European Steel Plan Shows Biden’s Bid to Merge Climate and Trade Policy

 

"WASHINGTON — President Biden has promised to use trade policy as a tool to mitigate climate change. This weekend, the administration provided its first look at how it plans to mesh those policy goals, saying the United States and the European Union would try to curb carbon emissions as part of a trade deal covering steel and aluminum.

The arrangement, which American and European leaders aim to introduce by 2024, would use tariffs or other tools to encourage the production and trade of metals made with fewer carbon emissions in places including the United States and European Union, and block dirtier steel and aluminum produced in countries including China.

If finalized, it would be the first time a U.S. trade agreement includes specific targets on carbon emissions, said Ben Beachy, the director of the Sierra Club’s Living Economy program.

“No U.S. trade deal to date has even mentioned climate change, much less included binding climate standards,” said Mr. Beachy.

The announcement was short on details, and negotiations with European leaders are likely to face multiple roadblocks. But it provided an outline for how the Biden administration hopes to knit together its concerns about trade and climate and work with allies to take on a recalcitrant China, at a time when progress on multicountry trade negotiations at the World Trade Organization has stalled.

“The U.S. leads the world in our clean steel technology,” Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, said in an interview on Monday. She said the United States would work with allies “to preference cleaner steel, which will create an incentive to make more investments in technology,” resulting in fewer carbon emissions and more jobs.

In the same interview, Katherine Tai, the United States Trade Representative, said the potential agreement would restrict market access for countries that don’t meet certain carbon standards, or that engage in nonmarket practices and contribute to global overcapacity in the steel sector — accusations that are often levied at China.

The effort would seek to build “a global arrangement that promotes not just fair trade in steel but also pro-climate and responsible trade in steel,” Ms. Tai said.

Kevin Dempsey, the president of the American Iron and Steel Institute, said at an industry forum in Washington on Tuesday that the arrangement would be “positive for the U.S. industry,” which has the lowest carbon intensity per ton of steel of the major steel-producing countries.

China accounts for nearly 60 percent of global steel production. Its use of a common steel-production method causes more than twice as much climate pollution as does the same technology in the United States, according to estimates by Global Efficiency Intelligence.

In its announcement on Saturday, the Biden administration also said it had reached a deal to ease the tariffs that former President Donald J. Trump had imposed on European metals while the governments work toward the carbon accord.

The United States would replace the 25 percent tariff on European steel and a 10 percent tariff on European aluminum with a so-called tariff-rate quota. In return, the European Union would drop the retaliatory tariffs it imposed on other American products, like bourbon and motorcycles.

Under the new terms, 3.3 million metric tons of European steel would be allowed to enter the United States duty-free each year, with any steel above that volume subject to a 25 percent tariff.

European producers would be allowed to ship 18,000 metric tons of unwrought aluminum, which often comes in the form of ingots, and 366,000 metric tons of wrought or semifinished aluminum into the United States each year, while volumes above that would be charged a 10 percent tariff, the commerce department said.

To qualify for zero tariffs, the steel must be entirely made in the European Union — a provision designed to keep cheaper steel from countries including China and Russia from finding a backdoor into the United States via Europe.

Supporters of free trade have criticized the Biden administration for relying on the same protectionist trade measures used by the Trump administration, which deployed both tariffs and quotas to protect domestic metal makers.

Jake Colvin, the president of the National Foreign Trade Council, said the announcement would ratchet down trade tensions between the United States and Europe. But he called the trade barriers “an unwelcome form of managed trade” that would add costs and undermine American competitiveness.

Ms. Tai said the administration had made a deliberate choice not to heed calls “for the president to just undo everything that the Trump administration had done on trade.”

Mr. Biden’s plan, she said, “is that we formulate a worker-centered trade policy. And that means not actually going back to the way things were in 2015 and 2016, challenging us to do trade in a different way from how we’ve done it earlier, but also, critically, to challenge us to do trade in a way different from how the Trump administration did.”

The focus on carbon emissions differs from that of the Trump administration, which rejected any attempts to negotiate on carbon mitigation and withdrew the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change.

