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TRADE WARS
Paraguay, Argentina trade row worsening
by Staff Writers
Asuncion, Paraguay (UPI) Sep 15, 2011

Singapore jails, deports fake Chinese graduates
Singapore (AFP) Sept 16, 2011 - Thirty-seven Chinese farmers and workers holding fake college degrees have been jailed or deported by Singapore for getting work visas by fraud, the Ministry of Manpower said Friday.

Twenty-eight were sentenced to one month in jail and another nine sent home after the ministry discovered that their qualifications were forged.

Mainly farmers and odd-job workers in China, they produced fake university certificates to obtain employment passes as "cleaning supervisors" even though some ended up as dishwashers working 12 hours a day.

Some claimed in court that they were forced by employment agents to produce fake degrees to have their work passes approved, local media reported.

For submitting a forged education certificate to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), an offender can be fined up to Sg$15,000 ($12,000) or jailed for up to a year, or both.

Labour-starved Singapore employs around 900,000 guest workers out of a population of 5.1 million.

"MOM has been putting in place measures to enhance detection of false information submitted in work pass applications," the ministry said in a statement.

What began as a promising window of opportunity for Paraguay is deteriorating into a bitter political row as Argentina continues to block surplus electricity exports from Paraguayan power generators to Uruguay.

Weeks of negotiations, sometimes heated and verging on crisis, have failed to persuade Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner to relent on the issue.

Landlocked Paraguay had suffered earlier as a result of disputes that, its officials said, were invented by Argentina mainly to assert its power beyond diplomatic niceties.

A row over river commerce cost Paraguayan traders several million dollars in lost business after Argentine authorities held up containers destined for Asuncion.

Argentine dock workers are still obstructing trade, causing further dislocation and losses, Paraguayan officials said.

Paraguay is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguayan territory lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the country from north to south but over the years Argentina has wielded power over Paraguayan trade because of its geographical proximity.

The row started soon after the Paraguayan government negotiated a deal to sell surplus electricity to Uruguay. Argentine authorities, wanting a cut on the deal, immediately slapped a charge, arguing they deserved a greater share of Paraguay's revenue as they allowed Argentina's grid to be used for the transmission.

Several Argentine promises of a review of transit fees more comfortable to Paraguay have followed but none have materialized, Paraguayan officials said.

Paraguayan officials took their grievance to Parlasur, the legislative arm of the Mercosur regional pact, condemning Argentina for going against the spirit of the international organization that wants to see a more collaborative spirit among Mercosur members.

A Paraguayan delegation to Parlasur accused Argentina of systematic disregard of the treaty of Asuncion, corner of Mercosur cooperation.

Paraguayan delegation leader Alfonso Gonzalez called "obstinate and irrational" Argentina's opposition to the country's electricity exports to Uruguay.

Paraguay says the Argentine transit rate for the use of its electricity grid is four times the going regional rate -- $48 instead of $12 per megawatt per hour.

Paraguayan Energy Deputy Minister Mercedes Canese said she hadn't heard from Argentina after promises of a review of the "prohibitive" transit fee.

Paraguay has been complaining that not only Argentina but also Brazil have been engaged in unfair trade practices over the trade in electricity. Paraguay shares electricity production with Argentina and Brazil.

Although it is one of the largest net electricity producers in the world Paraguay has seen its electricity distribution hampered by regional rivalries.

Paraguay is also one of the few countries in Latin America that has maintained an integrated public monopoly on electricity. Hydropower comprises nearly 100 percent of electricity in the country, and 90 percent of generated energy is exported, with neighboring Argentina and Brazil receiving the majority.

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Stock holder sues HP execs for rosy outlook
San Francisco (AFP) Sept 15, 2011 - Hewlett-Packard (HP) is being sued by a stock holder who accuses executives of painting a deceptively rosy picture of the computer company's prospects.

Richard Gammel filed a suit in federal court in Southern California and asked a judge to give it class-action status to represent everyone who acquired HP stock between November 22 of last year and August 18.

The world's largest computer maker "issued materially false and misleading statements regarding the company's business and financial results," lawyers representing Gammel charged in court documents available online Thursday.

The suit specifically targeted HP chief executive Leo Apotheker and chief financial officer Catherine Lesjak.

HP misled investors about the health of its personal computer business and the potential for a webOS mobile operating system obtained by the acquisition of Palm to be a "game changing event" for the company.

Last month HP said it planned one last production run of its TouchPad tablet computer powered by webOS, which became a hot seller following a price cut and the announcement the company was killing the tablet computer.

Citing disappointing sales, HP, the world's largest personal computer maker, announced on August 18 that it was ending production of the TouchPad, its rival to Apple's iPad, after just seven weeks on the market.

Palo Alto, California-based HP also said it was halting production of phones based on the webOS mobile operating system acquired from Palm last year for $1.2 billion.

HP also announced in August that it was exploring a spinoff of its PC unit in a historic shift away from the consumer market.





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TRADE WARS
France, Germany, Spain hit EU border move
Brussels (UPI) Sep 15, 2011
The European Union's bid to limit members' unilateral border controls within the passport-free zone met resistance from France, Germany and Spain this week. The foreign ministers of those countries Tuesday rejected a proposal by the European Commission to assert more control over how member states could implement internal border controls inside the Schengen Zone, covering 22 EU countrie ... read more


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