Consumer Affairs Victoria is pursuing legal action to protect consumers from car sellers who break the law.
It’s currently targeting licensed and unlicensed sellers whose conduct has undermined consumers’ rights when buying a used car.
Two companies operating car businesses in Dandenong and Cranbourne were recently suspended from trading. They had failed to deliver cars to customers, to pay or transfer stamp duty, and to return deposits on cancelled contracts.
More than 200 customers have so far claimed over $330,000 from the Motor Car Traders Guarantee Fund, after losing money dealing with CMG Automotive and CHM Motors. The fund compensates Victorians who suffer financial loss as the result of dealing with a licensed car business that breaks the law.
Consumer Affairs is now asking VCAT to permanently cancel CMG Automotive’s licence.
In a separate case, unlicensed car trader Zequn Wang, was recently convicted and fined $25,000. Wang bought or sold 84 cars between January 2022 and September 2023. This is far greater than the four cars per year limit you can trade without a licence.
The Office of Public Prosecutions has now launched an appeal on Consumer Affairs’ behalf to the County Court, believing the sentence handed down was inadequate.
In Victoria, unlicensed traders face maximum penalties of up to $19,000, or 15% of the sale price, for each car they buy, sell or exchange.
Buying a used car? Things you need to know
Consumer Affairs also provides information and advice so Victorians can make informed choices when buying a car.
For many people, it’s one of the biggest purchases they’ll make. Understanding your rights can help you to be happy on the road.
A new campaign will promote the laws that protect you when you’re buying a second-hand car. Demand for used cars rose 12% nationally last year.
Buying from a licensed trader provides a cooling-off period, clear title and warranty. Combined with having access to compensation from the Motor Car Traders Guarantee Fund if things go wrong, these are strong protections not available if you buy from an unlicensed seller.
India’s trade performance in May 2025 has shown strength and stability despite uncertain global conditions, according to views shared by industry experts and economists. FIEO President S C Ralhan highlighted that India’s total exports, including goods and services, increased by 2.8 per cent to USD 71.12 billion in May 2025, up from USD 69.20 billion in May 2024. The growth was mainly driven by services such as software, consultancy, and financial services.
Even though merchandise exports dipped slightly to USD 38.73 billion, the continued service momentum helped support overall performance.”Exporters are adapting well to a tough global environment,” said Ralhan. “The ability to sustain export growth despite logistical disruptions, especially in the Middle East, is a testament to the sector’s agility and policy support. “On the import front, merchandise imports eased to USD 60.61 billion, while overall imports (goods and services) stood at USD 77.75 billion, down from USD 78.55 billion in May 2024.
He added, “With appropriate policy interventions and global conditions expected to stabilise in the second half of 2025, India is well-positioned to regain a strong export growth trajectory”. Pankaj Chadha, Chairman of EEPC India, stated that the engineering exports sector has managed to stay steady despite continued international challenges.
While there was a minor decline of 0.8 per cent in engineering goods exports in May 2025, down to USD 9.89 billion from USD 9.97 billion in the same month last year, the overall numbers remain encouraging. He said, “Overall global situation, however, remains volatile. Uncertainty has only been mounting due to geopolitical tensions in key parts of the world.
The latest Israel-Iran conflict threatens to multiply the challenges for the exporting community. Apart from a rise in input costs as a result of a jump in crude prices, there is heightened concern around the blocking of the Straits of Hormuz by Iran in case tensions further intensify.
Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA, noted that India’s merchandise trade deficit reduced significantly to USD 21.9 billion in May 2025 from USD 26.4 billion in April. This is expected to help contain the current account deficit (CAD) for Q1 FY2026 to around USD 13 billion, or 1.3 per cent of GDP.
She said, “If crude oil prices average around USD 75/barrel over the remainder of this fiscal, we foresee the CAD at 1.2-1.3 per cent of GDP for FY2026. While India’s exports contracted slightly in May 2025, this was entirely led by oil exports. Non-oil exports posted a YoY growth for the second consecutive month, led by electronic goods, garments, organic and inorganic chemicals, and marine products, which helped to moderate the trade deficit. Further, the YoY contraction in oil and gold imports helped to contain the merchandise trade deficit”. (ANI)
India’s trade performance in May 2025 has shown strength and stability despite uncertain global conditions, according to views shared by industry experts and economists. FIEO President S C Ralhan highlighted that India’s total exports, including goods and services, increased by 2.8 per cent to USD 71.12 billion in May 2025, up from USD 69.20 billion in May 2024. The growth was mainly driven by services such as software, consultancy, and financial services.
Even though merchandise exports dipped slightly to USD 38.73 billion, the continued service momentum helped support overall performance.”Exporters are adapting well to a tough global environment,” said Ralhan. “The ability to sustain export growth despite logistical disruptions, especially in the Middle East, is a testament to the sector’s agility and policy support. “On the import front, merchandise imports eased to USD 60.61 billion, while overall imports (goods and services) stood at USD 77.75 billion, down from USD 78.55 billion in May 2024.
He added, “With appropriate policy interventions and global conditions expected to stabilise in the second half of 2025, India is well-positioned to regain a strong export growth trajectory”. Pankaj Chadha, Chairman of EEPC India, stated that the engineering exports sector has managed to stay steady despite continued international challenges.
While there was a minor decline of 0.8 per cent in engineering goods exports in May 2025, down to USD 9.89 billion from USD 9.97 billion in the same month last year, the overall numbers remain encouraging. He said, “Overall global situation, however, remains volatile. Uncertainty has only been mounting due to geopolitical tensions in key parts of the world.
The latest Israel-Iran conflict threatens to multiply the challenges for the exporting community. Apart from a rise in input costs as a result of a jump in crude prices, there is heightened concern around the blocking of the Straits of Hormuz by Iran in case tensions further intensify.
Aditi Nayar, Chief Economist at ICRA, noted that India’s merchandise trade deficit reduced significantly to USD 21.9 billion in May 2025 from USD 26.4 billion in April. This is expected to help contain the current account deficit (CAD) for Q1 FY2026 to around USD 13 billion, or 1.3 per cent of GDP.
She said, “If crude oil prices average around USD 75/barrel over the remainder of this fiscal, we foresee the CAD at 1.2-1.3 per cent of GDP for FY2026. While India’s exports contracted slightly in May 2025, this was entirely led by oil exports. Non-oil exports posted a YoY growth for the second consecutive month, led by electronic goods, garments, organic and inorganic chemicals, and marine products, which helped to moderate the trade deficit. Further, the YoY contraction in oil and gold imports helped to contain the merchandise trade deficit”. (ANI)
Research demonstrates that high-quality early childhood education lays the foundation for lifelong learning, social development, and emotional wellbeing. Children who undertake two years of preschool typically do better at school, are more engaged in education and are more likely to remain engaged in education, meaning they are also more likely to seek out tertiary education such as TAFE. TAFE is central to stemming skills shortages for qualified early learning educators, but early learning teachers and educators are also essential for the TAFE workforce and TAFE students and their children, to not only allow parents and guardians to participate fully in work, but for their child’s development. A child’s brain grows to near-adult size in the first five years of life. This stunning period of development is crucial in determining whether children thrive and what their life chances and educational experiences are like down the track. Overwhelming international evidence shows that high-quality early childhood education is essential during these first years – even more so for vulnerable children who experience any kind of disadvantage. Yet the shortsighted perception persists (even in 2025!) that looking after babies, toddlers and preschoolers is low-skilled women’s work – with the main purpose of boosting parents’ economic participation.
Valuing Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC)
“I can’t count the number of times people say to me, ‘Kinder’s just Play-Doh and finger-painting isn’t it?’,” says Cara Nightingale, formerly a primary and kindergarten teacher in Victoria and now AEU Victorian Branch vice president, early childhood. AEU early childhood members may be degree-qualified preschool teachers, diploma-level educators who work in funded kinder programs, or Certificate III educators who work in funded kinder programs. Despite lingering dinosaur attitudes, Nightingale says: “Over the last few years we’ve seen significant progress in politicians and the broader community acknowledging the skill, expertise and importance of Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC).” She says the quality of TAFE qualifications have helped in external recognition of the skill sets required in ECEC. “To deliver high-quality ECEC you need a workforce that is highly qualified and provided with wraparound supports and resources for retention, along with professional pay and working conditions that are reflective of the important work of Early Childhood teachers and educators,” Nightingale says.
Victorian Union Wins
Recent union wins in Victoria, a state that leads the country in ECEC sector bargaining, are driving change, Nightingale says. “When AEU early childhood members achieved pay parity with school teachers it was a significant win,” she says. “They are the only kinder teachers across the country that have achieved pay parity with school teachers.”
Three Days Guaranteed
More good news for the sector came in February with the Early Childhood Education and Care (Three Day Guarantee) Bill 2025, which guarantees families three days of subsidised early learning per week and eliminates the discriminatory activity test that previously restricted access based on parents’ work or study status.
Policy Progress Since 2022
Since the Albanese government came to office in 2022, there have been a number of significant industrial relations reforms, funding boosts and initiatives in the sector, including:
The Wage Justice for Early Childhood Education and Care Workers Bill 2024
A 15 per cent pay rise for early educators, to be phased in over two years
A $1 billion fund to build or expand early learning centres in under-served areas
The introduction of Free TAFE for priority employment areas, which has seen 35,500 enrolments in ECEC alone
The Fair Work Commission’s decision to grant multi-employer bargaining rights.
Nightingale says multi-employer bargaining is an important shift of the power balance back towards the workforce and members, and directly led to significant ECEC member pay increases in Victoria. Nightingale also applauds the Victorian government’s moves to build state-funded early childhood services in places the market won’t.
Childcare Deserts: The Last Frontier
Finding any childcare, let alone affordable or high-quality learning options, remains a problem for many parents, especially those in regional and rural areas. A 2022 Mitchell Institute report found that around 35 per cent of the Australian population lived in what is classified as a ‘childcare desert’ – where there were more than three children per available childcare place. In places like Whyalla, Port Lincoln and Port Pirie in South Australia, around five children were competing for each place. Even worse, 1.1 million Australians live where there are simply no childcare and early learning services at all.
The Case for Public Provision
“There are just so many gaps,” says Thrive by Five’s Weatherill. “We are still far away from a universal, high-quality, and affordable early learning system the way we have it in place for maternal health services and primary schools. With the current system, we hand out a voucher and ask people to go shopping for childcare. That’s fine if you can find a service at the right price, but if you have children with special needs or you live in the country, or you’re a single mum or in a remote Aboriginal community, there are these gaps because the market [only] provides things that are easy to provide where they can make a dollar.” This is why public provision of ECEC as an essential service, like public TAFE, is important.
TAFE: An Essential Pipeline
Early indicators suggest things are moving in the right direction – the ECEC workforce has grown by more than 30,000 since Labor took office, and job vacancies in the sector dropped by 22 per cent in 2024 according to Jobs and Skills Australia. Far greater numbers of skilled graduates will be needed in the near future according to the Australian Children’s Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA), which estimates that an additional 85,000 ECEC workers are required to raise Australia’s provision to the OECD average by 2030 and a doubling of the sector by adding almost 260,000 workers to match provision in Nordic countries. Publicly funded TAFE and Free places will be required in large numbers to ramp up this ECEC workforce, providing the Cert III or Diploma in Early Childhood Education and Care. “The provision of free or low-cost TAFE for early educators is crucial in the workforce development story,” says Weatherill. “Degree-based teachers are important, but the overwhelming majority of early educators will be certificate and diploma qualified, and they’ll overwhelmingly be provided by TAFE.” “It’s all connected,” says Cara Nightingale. “Having properly funded TAFE and well-paid teachers is part of it, but so too is providing the additional supports for things like numeracy and literacy that we need.” She says another key benefit of retaining teachers is that they mentor the next generation, ensuring that their skills, knowledge and love of teaching continues.
For millennia, First Nations people have shaped Australian ecosystems through the purposeful and skilful use of fire. This cultural burning is an important way for Aboriginal people to connect to and care for Country.
Under climate change, Earth is experiencing more frequent and severe bushfires. This has prompted a rethink of Western approaches to fire management, and triggered the development of cultural burning programs supported by government agencies.
At the same time, First Nations people have been calling to revitalise cultural burning as part of a generations-long pursuit of self-determination.
Our new research details the results of a Indigenous-led cultural burning program in critically endangered woodlands in New South Wales. It shows how Western science can support cultural burning to deliver benefits across cultures – as well as for nature.
What we did
Box-gum grassy woodland has been extensively cleared for agriculture, and only about 5% of its original extent remains. The woodlands are endangered in NSW and critically endangered across eastern Australia.
They feature diverse eucalypt trees, sparse shrubs and native tussock grasses, and support native fauna including the critically endangered regent honeyeater and swift parrot.
Our project brought together First Nations communities, ecologists from the Australian National University and officers from Local Land Services. It also involved the Rural Fire Service.
Cultural burns are relatively cool, slow fires. They trickle through the landscape, enabling animals to escape the flames. They promote the germination of plants, including culturally important food and medicine plants, among other benefits.
Cultural burns are important to First Nations people for a variety of cultural and social reasons. The practice is part of a broader suite of inherited cultural responsibilities shared through generations.
Our project involved cultural burns in the winter and spring of 2023. Wiradjuri people burned their Country around Young and Wagga Wagga, and Ngunnawal people burned their Country near Yass.
The burns took place on travelling stock reserves – remnant patches of vegetation historically used to move cattle from paddock to market. These reserves are very important for Aboriginal people because they often trace Songlines and Dreaming tracks. They are also important for farmers as places to graze cattle during drought.
Alongside the cultural burning program, ANU research ecologists monitored how the woodlands responded to the burns. They did this by surveying plants, soils and biomass before and about eight months after the burns, as well as in unburnt areas.
What we found
We measured plant responses by counting the number of plant individuals and recording germination.
Many native plant species germinated after the burn. They included native peas – one an endangered species, the small scurf pea, which germinated exclusively after the burns.
Germination was greater in burned than unburned sites, including for sensitive species that commonly respond well to fire such as native glycine (a herb) and lomandra grasses.
Importantly, the condition of a site before the burn affected how well plants responded. Condition refers to factors such as the diversity of native plants (including sensitive species) and the presence of weeds.
After the burn, native plants were more abundant on sites with a better starting condition, than on those in poor condition. This highlights the importance of improving the health of poor-condition areas after burns.
The type of appropriate management will depend on the site, but may include weed control and planting or seeding native species. More monitoring will also help quantify longer term responses after burning.
Investing in community and nature
Indigenous community members led the burns on their Country and were represented by women and men of multiple generations. They were paid for their work and offered fire-safety training and personal protective equipment.
The burns were often community events – days of connection and sharing knowledge within communities, and between cultures. This fostered opportunities for “two-way learning” and “two-eyed seeing” – ways of respectfully bringing together Indigenous and Western knowledge.
Our project shows how cross-cultural partnerships can be central to conserving and restoring Australia’s unique and highly diverse ecosystems, during a period of environmental change. But for this to happen, cultural burning must be better integrated into mainstream land management.
This is especially needed in some parts of southern Australia, where government-funded programs have been less resourced than in parts of northern and Central Australia.
Government agencies and institutions can support Indigenous land stewardship in various ways.
These include:
designing projects with Indigenous people from the outset, and being directed by community aspirations which supports self-determination
forming meaningful cross-cultural partnerships across agencies to navigate complex bureaucratic processes
providing Indigenous people with resources and land access to manage Country, including funding for labour, training and equipment. Provisions for sufficient resources must be made from the beginning, in grant applications
protecting and acknowledging the rights of Indigenous people to their cultural heritage, such as traditional knowledge, through formal protection agreements.
Elle Bowd receives funding from the NSW Government, the ACT Government, the ACT government, the Local Land Services, and the Australian Research Council.
