Aurelia Butler

A former UK ambassador to Myanmar has been arrested, according to two people familiar with the situation, as the country marks the fifth anniversary of the military’s crackdown on the Muslim Rohingya minority that has drawn accusations of genocide.Vicky Bowman, the UK’s envoy to Myanmar from 2002 to 2006, and her husband, artist and former political prisoner Htein Lin, were detained by the military regime, which seized power in a coup in February last year.The two were taken to Yangon’s Insein prison, the people said. Bowman is expected to be charged with violating Myanmar’s Immigration Act, according to local media.“We are concerned by the arrest of a British woman in Myanmar,” the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement on Thursday. “We are in contact with the local authorities and are providing consular assistance.”Bowman is the director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business, a non-governmental organisation that advises local enterprises on anti-corruption, social and environmental practices. She previously worked with miner Rio Tinto on transparency and sustainability issues.News of the arrests emerged on the fifth anniversary of a violent crackdown by Myanmar’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, against the Muslim Rohingya minority in the western Rakhine state.The Foreign Office said on Wednesday that the UK would “intervene” in a case filed by The Gambia at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2019 accusing the Tatmadaw of “genocidal acts”. It also unveiled an additional round of sanctions against military-linked companies.“The UK has been clear that what happened to the Rohingya was ethnic cleansing and remains committed to taking action to stop the brutality of the Myanmar Armed Forces and hold them to account,” the FCDO said in a statement. An estimated 10,000 people were killed and 730,000 displaced into neighbouring Bangladesh, according to a UN fact-finding mission, during the months-long assault that included sexual violence, village burnings and extrajudicial killings. The UN inquiry found the military’s conduct amounted to “both war crimes and crimes against humanity”.Last month, the ICJ ruled that the case could proceed, quashing Myanmar’s objections over its jurisdiction. A separate case has been opened against the Tatmadaw in Argentina.Peter Vowles, the UK’s current ambassador to Myanmar, was expelled from the country last month. More

British steel producers will have to pay a 25 per cent tariff to sell certain construction products into Northern Ireland after EU quotas for global imports were exhausted earlier than expected.Steel producers and stockholders were informed of the new tariff on Wednesday in a notice from HM Revenue & Customs, prompting a fierce backlash from industry. “It is beyond farcical that UK producers are now prevented by these tariffs from selling goods to customers in their own country,” said Gareth Stace, director-general of UK Steel, the industry trade association. “To add insult to injury EU steel producers can continue to export these goods tariff free throughout the UK, but we can no longer do so in the opposite direction,” he added.

UK Steel called on the government to immediately suspend the tariffs.The prospect of UK companies paying tariffs to send steel within the UK’s own internal market is hugely politically sensitive, and is likely to further anger the region’s Unionist community which has rejected the protocol because it divides the United Kingdom.Both of the candidates to replace Boris Johnson as prime minister next month have committed to passing legislation that will give UK ministers powers to unilaterally rewrite the protocol which they have declared to be “unworkable”.Brussels has warned that if the UK presses ahead with the legislation it will be in breach of its international treaty commitments and risks the possible suspension of the entire EU-UK trade co-operation agreement. Under the deal governing post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland, all goods going from Great Britain must pay EU tariffs if they are “at risk” of crossing into the Republic of Ireland and the EU single market.When the Northern Ireland protocol came into force at the start of 2021, a temporary workaround was established which gave British companies a specific quota for exporting into the province tariff-free. This changed in July following a decision in Brussels to lump together individual national quotas. This opened up Britain’s share to other countries which have been quicker to use the global quota, said UK Steel. “Countries like Turkey are using up big chunks of the quota and there is none left for anyone else,” said Richard Warren, UK Steel head of policy. The European Commission, in its decision on steel tariff quotas, said that it had consciously rejected the idea of creating special arrangements for the UK in the light of “the historical trade” between Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Sam Lowe, a trade expert at consultancy Flint Global, wrote that the soured political relationship between London and Brussels over the Northern Ireland protocol had exacerbated the commission’s refusal to make exceptions for the UK.“This is something that could be resolved fairly easily if the EU-UK relationship was in a better place. But it’s not,” he wrote in his Most Favoured Nation blog on trade affairs earlier this month.The global quota is renewed every quarter, but the abolition of the UK’s specific allocation meant that British producers were likely to face tariffs yet again in the autumn, Warren said. UK steel companies fear that this will encourage customers to switch to EU suppliers to avoid the uncertainty of tariffs.The UK government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The European Commission declined to comment.Are we heading towards a global recession? Our economics editor Chris Giles and US economics editor Colby Smith discussed this and how different countries are likely to react in our latest IG Live. Watch it here. More

(Reuters) – White House National Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice on Wednesday told reporters that the Biden administration has yet to determine the price tag for President Joe Biden’s newly announced student debt relief program, adding it will depend on how many people apply for relief.”That remains to be determined and it will be a function of what percentage of eligible borrowers actually take up this opportunity,” she said at a press briefing. More

LONDON (Reuters) – Argentina is considering asking for an International Monetary Fund loan under its new Resilience and Sustainability Trust (RST), designed to help countries ensure sustainable growth, a source with direct knowledge told Reuters on Wednesday.The government could formally request funding from the RST as early as October, the source said on condition of anonymity, declining to give details of how much South America’s second-largest economy was planning to ask for. Under the trust’s rules, Argentina’s request would be capped at $1.3 billion.The IMF had no comment. Economy Minister Sergio Massa, appointed in July, and his team are expected to travel to Washington in early September for his first meeting with the Fund.The country is also due another review of its $44 billion Extended Fund Facility during September, which will consider the country’s adherence to the loan’s criteria through end-June. The IMF executive board approved the launch of the https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2022/04/18/pr22119-imf-executive-board-approves-establishment-of-the-rstRST in April with lending expected to start in October. Low-income and vulnerable middle-income countries can apply to get the financing, which will channel special drawing rights from countries with strong external positions, according to the Fund’s website. This funding aims to address long-term challenges such as climate change, and aims to offer maturities up to 20 years with a 10-year grace period. Bangladesh formally asked the IMF for a loan from the RST in late July.Funding pledges for the new RST have reached about $37 billion. The Fund hopes to reach its initial goal of $45 billion soon. More