June 2018 - 222 Cam

I’ve Been Acquitted. Egypt’s Struggle Continues.

By Charlotte J Wilson

June 14, 2018

WASHINGTON — I’ll never forget the words I read scribbled on the wall when I was first put into a cage in a Cairo courtroom, on Feb. 26, 2012: “If defending justice is a crime, then long live criminality.”

That was the first day of my trial, Case No. 173/2011. (In Egyptian courtrooms, defendants are kept in cages.) Along with 42 other defendants, 17 of them Americans, who worked for international nongovernmental organizations in Egypt, I was charged with operating an organization without a license (not true) and receiving illegal foreign funds (also not true). All of us worked for organizations promoting the rule of law, transparency and democracy.

On June 4, 2013, we were found guilty and sentenced to one to five years in prison. The court claimed, with no legal evidence, that we were a threat to national security and were conspiring with foreign agents. But in February of this year, an appeal for a retrial was accepted and in November, it began. Now our ordeal is finally over. On Thursday, a court in Cairo acquitted us of all charges.

I am, of course, very happy to see our innocence finally, officially recognized. And more important, I hope that this news brings some needed optimism to Egyptian civil society groups, some of which are still being similarly prosecuted. But that doesn’t mean I am able to fully celebrate.

Despite the acquittal, I have already been punished, as have my co-defendants in various ways: some of us were unable to find work in Egypt or driven into exile and separated from our children and our parents and our families. In 2012, I was forced to leave Egypt for the United States, while my twins, Adam and Farida, stayed behind. For six years, I have longed for my family and my home.

I hid the truth from the twins, who were 3 years old when I left Egypt and couldn’t come with me for personal and bureaucratic reasons. I told them that I’d gone to Washington for work, not because I was being prosecuted at home. My sister brought them to visit once a year.

Last Christmas, I finally told them the truth. Their wisdom amazed me. “Mommy, you should continue your work,” Adam said. Farida called me a “hero.” Adam added: “We love Egypt. How can we fix things there so nothing like that happens to anyone again?”

That has always been my concern, not my experience of injustice, which, compared to how many other Egyptians have suffered, is relatively minor. How can we fix Egypt? In the last five years, my country has become one of the top jailers of journalists in the world; people are regularly abducted by the security services; torture is common, and so are unfair trials; the right to protest is restricted.

The truth is that what Egypt needs is exactly the kind of work that I and 42 other people were put on trial for doing. Nongovernmental organizations, civil society groups and advocates should oversee the government and examine its structures, making the case for democracy, transparency and accountability.

China Will Slash Car Tariffs, Trump Says in a (Vague) Tweet

By Charlotte J Wilson

June 2, 2018

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| Automobiles, Random Posts

BEIJING — After the negotiations over steak dinners were done, after he said his goodbyes to President Xi Jinping of China and after both governments issued their public statements about the trade truce between the United States and China, President Trump had one more surprise to drop.

In a late-night Twitter post on Sunday, Mr. Trump said that China had agreed to make a small but politically significant concession to the United States: It would drop tariffs on imports of American-made cars.

“China has agreed to reduce and remove tariffs on cars coming into China from the U.S.,” he wrote. “Currently the tariff is 40%.”

The disclosure took trade watchers and auto industry figures in both countries by surprise. The issue of auto tariffs had not appeared in either government’s public statement after the temporary trade-war truce.

It was unclear what China had agreed to do, if it had agreed to do anything at all. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry referred questions to the Commerce Ministry. That ministry was silent, and its weekly news conference is not until Thursday. American officials were unavailable for comment.

The confusion is perhaps inevitable. Chinese leaders hoard information as a way of bolstering their political power. Add to that Mr. Trump’s predilection for trying to summarize complex issues in Twitter posts of a few words, and the potential for confusion can grow quickly.

China does not import many cars from the United States. American imports are roughly 1 percent of the market, or about $10.5 billion worth. While Chinese drivers love to buy Chevrolets and Fords, those vehicles are generally made in Chinese factories through joint ventures between local and American carmakers.

A concession on auto tariffs could be significant, however. It could suggest that China is willing to bend on the issue of Chinese-made cars, an area of great concern for the White House. The Trump administration worries that China could someday swamp American car lots with Chinese-made cars that could seriously damage the Detroit automakers.

Mr. Trump targeted Chinese-made cars when he issued his first tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese-made goods, marking the opening salvo of the trade war. China retaliated by raising tariffs on American-made cars to 40 percent, compared with 15 percent on cars from everywhere else.

Still, it was far from clear that was the case, and industry experts said the president’s Twitter post seemed to leave open a variety of interpretations.

One possibility is that Mr. Trump was mistakenly referring to China’s move this summer to reduce tariffs on auto imports from everywhere to 15 percent from 25 percent. China’s retaliatory tariffs brought the rate on American-made cars up to 40 percent.

Another possibility is that a deal on cars was part of a larger agreement alluded to in vague statements the United States issued on Saturday night, when the truce was first announced. The Trump administration said China had agreed to purchase “agricultural, energy, industrial and other product from the United States.” As a practical matter, China would have to lower its tariffs on American-made goods or those purchases would be more expensive.