David Lindenmayer receives funding from the NSW Government, the ACT Government, the 4AM Foundation, NSW Local Land Services, and the Australian Research Council. He is a Councillor with the Biodiversity Council and a Member of Birds Australia.
Geoff Cary receives funding from the Australian Research Council and the Bushfire Research Centre of Excellence funded by ANU and Optus, and previously received funding from Future Ready Regions EDIS Development, Australian Research Council, ACT Government, Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC, National Health and Medical Research Council, Australian Greenhouse Office/Department of Climate Change Greenhouse Action in Regional Australia funding schemes, Desert Knowledge CRC, NSW Department of Environment & Conservation, Tasmanian Government and US National Science Foundation.
Braithan Bell-Garner and Dean Freeman do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to Cyprus concluded with the adoption of a Joint Declaration outlining a roadmap for deepened strategic cooperation between the two nations, according to a press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The Ministry of External Affairs and the Government of Cyprus also released coordinated statements underscoring the breadth of this renewed partnership. As per the PMO release, Cyprus expressed solidarity and unwavering support to India in its fight against cross-border terrorism and strongly condemned the recent terrorist attacks in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir.
Both leaders “strongly condemned the gruesome killing of civilians in the recent heinous terrorist attacks in Pahalgam,” reiterating their zero-tolerance approach to terrorism. The press release also highlighted the shared commitment of both sides to strengthening EU-India relations.
With Cyprus assuming the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in early 2026, both sides pledged to work towards the timely conclusion of the EU-India Free Trade Agreement by the end of 2025, calling it a move of “significant economic and strategic potential.”
According to the release, Prime Minister Modi’s visit — the first by an Indian Prime Minister to Cyprus in over two decades — was described as a “historic milestone” that “reaffirms the deep and enduring friendship between the two nations.”The visit was seen as a celebration of a shared past and a “forward-looking partnership” rooted in strategic vision and mutual trust.
The declaration noted that both leaders held wide-ranging discussions on bilateral, regional, and global issues, acknowledging growing cooperation in economic, technological, and people-to-people domains. Cyprus and India committed to furthering collaboration “as trusted and indispensable partners contributing to regional and global peace, prosperity, and stability.”
The joint declaration reaffirmed both sides’ shared values–democracy, multilateralism, rule of law, and sustainable development–and their support for a rules-based international order grounded in the UN Charter and international law.
Both leaders emphasized the importance of UNCLOS in securing freedom of navigation and maritime sovereignty. Cyprus reiterated support for India’s permanent membership in a reformed United Nations Security Council.
Both countries agreed to coordinate closely within the UN, Commonwealth, and other international organizations, including supporting each other’s multilateral candidacies. The release also detailed the two sides’ agreement to hold regular political dialogue, led by their respective foreign ministries, and to implement a bilateral Action Plan to guide cooperation across key sectors.
On defence and security, both nations reaffirmed their zero-tolerance approach to terrorism, condemned terrorism in all its forms, and emphasized dismantling terrorist infrastructure and financing. Cyprus expressed solidarity with India’s fight against cross-border terrorism, and the two sides emphasized accountability for perpetrators.
Recognizing the changing global security environment, the leaders stressed the importance of enhancing strategic autonomy, cyber defence, and maritime cooperation. They agreed to explore greater naval collaboration, port calls, and joint maritime training.
The declaration further underlined the importance of institutional cooperation in emergency preparedness and crisis response, including evacuation and Search and Rescue (SAR) efforts. On connectivity, Cyprus and India reiterated the significance of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as a multi-nodal initiative to promote economic integration and regional stability.
Cyprus was described as a gateway into Europe and welcomed as a hub for Indian maritime and logistics enterprises. In the areas of trade, innovation, and technology, both leaders supported expanding bilateral trade and investment.
They called for a Cyprus-India Business Forum and supported enhanced collaboration in innovation, artificial intelligence, and digital infrastructure. The release also mentioned plans to finalize a related MoU to promote research and tech partnerships. Acknowledging people-to-people ties as a strategic pillar, the declaration confirmed efforts to finalize a Mobility Pilot Program Arrangement by the end of 2025. Both sides also agreed to improve tourism and explore direct air connectivity.
An agreement to prepare a comprehensive 2025-2029 Action Plan to steer bilateral relations was included in the joint declaration, under the supervision of the foreign ministries of both countries. (ANI)
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
SHIJIAZHUANG, June 17 (Xinhua) — China’s cross-border e-commerce volume will reach 2.71 trillion yuan (about 377.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, hitting a new historical high, Cai Junwei, deputy head of the statistical analysis department of the General Administration of Customs, said Monday at the China International Economic and Trade Talks in Langfang, north China’s Hebei Province.
According to the department, in 2024, China’s cross-border e-commerce export volume exceeded 2 trillion yuan for the first time, reaching 2.15 trillion yuan, up 16.9 percent from the previous year.
“Since the beginning of this year, there has been a trend of steady recovery and improvement in the Chinese economy. The trade in goods has shown great resilience to external pressure, and China’s foreign trade volume in cross-border e-commerce has maintained a trend of further growth,” Cai Junwei said.
According to him, more than 70 percent of Chinese companies express confidence that cross-border e-commerce exports and imports will remain stable or will grow further in 2025. -0-
New research has found that while Australians generally support strong punishments, people living in the bush are significantly more likely than city dwellers to want to punish more harshly those who break the law.
It means Australians living in rural and regional areas are more likely to support tougher penalties for crime than those in the cities.
However, it’s not for the reasons you might expect.
So, what drives this divide?
In short: fear of crime and a lack of confidence in the justice system.
Our research, published today in the Journal of Rural Studies, surveyed a representative sample of Australians to better understand their views on punishment and what shaped their views.
We found city residents with tough attitudes toward crime tend to focus on the individual and personal blame, thinking offenders commit crime due to internal attributes (such as having “a poor moral compass”). They tended to see lawbreakers as lacking the capacity to redeem themselves.
But in rural areas, people are more likely to focus on what’s happening around them. Specifically, we found support for tougher penalties for crime was related to wider concerns about rising crime rates and a general lack of confidence in the criminal justice system.
Consider the role of ‘rurality’
To understand these differences, we thought about how living in rural areas may shape punitive attitudes.
Contrary to popular belief, crimes occur at higher rates in many rural communities than in some urban areas.
Crime may also be more visible and more confronting because towns are smaller. Personal relationships are denser, meaning people often know the victims or the offenders.
This closeness creates a stronger emotional response and a heightened sense of risk at the local level – even if the actual chances of being victimised are statistically low.
There’s also the issue of access to the criminal justice system. Courts may sit infrequently, meaning it can take a long time to get a case heard in court. In some cases, victims and offenders are forced to share courtroom space due to limited facilities.
Police stations might not be staffed around the clock.
Add to this long wait times for justice, and it’s no wonder rural Australians may feel the system isn’t working for them.
The power of perception
It’s important to understand perception doesn’t always match reality.
Urban areas often have more total crime, but rural areas may have higher rates of certain offences, especially violent ones.
But what really matters in shaping public opinion is not necessarily the total numbers, but how close, immediate and personal crime feels.
Other research has found people who feel crime is psychologically “close” – meaning, that’s likely to happen to them or someone they know – are much more worried about it.
That worry can translate into calls for tougher sentencing, stricter laws, and less tolerance for rehabilitation.
This fear is made worse by a lack of confidence in the justice system. Many rural residents feel the system is too slow, too distant, or simply doesn’t understand local issues.
When people feel justice won’t be done, they’re more likely to demand punishment that feels immediate and severe.
Why it matters
These findings are more than just a snapshot of attitudes; they have real implications for public policy.
Politicians often draw on public opinion when shaping criminal justice policies.
If rural voters are more likely to support tough-on-crime platforms, that can influence laws that affect the whole country.
But one-size-fits-all solutions won’t work.
The factors shaping crime perceptions in Brisbane or Sydney are very different from those in Longreach or Wagga Wagga.
To build trust and improve safety, we need justice strategies that take into account local realities, especially in rural areas.
This means investing in better access to police and courts, improving communication between justice systems and rural communities, and helping the public understand what crime is really happening and what’s not.
Australians in rural areas aren’t more punitive because they’re harsher people. Our research shows they are more worried, feel less supported, and have less confidence in the system designed to protect them.
Understanding this difference is key to building smarter, fairer justice policies because when people feel seen, heard, and safe, they’re less likely to demand punishment to solve feelings of insecurity and more likely to support holistic solutions.
What’s needed now
Rural communities need tailored strategies that improve access to justice, rebuild trust, and respond to their unique experiences of crime.
That means policymakers need to go beyond reactive, headline-driven responses.
Rural justice strategies should include mobile court services, better resourcing for regional police and victim support, and culturally appropriate services for Indigenous communities.
Community education campaigns can also help close the gap between crime perception and reality.
Importantly, involving local voices in justice reform, through consultation and community partnerships, can help rebuild trust and ensure policies reflect rural realities, not just urban assumptions.
As political debate over law and order grows, especially in rural communities, leaders must address the divide in how city and country Australians view crime and punishment.
Kyle Mulrooney is a Senior Lecturer in Criminology and co-director of the Centre for Rural Criminology at the University of New England.
Caitlin Davey and Sue Watt do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Speculation is swirling around the future of the A$368 billion AUKUS agreement, following Washington’s decision to review the nuclear submarine deal to ensure it meets President Donald Trump’s “America first” agenda.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was planning to use talks with Trump at the G7 to demand the US continue to back the deal – but the meeting has been cancelled.
With the Pentagon taking another look at AUKUS, we ask five experts whether the government should rethink Australia’s own commitment to the pact.
Jennifer Parker
Expert Associate, National Security College, Australian National University
Absolutely not. Another review would consume time and capacity better spent delivering AUKUS on its tight timelines.
To understand why, we must put the decision in context.
The leaked details of the US Department of Defense review does not alter the position of any of the three AUKUS partners. Much of the commentary has missed the broader picture: Washington is undertaking its regular review of defence strategy.
It makes sense the Pentagon would also assess AUKUS – a central element of its Indo-Pacific posture.
While some have fixated on Colby’s supposed scepticism, the reality is different. In March, Colby told the US Senate Armed Services Committee the US should do everything in its power to make AUKUS work.
Why now? Because the strategy review is being accelerated under the new administration. As for the leak, it is plausible it was designed to apply pressure to Australia over its defence spending commitments.
The more important question is: what is the likely outcome? While nothing is certain, AUKUS enjoys strong bipartisan support in the US, as it does in Australia. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has called it a “blueprint” for cooperation, echoed by other senior officials.
Crucially, the real driver of this so-called “America First” review is what the US gets out of AUKUS. The answer is quite a lot. It secures access to Southeast and Northeast Asia from a location beyond the range of most Chinese missiles, adds a fourth maintenance site for Virginia-class submarines, and delivers an ally with an independent nuclear-powered submarine industrial base.
Beyond AUKUS, Australia has expanded its support for Marine and bomber rotations and other posture initiatives. Australia is central to US strategy in the Indo-Pacific. They need us as much as we need them. All signs point to a constructive outcome from this short, sharp review.
While AUKUS carries risks and Australia must remain clear-eyed, alarmism is unhelpful. Much of the public debate has taken that tone. Nothing fundamental has changed since the optimal pathway was announced in 2023. The risks we face now were known then.
There is no basis for an Australian review at this point. It would only distract from delivering this ambitious program. If core assumptions materially change, then a review may be warranted. But until then, such talk is a distraction.
Albert Palazzo
Adjunct Professor in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at UNSW Canberra, UNSW Sydney
The AUKUS review should be welcomed by all Australians as an opportunity for the Albanese government to scrap the agreement and wean itself off US dependency.
The review is a chance for our political leaders to exercise their most important responsibility: asserting the nation’s sovereignty and equipping Australia to provide for its national security on its own.
Since AUKUS already contains clauses the US could use to cancel the pact, a termination now would benefit Australia. It would save the nation huge sums of money, and force the government to formulate a more useful and appropriate security policy.
Elbridge Colby has previously questioned the logic of “giving away” America’s “crown jewels”, namely its nuclear-powered submarines, and argued the US will need all its boats against China.
Elbridge Colby is in charge of the AUKUS review.
More alarmingly, in his book The Strategy of Denial, Colby concludes the ideal way for the US to deny China regional hegemony is to use its allies to minimise its own “risks, commitment and expense”. Additionally, he says the US needs to retain the opportunity to walk away from a China conflict if that proves to be in America’s best interest.
Colby’s track record suggests he will recommend Australia make a larger military contribution to the alliance — as his boss Pete Hegseth demanded at the Shangri-La Dialogue. This is even as the US reserves its right to desert us at a time of its own choosing, as the United Kingdom did during the second world war with the Singapore Strategy.
At one time, the existing defence policy of reliance on the US made a degree of sense. But that is no longer the case. Instead, Australia’s leaders have an opportunity to recalibrate defence policy from one of dependency to one of self-defence.
As I outline in my forthcoming book, The Big Fix, Australia should adopt the philosophy of “strategic defensive”. This is a method of waging war in which the defender only needs to prevent an aggressor from achieving its objectives.
This would eliminate the risks and enormous cost of AUKUS while securing the nation’s future. A strategic defensive approach is well within Australia’s capabilities to implement on its own.
While it would be an ironic act of dependency if the US was to save Australia from itself by either cancelling AUKUS or by making it too unpalatable to swallow, the chance to reconsider should not be missed.
AUKUS remains an affront to Australian sovereignty.
Ian Langford
Executive Director, Security & Defence PLuS and Professor, UNSW Sydney
Australia should not walk away from AUKUS in light of the Pentagon’s newly announced review. However, it should seize the moment to increase defence spending to meet short-term challenges not addressed by the submarine deal.
Despite the noise, AUKUS remains Australia’s most straightforward path to acquiring nuclear-powered submarines, deepening strategic interoperability with the United States and United Kingdom, and embedding itself in the advanced defence technology ecosystems of its closest allies.
But clinging to AUKUS without confronting the deeper risks it now exposes would be a strategic mistake. From an Australian perspective, the submarine pathway is on a slow fuse: first deliveries are not expected until the early 2030s.
Meanwhile, the risk of major power conflict in the Indo-Pacific is accelerating, with a potential flashpoint involving China and the US as early as 2027. Naval brinkmanship in the Taiwan Strait and the South and East China Seas is already routine.
Submarines that arrive too late do little to shape the strategic balance in the next five years. Canberra must therefore confront a hard truth: AUKUS may enhance Australia’s deterrence posture in the 2030s, but it does little to prepare the ADF for a near-term fight.
That fight, should it come, will demand capabilities the ADF currently lacks in sufficient quantity: long-range missiles, deployable air defence, survivable command and control, and more surface combatants.
Yet under current spending plans, Australia is trying to fund both the AUKUS build and short-term deterrence within a constrained budget. It will not work. Even after recent increases, defence spending remains around 2% of GDP. This is well below the level needed to fund both long-term deterrence and immediate readiness.
Without a step change – closer to 2.5–3% of GDP – or a major reprioritisation of big-ticket programs, the ADF faces a dangerous capability gap through the second half of this decade.
Australia should hold firm on AUKUS. The strategic upside is real, and the alliance commitments it reinforces are indispensable. But we should not pretend it is cost-free.
Unless the defence budget is significantly expanded, AUKUS risks hollowing out the rest of the Defence Force. The result would be a future submarine fleet paired with an underpowered ADF, unready to meet the threats of today.
In reaffirming AUKUS, Australia must confront the complex reality that it won’t address the threats of this decade, and should plan accordingly.
Maria Rost Rublee
Professor, International Relations Social and Political Sciences, The University of Melbourne
Let’s be honest – Australia is not going to withdraw from AUKUS.
The United States is our most important military and diplomatic partner; in the words of the 2024 National Defence Strategy, “our alliance with the US remains fundamental to Australia’s national security”.
