USA: The NAFTA talks take on a new urgency - by Don Lee

The Trump administration appears to be closing in on a deal on a revamped North American Free Trade Agreement, but is up against a very tight political deadline to meet its goal of forcing a congressional vote on a new pact by the end of the year.

After months of making little progress, high-level trade officials from the U.S., Canada and Mexico indicate that negotiations have been gaining momentum, and analysts monitoring the talks the last several days said Friday that there was a fair chance of reaching an agreement in principle in weeks or even days.

The president’s chief trade negotiator, Robert Lighthizer, plans to continue discussions with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts in Washington on May 7. They need to close gaps on sensitive matters including trade in autos and farm goods and rules for handling investment disputes.

Canada and Mexico, rather than make politically unpopular concessions, may decide it better to prolong the talks, even at the risk of a U.S. withdrawal from NAFTA, as President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened.

Moreover, Mr. Trump’s practice of lumping different issues together for bargaining leverage has increased uncertainties about the fate of negotiations.

Last month, Mr. Trump gave an exemption to Canada and Mexico on hefty steel and aluminum tariffs, but only until May 1, saying what happens afterward would depend on how rewriting NAFTA comes along.

On Monday, Mr. Trump suggested that a NAFTA overhaul should include another one of his goals, tighter control of people entering from the southern border.

“Mexico, whose laws on immigration are very tough, must stop people from going through Mexico and into the U.S.,” the president said on Twitter. “We may make this a condition of the new NAFTA agreement.”

Read more: The NAFTA talks take on a new urgency | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

France presents new immigration bill

French President Emmanuel Macron's government presented a controversial immigration bill to the Cabinet on Wednesday, amid criticism from migrant organizations and members of Macron's own party.

Macron has faced pressure to act on immigration after he won the 2017 presidential election, which saw 34 percent of the second round vote go to far-right National Front leader Marine Le Pen, who had campaigned on immigration concerns.

The new legislation includes plans to: 

• Introduce fines of €3,750 ($4,620) or a 1-year jail term for people who illegally cross borders within the EU
• Double the time asylum-seekers can be held in detention to 90 days
• Halve the amount of the time asylum-seekers have to appeal if their refugee status is denied
• Hasten the deportation of those asylum-seekers deemed to be economic migrants
• Cut the average waiting time on asylum applications from 11 months to six 

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb has said the law is "balanced" and "aligned with European procedures," arguing that if France did not tighten its laws it would attract refugees put off by tougher rules elsewhere in Europe.

Read more: France presents new immigration bill | News | DW | 21.02.2018

Britain -250 jihadists reportedly return to UK - "EU must expel Imams and Preachers discussing politics and inflammatory issues"

Around 250 British jihadists have returned to the UK after training and fighting in Syria, a senior Whitehall security official told the Sunday Times. Security services are monitoring the “extremist tourists”, fearing they might carry out attacks at home.

Ministers have been informed that more than 400 Britons went to Syria to engage in militant activities, and “Well over half of those who traveled out have come back,” the official told the Times.

Senior security officials say the number of “returnees” is now five times the previously reported figure, highlighting the growing threat of so–called ‘extremist tourists’ going to warzones and returning home hardened militants.

"For some, their jihad is done, others will help others travel to Syria, while others will raise funds for fighting," the Whitehall source said.

The security services are said to be closely monitoring the 250 returnees, who include several veteran hardliners who have fought in Afghanistan or Pakistan. Many others have participated in combat or received training in munitions or other skills applicable to terror operations, with some exhibiting a willingness to carry out attacks in the UK, security officials cited in the report said.

“There are a few hundred people going out there. They may be injured or killed, but our biggest worry is when they return they are radicalized, they may be militarized, they may have a network of people that train them to use weapons,” London police chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe told the paper.

Note EU-Digest: more attention needs to be given by the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and member state Governments as to some of the "sermons" preached by Islamic Imams and Preachers - especially those who discuss political issues and matters which are inflammatory and have nothing to do with religion. 