But negotiations with Europe will face challenges, among them developing a common methodology for measuring how much carbon is emitted as certain products are made. Still, the announcement suggests that the United States and Europe might be ready to work toward a collaborative approach on lowering carbon emissions, despite past differences on how the problem should be addressed.

European leaders have long advocated an explicit price on the carbon dioxide that companies emit while making their products. In July, the European Union proposed a carbon border adjustment mechanism that would require companies to pay for carbon emissions produced outside Europe, to discourage manufacturers from evading Europe’s restrictions on pollution by moving abroad.

An explicit tax on carbon has met with more resistance in the United States, where some politicians want to update regulatory requirements or put the onus on companies to invest in cleaner production technology.

Todd Tucker, the director of governance studies at the Roosevelt Institute, said the latest announcement suggested that the European Union may be “a little bit more flexible” on how the United States and other partners would go about lowering emissions. Mr. Biden’s reconciliation bill, for example, contains a proposal for a “green bank” that could provide financing for firms to transition to cleaner technologies, he said.

“If the U.S. ends up achieving decarbonization through more of an investments and industrial-policy approach, it seems like they’re OK with that,” Mr. Tucker said.

Though the earliest negotiations over carbon emissions in the steel sector involve the European Union, the Biden administration says it wants to quickly extend the partnership to other countries.

In twin announcements on Sunday, the Department of Commerce said it had begun close consultations with Japan and the United Kingdom “on bilateral and multilateral issues related to steel and aluminum,” with a focus on “the need for like-minded countries to take collective action.”

Both Japan and the United Kingdom still face a 25 percent tariff on steel exports to the United States imposed by Mr. Trump.

The talks suggest a template for how the Biden administration will try to engage allies to counter China’s growing economic heft and make progress on goals like climate and workers rights.

The administration has rejected Mr. Trump’s “America First” approach to trade, saying the United States needs to work with like-minded countries. But they have also acknowledged that the inefficiency of negotiations at the World Trade Organization, and distanced themselves from broader, multicountry trade deals, like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The announcements suggest that the Biden administration may not see comprehensive trade deals as the most effective way to accomplish many of its goals, but rather, industry-specific agreements among a limited number of democratic, free-market countries. That approach is similar to the cooperation the United States announced with the European Union for the civil aircraft industry in June.

Ms. Raimondo said the agreement to ease the tariffs on the European Union was a “very significant achievement” that would help to alleviate supply chain problems and lower prices for companies that use steel and aluminum to make other products.

“It’s all kind of a table setter to a global arrangement, whereby we work with our allies all over the world over the next couple of years,” she said."

How does the "mythical" Viking Sunstone work?

 

    “What is this thing Sunstone and why was it mythical? The Sun Stone is also written in Icelandic sagas (myths). It roughly explains how this object works: it shows the position of the Sun in the sky, even if the sky is cloudy, there is fog, or even if the Sun is below the horizon. Sounds magical, and for a long time it was thought that these descriptions really didn’t really correspond to reality. But did the Vikings somehow orient themselves in the vast seas? An archeological find helped to unravel the mystery of Viking navigation - but not from Viking times.

 

   At the end of the   16th century, an English naval ship sank in the English Channel, off the island of Alderney. In 1977, its remains were explored, and a set of navigational devices was discovered in the last decade. A palm-sized crystal was found among them, which was found to be Iceland spar. A couple of years earlier, studies have been published showing that Icelandic feldspar can be used to determine the position of the Sun. So, it seems, everything is clear - the Vikings took Iceland spar and saw where the Sun is.

 

    But how does it really work? Iceland spar is a crystal of calcium carbonate. It occurs in large readily cleavable crystals, is easily divisible into rhombuses, and is remarkable for its birefringence. This means that the index of refraction of the crystal is different for light of different polarization. A ray of unpolarized light passing through the crystal divides into two rays of perpendicular polarization directed at different angles, called double refraction.

