‘Keep the mummies asleep’: Unfortunate events in Egypt blamed on ‘pharaoh's curse’

A Suez Canal blockage disturbing global markets, two trains colliding with each other, a garment factory blaze and a residential building collapse all came hot on the heels of Egypt's announcement that it would transfer 22 mummies to a new resting place, fueling a century-old curse of the pharaohs mystery.

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On Saturday, Egypt will hold a "royal parade" preceded by a glitzy ceremony in the iconic Tahrir Square, from where the mummies will be taken to a newly inaugurated museum in Cairo's old Islamic city of Fustat.© Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters Men pass in front of a poster for The Pharaohs' Golden Parade in Cairo for the transfer of 22 mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, April 1, 2021.

In March alone, a giant container ship stuck diagonally across a narrow stretch of the Suez Canal kept the world on its feet, bringing trade movement to a standstill for almost a week, while an accident involving two trains south of the country and a factory fire east of Cairo left dozens dead.

An alleged inscription found on Tutankhamun's tomb that "death will come swiftly to those who disturb the tomb of the king" came to the forefront of amusing online talks that were interrupted by some skeptics seeking real and serious answers.



"Egypt is moving some royal mummies to a new Grand Museum with a parade & all .. word on the street is that the high winds & everything that's happening now is the legendary pharaohs' curse .. and i like this explanation coz its very exotic," Ola G. El-Taliawi said on Twitter.

Some called on Egypt "to keep the mummies asleep," while others questioned whether recent accidents are an indication that the curse has awakened.

"Guys, the curse of the pharaohs is no joke," Usama Essam wrote on Twitter. 


© Cris Bouroncle/AFP via Getty Images, FILE People take photos of the mummified remains of Queen Hatshepsut, ancient Egypt's most famous female pharaoh, after being unveiled at the Cairo Museum in Egypt on June 27, 2007.

The mystery has its origins in the earth-shattering discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, the boy king widely known as King Tut, in Luxor's Valley of the Kings in 1922. The death of a few members of British Egyptologist Howard Carter's team in subsequent years and the alleged inscription reported by journalists at the time sparked frenzy.MORE: Egypt uncovers possible 'world's oldest brewery' in ancient city

Organizers of Saturday's parade, which is expected to attract worldwide interest, made light of what some might deem an unwelcome distraction.

One of the organizers is famous Egyptologist and Egypt's former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass, who has always described the curse of the pharaohs as "mere nonsense."

"This is only speculation that people make and a misconception. Such talks will not do any harm to the parade. On the contrary, it will add to the excitement and interest surrounding the event," Hawass told ABC News.

© Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters Workers prepare for the transfer of 22 mummies from the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat in Cairo on April 1, 2021.

"This is not the first time that mummies are transferred," he said. "In 1881, mummies were taken from Luxor and put in a boat for three days until they reached Cairo … and the mummy of Ramses II once had its strips of linen removed in front of khedive Tewfik (Egypt's ruler in the late 19th century) and nothing happened."MORE: Egypt unlocks more secrets in Saqqara with discovery of temple, sarcophagi

He added, "The curse is a myth, and the inscription they speak about is non-existent."

Whatever the rumors may be, the 22 mummies are gearing up for a parade that might be reminiscent of their heydays in ancient times.

"Even if the curse exists, it won't be activated on Saturday because the mummies know that they are going to a new place where they will be honored," Hawass quipped.

THE ORIGINAL MUMMY'S CURSE

  

Majestic Cairo parade as Egyptian mummies move museum

By Nadeen Ebrahim  

 

Reuters/MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY FILE PHOTO: Men pass in front of poster for pharaohs golden parade in Cairo

CAIRO (Reuters) - A grand parade will convey 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies in specially designed capsules across the capital Cairo on Saturday to a new museum home where they can be displayed in greater splendour.

The convoy will transport 18 kings and four queens, mostly from the New Kingdom, from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo's Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, about 5km (3 miles) to the south-east. 

Reuters/MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY FILE PHOTO: 

A pharaonic ram is seen after the renovation of Tahrir Square for transfering 22 mummies from the Egyptian Museum, in Tahrir, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, in Fustat, amidst the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), 

Authorities are shutting down roads along the Nile for the elaborate ceremony, designed to drum up interest in Egypt's rich collections of antiquities when tourism has almost entirely stalled because of COVID-19 related restrictions. 

Reuters/MOHAMED ABD E

L GHANY FILE PHOTO: The Ramses II obelisk is seen after the renovation of Tahrir Square for transferring 22 mummies from the Egyptian Museum, in Tahrir, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, in Fustat, in Cairo

Each mummy will be placed in a special capsule filled with nitrogen to ensure protection, and the capsules will be carried on carts designed to cradle them and provide stability, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said.