Read more: Op-Edge

Silicon Valley: Entrepreneurs want to bypass visas with offshore colony - by Jessica Guynn

Two Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, frustrated by the shortage of visas that keep some of the world’s brightest science and engineering minds from building companies on dry land, have hatched a plan to build a start-up colony in the Pacific.

Max Marty and Dario Mutabdzija say they plan to park a cruise ship 12 nautical miles off the coast of Northern California in international waters. Foreign-born entrepreneurs would live and work on the ship, building start-ups within commuting distance of Silicon Valley. They wouldn’t need the work visas that are so hard to come by. They would just need business tourism visas that would let them ferry back and forth to Silicon Valley once or twice a week.

The unusual project, called Blueseed, illustrates the fantastical lengths to which some in Silicon Valley are willing to go in their bid to bring more highly skilled foreign workers and entrepreneurs to its shores.

The high-tech industry has been lobbying to increase the cap of 65,000 temporary work visas permitted each year. Strict limits on high-tech visas keep foreigners — many of whom were educated in the United States — on waiting lists for years.

Read more: Entrepreneurs want to bypass visas with offshore colony | StarTribune.com

Balkan asylum seekers come under suspicion in EU - by D. Stojanovic

Azra Ajeti's fellow Gypsies have been buffeted by accusations of filing bogus asylum claims in the rich EU, but she says there's nothing phony about her family's life of misery. "We are starving," said the woman from this impoverished southern Serbian town. "Life here is a disgrace."

Ajeti's son was among some 60,000 people from Serbia and other Balkan countries who have sought asylum in Western Europe since the EU allowed visa-free travel from their nations three years ago.

Many EU and local officials describe the exodus as little more than a fraud in which mostly Gypsy migrants cross over knowing their asylum requests have no chance, their main goal to obtain the food, lodging and, in some cases, living expenses worth hundreds of euros (dollars) per month they are entitled to while awaiting an answer.

As a result of the continued surge, the EU states with the most Balkan asylum requests – Germany, Sweden, Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg – are moving toward re-imposing visas for Serbia and Macedonia, the two countries that send the most asylum applicants.
Many seekers, however, cite racial discrimination in their home countries as the reason for their flight, saying it constitutes legitimate grounds for asylum.

Read more: Balkan asylum seekers come under suspicion

The Netherlands: Some 5800 skilled immigrants admitted to the Netherlands in 2011

Some 5,800 people came to the Netherlands to work under the highly-skilled migrant (kennismigrant) scheme last year, including a record 1,880 academics, the Dutch immigration service IND said in its annual report, published recently.

Most highly-skilled migrants came from India (2,020) followed by the US (780), Japan (360) and China (230), the IND said. People from outside the EU can come to the Netherlands as a ‘knowledge migrant’ to work for an established company if they earn more than €51,000 a year.

Last year, the IND carried out 46 checks to make sure knowledge migrant wages were not being inflated in order to give people easier access to the Netherlands. In 25 cases, permits were not granted.

EU-Digest

France: Sarkozy Pulls Ahead of Hollande in First-Round Support - by Mark Deen and Helene Fouquet

French President Nicolas Sarkozy pulled ahead of Socialist Francois Hollande in first-round voting intentions for the first time in the 2012 presidential election campaign, a poll showed. Hollande maintained his lead in second-round support. 

Sarkozy leads in first-round intentions by 28.5 percent to 27 percent, according to a bi-weekly Ifop Fiducial poll for Europe 1 radio, Paris Match and Public Senat. The survey was carried out on March 11 and 12 among a sample of 1,638 people. The margin of error is about 2.1 percentage points.

The survey, taken after Sarkozy called for a “Buy European” act and tougher border controls, suggests that the French leader may be winning over supporters from National Front candidate Marine Le Pen, whose backing fell by one point to 16 percent. Hollande remains ahead in the second round with 54.5 percent, compared with 45.5 percent for Sarkozy.

For more: Sarkozy Pulls Ahead of Hollande in First-Round Support - Businessweek