 

That is, any beam entering the crystal is divided into two, so when looking through the crystal, we see a double image. As the crystal rotates, the two images also move, and the brightness of the images differs depending on the angle between the direction of the light source and the position of the crystal. When you rotate the crystal at a certain angle, the brightness of the images becomes the same. By discovering this angle and looking in which direction the Sun is from the crystal, the measurements can be calibrated: then even on a cloudy day or the Sun is slightly below the horizon, its position in the sky can be determined by tilting the crystal. "Equally bright" is not an accurate measurement, but our eyes notice the differences very well, so using a crystal from the eye makes it possible to determine the position of the Sun with one degree of accuracy.

 

    Why Iceland spar? There are more crystals with similar optical properties, but this is abundant in Iceland and elsewhere in Northern Europe, where the Vikings were able to collect and use them on ships. Even much later, with the advent and spread of magnetic compasses, the Sun's stones did not lose their importance, as Alderney's 16th century findings prove.  By the end of the 1990s, magnetic compasses were already on board of ships, but they were unreliable and inaccurate due to poor manufacturing quality, misunderstanding of magnetic anomalies and even iron cannon tubes causing distortion."

 

 

 

 

Kaip veikia „mitinis“ vikingų Saulės akmuo?

"Kas tai per daiktas yra tas Saulės akmuo ir kodėl jis buvo mitinis?

 

Apie Saulės akmenį rašoma dar islandų sagose (mituose). Ten apytikriai paaiškinta, kaip šis daiktas veikia: jis parodo Saulės padėtį danguje, net jei dangus apniukęs, tvyro rūkas arba net jei Saulė yra žemiau horizonto. Skamba magiškai, ir ilgą laiką buvo manoma, kad šie aprašymai tikrai nelabai atitinka realybę. Bet vis dėlto vikingai kažkaip gi orientavosi plačiose jūrose? Vikingų navigacijos paslaptį išaiškinti padėjo archeologinis radinys – tačiau ne iš vikingų laikų.

 

XVI a. pabaigoje Lamanšo sąsiauryje, prie Aldernio (angl. Alderney) salos nuskendo Anglijos laivyno laivas. 1977 metais jo liekanos buvo pradėtos tyrinėti, o praėjusiame dešimtmetyje aptiktas navigacinių prietaisų rinkinys. Tarp jų rastas ir delno dydžio kristalas, kurį ištyrus nustatyta, kad tai yra islandiškasis špatas. Pora metų anksčiau buvo publikuoti tyrimai, kuriais parodyta, kad islandiškasis špatas gali būti panaudotas Saulės padėčiai nustatyti. Taigi, atrodytų, viskas aišku – pasiėmė vikingai islandiško špato ir matė, kur yra Saulė.

 Bet kaip tai iš tikrųjų veikia? Islandijos špatas yra kalcio karbonato kristalas. Jis randamas dideliuose lengvai skaidomuose kristaluose, lengvai dalijasi į rombus ir pasižymi savo dvigubu lūžiu. Tai reiškia, kad skirtingos poliarizacijos šviesai kristalo lūžio rodiklis yra skirtingas. Nepoliarizuotos šviesos spindulys, praeinantis per kristalą, dalijasi į du statmenos poliarizacijos spindulius, nukreiptus skirtingais kampais, vadinamus dviguba refrakcija.

 

 Tai yra, bet koks į kristalą patekęs spindulys yra padalinamas į du, taigi, žiūrint pro kristalą, matome susidvejinusį vaizdą. Sukiojant kristalą, slankiojasi ir tie du atvaizdai, o priklausomai nuo kampo tarp šviesos šaltinio krypties ir kristalo padėties, skiriasi atvaizdų šviesumai. Pasukus kristalą tam tikru kampu, atvaizdų šviesis tampa vienodas. Atradus šį kampą ir pažiūrėjus, kuria kryptimi nuo kristalo yra Saulė, galima sukalibruoti matavimus: tada net ir apsiniaukusią dieną ar Saulei esant šiek tiek žemiau horizonto, galima nustatyti jos padėtį danguje pagal tai, kaip reikia pakreipti kristalą, kad jo duodami atvaizdai būtų vienodai šviesūs. „Vienodai šviesūs“ nėra tikslus matavimas, tačiau mūsų akys labai gerai pastebi skirtumus, todėl naudojant kristalą iš akies įmanoma nustatyti Saulės padėtį vieno laipsnio tikslumu.

