The European Union is cool to the idea of Britain’s “associate membership” in various agencies of the bloc as proposed by London to make Brexit less disruptive for British business.

Britain started a process to leave the EU last year because it no longer wants to accept the authority of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the free movement of workers, and it does not want to contribute to the EU budget.

But it is keen to keep most of its other links with the EU, especially unfettered access to the EU’s market.

EU officials call this approach “cherry-picking,” where London chooses the areas it wants for closer association but does not accept the obligations linked to it in other areas. 

Last Friday, Prime Minister Theresa May floated the idea of Britain’s remaining an associate member of the European Medicines Agency, the European Chemicals Agency and the European Aviation Safety Agency after Britain leaves the EU in March 2019.

She said London understood this meant abiding by the rules of those agencies and financial contributions. But EU officials involved in the negotiations on the terms of Britain’s exit from the bloc and deciding on the future trade relationship were not impressed.

“It is not so much ‘how’ they participate. That’s a technicality. The bigger question is ‘if’ they should participate. Why would we let them in?” one official said.

“The bottom line is that the U.K. approach is cherry-picking.

“The EU has a vast number of agencies, and I think we’d think twice to let the U.K. ‘associate’ itself with a selected number they choose because they have an interest,” the official said.

Brussels officials pointed out that an “associate membership” — a status that does not exist yet and would have to be created especially for Britain — would not give London the kind of access to the EU single market it sought.

“It is not possible to accept ECJ oversight in only some segments of business in the EU and not in others,” a second EU official said. “The single market is not made of bits and pieces you can pick and choose.”

An “associate membership” status would also likely involve complex legal work in the EU to create it.

“The willingness to change regulations in order to accommodate the U.K.’s wishes … is limited because it entails lengthy legislative procedures,” a third official said.

The chairman of EU leaders, Donald Tusk, will present draft guidelines for the EU’s future trade deal with Britain in Luxembourg on Wednesday.

‘Freedom implies responsibility’

The closest to an “associate membership” the EU has now is with countries in the European Economic Area but not EU members — Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland — which can take part in meetings, but they do not have voting rights.

Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, said last November that the work of the EU agencies was based on EU laws, which Britain no longer wants to accept and should then go on and build its own.

“The same people who argue for setting the U.K. free also argue that the U.K. should remain in some EU agencies. But freedom implies responsibility for building new U.K. administrative capacity,” Barnier said.

“On our side, the 27 will continue to deepen the work of those agencies, together. They will share the costs for running those agencies. Our businesses will benefit from their expertise. All of their work is firmly based on the EU treaties, which the U.K. decided to leave,” he said.

May argued in her speech last week that every trade agreement, which focused on some aspects of an economy more than on others, was some form of “cherry-picking.”

“With all its neighbors the EU has varying levels of access to the single market, depending on the obligations those neighbors are willing to undertake,” she said.

“What would be cherry-picking would be if we were to seek a deal where our rights and obligations were not held in balance. And I have been categorically clear that is not what we are going to do,” she said.

But EU officials said that Britain would get the trade agreement it sought with the EU only if it agreed to balance the rights and obligations in a way that would not pick apart the EU single market.

The bloc would also have to make sure that the deal is less attractive than EU membership.

“Nobody asked after the EU trade agreement with Canada, or Korea: ‘Why can’t we be like Canada or Korea?’ The point is that also after Brexit, nobody should ask themselves: ‘Why can’t we be like Britain?’ ” the second official said.
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U.S. President Donald Trump’s net worth fell by $400 million last year, down to an estimated $3.1 billion, causing him to plummet 222 places on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the world’s billionaires, released Tuesday.

Trump slipped from 544th richest in 2017 to 766th in 2018. It is the second consecutive year that Trump’s fortune has dwindled.

Trump’s slide down the rankings of the world’s wealthy comes as a record 35 people have joined Forbes list of billionaires.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos was named the richest man in the world, with a fortune of $112 billion, up $39.2 billion from the year before. Rounding out the top three are Microsoft’s Bill Gates with $90 billion and investor Warren Buffett with $84 billion.

The richest person in Europe and fourth on the list is the boss of luxury goods firm LVMH, Bernard Arnault, who has a fortune of $72 billion.

The U.S. has the most billionaires by country, with 585, followed by China. California alone has 144 billionaires, more than any country besides the U.S. and China.