Unilaterally extracting ourselves from AUKUS would significantly damage our relationship with the US. Given the bipartisan and public support for the alliance within Australia, it simply won’t happen.
As we navigate the complexities of AUKUS under Trump 2.0, we should remember that as a defence industrial agreement, AUKUS creates numerous benefits for Australia. In both Pillar I (nuclear submarines) and Pillar II (advanced defence capabilities), Australia is developing deep partnerships, collaboration and even integration with both the US and the UK in shipbuilding, advanced technology, and stronger supply chains.
In addition, a rarely discussed benefit of AUKUS is the total life-cycle climate impacts, given nuclear submarines are superior to diesel alternatives. Diesel is a non-renewable energy source with significant global warming potential, while nuclear power is generally acknowledged to be low-carbon.
However, AUKUS does offer very significant risks for Australia. Flexibility is baked into the arrangement for the three partner nations – leading to the very situation we are in today. There are significant concerns Washington may not sell nuclear Virginia-class submarines to Australia in the 2030s, as agreed.
We have known for years the US is not producing enough nuclear attack submarines for its own domestic use, but we seem to have hoped this would change or the US would sell us the subs anyway.
The current US review of AUKUS makes it clear Australia needs to think seriously about other options for submarines. Without the Virginia-class, we will be without any subs at all, at least until the SSN-AUKUS submarines are delivered by the mid-2040s.
Our current ageing Collins-class subs, already beset with operational problems, will not be fit for purpose much past mid-2030. At this point, the most likely viable option is off-the-shelf conventional submarines from Japan or South Korea.
The fact is, while Australia is unlikely to withdraw from AUKUS, the US may force the issue by refusing to sell us its nuclear-powered submarines. Refusing to acknowledge this does not change the risks.
President Donald Trumps wants US allies to lift their defence spending. Rawpixel/Shutterstock
David Andrews
Senior Manager, Policy & Engagement, Australian National University
I want AUKUS to succeed. It offers a unique opportunity to substantially upgrade Australia’s maritime capabilities with access to world-leading submarine technology and a suite of advanced and emerging technologies.
However, we cannot realistically pursue “AUKUS at any cost”. There must be an upper limit to how much time, effort and resources are committed before the costs – financial, political and strategic – outweigh the potential long-term benefits.
Of course, the government must not be hasty. Any decision should wait until the completion of the US review. Likewise, AUKUS should not be abandoned merely because it is being reviewed.
Reviews are not inherently negative processes. A review after four years of a project of this size and significance is not a particularly surprising development. As seen in the UK, reviews can refocus efforts and commit greater resources, if needed.
However, it doesn’t look like that’s what the US review is setting out to do. Rather, it’s focused on ensuring AUKUS is aligned with the America First agenda. That indicates an altogether different set of considerations.
People often describe Trump as a “dealmaker” or “transactional”, but these are misleading euphemisms. This review, and recent language from senior US officials, gives the impression of a shakedown – of coercion, not partnership.
The need to “win” and extract money from alliances is antithetical to their purpose. It misunderstands their nature and the fundamental importance of trust between partners. AUKUS is not an ATM.
Past behaviour suggests no deal Trump makes will last without further demands being imposed. No amount of money is likely to be satisfactory. Even if Australia’s defence spending was lifted to 3.5% of GDP, the question would be “why isn’t it 5%?” For AUKUS, there is no such thing as an offer he cannot refuse.
I do not say this lightly, but if the outcome of this process is a series of gratuitous or untenable demands by the US, the Albanese government should strongly consider walking away from AUKUS.
The consequences would be significant, so the threshold of such a decision would need to be similarly calibrated. But no single project should be put above the integrity of our wider defence enterprise and the sovereign decision-making of our government.
David Andrews has not personally received funding from any relevant external bodies, but he has previously worked on projects funded by the Australian Departments of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Home Affairs, and Defence. David is a member of the Australian Labor Party and Australian Institute of International Affairs, and previously worked for the Australian Department of Defence.
Albert Palazzo is not a member of a political party but does occasional volunteer work for The Greens. In 2019, he retired from the Department of Defence. He was the long-serving Director of War Studies for the Australian Army.
Ian Langford is affiliated with Security & Defence PLuS, a collaboration between the University of New South Wales, Arizona State University and Kings College, London.
Maria Rost Rublee has received grant funding from the Australian Department of Defence and the US Institute of Peace. She is affiliated with Women in International Security-Australia and Women in Nuclear-Australia.
Jennifer Parker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
At the upcoming Second China-Central Asia Summit to be held later this week, heads of state will jointly draw a new blueprint for future cooperation, open up new space for Belt and Road cooperation and build an even closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in Beijing on Monday.
Spokesperson Guo Jiakun made the remarks at a press briefing when answering a related query.
Noting Central Asia is not only the place where the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first proposed, but also a pace-setter in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, Guo said that all five Central Asian countries have signed BRI cooperation documents with China, and China and Central Asian countries have implemented a series of signature projects designed to boost development and make lives better for the people.
Trade between China and Central Asian countries hit a record high of 674.15 billion yuan in 2024, up by 116 percent compared with that of 2013. Guo said that all sides have found a new model of mutually beneficial cooperation through the China-Kazakhstan Crude Oil Pipeline project and the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline project. The China-Tajikistan highway, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway have taken regional connectivity to new levels, and practical cooperation is expanded to digital economy and green transition.
“China has mutual visa exemption with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Luban Workshops project is picking up speed. People-to-people and cultural exchanges have moved onto the fast lane and brought our peoples close to each other,” Guo said, pointing out that high-quality Belt and Road cooperation is increasingly becoming a key focus of China-Central Asia cooperation.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
U.S. stocks ended higher on Monday, recovering from Friday’s sharp losses as investors’ concerns over ongoing hostilities between Israel and Iran eased somehow.
Escalation of conflicts between Iran and Israel had briefly rattled markets — oil prices surged, the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) spiked, and gold prices rose as investors sought safe havens. However, Monday’s action suggested confidence remained intact. High-yield credit spreads widened by just 2 basis points.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 317.30 points, or 0.75 percent, to 42,515.09. The S&P 500 added 56.14 points, or 0.94 percent, to 6,033.11. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased by 294.39 points, or 1.52 percent, to 19,701.21.
Seven of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with communication services and technology leading the gainers by adding 1.53 percent and 1.52 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, utilities and health led the laggards by losing 0.50 percent and 0.40 percent, respectively.
Market history supports the idea that geopolitical shocks are often short-lived in their market impact. According to Deutsche Bank analysts Parag Thatte and Binky Chadha, the S&P 500 typically drops around 6 percent in the three weeks following a geopolitical event, but usually recovers those losses in the next three weeks.
Deutsche Bank’s Henry Allen added in a Monday note that geopolitical events tend to have lasting effects on equities only when they disrupt the real economy, either by slowing growth or driving inflation. So far, investors seem to be betting that neither scenario is likely in the near term.
Despite lingering geopolitical concerns, historically low equity positioning and resilient fundamentals may be keeping a broader sell-off at bay, allowing risk appetite to return for now. “Focus will remain on geopolitical headlines, but as long as the conflict stays limited between Israel and Iran, it’s unlikely to materially impact the markets,” said Tom Essaye at the Sevens Report.
Tesla rose more than 1 percent on Monday, while Meta Platforms climbed 2.9 percent, helping power the broader market. Palantir, often seen as a beneficiary of rising geopolitical instability due to its defense and AI ties, rose near 3 percent.
The rising move comes ahead of a key week for monetary policy. Investors digested a weaker-than-expected manufacturing survey released Monday morning by the New York Fed, adding to signs of slowing momentum in the industrial sector. Still, the data did little to shift expectations ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision on Wednesday.
According to CME Group’s FedWatch Tool, futures markets are pricing in a 100 percent chance that the Fed will hold rates steady, despite renewed pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump, who has called on Fed Chair Jerome Powell to cut interest rates.
However, elevated oil prices stemming from the conflict in the Middle East are expected to keep inflation risks on the Fed’s radar and reduce the likelihood of rate cuts in the near term. “Markets got a reminder that tariffs aren’t the only potential source of market volatility,” said Chris Larkin at E*Trade from Morgan Stanley. “Right now, markets are signaling they expect the situation in the Middle East will remain contained, but any surprises could have an oversized impact on sentiment.”
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China-Africa trade reached a record 295.56 billion U.S. dollars in 2024, up 4.8 percent year-over-year, marking the 16th consecutive year China has remained Africa’s largest trading partner.
Currently, with the support of the 10 partnership action plans, Chinese and African businesses are enhancing collaboration across the industrial chain, propelling the advancement of relations and providing fresh impetus for sustainable economic growth.
This photo taken on May 27, 2025 shows workers checking cocoa processing equipment at the cocoa processing complex in the PK24 Industrial Park on the northwestern outskirts of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. (Xinhua/Wang Guansen)
BOOSTING LOCAL PRODUCTION
In Cote d’Ivoire, the PK24 Industrial Park outside Abidjan, the country’s economic capital, is abuzz with activity. A newly built cocoa processing complex, the country’s first state-owned modern plant, is about to launch.
Built by China Light Industry Nanning Design Engineering Co., Ltd., the facility can process 50,000 tonnes of cocoa annually and store 140,000 tonnes. It marks a major milestone in the country’s drive to advance up the global value chain.
“We’re finally processing cocoa on our own land,” said Ettien Kouakou Camille, a local farmer beaming with pride. “In the past, cocoa was exported without being processed. Now, Chinese companies are helping us change that.”
Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Cote d’Ivoire’s Minister of State and Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, said Chinese companies are not just building factories — they are bringing integrated solutions to help us upgrade our agricultural value chains. “China’s agricultural development experience is a vital reference for African countries,” he said.
A staff member sorts chili peppers in Nyagatare District, Rwanda, on May 22, 2025. (Xinhua/Ji Li)
Similar transformations are taking shape across the continent. In Rwanda’s Eastern Province, Gashora Farm PLC is expanding chili production with support from China’s Hunan Modern Agriculture International Development Co., Ltd. The partnership includes infrastructure upgrades, such as cold storage, drying facilities, and expanded farmland.
“The Chinese market is enormous. We saw strong demand for Rwandan dried chili,” said Dieudonne Twahirwa, managing director of Gashora Farm PLC.
To date, China has established capacity cooperation with 15 African countries and is involved in over 50 industrial parks across the continent, attracting global investment and strengthening Africa’s industrial base.
“China has become not only a major trade partner for Africa, but also a key supporter in capacity building and technology transfer,” said Humphrey Moshi, director of the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Dar es Salaam.
People work in a workshop of China’s Inner Mongolia King Deer Cashmere Group on the southern outskirts of Madagascar’s capital, Antananarivo, March 28, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)
DEVELOPING SKILLED TALENT
Alongside infrastructure, China-Africa cooperation has emphasized vocational training and talent development.
On the southern outskirts of Madagascar’s capital Antananarivo, more than 3,000 local workers at a cashmere garment plant owned by China’s Inner Mongolia King Deer Cashmere Group transform high-end yarn into export-ready products.
“Since the factory’s inception, we have trained over 20,000 textile professionals across various roles,” said Xia Yonghai, general manager of the company. “Many now work in local textile enterprises, holding key technical and managerial positions.”
For 50-year-old Rivoherimanitra Niaina Rado, who has worked at the factory for nearly two decades, the journey is incredible. “I started as a trainee and now became a foreman … What I’m most proud of is helping bring advanced technology to Madagascar.”
Chinese companies are also driving demand for vocational skills across Africa. Flagship initiatives like the Luban Workshops promote hands-on, industry-oriented learning in several countries.
Cavince Adhere, a Kenya-based international relations scholar, said that Chinese investment and long-term engagement in Africa have not only created employment but also significantly raised the technical capacity of the local workforce through systematic training.
Chinese enterprises have made vital contributions to Africa’s talent development, laying a solid foundation for Africa’s sustainable growth, Adhere added.
Staff members of Kilimall sort goods at a warehouse in Mlolongo, Kenya, on June 3, 2025. (Xinhua/Li Yahui)
CONNECTING GLOBAL MARKETS
China-Africa cooperation is also facilitating the export of African products to global markets through various platforms.
In Kenya, Chinese-founded e-commerce platform Kilimall has become one of East Africa’s leading online retailers. One of its top merchants, Hoswell Macharia, sells locally produced TVs by Chinese-invested firm Vitron, generating annual sales of 96 million Kenyan shillings (about 745,000 U.S. dollars).
“Around 40 percent of our components are now locally sourced, and we plan to further increase localization based on market demand,” said Hu Zhaoyang, executive director of Vitron, home to Chinese investment.
Vice President of Kilimall Wu Mixiang said the growing presence of Chinese manufacturers in Africa means local retailers have access to better-quality and more affordable products, which translates into real benefits for consumers.
Other Chinese e-commerce giants like Shein and Temu are also expanding in Africa, connecting local businesses to the global digital economy.
China continues to open its market to African exports. It granted zero-tariff treatment on 100 percent of product categories to all least developed countries with which it has diplomatic relations, including 33 African countries, starting from Dec. 1, 2024. Events like the China International Import Expo, the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo (CAETE) and the Canton Fair further support African exporters.
“The Chinese market really has an appetite for Kenyan products … We are working with various stakeholders to consolidate consignments for Hass avocado sourced countrywide,” said avocado exporter Newton Ngure at a Kenya-focused CAETE promotional event in April. “It is an opportune moment for us to venture into the Chinese market.”
From infrastructure and training to production and global sales, China-Africa industrial cooperation is deepening. As the continent moves from raw material exports to shared value creation, this partnership is helping lay the foundation for long-term, independent growth and a brighter future.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China-Central Asia Summit to draw new blueprint for future cooperation: spokesperson
BEIJING, June 16 — At the upcoming Second China-Central Asia Summit to be held later this week, heads of state will jointly draw a new blueprint for future cooperation, open up new space for Belt and Road cooperation and build an even closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said here Monday.
Spokesperson Guo Jiakun made the remarks at a press briefing when answering a related query.
Noting Central Asia is not only the place where the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was first proposed, but also a pace-setter in high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, Guo said that all five Central Asian countries have signed BRI cooperation documents with China, and China and Central Asian countries have implemented a series of signature projects designed to boost development and make lives better for the people.
Trade between China and Central Asian countries hit a record high of 674.15 billion yuan in 2024, up by 116 percent compared with that of 2013. Guo said that all sides have found a new model of mutually beneficial cooperation through the China-Kazakhstan Crude Oil Pipeline project and the China-Central Asia Gas Pipeline project. The China-Tajikistan highway, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway and the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway have taken regional connectivity to new levels, and practical cooperation is expanded to digital economy and green transition.
“China has mutual visa exemption with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The Luban Workshops project is picking up speed. People-to-people and cultural exchanges have moved onto the fast lane and brought our peoples close to each other,” Guo said, pointing out that high-quality Belt and Road cooperation is increasingly becoming a key focus of China-Central Asia cooperation.
Source: United States Senator for New York Charles E Schumer
Rochester’s GreenSpark Solar, Named Rochester’s #1 Fastest-Growing Business & A Rochester Top Workplace, Has Already Been Forced To Lay Off 20 Workers Due To GOP Clean Energy Attacks, And Worries About Future Of Business Under GOP Job-Killing Bill
House GOP Rushed Trump’s Tax Giveaway To Billionaires, Gutting Fed Clean Energy Tax Credits That Lower Energy Costs and Boost & Local Jobs –Now Even House Rs Are Regretting It, Asking Senate GOP To Reverse Cuts They Voted For; Senator With Impacted Rochester Businesses, Families Demands GOP Block Cuts
Schumer: ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ Is A ‘Big, Bad Blow’ To Rochester-Finger Lakes Jobs, Families & Businesses
Standing at a Rochester family home that will soon see lower monthly energy bills thanks to newly installed solar panels, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer warned how the GOP plan to kill clean energy tax credits could raise energy costs for families and devastate Rochester’s HVAC and energy installation companies like GreenSpark Solar, named Rochester’s #1 fastest-growing business and a top place to work in Rochester for the seventh year in a row.