 

Kodėl būtent islandiškasis špatas? Panašias optines savybes turinčių kristalų yra ir daugiau, bet būtent šio yra gausu Islandijoje ir kitur Šiaurės Europoje, kur vikingai galėjo jų prisirinkti ir naudoti laivuose. Net ir gerokai vėliau, jau atsiradus ir pradėjus plisti magnetiniams kompasams, Saulės akmenys neprarado svarbos, ką įrodo ir Aldernio radiniai. XVI a. pabaigoje magnetiniai kompasai laivuose jau būdavo, bet jie buvo nepatikimi ir netikslūs dėl prastos gaminimo kokybės, magnetinių anomalijų nesupratimo ir net geležinių patrankų vamzdžių, sukeliančių iškraipymus."

We steal everything, even condoms

"Meeting personal needs at the expense of companies is an unjustified increase in the deductions allowed by companies and the deduction of value added tax (VAT) to include the cost of purchasing personal purchases and input VAT, thus reducing both taxable corporate profits and VAT payable. personal benefits are also obtained by avoiding personal income tax (PIT) payable.

 

    In short, there are cases where, in order to avoid taxes, company managers, owners or employees meet their various private needs at the expense of the company, where the purchases made are completely unrelated to the activities of the companies. 

 

Often, when a tax administrator becomes interested in a company, it is noticeable that private needs have been met from the business pocket, ranging from food for animals, sneakers or juicers to apartments in the center of the capital or luxury yachts.

 

    Meeting personal needs from the company’s pocket is also revealed through travel, which is often formalized as business trips. The frequent use of vehicles owned by companies for non-work purposes and their use for personal gain are not properly accounted for.

 

    STI specialists, when monitoring or controlling companies, have also identified cases when many different items needed in everyday household, such as glasses, perfumes, toys, clothes, footwear or hair clippers, have been purchased at the expense of a business. A considerable part of various services that are not related to the company's activities, such as ceiling installation and catering services, are also recorded. During the inspection of one company by Kaunas CSTI specialists, it was established that it was not avoided to purchase various constructors, drones, board games or even goods for adults on behalf of the company, and the costs in supermarkets exceeded 6.3 thousands euros. All the aforesaid goods not used in the operation of the company and intended for the personal needs of the manager and his relatives. Following the above-mentioned inspection, the estimated additional amount to be paid to the budget exceeded 40 thousands euros.

 

    There are cases when furniture, small and large household appliances or apartments, garages, recreational buildings are purchased at the expense of companies. In such cases, the representatives of the companies try to prove that they have acquired the property for the installation or lease of an office under the guise of fictitious short-term lease agreements with natural persons, even though the company's activity is completely unrelated to renting or selling real estate. However, in controlling the area of ​​meeting private needs with the company's funds, the STI had to identify a number of cases when entrepreneurs built, bought or rented real estate for their personal needs.

 

    In order to ensure the proper performance of tax obligations and to identify fraudulent actions of entrepreneurs, the STI uses many different data sources and tools in its activities. This year, the tax administrator actively carried out monitoring or appropriate control actions of companies selected according to certain criteria and over 18.6 thousands companies submitted a special questionnaire on the use of cars registered on behalf of legal entities for private purposes. Under this measure, over 4 thousands companies independently revised their declarations and additionally declared over 653 thousands EUR VAT and 82 thousands EUR GPM.

 

    Records from other sources, such as i.VAZ consignment note data, are also used to identify potential abuses. Based on the data provided by i.VAZ, cases have been identified where various equipment and construction materials have been transported and unloaded at the declared addresses of the company's employees' place of residence. Attention is also paid to the information provided in the invoices. Often, after reviewing the VAT invoices for the purchase of office furniture and gathering information from the seller, it turns out that the bedroom bed was purchased at the company's expense. Based on common data sources, cases of misuse of the company's transport are also identified, when, say, a company registered in Kaunas uses a car for work only on working days, and on a public holiday the head of the company with the said car in Klaipėda region is recorded exceeding the speed limit. "

Well, entrepreneurs are people too. They also need sex and other services and goodies from society. However, after taking advantage, many entrepreneurs turn around and give nothing back to the public. 