Germany has the most of any European country, with 123. India has 119 billionaires, and Russia has 102. Hungary and Zimbabwe made their first appearances on the annual list, with one billionaire each.

Ten Saudi Arabians who usually feature among the top 100, including prominent tech investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, were left off the list, “due to a lack of clarity about what they currently own,” Forbes explained, following a recent Saudi government crackdown on corruption within its ranks.

The list featured a record 256 women, led by Walmart heiress Alice Walton, worth $46 billion.

According to Forbes, the 2,208 billionaires who made this year’s list together are worth $9.1 trillion, roughly 4 percent of all the money in the world. 
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Top economic adviser Gary Cohn is leaving the White House after breaking with President Donald Trump on trade policy, the latest in a string of high-level departures from the West Wing.

Cohn, the director of the National Economic Council, has been the leading internal opponent to Trump’s planned tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum, working to orchestrate an eleventh-hour effort in recent days to get Trump to reverse course. But Trump resisted those efforts, and reiterated Tuesday he will be imposing tariffs in the coming days.

Cohn’s departure comes amid a period of unparalleled tumult in the Trump administration, and aides worry that more staffers may soon head for the doors.

The announcement came hours after Trump denied there was chaos in the White House. Trump maintained that his White House has “tremendous energy,” but multiple White House officials said Trump has been urging anxious aides to stay.

“Everyone wants to work in the White House,” Trump said during a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven. “They all want a piece of the Oval Office.”

In a statement, Cohn said it was his honor to serve in the administration and “enact pro-growth economic policies to benefit the American people.”

Trump praised Cohn despite the disagreement on trade, issuing a statement saying Cohn has “served his country with great distinction.”

Cohn is a former Goldman Sachs executive who joined the White House after departing the Wall Street firm with a $285 million payout. He played a pivotal role in helping Trump enact a sweeping tax overhaul, coordinating with members of Congress.

Trump loved to boast about the former executive’s wealth, but Cohn’s tenure in the White House was rocky. Cohn nearly departed the administration last summer after he was upset by the president’s comments about the racial violence in Charlottesville, Va. Cohn, who is Jewish, wrote a letter of resignation but never submitted it.

“Citizens standing up for equality and freedom can never be equated with white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and the KKK,” Cohn told The Financial Times at the time. “I believe this administration can and must do better in consistently and unequivocally condemning these groups and do everything we can to heal the deep divisions that exist in our communities.”

The comments came as Cohn was under consideration to serve as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Earlier in the administration, Cohn found himself on the losing side of several contentious battles, including the announcement of plans to pull the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement.

Cohn had also hoped to steer more than $1 trillion into infrastructure investments, including updates to the U.S. air traffic control system that would make air travel faster and easier. But the multiple infrastructure rollouts by the Trump administration failed to gain traction, often overshadowed by controversial statements made by the president himself.

Cohn often faced ridicule among some inside the White House for being a registered Democrat who last year met with former Republican officials pushing a form of a carbon tax that was designed to reduce the risks from climate change.

Yet his stock improved to the point that he was one of names Trump was floating for chief of staff last month, when it looked like John Kelly was on thin ice.

Cohn told other White House aides in recent weeks that he would have little reason to stay if Trump followed through with his tariff plans, according to a White House official familiar with his views. The official spoke on condition of anonymity.

“I mean it is no secret that he disagreed with Trump on trade and he was opposed to the policy,” said Stephen Moore, who served as an economic adviser to Trump’s campaign.

The White House did not immediately announce a replacement for Cohn, whose deputy, Jeremy Katz, departed in January. Among those under consideration for Cohn’s job are CNBC commentator Larry Kudlow and Office of Management and Budget director Mick Mulvaney, according to a person familiar with the discussions.

In a tweet earlier Tuesday, Trump sought to portray himself as the architect of the White House staff changes, writing, “I still have some people that I want to change (always seeking perfection).”

Trump acknowledged he is a tough boss to work for, saying he enjoys watching his closest aides fight over policy. “I like conflict,” he said during the press conference.

Cohn was nowhere in sight at the press conference and a seat reserved for him in the East Room was filled by a different aide.

Dating back to the campaign, Trump has frequently and loudly complained about the quality of his staff, eager to fault his aides for any mishaps rather than acknowledge any personal responsibility. But the attacks on his own staff have sharpened in recent weeks, and he has suggested to confidants that he has few people at his side he can count on, according to two people familiar with his thinking but not authorized to publicly discuss private conversations.