Schumer explained these unpopular, job-killing cuts in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” have already created panic among House Republicans and companies, and even House Republicans who voted for this bill last month are now begging to save these tax credits. Schumer said GreenSpark Solar is just one of many local Rochester businesses that could be decimated by this bill and demanded the GOP block these tax hikes that could devastate Rochester families and small businesses.
“Right now, we are at Defcon 1 for America’s clean energy future, and it’s jobs here in Rochester and monthly energy bills for New York families and businesses that are on the line. The Clark family’s house here in the Rochester area tells the story of today. Last year, they hired Rochester’s fastest-growing business to install solar panels on their roof with help from our Inflation Reduction Act, lowering their monthly energy bill over 65%, from over $100 to $35,” said Senator Schumer. “Trump’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ would deal a ‘big bad blow’ to families here in Rochester, raising their costs and killing good-paying jobs at companies like Rochester’s GreenSpark Solar, which employs hundreds of workers. It guts one of the most effective tax credits middle-class families use to lower their monthly energy bills in order to give bigger breaks to billionaires; it’s outrageous. That’s why I’m demanding Republicans to stop this plan to gut America’s clean energy future and block these cuts that will hurt Rochester’s families’ wallets and decimate jobs.”
Schumer was joined by workers from leading Rochester HVAC, solar, and geothermal energy installation companies, including ACES Energy, Halco Home Solutions, Wise Home Energy, Schuler-Haas Electric, and GreenSpark Solar, who said the elimination of these investments would be a massive blow to their work, employees, and customers. Rochester’s GreenSpark Solar employs 150 workers, and on any given day, also employs an additional 150-300 union subcontractors from Rochester companies like Schuler-Haas Electric to help build their installations.
Just two years ago, they were named Rochester’s #1 fastest-growing business and have been able to double their workforce in recent years thanks to customer demand unleashed by the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits. GreenSpark Solar purchases equipment and supplies from local Rochester-area suppliers, boosting the local supply chain, and has just relocated to the heart of downtown Rochester, bringing life to an abandoned building and the surrounding area.
However, GreenSpark Solar recently had to lay off 20 workers in anticipation of the GOP’s job-killing “Big, Beautiful Bill’s” tax increases on clean energy projects, driving down demand for their business. Schumer said if this bill passes, it will pull the rug out from under GreenSpark Solar just as it is growing, rendering their investments in Rochester worthless and forcing them to lay off local workers.
“When I first joined the solar industry, I knew almost nothing – but the people at GreenSpark taught me everything: how solar works, how it strengthens communities, and how it builds careers,” said Rory Patrie, Field Service Administrator for GreenSpark Solar. “I believe in it so deeply I had solar installed on my own home. It’s helped me fight inflation, keep my bills low, and become more resilient. The proposed elimination of federal renewable energy investments threatens my livelihood, my coworkers, and the everyday families we serve. I’m glad to stand here with Senator Schumer to defend the credits that support this work – and I thank Senator Schumer for recognizing what’s at stake for workers like me.”
Kevin Schulte, CEO of GreenSpark Solarsaid, “I’ve been in the renewable energy business for 26 years, and every time the Federal Government attacked our industry, New York State stepped up, helping us build the fifth largest solar market in the country. Solar and battery storage are the fastest, most affordable forms of electricity on the grid today; we won’t meet our energy goals with offshore wind, nuclear, or even natural gas—it will also come from solar. I’m proud to stand with Senator Schumer to defend the policy that supports this critical work and provides quality jobs and affordable energy to many New Yorkers.”
The Clark family, who just hired GreenSpark Solar to install solar panels last year with help from the Residential Clean Energy Tax Credit, has already seen their monthly electricity bill decrease by over 65%, from over $100 to $35. Now, they are considering installing additional panels and a battery backup system that can store electricity, making them better prepared for power outages during extreme weather. However, if Republicans repeal the tax credits, the cost of making their home more energy efficient will skyrocket. Thousands of families across New York State are waiting to see what the GOP does in Washington and are holding off on new clean energy installations, hurting companies like GreenSpark Solar and the thousands of workers in the clean energy industry.
The GOP bill would kill clean energy incentives already benefiting hundreds of New York businesses with ongoing projects and the families who are using them to help improve their homes’ energy efficiency and lower their energy bills. Schumer specifically highlighted how the bill:
Eliminates the Energy Efficient Home Improvement Tax Credit, which provides families in New York up to $3,200 to help weatherize their homes for better protection in the harsh winters and make improvements to their home’s energy efficiency, lowering their energy bills with qualifying items like doors, windows, better insulation and heat pumps, and
Eliminates the Residential Clean Energy Credit, which gives New York families a 30% discount on home energy improvements, like solar panels, heat pumps, or energy storage, that help lower energy bills and keep the lights on during power outages.
Penfield homeowners also joined Schumer, including Al Hibner, who lowered his monthly heating costs by 44% with his geothermal heat pump installed by Rochester’s ACES Energy, and homeowner Katie Ryggs, who has saved $1650 a year on her utility bills thanks to solar panels installed by GreenSpark and geothermal installed by ACES. Her monthly bills went from $200 to $60, plus she’s saved thousands on gasoline costs because she was able to switch to an electric vehicle and charge at home, reducing her monthly energy costs by more than 70%.
In the past two decades, more than 5 million American households have put solar panels on their roofs – this skyrocketed after the Inflation Reduction Act expanded these tax credits three years ago. However, one analysis estimates residential solar installations could fall by half in the next year if this House GOP bill goes through.
“The Energy Tax Credit helped us install solar panels and slash our electric bill from over $100 to just $25 a month,” said Steve & Amy Clark, Penfield homeowners. “We were looking forward to adding additional solar panels and battery storage in the future – but if these credits are cut, that would put those plans out of reach. We appreciate Senator Schumer’s support for these essential tax credits that make clean energy possible for homeowners like us.”
Penfield homeowner Katie Ryggsaid, “These tax credits put geothermal, solar, and our first EV within reach for my family – helping us create a better future for our daughters – with the added benefits of having less pollution in the house and saving money on our monthly energy bills. In the summer, we use 1/6 of the electricity to cool our house and in winter, we use 1/4 of the energy to heat our home. We hope that Congress will fight to preserve these clean energy tax credits so that many more families will be able to access the savings, comfort, and health benefits that come with electric homes and vehicles.”
Schumer was joined by Rochester-Finger Lakes businesses across the clean energy sector who said this bill would hurt their businesses immediately.
Andrew (AJ) Heiligman, President, ACES Energy & Renewable Rochester said, “Geothermal heat pump Federal tax credits have empowered everyday Americans to invest in clean, domestic energy, lowering utility bills, reducing dependence on fossil fuels, and generating well-paying local jobs. These incentives benefit more than just homeowners; they strengthen local economies and sustain the skilled workers driving our clean energy transition. Rolling them back now would stall momentum that’s delivering real results for people, the environment, and communities alike.”
Ryan Puckett, General Manager at Wise Home Energysaid, “The Federal tax credits for beneficial electrification and weatherization are critical tools for reducing carbon emissions in our buildings. These incentives drive investment in cleaner, more resilient technologies, reducing costs and improving living conditions for New Yorkers. Removing them would not only hinder progress toward energy independence but also place unnecessary burdens on contractors and families striving for sustainable solutions. Wise Home Energy thanks Senator Schumer for supporting clean energy policy that benefits us all.”
Schumer was also joined by Rochester Building Trades workers who, with the help of IRA’s Clean Electricity Investment Tax credits, just built New York’s first grid-scale solar project, Morris Ridge Solar, in Livingston County that created 550 jobs, provided a $70 million boost to the local economy, and is powering 47,000 households. These workers, who are now constructing the 2nd largest solar project in New York – the Excelsior Energy solar farm in Genesee County that is creating 290 construction jobs, $117.5 million in economic impact, and will power 74,000 homes – fear these thousands of jobs will now be lost.
Grant Malone, President of the Rochester Building & Construction Trades Councilsaid, “Good-paying family sustaining local construction jobs will be obliterated by the job-killing “Big, Beautiful Bill’s” repeal of clean energy incentives. Our hundreds of local skilled trades members who are on the job today building solar farms in Rochester to power hundreds of thousands of homes are proof that these federal investments are a win-win. We are proud to stand with Senator Schumer to oppose any attempts to eliminate these investments and kill the thousands of construction jobs they are set to unleash.”
Schumer said clean energy tax incentives have spurred a clean energy boom in New York State, and rolling them back would have devastating impacts. The Clean Economy Tracker estimates the Inflation Reduction Act’s incentives have spurred over $5 billion worth of investments in clean manufacturing in New York, creating over 7,200 jobs. Data from NERA Economic Consulting shows that repealing clean energy tax credits could cause New York to lose up to 20,300 jobs as clean energy projects are cancelled or scaled back, with a whopping nearly $3.5 billion hit to the state’s GDP, and New Yorkers paying up to $650 in higher energy costs each year by 2032 if these devastating cuts become law.
Already, Republicans have shown doubts about the provisions in this bill. Earlier this month, thirteen House Republicans sent a letter to Senate Republican leaders urging them to scale back clean energy cuts in the “Big, Beautiful Bill” – the very bill their votes helped pass in the House. Last week, House Republicans voted for a second time to pass this job-killing bill after deleting various provisions.
“The fight is far from over. House Republicans’ latest flipflopping shows our pressure is working, and we have a real opportunity to get them to go back to the drawing board on this bill, and stop their attacks to totally eliminate these clean energy tax credits. And we are doing that by showing the real-world impacts, the jobs lost and lives devastated by their brutal cuts,” added Schumer.
Schumer said if this House Republican plan goes through, many of the clean energy projects spurred by the IRA could be forced to scale back or even stop, the workers building the future of American energy would be laid off, and projects that otherwise would have plugged into the grid will never come to fruition. That would impact both major NY employers and manufacturers in the clean energy, manufacturing, electric vehicle, battery, and research sectors, and also our small businesses and major economic projects slated to come to New York. Schumer said the House Republican bill would repeal the very parts of the Inflation Reduction Act that have helped companies grow in New York and spurred millions of investments, many of which are in Republican districts such as:
Eliminates the Clean Electricity Investment & Production Credits that support more cheap, clean electricity. With natural gas turbines on a five-year delay, the IRA’s clean electricity tax credits have ensured a robust buildout of wind and solar power while spurring demand for American-made energy products and helping keep electricity prices from increasing.
Sabotages the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Tax Credit that has generated a more than five-fold increase in investment in manufacturing in the solar and EV supply chains, creating thousands of good-paying jobs and shifting these industries out of China to the U.S.
Eliminates the IRA’s Electric Vehicle Tax Credits that make it cheaper to buy new and used electric and plug-in hybrid cars, and has led to a massive onshoring of EV and battery supply chain manufacturing, undercutting China and bolstering American companies.
Eliminates the New Energy-Efficient Home Credit that makes it cheaper to build new, highly efficient and affordable homes, expanding the housing supply while reducing energy costs.
Eliminates the Clean Hydrogen Production Tax Credit that supports American-made clean hydrogen, led by New York companies like Plug Power and Air Products, to be used for clean manufacturing and agriculture.
Graham Hughes, Director of Policy & Advocacy of the Climate Solutions Accelerator said, “Investments in clean energy made through the Inflation Reduction Act have allowed people in the Finger Lakes Regions to upgrade our homes, lowered the cost of our energy, and created good paying jobs in a growing sector of the economy. Cutting these tax credits will roll back this progress and make our region more vulnerable to the effects of climate change. We need congress to protect these investments and ensure the green economy continues to grow in New York.”
Monroe County Legislator Susan Hughes-Smith & Climate Solutions Accelerator Co-founder said, “The federal clean energy tax credits are good for our economy, health, and environment. The Solar Energy Industry Association calculates that the elimination of just the solar tax incentives would result in 330,000 jobs lost across the country, close or cancel 331 factories and squander nearly $300 billion in local investments. These credits should be preserved.”
Repealing the clean energy tax incentives would also be a disaster for America that Schumer said would cede energy manufacturing leadership to China, which already produces a significant amount of the world’s clean technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries. If companies can no longer support clean energy manufacturing in the United States, they will bring these projects to America’s competitors, and jobs that would’ve otherwise been created in America will be created in countries like China. This will destabilize American supply chains and make American families and businesses reliant on China and other foreign countries for cheap energy.
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi is urging all political parties to vote against Brooke van Velden’s newEmployment Relations Amendment Bill, as it will severely undermine workers’ rights.
“This new Bill will legislate many of the attacks on workers’ rights signalled by Brooke van Velden, fundamentally undermining the rights of working people in New Zealand’s employment relations system,” said NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff.
“Following instruction from Uber’s corporate lobbyists, the Minister is wanting to prevent some of the most vulnerable and casualised workers who have been misclassified as contractors from being able to access their legal rights by taking cases to court. Government should not be blocking workers from court because corporates may not like the outcome.
“The personal grievance changes are also trying to tie the courts hands and prevent them from establishing justice for workers. They entrench power imbalances and leave workers facing unjustified dismissal with no statutory protection.
“These changes threaten every single worker in Aotearoa. The right to seek remedies for unjustifiable and unlawful dismissal is a basic employment right and should not be diluted.
“This Bill also legislates to remove the 30-day rule, which is another attempt undermine unions and protections that unions bring their members. Currently workers in a new role have the protection of any collective agreement in place for 30 days. Removing the rule will encourage employers to exploit workers when they are at their most vulnerable, and to lead a race to the bottom for wages and conditions.
“The Bill heightens worker vulnerability to unjustifiable dismissal, shields employers from the consequences of mistreating workers, and drives people into insecure work. This is in the context of government policy that has caused largescale unemployment.
“Parties across Parliament should vote down this radically unjust law and instead support working people and their families,” said Wagstaff.
Sleep apnea will become more common and more severe due to global warming, leading to increased health and economic burdens across the globe, warn Flinders University sleep experts.
A newstudy, published in leading journal,Nature Communications, found that rising temperatures increase the severity of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and that under the most likely climate change scenarios, the societal burden of OSA is expected to double in most countries over the next 75 years.
Lead author and sleep expert,Dr Bastien Lechat, fromFHMRI Sleep Healthsays this is the first study of its kind to outline how global warming is expected to affect breathing during sleep and impact the world’s health, wellbeing and economy.
“This study helps us to understand how environmental factors like climate might affect health by investigating whether ambient temperatures influence the severity of OSA,” says Dr Lechat.
“Overall, we were surprised by the magnitude of the association between ambient temperature and OSA severity.
“Higher temperatures were associated with a 45 per cent increased likelihood of a sleeper experiencing OSA on a given night.
“Importantly, these findings varied by region, with people in European countries seeing higher rates of OSA when temperatures rise than those in Australia and the United States, perhaps due to different rates of air conditioning usage.”
Sleep apnoea – a condition that disturbs breathing during sleep – affects almost 1 billion people globally and, if untreated or severe, increases the risk of dementia and Parkinson’s disease, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, anxiety and depression, reduced quality of life, traffic accidents and all-cause mortality, previous research has found.
In Australia alone, the economic cost associated with poor sleep including sleep disorders like OSA has been estimated at $66 billion a year.
The study analysed sleep data from over 116,000 people globally using an FDA-cleared under-mattress sensor to estimate the severity of OSA.
For each user, the sensor recorded around 500 separate nights of data. The researchers then matched this sleep data with detailed 24-hour temperature information sourced from climate models.
