai for maintaining enough of the tariff to “prevent another steel import surge that would undermine our industry and destroy good paying American jobs.”

The United States Steelworkers also released a statement on Saturday praising the agreement.

“We appreciate the Biden administration’s continued recognition that the American steel industry is critical to our national and economic security,” said Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the American Iron and Steel Institute in a statement.

Published : October 31, 2021

By : The Washington Post

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ROME – President Joe Biden and the other national leaders gathered for the Group of 20 summit formally endorsed a new global minimum tax on Saturday, capping months of negotiations over the groundbreaking tax accord.

The new global minimum tax of 15% aims to reverse the decades-long decline in tax rates on corporations across the world, a trend experts say has deprived governments of revenue to fund social spending programs. The deal is a key achievement for Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who made an international floor on corporate taxes among the top priorities of her tenure and pushed forcefully for swift action on a deal.

The plan was already endorsed by the finance ministers of each country, but its official approval by the heads of state puts added pressure on the difficult task of turning what remains an aspirational agreement into legislation.

Nearly 140 countries representing more than 90% of total global economic output have endorsed the deal, but they each must implement the new standards in a process that could take time and overcome internal political opposition.

“Today, every G-20 head of state endorsed a historic agreement on new international tax rules, including a global minimum tax that will end the damaging race to the bottom on corporate taxation,” Yellen said in a statement Saturday. “It’s a critical moment for the U.S. and global economy.

The tax deal came together as leaders in Rome – some virtually due to the ongoing pandemic – are tackling a daunting international agenda over the course of the October summit, from climate change to pandemic preparedness to new measures to improve vaccine access. The U.N. Climate Change Summit, known as COP26, will get under way in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday, as global policymakers meet to discuss plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst impacts of global warming.

Hoping to break with former president Donald Trump, Biden has emphasized a spirit of collaboration with America’s European partners – aiming to solidify global agreements on a range of pressing international challenges.

In line with that, the Biden administration on Saturday also struck a deal with European Union officials to lift some tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, resolving a bitter trade stand-off that began underTrump three years ago.

The deal allows “limited volumes” of steel and aluminum products from the EU to enter the United States tariff-free. In return, the EU will drop their retaliatory tariffs on American goods. The EU had been poised on Dec. 1 to boost tariffs to 50% on various U.S. products, including Harley-Davidson motorcycles and bourbon from Kentucky.

The minimum tax will be coupled with a broader change to global taxation intended to prevent countries and companies from undercutting the new floor.

Under the pact, corporations trying to evade taxation by shifting profits to low-tax countries will face a “top-up” tax, which would require them to pay the difference between the tax haven’s tax rate and the 15% minimum tax rate of the companies where they are headquartered. Supporters of the deal are also optimistic companies will not move to relocate their headquarters abroad, in part because so much of the world has committed to the new minimum. Treasury officials have said new “enforcement provisions” will impose tax penalties based in countries refusing to join the deal.

The deal includes not just these changes but a separate overhaul of how multinationals are taxed when earning profits in countries where they have no physical presence. That related but distinct tax deal is intended primarily to address anger in Europe over the U.S.-based tech giants that pay little in taxes in European countries despite earning substantial profits there. Several European leaders have said they see the measures as tied together.

Despite the accord, major hurdles remain toward the push for implementing an overhaul of the international tax system. The agreements set out a 10-year transition period, giving time for changes to take effect.

Congressional Republicans say the part of the deal related to the tech companies will require a change to U.S. treaty law – a move that requires two-thirds of U.S. Senators, and therefore GOP support, to win approval. Treasury has rejected this interpretation of the law, arguing the changes can be done without a new treaty, and said Republicans may support changes to clarify international law if favored by the business sector.

But the fate of key parts of the accord could wind up before the Supreme Court should the administration pursue unilateral action.

The United States already has a version of its own global minimum tax, created as part of the 2017 GOP tax act, that imposes a 10.5% minimum tax on U.S. multinational firms’ foreign earnings.

The Biden administration initially proposed raising the tax on foreign profits to 21% as a demonstration of America’s commitment to higher corporate taxes, but after negotiations with congressional Democrats, have instead proposed a 15% rate in line with the global agreement.

The spending-and-tax plan being discussed in Congress also includes a separate 15% tax minimum tax on the domestic profits of large U.S. companies. The U.S. corporate tax rate today stands as 21%, but many companies pay well below that thanks to deductions.

Republicans have slammed the global tax plan as fanciful thinking by an administration sacrificing part of the U.S. tax base to European rivals largely to secure a symbolic victory. Skeptics also note that key details in the plan, particularly pertaining to the part of the tax agreement related to taxing multinational tech firms, remain unresolved and that leaders could confront disagreements when bringing the plan to fruition.

“The Europeans have no particular interest in the global minimum tax, and will in subtle ways gut it so it’s effectively far less than 15 percent,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a Republican policy analyst. “The deal was: ‘We’ll give you some more tax base, and in exchange you’ll raise taxes on yourself.’ But I wonder if we’ll get that deal in practice.”

Other critics contend that the plan could in fact punish some of the poorest countries, by shifting the base of taxation from where production occurs to corporate headquarters more often located in rich nations. Nigeria and other African countries, along with Pakistan and a handful of others, have balked at the agreement.

“The production occurs in the developing world,” said Joseph Stiglitz, an economist at Columbia University. “The fact they decided to give the tax to the advanced countries just shows the lack of empathy for the developing countries.”

A Treasury official said in a statement that the tax accord would help developing countries, in part because it would help poorer nations – which are far more dependent on corporate tax revenue to fund their government operations than the developed world – prevent firms from relocating to ta havens.

Yellen has been adamant that something has to be done to prevent corporations from playing countries off each other to push corporate tax rates lower and lower. The average corporate tax rate globally has fallen from about 40% in 1980 to roughly 23% in 2020, according to the Tax Foundation.

In 2017, roughly 40% of profits earned by the world’s multinational firms – or more than $700 billion – was stashed in tax havens.

The new minimum tax rate only applies to firms with more than $850 million in annual revenue and is expected to raise roughly $150 billion in additional global tax revenue every year, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which brokered the agreement.

Published : October 31, 2021

By : THE NATION