Coinciding with the heated debate over tariffs, Trump’s communications director Hope Hicks, one of his closest and most devoted aides, announced her resignation last week, leaving a glaring vacancy in the informal cadre of Trump loyalists in the White House.

Turnover after just over a year in office is nothing new, but the Trump administration has churned through staff at a dizzying pace since taking office last January, and allies are worried the situation could descend into a free-fall.

Making matters worse, the list of prospects to replace departing aides grows shorter as the sense of turmoil increases. Vacancies abound throughout the West Wing and the administration at large, from critical roles like staff secretary to more junior positions in the press office.
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The Trump administration’s proposal to expand offshore drilling off the Pacific Northwest coast is drawing vocal opposition in a region where multimillion-dollar fossil fuel projects have been blocked in recent years.

The governors of Washington and Oregon, many in the state’s congressional delegation and other top state officials have criticized Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s plan to open 90 percent of the nation’s offshore reserves to development by private companies.

They say it jeopardizes the environment and the health, safety and economic well-being of coastal communities.

Opponents spoke out Monday at a hearing that a coalition of groups organized in Olympia, Washington, on the same day as an “open house” hosted by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson told dozens gathered — some wearing yellow hazmat suits and holding “Stop Trump’s Big Oil Giveways” signs — that he will sue if the plan is approved.

“What this administration has done with this proposal is outrageous,” he said.

Oil and gas exploration and drilling is not permitted in state waters.

In announcing the plan to vastly open federal waters to oil and gas drilling, Zinke has said responsible development of offshore energy resources would boost jobs and economic security while providing billions of dollars to fund conservation along U.S. coastlines.

His plan proposes 47 leases off the nation’s coastlines from 2019 to 2024, including one off Washington and Oregon.

Oil industry groups have praised the plan, while environmental groups say it would harm oceans, coastal economies, public health and marine life.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee met with Zinke over the weekend while in D.C. for the National Governors Association conference and again urged him to remove Washington from the plan, Inslee spokeswoman Tara Lee said Monday.

There hasn’t been offshore oil drilling in Washington or Oregon since the 1960s.

There hasn’t been much interest in offshore oil and gas exploration in recent decades though technology has improved, said Washington’s state geologist David Norman.

“It’s a very active place tectonically. We have a really complicated tough geology. It’s got really rough weather,” Norman said.

There’s more potential for natural gas than oil off the Pacific Northwest, said BOEM spokesman John Romero. A 2016 assessment estimates undiscovered recoverable oil at fractions of the U.S. total.

Proponents have backed the idea as a way to provide affordable energy, meet growing demands and to promote the U.S.’s “energy dominance.” Emails to representatives with the Western States Petroleum Association and the American Petroleum Institute were not immediately returned Monday.

Sixteen members of Washington and Oregon’s congressional delegation last month wrote to Zinke to oppose the plan, saying gas drilling off the Northwest coastline poses a risk to the state’s recreational, fishing and maritime economy.

Kyle Deerkop, who manages an oyster farm in Grays Harbor for Oregon-based Pacific Seafood, worried an oil spill would put jobs and the livelihood of people at risk.

“We need to be worried,” he said in an interview, recalling a major 1988 oil spill in Grays Harbor. “It’s too great a risk.”

Tribal members, business owners and environmentalists spoke at the so-called people’s hearing Monday organized by Stand Up To Oil coalition.

The groups wanted to allow people to speak into a microphone before a crowd because the federal agency’s open house didn’t allow that. Instead the open house allowed people to directly talk to staff or submit comments using laptops provided.
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If Mexico, the U.S. and Canada don’t renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement in two months, Washington might put the talks on the back burner until after a new Mexican president is elected or takes office, U.S. trade representative Robert Lighthizer said Monday.

He spoke after the seventh round of renegotiation talks wrapped up in Mexico City with little progress reported.

“The window is fairly short. It’s not like we can do this in my judgment, at the end of May and think we can get anything done,” Lighthizer said. “It’s not irrational to think you would have lower speed talks at some point, just to keep the talks going … and wait until after the elections,” referring to Mexico’s July 1 presidential election.

“The question is: ‘Til when? When do you start up — after the election, or do you start up after the new president is in place and has his own people in place,” Lighthizer said.