They conducted health economics modeling using disability adjusted life years, a measure employed by the World Health Organization that captures the combined impact of illness, injury, and premature mortality, to quantify the wellbeing and societal burden due to increased prevalence of OSA from rising temperatures under several projected climate scenarios.
“Using our modelling, we can estimate how burdensome the increase in OSA prevalence due to rising temperature is to society in terms of wellbeing and economic loss,” says Dr Lechat.
“The increase in OSA prevalence in 2023 due to global warming was associated with a loss of approximately 800,000 healthy life years across the 29 countries studied.
“This number is similar to other medical conditions, such as bipolar disorder, Parkinson’s disease or chronic kidney diseases.”
Similarly, the estimated total economic cost associated was ~98 billion USD, including 68 billion USD from wellbeing loss and 30 billion USD from workplace productivity loss (missing work or being less productive at work).
“Our findings highlight that without greater policy action to slow global warming, OSA burden may double by 2100 due to rising temperatures.”
Senior researcher on the paper,Professor Danny Eckert,says that while the study is one of the largest of its kind, it was skewed towards high socio-economics countries and individuals, likely to have access to more favourable sleeping environments and air conditioning.
“This may have biased our estimates and led to an under-estimation of the true health and economic cost,” says Professor Eckert
In addition to providing further evidence of the major threat of climate change to human health and wellbeing, the study highlights the importance of developing effective interventions to diagnose and manage OSA.
“Higher rates of diagnosis and treatment will help us to manage and reduce the adverse health and productivity issues caused by climate related OSA,” says Professor Eckert.
“Going forward, we want to design intervention studies that explore strategies to reduce the impact of ambient temperatures on sleep apnea severity as well as investigate the underlying physiological mechanisms that connect temperature fluctuations to OSA severity.”
The article, ‘Global warming may increase the burden of obstructive sleep apnea’by Bastien Lechat (Flinders University), Jack Manners (Flinders), Lucía Pinilla (Flinders) Amy Reynolds (Flinders), Hannah Scott (Flinders), Daniel Vena (Harvard Medical School), Sebastien Bailly (Univ. Grenoble Alpes), Josh Fitton (Flinders), Barbara Toson (Flinders), Billingsley Kaambwa (Flinders), Robert Adams (Flinders), Jean-Louis Pepin (Univ. Grenoble Alpes), Pierre Escourrou (Centre Interdisciplinaire du Sommeil), Peter Catcheside (Flinders), and Danny J Eckert (Flinders), has been published in the journalNature Communications. First published 16 June DOI:10.1038/s41467-025-60218-1.
The restoration of wetlands is an often overlooked opportunity. As our recent study shows, wetlands have long been treated as environmental “add-ons” but are in fact rising economic assets, delivering more value as they mature.
Restored coastal wetlands, particularly mangroves and saltmarshes, offer growing returns in the form of carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection and storm buffering. These benefits build up gradually, sometimes exponentially, over time.
But planning frameworks treat restorations as static costs, rather than compounding investments.
Using international data and economic modelling, we developed a framework to capture how wetland benefits evolve over decades. While we draw on global datasets, this approach can be applied in New Zealand to understand the value of local restoration projects.
Timing matters for wetland investment
Traditional cost-benefit analyses treat wetland restoration as a one-off expense with fixed returns. Our research shows this misses the bigger, long-term picture.
For example, coastal mangroves initially store a modest amount of carbon while seedlings develop. But as root systems establish and capture sediment, there is a critical threshold when carbon sequestration accelerates dramatically. Mature restored mangroves can store three times more carbon annually than during early years.
Saltmarshes follow a similar pattern. They develop from basic habitat into complex networks that buffer storm surges, filter nutrients and support productive fisheries.
For New Zealand, where many wetlands were historically drained or degraded, the implication is clear. Early investment in restoration is critical and will deliver increasing returns over time.
Our study highlights mangroves and saltmarshes as priority systems, but also points to peatlands and freshwater marshes as promising candidates.
The law review and freshwater policy consultations present both opportunities and challenges for wetland valuation.
The amendment to the Resource Management Act regarding freshwater proposes:
quick, targeted changes which will reduce the regulatory burden on key sectors, including farming, mining and other primary industries.
While this may reduce the regulatory burden, it highlight the need for robust valuation tools that can weigh long-term benefits against immediate development returns.
The current consultation outlines specific changes, including clarifying the definition of a wetland. The amended definition would exclude wetlands “unintentionally created” through activities such as irrigation, while constructed wetlands would have a new set of objectives and consent pathways.
Councils would also no longer need to map wetlands by 2030, while restrictions on non-intensive grazing of beef cattle and deer in wetlands would be removed.
These definition changes could exclude wetlands that accumulate significant climate and biodiversity benefits over time, regardless of their origin. As our research suggests, the ecological and economic value of wetlands often increases substantially as systems mature.
The valuation gap
Despite growing international recognition of “blue carbon” initiatives (which store carbon in coastal and marine ecosystems), New Zealand lacks frameworks to capture the dynamic value of wetlands.
New Zealand has no wetland-specific financial instruments to attract private investment and wetlands are not integrated into the Emissions Trading Scheme, the government’s main tool for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
This creates a fundamental mismatch. Policy frameworks treat restoration as static costs while science reveals appreciating assets.
Our modelling framework offers a pathway to bridge this gap. By tracking how different wetland types accumulate benefits over time, decision makers can better understand long-term returns on restoration investment.
Australia is already developing wetland carbon markets. International blue carbon financial initiatives are emerging and recognising that today’s restoration investment delivers tomorrow’s climate benefits.
For New Zealand, this could mean:
integrating wetland valuation into environmental assessments, moving beyond upfront costs to consider decades of accumulating benefits across different wetland types
aligning finance with restoration timelines and developing funding mechanisms that capture growing value rather than treating restoration as sunk costs
building regional datasets and generating location-specific data on how New Zealand’s diverse wetlands develop benefits over time, reducing investment uncertainty.
With sea-level rise accelerating and extreme weather becoming more frequent, wetlands represent critical infrastructure for climate adaptation. Unlike built infrastructure (stop banks, for example) that depreciates, wetlands appreciate, becoming more valuable as they mature.
The current policy consultation period offers an opportunity to embed this thinking into New Zealand’s environmental frameworks. Rather than viewing wetlands as regulatory constraints, dynamic valuation could reveal them as appreciating assets that increase resilience for coastal communities.
Restoring coastal wetlands is not just about repairing nature. It’s about investing in a living, compounding asset that ameliorates climate impacts and protects our coasts and communities.
Wei Yang was funded by a Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour grant.
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions Te Kauae Kaimahi is urging all political parties to vote against Brooke van Velden’s new Employment Relations Amendment Bill, as it will severely undermine workers’ rights.
“This new Bill will legislate many of the attacks on workers’ rights signalled by Brooke van Velden, fundamentally undermining the rights of working people in New Zealand’s employment relations system,” said NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff.
“Following instruction from Uber’s corporate lobbyists, the Minister is wanting to prevent some of the most vulnerable and casualised workers who have been misclassified as contractors from being able to access their legal rights by taking cases to court. Government should not be blocking workers from court because corporates may not like the outcome.
“The personal grievance changes are also trying to tie the courts hands and prevent them from establishing justice for workers. They entrench power imbalances and leave workers facing unjustified dismissal with no statutory protection.
“These changes threaten every single worker in Aotearoa. The right to seek remedies for unjustifiable and unlawful dismissal is a basic employment right and should not be diluted.
“This Bill also legislates to remove the 30-day rule, which is another attempt undermine unions and protections that unions bring their members. Currently workers in a new role have the protection of any collective agreement in place for 30 days. Removing the rule will encourage employers to exploit workers when they are at their most vulnerable, and to lead a race to the bottom for wages and conditions.
“The Bill heightens worker vulnerability to unjustifiable dismissal, shields employers from the consequences of mistreating workers, and drives people into insecure work. This is in the context of government policy that has caused largescale unemployment.
“Parties across Parliament should vote down this radically unjust law and instead support working people and their families,” said Wagstaff.
The skills shortage gripping Australia’s workforce is a vicious cycle. Vocational education is essential to train workers to fill these gaps, but there’s also a shortage of qualified TAFE teachers – who are struggling under high workloads to meet this essential demand.
To close that skills gap, and avoid losing current staff to burnout, the VET sector desperately needs more industry-qualified teachers. But like other Australian employers, TAFE must hire from the same limited pool of skilled tradespeople and professionals.
From Industry to the Classroom
Ten years ago, trade-qualified carpenter Steve Cole turned down a TAFE teaching job because “business was booming” and he had contract commitments. At the time, Cole was keen to share his 30 years’ knowledge of the construction industry, but as the boss of a busy company he felt he couldn’t walk away.
Still, teaching stayed in Cole’s mind. “I was training people on-the-job and I felt that there were things that I had to give,” he says. Looking ahead to the final act of his career, he liked the idea of “a full circle back to where I started. I had fond memories of TAFE in the ’70s studying carpentry and construction”.
Teaching is an intellectually challenging job that offers great work/life/family balance without the physical demands of industry labour. “I know as a 62-year-old electrician that I wouldn’t be up crawling around in roofs or out digging ditches,” says Phil Chadwick, NSW Teachers Federation TAFE lead organiser.
Enter: Paid to Learn
To lure mid-career and senior professionals such as Cole, “TAFE NSW had to be a little bit creative in the way that they recruited teachers to encourage people to get off the tools [and] pick up the whiteboard marker,” Chadwick says,
It developed a program that’s unique to NSW: Paid to Learn.
Learning to Teach
There are three prerequisites to become a VET teacher: a nationally recognised qualification in the discipline in which you want to teach, between three and five years of industry experience, and a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment (TAE).
“One of the bigger barriers in attracting tradespeople and professionals out of the jobs that they do is gaining that minimum teaching qualification, the TAE Cert IV,” Chadwick says.
While the TAE course is fee-exempt under the Free TAFE joint government initiative, it still demands six months of full-time study, or 12 months part-time. To a busy professional, that’s a long time without their usual income.
Even juggling part-time coursework with an industry job is tough, as worksite demands compete with the routine and discipline of study. “I wouldn’t advise that,” says Cole.
Early in 2024, he was browsing the ‘I Work for NSW’ public-sector jobs website when he spotted a Paid to Learn carpentry teaching job at Meadowbank TAFE. For Cole, the chief attraction was financial: “I’ve still got bills to pay, a mortgage to pay, and I could learn on the job and be paid a reasonable salary instead of closing my business, having no income and doing it that way.”
Paid to Learn allowed Cole to start working at Meadowbank straight away – with full teaching salary, plus superannuation, leave and other benefits – while refreshing his 11-year-old TAE qualification through an intensive course of 14 weeks.
“Basically from day one, they’re in the classroom teaching,” Chadwick says. TAFE students benefit from their new teachers’ industry currency, as effectively six weeks earlier, they were on the tools.
To soften the impact of hitting the ground running, Paid to Learn also pairs trainee teachers with mentors and supervisors, whose tailored, wraparound support sets them up to succeed.
“I think that’s invaluable,” Cole says now, a year into his new career. “The TAE teaching staff are extremely supportive if you allow them to support you.”
How It Works
“Most of our members that go into the program are employed as permanent full-time or temporary full-time employees,” Chadwick says. “It’s a bit like an apprenticeship or a traineeship, where a person starts the job and then they’re released from work to attend TAFE.”
Cole spent three full days per week in TAE classes at Mt Druitt TAFE, then two days at Meadowbank, shadowing a more experienced teacher. Trade skills teaching has improved since his apprentice days. “It’s a lot more hands-on,” he reflects. “That hands-on approach, theory taught within practical, I think works well for the student cohort that we have.”
Paid to Learn prioritises industries targeted by the NSW skills shortage list: trades such as electrical, carpentry, plumbing, automotive and engineering, and metal fabrication, plus in-demand fields such as community services, aged care and community health.
“In our class, we had two electricians,” says Cole; “I’m a carpenter. We had two cabinetmaker-joiners and we had a fellow from aerospace who trains aeroplane mechanics and service technicians.”
TAFE NSW uses Paid to Learn as an incentive to attract staff to campuses with the most acute needs. “[Teachers] can be recruited based on their trade or profession, but they can also be recruited to a specific location in the state, and that’s what sets the priority,” says Chadwick.
The program was piloted from August to November 2022 in Western Sydney, which is in a construction and energy boom. “So that’s typically why there’s a lot of carpenters, electricians and plumbers in it,” Chadwick says. The next cohort of 47 new teachers start their jobs in March 2025.
Putting Learning Into Practice
The TAE Certificate IV can be academically demanding for trade-qualified professionals, especially if it’s been a while since they were in a classroom.
Though Cole already knew his trade inside out, the TAE course handed him a different toolbox: “teaching methodology and classroom management, and building up effective relationships with the student cohort.”
“[It was a] very steep learning curve for me,” Cole recalls, but he’s relished the challenge. “I learn something new every single day, and I learn things about myself.”
He uses the term “reflective journey” – which he calls “a TAFE-ism” – to describe the introspective, analytical skills he honed during Paid to Learn. “I’ve certainly learned a lot about other people.”
He was particularly impressed by his specialist TAE teacher, “and the lengths she went through to not cut corners at all, but to build our skills up to the level where we pass with confidence.” And he could immediately practise what he’d just learned: “That’s how I teach now, using her as an example.”
He also bonded with the other trainee teachers in his class.
“We’ve socialised since, got together for Christmas drinks and so forth, and talked about our experiences,” he says.
Chadwick says Paid to Learn’s cohort-based approach boosts trainee teachers’ engagement in their studies, and their completion rates, compared to those undertaking the TAE alone.
“The collaborative effort between the students helps each other,” he says.
The Rewards
Of 287 participants in Paid to Learn’s first year, 278 are still teaching – a 97 per cent retention rate.
A full-time TAFE NSW teacher can earn $88,842 to $105,362, depending on their work history. Chadwick concedes industry pay can be higher, “but it’s not the money that they come for, it’s the conditions.”
After an interim review of NSW’s VET system found only 48 per cent of TAFE NSW educators were employed permanently, “it’s a really big improvement that TAFE are taking these people on in secure jobs rather than in casual jobs,” Chadwick says.
They’ll also benefit from the newly negotiated TAFE Commission of NSW Teachers and Related Employees enterprise agreement, which will boost the top salary to around $120,000 by 2027.
Compared to teaching, “running your own business is quite an onerous task – a lot longer hours per week,” says Cole.
Now his kids are adults, he’s happy to trade off the flexibility and control of self-employment for more relaxed work.
Cole was also surprised by how much he appreciated the camaraderie of teaching.
“I was the top dog in my business; that’s a little bit isolating in some ways, and now I’m working closely with people of equal standing within the TAFE hierarchy,” he says. “To feel like I am part of a team, for me, has been a real positive.”
Chadwick says Paid to Learn “is not a magic bullet. On its own, it is not a solution. But it’s definitely a step in the right direction.”
It represents a welcome investment in an education sector whose funding has been volatile and politicised.
Cole, meanwhile, heartily recommends Paid to Learn to other NSW industry professionals contemplating a career change.
“The rewards from teaching aren’t really talked about enough,” he enthuses.
“The regard with which students hold us is something of an honour, really. We’re seen as mentors and people to be trusted, and guides. That’s a lovely position to be in. It makes me feel really good about myself.”
