The dominance of China in the newbuilding the market has come under intense scrutiny with the investigations by the United States Trade Representative (USTR) – but how did the country’s shipyards achieve such a leading position?
Six factors that enabled China to dominate global shipbuilding
Tag: Leases
Philippines’ Congress to prioritize EPIRA changes as Senate junks ‘Cha-cha’
Congress to prioritize EPIRA changes as Senate junks ‘Cha-cha’
THE PHILIPPINE Senate would put proposals to change the 1987 Constitution on the back burner and would instead focus on measures to boost the military amid growing tensions with China, according to the Senate president.
The chamber would also pass bills that seek to boost healthcare and jobs while easing hunger, Senate President Francis “Chiz” G. Escudero said in a speech as Congress resumed sessions on Monday.
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At the weekend, he said they would tackle a proposal to amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) amid blackouts.
The Senate will also push changes to the Corporate Recovery and Tax Incentives for Enterprises (CREATE), particularly lower taxes on domestic and foreign companies.
Mr. Escudero said Congress should go beyond laws that only benefit big business, and find solutions to problems with healthcare, joblessness and poverty.
“We will take peaceful measures to defend our people’s right to sail in our seas and fish in our waters, as what our ancestors had done, and what our children and grandchildren shall do,” he added.
The Senate in December passed a bill that seeks to boost the country’s defense program through investments in local defense equipment manufacturing. The measure will give the Department of National Defense P1 billion in seed funding.
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Also on Monday, Speaker and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez said the House of Representatives would also seek changes to EPIRA.
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He said changes to EPIRA, which liberalized the power industry, would bring down electricity prices and ease inflation.
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It would now fast-track changes to EPIRA and a bill that seeks to extend the lease period for foreign investors. Other pending measures include amendments to the Agrarian Reform law and another that will modernize national defense.
“We have to continue building roads, highways, ports, school buildings and climate change-proof structures to maintain and expand economic growth,” Mr. Romualdez said. “I emphasize our commitment to pass the remaining priority bills before the end of the third regular session.”
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Jose Enrique “Sonny” A. Africa, executive director of think tank IBON Foundation, said it is wrong to equate economic progress with growth given the increasing number of poor Filipino families.
“Most Filipinos haven’t become better off because of this growth,” he told BusinessWorld. “The number of self-rated poor families has soared by 3.4 million since the start of the Marcos administration from 12.6 million in June 2022 to 16 million in June 2024.”
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Read More »Is China really buying up U.S. farmland? Here’s what we found
Is China really buying up U.S. farmland? Here’s what we found
A review by NBC News of thousands of documents filed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, however, shows very few purchases by Chinese buyers in the past year and a half — fewer than 1,400 acres in a country with 1.3 billion acres of agricultural land. In fact, the total amount of U.S. agricultural land owned by Chinese interests is less than three-hundredths of 1%.
Is this why Biden isn’t refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?!
[2017] Trump’s Budget Delivers Big Oil’s Wish: Reducing Strategic Petroleum Reserve
While most observers believe the budget will not pass through Congress in its current form, budgets depict an administration’s priorities and vision for the country. Some within the oil industry have lobbied for years to drain the SPR, created in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis.
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Exxon, as well as the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), have long lobbied for a drawdown of SPR‘s supply, according to lobbying disclosure records reviewed by DeSmog. They supported two key bills, proposed but never passed by Congress: H.R. 4136 in 2012 and S. 1231 in 2015.
H.R. 4136, lobbied for by Exxon, API, and IPAA**, says that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can only be tapped if more federally owned public lands and waters were leased to the oil and gas industry. S. 1231, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Modernization Act of 2015, called for a Department of Energy study of the SPR “to determine options available for [its] continued operation,” to be completed 180 days after the bill’s passage.
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“[T]he SPR is unnecessary in the first place. Private inventories and reserves are abundant, and open markets will respond more efficiently to supply shocks than federally controlled government stockpiles,” wrote Loris, who began his career as an associate for the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. “Congress should authorize the Department of Energy to sell the entire inventory, using the revenues solely for deficit reduction.”
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 