He said the latest talks produced agreement on only three of the 27 remaining NAFTA chapters, including health and sanitation, transparency and regulatory practices.

Lighthizer said progress had been slower than hoped, and noted it might be harder to get any deal through the U.S. Congress after November.

“There is some possibility that the Democrats will take over the Congress, and even if that doesn’t happen, they’ll be a different makeup of Congress for sure,” he said.

Since renegotiations began, agreement has been reached on only six of NAFTA’s 30 chapters, and big differences remain on issues like regional and U.S. content in autos, and dispute resolution panels.

The U.S. threw a new issue into the talks when President Donald Trump announced new duties on aluminum and steel imports — but then said Mexico and Canada would be exempted from the tariffs if NAFTA were successfully renegotiated.

Lighthizer denied that was a strong-arm tactic meant to exert additional pressure on Canada and Mexico.

“This is just a total coincidence,” he said regarding the timing of the new tariffs.

Nor was it a threat, Lighthizer said. “I certainly presented it as a positive thing … It’s my view that it’s an incentive to get a deal.”

Lighthizer said that “at this point our objective is still to have a trilateral agreement,” but noted that the Trump administration is “prepared to move on a bilateral basis” with either Canada or Mexico.
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The head of the World Trade Organization told member states on Monday they must prevent “the fall of the first dominoes” in a trade war and warned of a real risk of triggering an escalation of global trade barriers and a deep recession.

World trade policy is in turmoil because of U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement last week that he planned to put controversial tariffs on steel and aluminum, prompting threats of tit-for-tat actions and concerns for the trade system itself.

“We must make every effort to avoid the fall of the first dominoes. There is still time,” WTO Director General Roberto Azevedo told the heads of WTO delegations at a closed-door meeting in Geneva.

“In light of recent announcements on trade policy measures, it is clear that we now see a much higher and real risk of triggering an escalation of trade barriers across the globe,” Azevedo said, according to a copy of his statement released by the WTO.

Azevedo is normally very conservative in remarks about WTO members’ trade policies, but he also plays a role as a guardian of the global trading rules, a bulwark against protectionism.

On Friday he broke his silence on Trump’s tariff plan, expressing concern and saying a trade war would be in nobody’s interest.

In his statement at Monday’s meeting, he did not name any one country but sounded a more urgent warning.

“Once we start down this path it will be very difficult to reverse direction. An eye for an eye will leave us all blind and the world in a deep recession,” Azevedo said.

Trade officials said that many diplomats at the meeting voiced concern about protectionism, and 11, including the 28-state European Union, expressed very strong concerns about Trump’s announcement on Thursday specifically.

As well as the EU, Mexico, Japan, Australia, China, South Korea, Brazil, Norway, Canada, India and Venezuela all warned of the knock-on effect of Trump’s action and urged the United States to think again.

Trade officials said the U.S. representative at the meeting, originally called to discuss a recent ministerial conference in Argentina, spoke only about the original agenda without mentioning the furor over the U.S. tariff plan.
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Isabel dos Santos, the former head of Angola’s state-owned Sonangol oil company, is denying her successor’s allegations that she engaged in questionable business dealings related to the firm.

In a 13-page typed statement released late Sunday, Dos Santos – Africa’s richest woman, with a net worth that Forbes business magazine estimates at $2.6 billion – denounced what she called “slanderous” and “defamatory campaigns” against her.

Last week, Sonangol chair Carlos Saturnino reported that an internal audit showed a transaction of $38 million to a company based in Dubai; it had been approved by dos Santos shortly after she was removed from her post in November after roughly 16 months.

Dos Santos defended the transaction as a “totally legitimate” payment for consultancy services. She said she was fulfilling her legal obligations until her replacement could be sworn in, according to Reuters news service.

On Friday, Angola’s public prosecutor’s office acknowledged it was looking into Saturnino’s accusations.

Dos Santos had been appointed chair of Sonangol’s board by her father, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, Angola’s president from 1979 until last September. She was dismissed by his successor, President Joao Lourenco, who vowed to clean up Angola’s corruption-tainted economy.

The younger dos Santos’ goal was to restructure Sonangol, Reuters reported last November. In 2016, she had fired Saturnino from his job as the oil company’s production and exploration leader.   