TAFE NSW Ultimo in the heart of central Sydney delivers the state’s only Marine Mechanical Cert III alongside qualifications in marine engineering, in a purpose-built onsite marine craft construction education facility. The Ultimo campus, originally opened in 1891 as the new home of Sydney Technical College on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and represents New South Wales’ first government owned and built vocational education facility. Today its NSW’s largest TAFE campus consisting of heritage buildings from the 1890s with newer buildings built through the 20th century to support expanding educational offerings and the growing number of students. The campus encompasses structures including the former Technological Museum (1893), Turner Hall (1892) and Commercial High School (1892), and the separate George Street-located Marcus Clark Building (1913), which was acquired in 1966.It seems fitting that mechanics remains an important offering on campus, considering Sydney Technical College was initially established in 1878 as a partnership between the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts, the Trades and Labor Council of New South Wales, the Engineering Association of New South Wales Trades, and supported by government. When the government decided to fully fund the college in 1883, it became the birthplace of TAFE as we now know it – a statewide system of technical education. Today TAFE NSW continues its public vocational education mission. When visiting the Ultimo campus in February, NSW minister for Skills, TAFE and Tertiary Education Steve Whan said: “The maritime industry is crucial to our economy and TAFE NSW plays an important role in ensuring the next generation of seafarers and mechanics have the skills to succeed.”
Navigating the Waves
Simon Rodgers is acting head teacher, Mechanics at TAFE NSW Ultimo. He looks after marine mechanics, motorcycles and auto electrical and is the first marine mechanic to head the department. Rodgers has been teaching at TAFE NSW for 20 years and began his career as a marine mechanic apprentice, learning at TAFE NSW alongside automotive apprentices as the marine mechanic qualification wasn’t yet available. “I grew up on a farm, so we were just into motorcycles and boats and tractors and things like but when I started my apprenticeship, that’s when my formal training started,” he says. “When I was at school, I loved mechanics and a lot of my friends were getting into automotive and I saw that as there was so many people doing it that I didn’t want to do it, I wanted to do something unique and I was lucky enough to secure a marine apprenticeship.” “I started my apprenticeship as a marine mechanic in 1988 and worked with that company for just under 10 years. [Then] I had an opportunity to start my own business.” After 10 years running his business, one of his boating industry representatives mentioned a TAFE NSW teaching role and he decided to look into it and found it offered him the flexibility to spend more time with his young family. After 10 years running his business, one of his boating industry representatives mentioned a TAFE NSW teaching role and he decided to look into it and found it offered him the flexibility to spend more time with his young family. He went through the TAFE NSW teacher training program at the time, where he taught at TAFE on a reduced program and went to university to earn a BA in Adult Education: “Working in industry with your hands for 15–20 years and then having to go and sit in a classroom and write essays, it was very difficult, but what I have noticed is the teaching skill set that I gained through that process has benefited me.” He hasn’t looked back, discovering he truly loved being a TAFE teacher. “My philosophy is that I don’t try and drag them up to where I’m at with my experience is, I let them know that the only difference between the students and myself is time in the saddle,” he says. “So I like to get down to their level, interact with them and just teach them stuff. “Probably my best teacher was my stepfather and he always explained to me, it doesn’t matter how much you learn or whatever you do, if you don’t pass it on it gets lost. I’ve got to pass the baton on.”
Passing the Baton
Marine mechanics has been offered at Ultimo since 1997 when the marine specialist facility opened. “We get to concentrate on three main things in our qualification: engines, electrical and propulsion systems and we probably do more than most other disciplines around those three topics,” he says. “Our qualification is incredibly diverse. We’ve got specialist teachers that represent most of the industry – we all have unique skill sets and we program those skill sets around the subjects to best suit the apprentices.” “We’ve been able to restructure the course delivery in Stage Three to run two separate streams so that we can have the heavy diesel people concentrating on their discipline and the petrol people concentrating on theirs.” “You can engage any employer, any engine manufacturer and they really respect what we do at TAFE and how we train our apprentices.” “There are apprentices who have sat in our classroom who now work for engine manufacturers, we’ve had apprentices travel throughout Europe working on superyachts and many of the students that we’ve taught in the past are now running their own business and sending their own apprentices here.” “It’s a very family style of business, very generational, we’ve got one current employer who’s got his third child coming through.”
Family Legacies
That third child is the younger brother of Michaela Douglas who recently completed her Marine Mechanical Technology apprenticeship at TAFE NSW Ultimo last year, before winning the Boating Industry Association’s Apprentice of the Year award. “I am a third-generation qualified marine mechanic,” says Douglas. “I work for my family’s business Douglas Marine; and we’re based on Pittwater out of the Royal Prince Alfred Yacht Club. My grandparents started the company, then my dad and his brother worked in the business, and now me and my two brothers are in the business and my sister was also working in the office while she was at uni.” “The teachers, they’re great. If you put the effort in, they will put double the effort in, they really want to help you.” “They have really good facilities. They start in the morning teaching you the theory. And then you’d go into the workshop and actually pull apart whatever you’re learning about… and learn how to put them back together.”
Lifelong Learning
Following the completion of her Cert III, on the recommendation of her teacher Simon Rodgers, TAFE NSW nominated Douglas for Boating Industry Australia’s Apprentice of the Year award. She won both the NSW and Australia wide Apprentice of the Year. Now fully qualified, she’s loving her work, especially the variety it offers: “I enjoy explaining to someone why [what I’ve done is] important… it’s always different.” Douglas is now studying Automotive Electrical Technologies to support her marine mechanic work.
Building and Sharing Knowledge
TAFE NSW marine construction teacher Robert Reid is a shipwright by trade and has been teaching full time at Ultimo since 2018. “I kind of needed to share,” he says of his transition from industry to teaching. “Thinking back, as a kid sailing, I was kind of always instructing… and as a foreman at work, I was showing others how to do things.” Reid says TAFE is about more than technical instruction: “TAFE is about access, support, and being able to come in and learn all the [skills] and the mechanics behind the visual.”
Nurturing Initiative
“When things start to click for them, things they couldn’t do before… when they’ve brought in their own initiative.” “There’s close ties to industry… the apprentice’s bosses came through TAFE and they want the same skills demonstrated.” “We’ve been able to tie in Cert IV from this year, which is set up for fabrication and welding units and for bidding for contracts.”
Smoother Sailing
Maddison Webb-Leck, Certificate III in Marine Craft Construction Stage 1 Student of the Year, is a shipwright apprentice and Wiradjuri woman. She found her passion through hands-on TAFE learning and help from her uncles: “I watched [my boss] put a transom in and lay it up a bit and I was like, oh, this is kind of cool.” She especially enjoys fibre glassing and being on the water: “The guys are stronger in woodwork, but you put me in a glass room and I pretty much overtake them all,” she laughs.
Putting in the work
Webb-Leck says the approach of seeing and then doing at TAFE suits her style of learning: “I can’t just be told on how to do it. I have to watch it a bit and then I can replicate it.” She applies the same philosophy to her work: “There’s only the three of us at my work, so I have to do a lot of my own jobs. I’ll get shown how to do it and then I’m on that, as a small business we’ve got a lot of business to get through.” Webb-Leck’s work includes the gamut of repairs and building of marine craft, but her favourite part is glassing – working with fibreglass. “I do a lot of fibreglass work, so then when I come to TAFE, it’s a bit of a struggle because it’s all woodwork, but we do a lot of rebuild and repairs at work, so that helps me a lot. “The guys are stronger in woodwork, but you put me in a glass room and I pretty much overtake them all,” she laughs. It’s those skills and her work ethic that put her in contention for the Student of the Year award. “So many people in the class were like ‘you got it because you’re a girl’, but I’m good at what I do. I’ve come so far and I’m more trained than most people my age,” she says. “My folks, they’re actually really proud. Everyone’s really proud. It’s a lot of pressure on me, but it’s good to have pressure, because there’s been a few rough days and rough weeks where I’ve thought about leaving just because it’s rough but I pulled through. I start thinking about that and I’m just like, whoa, I’ve come this far, there’s so much riding on it. Those days where it gets really hard and your boss is angry at you, you’re angry at yourself and you kind of just have to go with it.” She says her love of being on the water also helps and reminds her of why she’s working so hard, but also of being a kid and constantly going up river with her dad. “I learned how to ski when I was four – dad grew up on the water, his mates grew up on the water, his dad grew up on the water,” she says. “Quiet weekends when you go out on the water with your mates and you have the whole water to yourself and we don’t stop skiing, it’s just fun.” Aside from playing netball, most of her hobbies, such as water-skiing, revolve around the water: “Power boat races are pretty cool to watch. We’ll go to Yarrawonga to watch them and then when they come back down to the Hawks, we’ll watch them again. There are a lot of different designed hulls and motors in there. It’s really fun – they’re one of the best weekends.” Between work, her apprenticeship, friends and family, she also continues to spend time with her dad on the water and looks forward to one day helping him race his boat. “My dad wants to race his boat. He’s got a car motor in it, but he’s always wanted to race it. So if he was to race that, I’d race that with him just for the fun of it, not for any competition, just see how quick we can go,” she says. “If we actually put work into it and do it, then yeah, maybe we can do it.”
June 16, 2025 – Paris, France – Global Affairs Canada
Global trade is uncertain and the geopolitical landscape is shifting, but Canada is forging ahead to strengthen ties with trusted partners—and strengthening the strategic industries that will anchor its economic security for decades to come.
Aerospace is one of Canada’s most innovative and export-driven industries, and Canada is home to a world-class aerospace ecosystem.
Today, at the Paris Air Show, Canada welcomed LOT Polish Airlines’ announcement of its purchase of 40 Airbus A220 aircraft—made in Mirabel, Quebec—with purchase rights for another 44 aircraft. This represents another airline in a long list of airlines adding the A220 to its fleets, a clear signal of international confidence in Canadian innovation and industrial strength. It also represents a significant boost to Canada’s aerospace sector and its workers.
This announcement is a powerful reaffirmation of the enduring Canada-Poland and Canada-EU partnership, which are rooted in strong commercial ties and people-to-people connections.
The A220 is a made-in-Canada success story: it was designed and developed here, assembled in Mirabel and supported by Canadian supply chains. LOT’s selection of the A220 is more than a commercial transaction; it is a reflection of over 70 years of deep, mutually beneficial aerospace cooperation between Canada and Poland. This deal highlights Canada’s commitment to closer ties with Europe and to transatlantic collaboration. The order will maintain and generate thousands of high-paying jobs across the country and reinforce global recognition for a Canadian aircraft that’s changing the game.
This agreement also underscores the strength of Canada’s industrial ties with France, home to Airbus’s headquarters, and builds on the recent engagement of the Honourable Maninder Sidhu, Minister of International Trade, with European leaders during his visit to Paris on June 4.
The deal reflects Canada’s strategic priorities with respect to diversifying the country’s trade relationships with reliable and trusted partners, strengthening its economic security and building resilient supply chains.
This is more than an aircraft sale—it is a testament to Canadian innovation and capability and to the strategic value of building in Canada, with Canada.
Source: US Whitehouse
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1862) (section 232), section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby determine and order:
Section 1. Background. On May 8, 2025, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and I announced the General Terms for the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Economic Prosperity Deal (General Terms). The General Terms outline a historic trade deal that provides American companies unprecedented access to British markets while bolstering the national security and economy of the United States. The deal includes billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports, especially for beef, ethanol, and certain other American agricultural exports. In addition, the United Kingdom will reduce or eliminate numerous non-tariff barriers that unfairly discriminate against American products, hurt the United States’ manufacturing base, and threaten the national security of the United States. The General Terms provide, among other things, that the United States intends to create an annual quota of 100,000 vehicles for United Kingdom automotive imports at a 10 percent tariff rate. In the General Terms, the United Kingdom also committed to working to meet American requirements on the security of the supply chains of steel and aluminum products intended for export to the United States and on the nature of ownership of relevant production facilities. Provided the United Kingdom meets these requirements, the United States intends to promptly construct a quota at most-favored-nation rates for steel and aluminum articles and certain derivative steel and aluminum articles that are products of the United Kingdom in the context of implementing the General Terms. Furthermore, in the General Terms, the United States and the United Kingdom committed to negotiate significantly preferential treatment outcomes on pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients that are products of the United Kingdom, contingent on the findings of an investigation regarding pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients under section 232, and provided that the United Kingdom complies with certain supply chain security standards. Finally, in the General Terms, the United States and the United Kingdom committed to adopt a structured, negotiated approach to addressing United States national security concerns regarding sectors that may be subject to future section 232 investigations. To that end, the United States and the United Kingdom further committed to strengthen aerospace and aircraft manufacturing supply chains by establishing tariff-free bilateral trade in certain aerospace products. In my judgment, I determine that the following actions are consistent with the national interests of the United States and are necessary and appropriate to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025 (Regulating Imports With a Reciprocal Tariff To Rectify Trade Practices That Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits), as amended, and to reduce or eliminate the threats to national security found in Proclamation 9704 of March 8, 2018 (Adjusting Imports of Aluminum Into the United States), as amended; Proclamation 9705 of March 8, 2018 (Adjusting Imports of Steel Into the United States), as amended; and Proclamation 9888 of May 17, 2019 (Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts Into the United States), as amended.
Sec. 2. Automobiles and Automobile Parts. (a) I hereby establish an annual tariff-rate quota of 100,000 automobiles as classified in heading 8703 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) and as further specified in note 33(b) to subchapter III of chapter 99 of the HTSUS for automobiles that are products of the United Kingdom. Imports of automobiles within the tariff-rate quota that would otherwise be subject to a 25 percent tariff under Proclamation 10908 of March 26, 2025 (Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts Into the United States), shall instead be subject to a 7.5 percent tariff, in addition to the most-favored-nation rate for automobiles of 2.5 percent, for a combined tariff of 10 percent. Imports of automobiles in excess of the tariff-rate quota shall remain subject to the full duties imposed by Proclamation 10908. The tariff-rate quota shall be adjusted for calendar year 2025 to reflect the General Terms’ operative date of May 8, 2025. The quota shall be effective 7 days after the publication of this order in the Federal Register. (b) Automotive parts specified in note 33(g) to subchapter III of chapter 99 of the HTSUS that would otherwise be subject to a 25 percent tariff under Proclamation 10908 shall instead be subject to a total tariff of 10 percent (including any most-favored-nation tariffs), provided that they are products of the United Kingdom and are for use in automobiles that are products of the United Kingdom. This change shall be effective as of the date of the publication of the Federal Register notice described in subsection (c) of this section. (c) Within 7 days of the date of publication of this order in the Federal Register, the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), in consultation with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), shall publish a notice in the Federal Register modifying the HTSUS consistent with this section, if necessary. (d) The Secretary may issue rules, regulations, guidance, and procedures to carry out the provisions of this section.
Sec. 3. Aerospace. (a) With respect to products of the United Kingdom that fall under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft, the tariffs imposed through the following Presidential actions and subsequent amendments to those actions shall no longer apply, as of the date of publication of the Federal Register notice described in subsection (b) of this section: (i) Executive Order 14257, as amended; (ii) Proclamation 9704, as amended; and (iii) Proclamation 9705, as amended. (b) Within 7 days of the date of publication of this order in the Federal Register, the Secretary, in consultation with ITC and CBP, shall publish a notice in the Federal Register modifying the HTSUS consistent with this section, if necessary. (c) The Secretary may issue rules, regulations, guidance, and procedures to carry out the provisions of this section.
Sec. 4. Aluminum and Steel Articles and Their Derivative Articles. (a) At a future time that the Secretary, in consultation with the United States Trade Representative, deems appropriate, the Secretary shall design and establish a tariff-rate quota for aluminum articles and derivative aluminum articles that are products of the United Kingdom, consistent with the General Terms and the purpose of this order. Imports of aluminum articles or derivative aluminum articles that are products of the United Kingdom in excess of the tariff-rate quota established by the Secretary shall remain subject to the duties set forth in Proclamation 9704, as amended. (b) At a future time that the Secretary, in consultation with the United States Trade Representative, deems appropriate, the Secretary shall design and establish a tariff-rate quota for steel articles and derivative steel articles that are products of the United Kingdom, consistent with the General Terms and the purpose of this order. Imports of steel articles or derivative steel articles that are products of the United Kingdom in excess of the tariff-rate quota established by the Secretary shall remain subject to the duties set forth in Proclamation 9705, as amended. (c) In determining when to establish, whether to establish, and the design of a tariff-rate quota for aluminum and steel articles and their derivatives, the Secretary shall act in a manner consistent with the national interests of the United States and the purpose of this order and shall consider factors he deems appropriate, such as actions taken by the United Kingdom to implement the General Terms and any final agreement entered by the United States and the United Kingdom subsequent to the General Terms; the need to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14257, as amended; and the need to reduce or eliminate the threats to national security found in Proclamation 9704, as amended, and Proclamation 9705, as amended.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. (d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Commerce.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE, June 16, 2025.
