Title: Avoid trade wars
(Throwing free trade out of the window will make Americans
and everyone else poorer)
CONTEXT
• American
President Donald Trump last week announced that his administration would soon
impose tariffs on the import of steel and aluminium into the U.S. for an
indefinite period of time.
• 25%
tariff would be placed on steel products, and a 10% tariff would be imposed on
aluminum.
• The
European Union, one of the largest trading partners of the U.S., has since
vowed to return the favour through retaliatory measures targeting American
exporters.
• The
EU is expected to come out with a list of over 100 items imported from the U.S.
that will be subject to scrutiny.
• Mr.
Trump has justified the decision to impose protective tariffs by citing the
U.S.’s huge trade deficit with the rest of the world.
• He
likened his country’s trade deficit to a loss that would be set right by simply
stopping trade with the rest of the world.
IMPACT
• The
U.S. manufacturing industry which lost out to competition from countries such
as China due to increasing globalisation.
• It
will be important to see how China and other major trading partners respond to
his opening salvo.
• Title:
Plodding reforms
• Saudi
Arabia has to do a lot more to begin a new journey in liberalisation
• In
the latest in a series of steps aimed at enhancing women’s rights, Saudi Arabia
has invited women to join its military.
• Saudi
nationals aged between 25 and 35 were given the opportunity to apply for
positions with the rank of soldier in Riyadh, Mecca, al-Qassim and Medina.
• Earlier
this year, women were allowed to attend football matches. Last year, King
Salman issued a decree ending the ban on women driving.
• Last
month, a member of the country’s top clerical body said Saudi women need not
wear the abaya, a full-length, loose-fitting robe.
• Prince
Mohammed, whose ambition for the throne is hardly a secret, is hard-selling a
new narrative about Saudi Arabia. He’s presenting himself as a reformer and
moderniser who could change the way Saudi Arabia lives.
• Besides
these tentative reform measures, he had also arrested several of the kingdom’s
princes and senior officials in what the government calls a crackdown on
corruption.
• Lifting
the ban on women driving has been a long-standing demand by women activists in
the kingdom and abroad.
• But
if Prince Mohammed wants to go down in history as a champion of social
liberalisation, he should take radical steps.
• For
example, Saudi Arabia’s discriminatory male guardianship system, which requires
adult women to get permission to travel, work, marry, or even get access to
health care, remains intact.
• Though
the top cleric has said abayas are not mandatory now, the law requiring women
to wear the robes is still in place.
CONCLUSION
• Saudi
Arabia has to do a lot more to ensure basic rights for its women and end its
repressive policies against political and social dissent if it really wants to
begin a new journey in liberalisation.
Vocabulary words:
- Tariffs (noun) : A tax or duty to be paid on a particular class of imports or exports (प्रशुल्क, दर)
- Vowed (verb) : Take an oath (शपथ लेना)
- Retaliatory (adjective) : An action characterized by a desire for revenge (बदला लेना)
- Zero-sum game : a situation in which one person or group can win something only by causing another person or group to lose it.
- Plodding (adjective) : slow-moving and unexciting (धीमी गति से)
- Reined (verb) : Stop, Prevent (रोकना)
- Abaya (noun) : a full-length over garment worn by some Muslim women.
- Radical (adjective) : innovative or progressive (प्रगतिशील)
- Cleric (noun) : a priest or religious leader (पुरोहित )