The 2014 nosedive in global oil prices rocked Angola, where, according to the World Bank, oil accounts for a third of gross domestic product and more than 95 percent of the country’s exports. As she was leaving office, dos Santos told Sonangol staffers she had rescued the “nearly bankrupt” company by cutting costs, Reuters said.   
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Workers pried President Donald Trump’s name from signs outside his family company’s luxury hotel in Panama on Monday, as Trump’s executives were ousted from their management offices in a business dispute under orders from Panamanian officials. Trump’s security guards also left.

The end to a 12-day standoff over control of the property came early in the day when a Panamanian judicial official and police officers backed the hotel’s majority owner, Orestes Fintiklis, as he took possession of the offices. The Trump-affiliated management and security officials then left the 70-story, waterfront high-rise.

“This was purely a commercial dispute that just spun out of control,” said Fintiklis, a Miami-based private equity investor and head of the hotel owners’ association. “And today this dispute has been settled by the authorities and the judges of this country.”

The episode was a rare occasion when a foreign government has stood up against the operations of one of Trump’s family businesses, and it was unclear whether Trump might consider retaliating diplomatically. The Panamanian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. U.S. government officials referred questions to the Trump Organization, which did not respond to phone messages and emails requesting comment.

A Panamanian judicial official told The Associated Press a statement would come later in the day.

The Trump Hotel’s website had ceased offering direct bookings at the hotel by early Monday afternoon. “We apologize,” the site said. “There are no available rooms for your requested stay.”

The judicial intervention resolved the most contentious part of the dispute between Trump’s hotel business and Fintiklis, who sought to take physical control of the property on behalf of the hotel owners. Though the owners tried to fire Trump’s company last year, the Trump Organization had disputed the termination as legally invalid. As part of his fire sale purchase of 202 of the hotel’s 369 units, Fintiklis signed a February 2017 agreement not to challenge Trump’s management contract — a deal the Trump Organization considers binding.

Fintiklis quickly changed course after the deal closed in August, arguing that alleged mismanagement by Trump’s staff and the deterioration of the Trump brand rendered keeping the property in Trump hands impossible. In late December, Trump’s management team ran off a team of Marriott hotel executives visiting the property at Fintiklis’ invitation.

“Our investment has no future so long as the hotel is managed by an incompetent operator whose brand has been tarnished beyond repair,” Orestes wrote to his fellow hotel owners in a January email obtained by the AP.

The most recent and intense feuding began Feb. 22, when Fintiklis came to the property with termination notices for Trump’s management team. Trump hotel officials turned away Fintiklis and his entourage, refusing to let him check into any of his private equity fund’s 202 hotel rooms.

A legal complaint filed by Fintiklis said that, late that same evening, he and others in his party witnessed Trump’s management team destroying hotel documents, which Trump officials have denied.

For more than a week, Trump’s hotel business staved off efforts by Fintiklis and his allies to gain control of the property, with rival security teams skirmishing over physical control of key infrastructure. That included the administrative offices and the hotel’s closed caption security system, which was housed in the condo association within the same building. Grainy footage of the encounter obtained by the AP shows Trump security officials shoving a representative of the condo owners’ association and a brawl in a stairwell between opposing security guards.

Initially invited by Trump’s managers, the Panamanian police repeatedly visited the hotel to keep the peace. At least one Trump security official was taken off the property in handcuffs, though a police source told the AP he was not arrested.

Trump officials denounced Fintiklis’ efforts to take control of the property as “thug-like, mob-style tactics” and pledged in a February statement they would not give in to “bullying and the use of force.” Until litigation and arbitration involving the property was concluded, Trump officials said, they had no intention of leaving.

While Trump staffed up with additional security — stationing guards at the hotel’s administrative offices for more than one week — the fight for physical control of the hotel ended quietly with the intervention by Panamanian authorities. Trump security officials exited the property on their own accord, leaving the hotel’s administrative office vacant.

The whereabouts of the Trump hotel management team could not be immediately determined, but Fintiklis declared the fight over.

“Today Panama has made us proud,” Fintiklis said, adding that he intended to apply for Panamanian citizenship. Though Fintiklis has generally declined to comment on the dispute, he appeared to gloat Monday. Sitting at the piano in the hotel’s lobby, surrounded by reporters and news cameras, he played “Accordeon,” a Greek song celebrating that country’s fight to overthrow a fascist regime.

Within two hours, a man using a hammer and a crowbar began stripping Trump signage from a stone plaque in front of the building.
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