Source: US Whitehouse
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, as amended (19 U.S.C. 1862) (section 232), section 604 of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended (19 U.S.C. 2483), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby determine and order:
Section 1. Background. On May 8, 2025, United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and I announced the General Terms for the United States of America and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland Economic Prosperity Deal (General Terms). The General Terms outline a historic trade deal that provides American companies unprecedented access to British markets while bolstering the national security and economy of the United States. The deal includes billions of dollars of increased market access for American exports, especially for beef, ethanol, and certain other American agricultural exports. In addition, the United Kingdom will reduce or eliminate numerous non-tariff barriers that unfairly discriminate against American products, hurt the United States’ manufacturing base, and threaten the national security of the United States. The General Terms provide, among other things, that the United States intends to create an annual quota of 100,000 vehicles for United Kingdom automotive imports at a 10 percent tariff rate. In the General Terms, the United Kingdom also committed to working to meet American requirements on the security of the supply chains of steel and aluminum products intended for export to the United States and on the nature of ownership of relevant production facilities. Provided the United Kingdom meets these requirements, the United States intends to promptly construct a quota at most-favored-nation rates for steel and aluminum articles and certain derivative steel and aluminum articles that are products of the United Kingdom in the context of implementing the General Terms. Furthermore, in the General Terms, the United States and the United Kingdom committed to negotiate significantly preferential treatment outcomes on pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients that are products of the United Kingdom, contingent on the findings of an investigation regarding pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical ingredients under section 232, and provided that the United Kingdom complies with certain supply chain security standards. Finally, in the General Terms, the United States and the United Kingdom committed to adopt a structured, negotiated approach to addressing United States national security concerns regarding sectors that may be subject to future section 232 investigations. To that end, the United States and the United Kingdom further committed to strengthen aerospace and aircraft manufacturing supply chains by establishing tariff-free bilateral trade in certain aerospace products. In my judgment, I determine that the following actions are consistent with the national interests of the United States and are necessary and appropriate to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14257 of April 2, 2025 (Regulating Imports With a Reciprocal Tariff To Rectify Trade Practices That Contribute to Large and Persistent Annual United States Goods Trade Deficits), as amended, and to reduce or eliminate the threats to national security found in Proclamation 9704 of March 8, 2018 (Adjusting Imports of Aluminum Into the United States), as amended; Proclamation 9705 of March 8, 2018 (Adjusting Imports of Steel Into the United States), as amended; and Proclamation 9888 of May 17, 2019 (Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts Into the United States), as amended.
Sec. 2. Automobiles and Automobile Parts. (a) I hereby establish an annual tariff-rate quota of 100,000 automobiles as classified in heading 8703 of the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States (HTSUS) and as further specified in note 33(b) to subchapter III of chapter 99 of the HTSUS for automobiles that are products of the United Kingdom. Imports of automobiles within the tariff-rate quota that would otherwise be subject to a 25 percent tariff under Proclamation 10908 of March 26, 2025 (Adjusting Imports of Automobiles and Automobile Parts Into the United States), shall instead be subject to a 7.5 percent tariff, in addition to the most-favored-nation rate for automobiles of 2.5 percent, for a combined tariff of 10 percent. Imports of automobiles in excess of the tariff-rate quota shall remain subject to the full duties imposed by Proclamation 10908. The tariff-rate quota shall be adjusted for calendar year 2025 to reflect the General Terms’ operative date of May 8, 2025. The quota shall be effective 7 days after the publication of this order in the Federal Register. (b) Automotive parts specified in note 33(g) to subchapter III of chapter 99 of the HTSUS that would otherwise be subject to a 25 percent tariff under Proclamation 10908 shall instead be subject to a total tariff of 10 percent (including any most-favored-nation tariffs), provided that they are products of the United Kingdom and are for use in automobiles that are products of the United Kingdom. This change shall be effective as of the date of the publication of the Federal Register notice described in subsection (c) of this section. (c) Within 7 days of the date of publication of this order in the Federal Register, the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary), in consultation with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), shall publish a notice in the Federal Register modifying the HTSUS consistent with this section, if necessary. (d) The Secretary may issue rules, regulations, guidance, and procedures to carry out the provisions of this section.
Sec. 3. Aerospace. (a) With respect to products of the United Kingdom that fall under the World Trade Organization Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft, the tariffs imposed through the following Presidential actions and subsequent amendments to those actions shall no longer apply, as of the date of publication of the Federal Register notice described in subsection (b) of this section: (i) Executive Order 14257, as amended; (ii) Proclamation 9704, as amended; and (iii) Proclamation 9705, as amended. (b) Within 7 days of the date of publication of this order in the Federal Register, the Secretary, in consultation with ITC and CBP, shall publish a notice in the Federal Register modifying the HTSUS consistent with this section, if necessary. (c) The Secretary may issue rules, regulations, guidance, and procedures to carry out the provisions of this section.
Sec. 4. Aluminum and Steel Articles and Their Derivative Articles. (a) At a future time that the Secretary, in consultation with the United States Trade Representative, deems appropriate, the Secretary shall design and establish a tariff-rate quota for aluminum articles and derivative aluminum articles that are products of the United Kingdom, consistent with the General Terms and the purpose of this order. Imports of aluminum articles or derivative aluminum articles that are products of the United Kingdom in excess of the tariff-rate quota established by the Secretary shall remain subject to the duties set forth in Proclamation 9704, as amended. (b) At a future time that the Secretary, in consultation with the United States Trade Representative, deems appropriate, the Secretary shall design and establish a tariff-rate quota for steel articles and derivative steel articles that are products of the United Kingdom, consistent with the General Terms and the purpose of this order. Imports of steel articles or derivative steel articles that are products of the United Kingdom in excess of the tariff-rate quota established by the Secretary shall remain subject to the duties set forth in Proclamation 9705, as amended. (c) In determining when to establish, whether to establish, and the design of a tariff-rate quota for aluminum and steel articles and their derivatives, the Secretary shall act in a manner consistent with the national interests of the United States and the purpose of this order and shall consider factors he deems appropriate, such as actions taken by the United Kingdom to implement the General Terms and any final agreement entered by the United States and the United Kingdom subsequent to the General Terms; the need to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 14257, as amended; and the need to reduce or eliminate the threats to national security found in Proclamation 9704, as amended, and Proclamation 9705, as amended.
Sec. 5. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect: (i) the authority granted by law to an executive department or agency, or the head thereof; or (ii) the functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals. (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations. (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person. (d) The costs for publication of this order shall be borne by the Department of Commerce.
DONALD J. TRUMP
THE WHITE HOUSE, June 16, 2025.
ADVISORY – HARRISBURG – Shapiro Administration to Discuss Importance of SNAP in Feeding Pennsylvanians Amid Proposed Federal Funding Cuts
The Pennsylvania Departments of Human Services (DHS) and Agriculture, alongside local charitable food partners, will discuss proposed federal changes to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the importance of this program in helping nearly two million Pennsylvanians buy groceries and feed their families.
SNAP is a 100% federally funded program that helps Pennsylvanians afford food, lowers health care costs in the Medicaid program, supports farmers and the agricultural economy, and offsets strain on the charitable food network. SNAP benefits bring in approximately $365 million each month to Pennsylvania’s economy, and any potential SNAP changes or cuts would lead to fewer resources for those who need the most help.
WHO: DHS Secretary Dr. Val Arkoosh Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding Central PA Food Bank President Shila Ulrich Feeding PA CEO Julie Bancroft Senator Patty Kim
WHEN: Tuesday, June 17, 2025, at 11:00 AM
WHERE: Central Pennsylvania Food Bank 3908 Corey Road Harrisburg, PA 17109
MEDIA RSVP: Press interested in attending must RSVP with the name of photographer/reporter to ra-pwdhspressoffice@pa.gov
Source: United States House of Representatives – Reprepsentative Kathy Castor (FL14)
Today, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL-14) and other Florida House Democrats urged Florida Senators Rick Scott and Ashley Moody to oppose the costly and destructive House Republican budget bill, which will strip health coverage away from over 1.8 million Floridians, an outsized impact on hardworking families in the Sunshine State.
“The House Republican budget bill will hurt the State of Florida, our families and providers more than any other state. We urge you to stand up for Floridians and oppose the bill that inflicts outsized harm on the State of Florida,” wrote the Members.
Florida, which has the nation’s highest ACA marketplace enrollment, is expected to have an estimated 1.86 million people lose their ACA and Medicaid coverage, over one-tenth of the 16 million individuals expected to lose their coverage nationwide.
The members continued, “Florida families value and appreciate affordable health coverage. Over 4.7 million Floridians selected an affordable marketplace plan for 2025—almost one-fifth of the nation’s 24.2 million enrollees. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), individuals cannot be discriminated against for a pre-existing condition and cannot be dropped by their health insurance company. Florida’s uninsurance rate has fallen by nearly 10%, and approximately 1 out of 3 Floridians (6.725 million) have enrolled in an ACA marketplace plan since 2014, more than any other state. As a reflection of our entrepreneurial state, 31% of Florida marketplace enrollees are self-employed or small business owners, and nearly 9 out of 10 of those individuals receive premium tax credits. The House Republican budget bill would make ACA coverage much more expensive, drive up premiums and hurt family budgets at a time they are grappling with rising costs. Therefore, we urge you to stand up for Florida families and their pocketbooks and oppose the House Republican budget bill.”
“We urge you to oppose the House Republican budget bill and instead work on advancing policies that will benefit Floridians’ health, quality of life and pocketbooks.”
Read the letter here and below:
The Honorable Rick Scott
United States Senator
The Honorable Ashley Moody
United States Senator
RE: Reconciliation Budget Inflicts Outsized Harm to Floridians – Urge Opposition to House Republican Budget Bill
Dear Senators Scott and Moody:
As fellow members of the Florida delegation, we strongly urge you to oppose the House-passed reconciliation bill that will strip health coverage away from 16 million Americans and raise the cost of health care overall to provide massive tax breaks to billionaires. Importantly, the House Republican budget bill will hurt the State of Florida, our families and providers more than any other state. We urge you to stand up for Floridians and oppose the bill that inflicts outsized harm on the State of Florida.
Florida families value and appreciate affordable health coverage. Over 4.7 million Floridians selected an affordable marketplace plan for 2025—almost one-fifth of the nation’s 24.2 million enrollees. Thanks to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), individuals cannot be discriminated against for a pre-existing condition and cannot be dropped by their health insurance company. Florida’s uninsurance rate has fallen by nearly 10%, and approximately 1 out of 3 Floridians (6.725 million) have enrolled in an ACA marketplace plan since 2014, more than any other state. As a reflection of our entrepreneurial state, 31% of Florida marketplace enrollees are self-employed or small business owners, and nearly 9 out of 10 of those individuals receive premium tax credits. The House Republican budget bill would make ACA coverage much more expensive, drive up premiums and hurt family budgets at a time they are grappling with rising costs. Therefore, we urge you to stand up for Florida families and their pocketbooks and oppose the House Republican budget bill.
If the Senate adopts the bill and takes no action to extend the enhanced ACA premium tax credits, Florida families will be hit hard – over 4 million families will be faced with much higher copayments and premiums. For example, a 60-year-old Florida couple making $82,000
would see their annual premiums increase from $6,790 to over $26,248. These added costs will outweigh any tax savings for working families. Similarly, a Florida family of four earning $64,000 per year would see their ACA premiums increase by $2,571, but estimates show a Florida family of four with similar earnings would only benefit from $1,476 in tax breaks. This would leave that family with $1,095 less in their pocketbooks at a time when the cost of living is soaring.
Along with not extending the essential ACA enhanced premium tax credits, the bill includes many other provisions designed to make it more difficult for individuals to find and keep marketplace coverage – an unnecessary bureaucratic squeeze with cruel results for Floridians. This includes more burdensome paperwork requirements, fewer and shorter enrollment periods, financing changes to cost-sharing reductions and nuisance fees—all provisions whose only effect is to increase the number of people without insurance. The paperwork requirements will be costly for the state to administer, add millions of hours of bureaucracy to the process and lead to individuals being wrongfully terminated, as we saw during Florida’s grim Medicaid redetermination period. According to President Trump’s own analysis, “coverage losses are expected to be concentrated in nine States,” including Florida. Florida, which has the nation’s highest marketplace enrollment, is expected to have an estimated 1.86 million people lose their ACA and Medicaid coverage, over one-tenth of the 16 million individuals expected to lose their coverage nationwide.
We have also heard from hospitals, nursing homes and other health care providers in our districts about the harm that would come from the changes to State-Directed Payments and provider financing. These payments are a lifeline for hospitals that treat a high volume of Medicaid managed care beneficiaries, particularly in a state like Florida that reimburses Medicaid providers at 48 cents for every dollar spent providing care. These initiatives help address the shortfall and bridge the gap for entities operating on razor thin margins. Florida hospitals are currently operating at a shortfall of about $3.67 billion, but without these initiatives, the shortfall would grow to $5.7 billion. The House Republican budget bill would hamstring states and take away an important tool for safety-net providers to care for their patients. Reduced federal Medicaid dollars would also blow a hole in the State of Florida’s budget, leaving the state to make tough decisions about cutting essential but optional benefits like home- and community-based services and mental health care; lowering provider reimbursement rates, exacerbating workforce shortages and leading to rural hospital closures; and/or stripping people from their health coverage.
The Big Ugly bill includes many other harmful provisions that would slash food assistance benefits, increase energy prices and utility bills, and make college less affordable for Floridians. It is fiscally irresponsible and morally wrong – and adds over $2.4 trillion to the nation’s deficits over the next decade as the GOP turns a blind eye to a balanced budget for decades to come. That’s shameful and will drive higher inflation and widespread economic harm – all because House Republicans aim to give major tax breaks to the wealthy and the well-connected. The health care provisions, however, will especially hurt Floridians more than the citizens of any other state. A healthy and productive America depends upon healthy access to affordable care at the right time, in the right place, and by the right provider for everyone. We urge you to oppose the House Republican budget bill and instead work on advancing policies that will benefit Floridians’ health, quality of life and pocketbooks.
Acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham on Passing of Former Chairman Bagley | CFTC
/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/phamstatement061625 Skip to main content
June 16, 2025
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Commodity Futures Trading Commission acting Chairman Caroline D. Pham today issued the following statement on the passing of the Hon. William T. Bagley, the CFTC’s first chairman: “Chairman Bagley was instrumental in laying the foundation for what has become the world’s preeminent derivatives regulator. As the first CFTC chairman, he shepherded our agency through its first years, executing on once-novel Congressional authorities and establishing a regulatory framework to expand risk mitigation tools for America’s growers, producers, builders and merchants. Fifty years after Chairman Bagley first opened the doors at the CFTC, this framework continues to be critical in driving the American economy forward. We celebrate Chairman Bagley’s life and legacy and owe him a debt of gratitude for his years of service to our markets, our economy, and our Nation. On behalf of the entire CFTC community, I extend my condolences to Chairman Bagley’s family.
Interoil’s Total operated production for the three-month period amounted to 97,506 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), representing a decline from 103,738 boe recorded in the same period of 2024. Operations in Argentina were negatively impacted by the failure of two compressor engines, which led to a sustained drop in gas production from January until the compressors were repaired in February. Despite the lower production, revenue increased to USD 5.7 million, up from USD 5.3 million in the previous year, driven by a favourable rise in gas prices.
