US Officials Urge Prompt Action on Greek Debt Crisis

Greece is facing "challenging times," according to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who said Washington is "confident" in Greece's ability to make economic reforms and "chart a new course."

Kerry spoke after meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias in Washington. He was referring to negotiations between Athens, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other creditors who are demanding repayment of loans that bailed out the Greek economy.

Greek financial officials and creditors appear stalled in efforts to reach a compromise on repaying more than $300 million in loans that come due shortly, and worried about even larger repayments in the next couple of months.

Greece’s new left-wing government won election on promises to end deeply unpopular austerity programs that have seen higher taxes and reduced public services. Austerity and economic reforms were demanded by the IMF, the European Union and other creditors in exchange for bailout loans.

While there have been some reforms, they are not complete and are making little new progress. Standard & Poor’s recently cut the nation’s credit rating on fears that Athens cannot meet its repayment schedule.

Last week, IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said the global lender would not give Greece more time to make its repayments, and other lenders appear unlikely to ease terms either.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew urged Greece to work out a comprehensive set or reforms that “merit timely financial support” from its international partners. Lew cautioned that failure would create immediate hardship for Greece and uncertainties for Europe and the global economy.

Wesleyan University professor Richard Grossman says Greece is only a small part of the European economy, but warns that defaulting on loan repayments would raise investor worries about other heavily indebted nations that are far larger. He says it could set a precedent, making it possible other nations might follow the same path, raising "a cloud" over the 19-nation eurozone.

The Greek crisis comes at a time when stock and other markets already are overextened, vulnerable and fragile, potentially amplifying the impact of any loss of investor confidence on markets far from Greece, according to Robert Blake of the investor education company FinMason.

Билет №20

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US, Europe Seek to End Tariffs on Each Other's Products

The trade deal being negotiated between the United States and European Union could add $100 billion annually to the economies on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, but the issues are complex and there is no guarantee that an agreement will be reached anytime soon.

The U.S. and the 28-nation EU started negotiations nearly two years ago and resumed them again this week in New York. The U.S. is the world's biggest individual economy and the EU, collectively, is even bigger.

Even though the U.S. and Europe collaborate militarily in the NATO alliance and annually carry out billions of dollars in business deals, existing tariffs and other barriers limit the economic activity from what it might be.

Both Europe and the U.S. say they want to eliminate custom duties on each other's products.

"In the 21st century it is anachronistic that Europeans and Americans still impose custom duties on each other's products," European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said last year. "These should be eliminated, quickly and completely."

The United States has taken the same stance. It ships $730 million in goods to the EU every day and notes that tariffs can make the difference between winning and losing a contract.

The U.S. says it wants to put itself on the same trading level as the EU's other free trade agreement partners, including Chile, Mexico, South Korea and South Africa.

The U.S. says tariffs, for example, add a 7 percent duty to the cost of American farmers' apples sent to Europe, while EU competitors' apples sent to the United States are duty free.

Conversely, the EU says some U.S. tariffs are as high as 30 percent on high value European products, such as hams, cheese, wine, liquor and chocolate, making them too expensive for American consumers and hard for European farmers to export them.

Conversely, the EU says American exporters face customs on such products as corn, soy beans and animal feed, boosting costs for European farmers and manufacturers.

The trade negotiations include discussions on labor and environmental standards, conflicting business regulations in the United States and Europe and corporate investment rules on both sides of the Atlantic.

Билет №21

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