 

 

 

 

Vagiam viską, net prezervatyvus

"Asmeninių poreikių tenkinimas įmonių lėšomis – tai nepagrįstas įmonių leidžiamų atskaitymų ir Pridėtinės vertės mokesčio (PVM) atskaitos didinimas, įtraukiant asmeninėms reikmėms skirtų pirkinių įsigijimo išlaidas ir pirkimo PVM bei taip sumažinant tiek apmokestinamąjį įmonių pelną, tiek ir mokėtiną PVM. Svarbu, kad taip yra gaunama ir asmeninė nauda, išvengiant mokėtino Gyventojų pajamų mokesčio (GPM). 

Trumpai tariant, pasitaiko atvejų, kai siekdami išvengti mokesčių, įmonių vadovai, savininkai ar darbuotojai tenkina savo įvairius privačius poreikius įmonės sąskaita, kai nustatyti pirkiniai visiškai nesusiję su bendrovių vykdoma veikla.

Dažnu atveju, mokesčių administratoriui pradėjus domėtis įmone, pastebima, kad iš verslo kišenės buvo tenkinami ir privatūs asmenų poreikiai, kurių amplitudė svyruoja nuo maisto gyvūnams, sportinių batelių ar sulčiaspaudės iki butų sostinės centre ar prabangių jachtų.

Asmeninių poreikių tenkinimas iš įmonės kišenės taip pat atsiskleidžia ir per keliones, kurios dažnu atveju įforminamos kaip komandiruotės. Dažni atvejai, kai bendrovių turimos transporto priemonės yra naudojamos ne darbo tikslais, ir jų panaudojimas, gaunant asmeninę naudą, netinkamai įtraukiamas į apskaitą.

VMI specialistai, atlikdami įmonių stebėsenos ar kontrolės veiksmus, yra nustatę ir tokių atvejų, kai verslo sąskaita įsigyta daugybė įvairių kasdienėje buityje reikalingų daiktų, tokių kaip akiniai, kvepalai, žaislai, drabužiai, avalynė ar plaukų kirpimo mašinėlės. Nemaža dalimi fiksuojama ir įsigytų įvairių paslaugų, kurios nesusijusios su įmonės vykdoma veikla, pavyzdžiui – lubų montavimo, maitinimo paslaugos. Kauno AVMI specialistams atliekant vienos įmonės patikrinimą, nustatyta, kad įmonės vardu buvo nevengta įsigyti įvairių konstruktorių, dronų, stalo žaidimų ar net suaugusiesiems skirtų prekių, o išlaidos prekybos centruose viršijo 6,3 tūkst. eurų. Visos minėtos prekės nepanaudotos įmonės veikloje ir buvo skirtos vadovo ir jo artimųjų asmeniniams poreikiams tenkinti. Po minėto patikrinimo, nustačius atitinkamų pažeidimų, apskaičiuota papildoma į biudžetą mokėtina suma viršijo 40 tūkst. eurų.

Pasitaiko atvejų, kai bendrovių sąskaita įsigyjami ir baldai, smulki ir stambi buitinė technika ar butai, garažai, poilsio statiniai. Tokiais atvejais įmonių atstovai stengiasi įrodyti, kad turtą įsigijo biurui įrengti ar nuomoti, prisidengiant fiktyviomis trumpalaikės nuomos sutartimis su fiziniais asmenimis, nors įmonės veikla yra visiškai nesusijusi su nekilnojamojo turto nuoma ar prekyba. Vis dėlto, kontroliuojant privačių poreikių tenkinimo įmonės lėšomis sritį, VMI teko nustatyti ne vieną atvejį, kai verslininkai statė, pirko ar nuomojosi nekilnojamąjį turtą savo asmeninėms reikmėms.