Interoil Colombia successfully completed a downhole intervention to the Vikingo well.
In January, at the Company’s request, bondholders approved amendments to the bond terms to settle the full January 2025 interest payment in kind by issuing and delivering additional bonds.
In January, Interoil launched its well service campaign in the Mana Field, aiming to service five wells. The campaign sought to recover up to 50 bopd and 600,000 scfpd of gas. As of the date of this report, seven wells have been brought back online, delivering a combined flow of 117 bopd, and 82,000 scfpd of gas.
For more information, please see enclosed Interoil Exploration and Production ASA’s Report for the fourth quarter of 2024.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Please direct any further questions to ir@interoil.no (mailto:ir@interoil.no)
About Interoil
Interoil Exploration and Production ASA is a Norwegian based exploration and production company – listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with focus on Latin America. The Company is operator and license holder of several production and exploration assets in Colombia and Argentina with headquarter in Oslo.
Interoil’s Total operated production for the three-month period amounted to 97,506 barrels of oil equivalent (boe), representing a decline from 103,738 boe recorded in the same period of 2024. Operations in Argentina were negatively impacted by the failure of two compressor engines, which led to a sustained drop in gas production from January until the compressors were repaired in February. Despite the lower production, revenue increased to USD 5.7 million, up from USD 5.3 million in the previous year, driven by a favourable rise in gas prices.
Interoil Colombia successfully completed a downhole intervention to the Vikingo well.
In January, at the Company’s request, bondholders approved amendments to the bond terms to settle the full January 2025 interest payment in kind by issuing and delivering additional bonds.
In January, Interoil launched its well service campaign in the Mana Field, aiming to service five wells. The campaign sought to recover up to 50 bopd and 600,000 scfpd of gas. As of the date of this report, seven wells have been brought back online, delivering a combined flow of 117 bopd, and 82,000 scfpd of gas.
For more information, please see enclosed Interoil Exploration and Production ASA’s Report for the fourth quarter of 2024.
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5 -12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
Please direct any further questions to ir@interoil.no (mailto:ir@interoil.no)
About Interoil
Interoil Exploration and Production ASA is a Norwegian based exploration and production company – listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange with focus on Latin America. The Company is operator and license holder of several production and exploration assets in Colombia and Argentina with headquarter in Oslo.
Department Credits Firm’s Swift Disclosure and Cooperation in Stopping Violations and Securing Former CEO’s Conviction
Note: View a copy of the White Deer declination letter, Unicat non-prosecution agreement, and Mani Erfan’s plea agreement.
The Justice Department’s National Security Division (NSD) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas (SDTX) today announced that they declined the prosecution of private equity firm White Deer Management LLC (White Deer) and its affiliates after the firm discovered and voluntarily self-disclosed criminal violations of U.S. sanctions and export laws committed by a company it acquired, Texas-based Unicat Catalyst Technologies LLC (Unicat).
NSD and SDTX also announced that the Justice Department entered into a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with Unicat, and that, on Aug. 19, 2024, the former chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Unicat, Mani Erfan, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran and other countries and foreign governments, as well as concealment and international promotional money laundering. As part of his plea, Erfan also agreed to pay a money judgment in the amount of $1,600,000.
“After acquiring a company with a hidden history of sanctions violations, this private equity firm uncovered the misconduct, stopped it, and quickly reported it to the government, leading to the successful prosecution of a senior executive,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Our decision to decline prosecution of the acquiror and extend a non-prosecution agreement to the acquired entity in this case reflects the National Security Division’s strong commitment to rewarding responsible corporate leadership.”
“Illegally exporting sensitive items to Venezuela and Iran to help them evade sanctions directly undermines U.S. foreign policy and threatens our national security,” said Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz of Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) Houston. “HSI will not sit by idly while businesses or individuals operating in the U.S. blatantly help our nation’s adversaries procure sensitive technologies or weapons and today’s announcement of a $3 million fine and the imposition of criminal charges is just another example of that enduring commitment.”
As detailed in court documents and in the Department’s agreements with White Deer and Unicat, from approximately 2014 through 2021, Mani Erfan, Unicat’s former CEO, conspired with others, including at least one other Unicat employee, to cause Unicat to submit bids and make sales to customers in Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and Cuba in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. In total, Erfan caused Unicat to make a total of 23 unlawful sales of chemical catalysts used in oil refining and steel production to customers in Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. Some of the sales were effected through exports of catalysts from the United States and further violated U.S. export control laws.
To further the conspiracy, the conspirators made false statements in export documents and financial records about the true identities and locations of Unicat’s customers and falsely assured some Unicat employees that the company’s business with customers subject to U.S. economic sanctions was lawful. Unicat obtained approximately $3.33 million in revenue from its unlawful sales.
Erfan and Unicat employees additionally falsified invoices to reduce the tariffs assessed on catalysts that Unicat imported from China. By undervaluing these imports, Unicat caused a loss of revenue of approximately $1.66 million in duties, taxes, and fees. Further, during negotiations to sell Unicat to White Deer, Unicat’s prior owners provided representations and warranties to White Deer attesting to Unicat’s compliance with U.S. sanctions and export control laws.
The scheme came to light in June 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, after White Deer acquired Unicat and a second company based in the United Kingdom, and Unicat’s new CEO was able to travel to the United States to visit Unicat and begin to integrate the operations of the company. During his visit, the new CEO learned that Unicat had a pending transaction with an Iranian customer and immediately ordered the deal’s cancellation. Over the next month, White Deer and Unicat’s new CEO retained counsel to investigate, and learned that Unicat had engaged in a series of transactions with counterparties subject to different U.S. sanctions programs. Before the investigation was complete, but after determining that Unicat employees had engaged in potentially criminal violations of U.S. sanctions laws, White Deer and Unicat’s new management submitted a voluntary self-disclosure to NSD.
Pursuant to the NPA, Unicat agreed to pay forfeiture totaling $3,325,052.10, representing the proceeds of its violations of U.S. sanctions and export control laws. In parallel resolutions coordinated between the Justice Department, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Office of Export Enforcement (OEE), Unicat agreed to pay $3,882,797 to OFAC for its apparent violations of U.S. sanctions laws, and agreed with OEE to pay a penalty of $391,183 for its violation of U.S. export control laws. OFAC agreed to credit Unicat’s payment of forfeiture pursuant to the NPA against the OFAC penalty, and OEE has agreed to credit Unicat’s payment to OFAC against the OEE penalty. In a separate administrative resolution with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Unicat agreed to pay $1,655,189.57, in underpaid duties, taxes, and fees.
NSD and SDTX declined White Deer’s prosecution and entered into the NPA with Unicat after considering the factors set forth in the Department’s Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations, the National Security Division Enforcement Policy for Business Organizations (NSD Enforcement Policy), and pursuant to the provisions of the NSD Enforcement Policy that apply to Voluntary Self-Disclosures in Connection with Acquisitions (the NSD M&A Policy).
The NSD M&A Policy provides that when a company (1) completes a lawful bona fide acquisition of another entity, (2) voluntarily and timely self-discloses to NSD potentially criminal violations of laws affecting U.S. national security committed by the acquired entity, (3) fully cooperates with NSD’s investigation, and (4) timely and appropriately remediates the misconduct, NSD generally will not seek a guilty plea from the acquiror, and there is a presumption that NSD will decline to prosecute the acquiror. The NSD M&A Policy further provides that while a presumption of declination is not available to the acquired entity, NSD will credit the acquiror’s timely voluntary self-disclosure to the acquired entity and will consider whether the acquired entity otherwise satisfies the NSD Enforcement Policy’s requirements to obtain the benefits of the Policy.
NSD and SDTX determined that White Deer’s acquisition of Unicat was a lawful bona fide acquisition, and that White Deer’s self-disclosure was timely under all of the relevant circumstances, including the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of White Deer’s acquisition of Unicat and efforts to integrate the company’s operations into another acquired entity. White Deer and Unicat fully cooperated with the government’s subsequent investigation by proactively identifying, collecting, and disclosing relevant evidence to investigators, including foreign language evidence and evidence located overseas, and providing detailed and timely responses to the government’s requests for information and evidence. White Deer’s and Unicat’s cooperation materially assisted the government’s investigation, leading to the successful prosecution of Unicat’s former CEO. Unicat remediated the root cause of the misconduct in less than one year from the date of its discovery by terminating culpable employees, disciplining other employees involved in the misconduct, seeking reimbursement from Unicat’s sellers, and designing and implementing a comprehensive and robust internal controls and compliance program that has proven effective in practice at identifying and preventing similar potential misconduct.
This resolution marks the first time since the creation of the Justice Department’s Mergers and Acquisitions Policy in March 2024 that the Department has declined the prosecution of an acquiror for self-disclosing criminal conduct discovered at an acquired entity.
Trial Attorneys Adam P. Barry and Yifei Zheng of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Mark McIntyre for the Southern District of Texas prosecuted the case.
ICE-HSI, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and BIS investigated the case.
Department Credits Firm’s Swift Disclosure and Cooperation in Stopping Violations and Securing Former CEO’s Conviction
Note: View a copy of the White Deer declination letter, Unicat non-prosecution agreement, and Mani Erfan’s plea agreement.
The Justice Department’s National Security Division (NSD) and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas (SDTX) today announced that they declined the prosecution of private equity firm White Deer Management LLC (White Deer) and its affiliates after the firm discovered and voluntarily self-disclosed criminal violations of U.S. sanctions and export laws committed by a company it acquired, Texas-based Unicat Catalyst Technologies LLC (Unicat).
NSD and SDTX also announced that the Justice Department entered into a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) with Unicat, and that, on Aug. 19, 2024, the former chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Unicat, Mani Erfan, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions against Iran and other countries and foreign governments, as well as concealment and international promotional money laundering. As part of his plea, Erfan also agreed to pay a money judgment in the amount of $1,600,000.
“After acquiring a company with a hidden history of sanctions violations, this private equity firm uncovered the misconduct, stopped it, and quickly reported it to the government, leading to the successful prosecution of a senior executive,” said Assistant Attorney General for National Security John A. Eisenberg. “Our decision to decline prosecution of the acquiror and extend a non-prosecution agreement to the acquired entity in this case reflects the National Security Division’s strong commitment to rewarding responsible corporate leadership.”
“Illegally exporting sensitive items to Venezuela and Iran to help them evade sanctions directly undermines U.S. foreign policy and threatens our national security,” said Special Agent in Charge Chad Plantz of Immigration and Customs Enforcement – Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) Houston. “HSI will not sit by idly while businesses or individuals operating in the U.S. blatantly help our nation’s adversaries procure sensitive technologies or weapons and today’s announcement of a $3 million fine and the imposition of criminal charges is just another example of that enduring commitment.”
As detailed in court documents and in the Department’s agreements with White Deer and Unicat, from approximately 2014 through 2021, Mani Erfan, Unicat’s former CEO, conspired with others, including at least one other Unicat employee, to cause Unicat to submit bids and make sales to customers in Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and Cuba in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. In total, Erfan caused Unicat to make a total of 23 unlawful sales of chemical catalysts used in oil refining and steel production to customers in Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. Some of the sales were effected through exports of catalysts from the United States and further violated U.S. export control laws.
To further the conspiracy, the conspirators made false statements in export documents and financial records about the true identities and locations of Unicat’s customers and falsely assured some Unicat employees that the company’s business with customers subject to U.S. economic sanctions was lawful. Unicat obtained approximately $3.33 million in revenue from its unlawful sales.
Erfan and Unicat employees additionally falsified invoices to reduce the tariffs assessed on catalysts that Unicat imported from China. By undervaluing these imports, Unicat caused a loss of revenue of approximately $1.66 million in duties, taxes, and fees. Further, during negotiations to sell Unicat to White Deer, Unicat’s prior owners provided representations and warranties to White Deer attesting to Unicat’s compliance with U.S. sanctions and export control laws.
The scheme came to light in June 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, after White Deer acquired Unicat and a second company based in the United Kingdom, and Unicat’s new CEO was able to travel to the United States to visit Unicat and begin to integrate the operations of the company. During his visit, the new CEO learned that Unicat had a pending transaction with an Iranian customer and immediately ordered the deal’s cancellation. Over the next month, White Deer and Unicat’s new CEO retained counsel to investigate, and learned that Unicat had engaged in a series of transactions with counterparties subject to different U.S. sanctions programs. Before the investigation was complete, but after determining that Unicat employees had engaged in potentially criminal violations of U.S. sanctions laws, White Deer and Unicat’s new management submitted a voluntary self-disclosure to NSD.
Pursuant to the NPA, Unicat agreed to pay forfeiture totaling $3,325,052.10, representing the proceeds of its violations of U.S. sanctions and export control laws. In parallel resolutions coordinated between the Justice Department, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Office of Export Enforcement (OEE), Unicat agreed to pay $3,882,797 to OFAC for its apparent violations of U.S. sanctions laws, and agreed with OEE to pay a penalty of $391,183 for its violation of U.S. export control laws. OFAC agreed to credit Unicat’s payment of forfeiture pursuant to the NPA against the OFAC penalty, and OEE has agreed to credit Unicat’s payment to OFAC against the OEE penalty. In a separate administrative resolution with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Unicat agreed to pay $1,655,189.57, in underpaid duties, taxes, and fees.
NSD and SDTX declined White Deer’s prosecution and entered into the NPA with Unicat after considering the factors set forth in the Department’s Principles of Federal Prosecution of Business Organizations, the National Security Division Enforcement Policy for Business Organizations (NSD Enforcement Policy), and pursuant to the provisions of the NSD Enforcement Policy that apply to Voluntary Self-Disclosures in Connection with Acquisitions (the NSD M&A Policy).
The NSD M&A Policy provides that when a company (1) completes a lawful bona fide acquisition of another entity, (2) voluntarily and timely self-discloses to NSD potentially criminal violations of laws affecting U.S. national security committed by the acquired entity, (3) fully cooperates with NSD’s investigation, and (4) timely and appropriately remediates the misconduct, NSD generally will not seek a guilty plea from the acquiror, and there is a presumption that NSD will decline to prosecute the acquiror. The NSD M&A Policy further provides that while a presumption of declination is not available to the acquired entity, NSD will credit the acquiror’s timely voluntary self-disclosure to the acquired entity and will consider whether the acquired entity otherwise satisfies the NSD Enforcement Policy’s requirements to obtain the benefits of the Policy.
NSD and SDTX determined that White Deer’s acquisition of Unicat was a lawful bona fide acquisition, and that White Deer’s self-disclosure was timely under all of the relevant circumstances, including the COVID-19 pandemic and in the context of White Deer’s acquisition of Unicat and efforts to integrate the company’s operations into another acquired entity. White Deer and Unicat fully cooperated with the government’s subsequent investigation by proactively identifying, collecting, and disclosing relevant evidence to investigators, including foreign language evidence and evidence located overseas, and providing detailed and timely responses to the government’s requests for information and evidence. White Deer’s and Unicat’s cooperation materially assisted the government’s investigation, leading to the successful prosecution of Unicat’s former CEO. Unicat remediated the root cause of the misconduct in less than one year from the date of its discovery by terminating culpable employees, disciplining other employees involved in the misconduct, seeking reimbursement from Unicat’s sellers, and designing and implementing a comprehensive and robust internal controls and compliance program that has proven effective in practice at identifying and preventing similar potential misconduct.
This resolution marks the first time since the creation of the Justice Department’s Mergers and Acquisitions Policy in March 2024 that the Department has declined the prosecution of an acquiror for self-disclosing criminal conduct discovered at an acquired entity.
Trial Attorneys Adam P. Barry and Yifei Zheng of the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, and Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Mark McIntyre for the Southern District of Texas prosecuted the case.
ICE-HSI, the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, and BIS investigated the case.