Užtikrindama tinkamą mokestinių pareigų vykdymą ir siekdama identifikuoti nesąžiningus verslininkų veiksmus, VMI savo veikloje pasitelkia daug skirtingų duomenų šaltinių bei priemonių. Šiemet mokesčių administratorius aktyviai vykdė pagal tam tikrus kriterijus atrinktų įmonių stebėsenos ar atitinkamus kontrolės veiksmus ir per 18,6 tūkst. įmonių pateikė užpildyti specialų klausimyną apie juridinių asmenų vardu registruotų automobilių privatiems poreikiams panaudojimą. Vyykdant šią priemonę, virš 4 tūkst. įmonių savarankiškai patikslino deklaracijas ir papildomai deklaravo per 653 tūkst. eurų PVM ir 82 tūkst. eurų GPM.

Siekiant nustatyti galimus piktnaudžiavimo atvejus, pasitelkiami ir kitų šaltinių įrašai, pavyzdžiui, i.VAZ krovinių gabenimo važtaraščių duomenys. Remiantis i.VAZ pateiktais duomenimis, nustatyta atvejų, kai įvairi įranga ir statybinės medžiagos buvo nugabentos ir iškrautos įmonės darbuotojų gyvenamosios vietos deklaruotais adresais. Atkreipiamas dėmesys ir į sąskaitose nurodytą informaciją. Neretai peržvelgus biuro baldų įsigijimo PVM sąskaitas faktūras ir surinkus informaciją iš pardavėjo, paaiškėja, kad įmonės lėšomis buvo įsigyta miegamojo lova. Remiantis bendrais duomenų šaltiniais, nustatomi ir piktnaudžiavimo įmonės transportu atvejai, kai, tarkime, nurodoma, kad Kaune registruota įmonė automobilį darbo reikmėms naudoja tik darbo dienomis, o šventinę dieną įmonės vadovas su minėtu automobiliu Klaipėdos regione užfiksuojamas viršijantis greitį."

Ką gi, verslininkai irgi yra žmonės. Jiems irgi reikia sekso ir kitokių paslaugų bei gerybių iš visuomenės. Tačiau pasinaudoję, daugelis verslininkų apsisuka ir atkiša visuomenei špygą.

 

 

Aging, getting sick and dying is normal

 Some salmon, arriving from the ocean to their native streams and ending their spawning, immediately all suffer a large number of heart attacks and strokes. Aquatic microorganisms that grow by feeding on the tissues of these salmon become food for salmon offspring.  

We humans are terrestrial animals. But when the time comes and we get old, getting sick and dying is normal. Not necessarily circulatory diseases. Older age is the biggest risk factor for cancer. Elderly people have so many diseases of all kinds that they are studied by a separate science called gerontology. 

 A good doctor is one who has enough influence in the treatment facility, cold nerves and a desire to listen to what diseases and treatment complications afflict each patient, and gives that patient all available ways to alleviate that suffering.

Pasenti, susirgti ir numirti yra normalu

Kai kurios lašišos, atplaukusios iš vandenyno į gimtuosius upelius ir pabaigusios nerštą, tuoj visos kartu suserga daugybe infarktų ir insultų. Vandens mikroorganizmai, kurie išauga, maitindamiesi šių lašišų audiniais, tampa lašišų palikuonių maistu.

Mes, žmonės, esame sausumos gyvūnai. Bet, kai laikas ateina, ir mums pasenti, susirgti ir numirti yra normalu. Nebūtinai kraujotakos ligomis. Vyresnis amžius yra didžiausias vėžio rizikos faktorius. Pagyvenę žmonės turi tiek daug visokių ligų, kad jas tyrinėja atskiras mokslas, vadinamas gerontologija.

Geras gydytojas yra tas, kuris turi pakankamai įtakos gydymo įstaigoje, šaltus nervus ir norą išsiklausinėti, kokios ligos ir gydymo komplikacijos kankina kiekvieną pacientą, ir duoda tam pacientui visus prieinamus būdus palencgvinti tas kančias.