"We chose the Civilization Museum because we want, for the first time, to display the mummies in a civilized manner, an educated manner, and not for amusement as they were in the Egyptian Museum," he said.

© Reuters/MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY FILE PHOTO: The Ramses II obelisk is seen after the renovation of Tahrir Square for transferring 22 mummies from the Egyptian Museum, in Tahrir, to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, in Fustat, in Cairo

Archaeologists discovered the mummies in two batches at the complex of mortuary temples of Deir Al Bahari in Luxor and at the nearby Valley of the Kings from 1871.

  

© Reuters/MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY FILE PHOTO: Egyptologist Dr. Zahi Hawass speaks during an interview with Reuters at his office in Cairo

The oldest is that of Seqenenre Tao, the last king of the 17th Dynasty, who reigned in the 16th century BC and is thought to have met a violent death.

The parade will also include the mummies of Ramses II, Seti I, and Ahmose-Nefertari.

Fustat was the site of Egypt's capital under the Umayyad dynasty after the Arab conquest.

"By doing it like this, with great pomp and circumstance, the mummies are getting their due," said Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo.

"These are the kings of Egypt, these are the pharaohs. And so, it is a way of showing respect."

(Additional reporting by Sayed Shaesha; Writing by Nadeen Ebrahim and Aidan Lewis; editing by Barbara Lewis)

Grand parade in Cairo as Egyptian mummies move to new museum

Issued on: 03/04/2021 - 

Text by:FRANCE 24
Video by:FRANCE 24

A grand parde will convey 22 ancient Egyptian royal mummies in specially designed capsules across the capital Cairo on Saturday to a new museum home where they can be displayed in greater splendour.

The convoy will transport 18 kings and four queens, mostly from the New Kingdom, from the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo's Tahrir Square to the National Museum of Egyptian Civilization in Fustat, about 5km (3 miles) to the south-east.

Authorities are shutting down roads along the Nile for the elaborate ceremony, designed to drum up interest in Egypt's rich collections of antiquities when tourism has almost entirely stalled because of Covid-19 related restrictions.

Each mummy will be placed in a special capsule filled with nitrogen to ensure protection, and the capsules will be carried on carts designed to cradle them and provide stability, Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass said.

"I am delighted that the mummies will find a new home in the Civilisation Museum, where they will be displayed for educational and civilisation purposes, and not for amusement as they were in the Egyptian Museum," he said.

"I am certain the parade will capture the hearts of people everywhere," Hawass added.

Archaeologists discovered the mummies in two batches at the complex of mortuary temples of Deir Al Bahari in Luxor and at the nearby Valley of the Kings from 1871.

The oldest is that of Seqenenre Tao, the last king of the 17th Dynasty, who reigned in the 16th century BC and is thought to have met a violent death.

The parade will also include the mummies of Ramses II, Seti I, and Ahmose-Nefertari.

Fustat was the site of Egypt's capital under the Umayyad dynasty after the Arab conquest.

"By doing it like this, with great pomp and circumstance, the mummies are getting their due," said Salima Ikram, an Egyptologist at the American University in Cairo.

"These are the kings of Egypt, these are the pharaohs. And so, it is a way of showing respect."

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

Cubans stage protests against 'genocidal' sanctions from U.S.


People with Cuban flags ride in front of the U.S. embassy during a motorcade in protest against the trade embargo on Cuba by the U.S. in Havana, Cuba, March 28, 2021. /Reuters

CGTN 

29-Mar-2021

Hundreds of Cubans took to Havana's famous seaside drive on Sunday in a colorful caravan of cars, motorcycles and bicycles to demand the United States lift its "genocidal" embargo on the Caribbean island nation, which has lasted for six decades.

"We are demanding the end of the blockade," Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, the highest-ranking official present at the protest and a member of the Communist Party's Politburo, told media.

"The opportunistic tightening of the blockade during the Trump government, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, makes it even more genocidal," he added.

The caravan was part of a weekend of small protests and caravans in more than 50 cities around the world, including in the United States, supported by local authorities in hopes of influencing the Biden administration to change U.S. policy and to counter a campaign by Cuban exiles to keep the embargo in place.

Horns blared, Cuban flags fluttered and masked protesters yelled "down with the blockade" as they passed the U.S. embassy situated along the drive, known as the Malecon, in vehicles of all sizes and vintages.

"We are here for the end of the blockade, for the end of the sanctions," protester Felix Moya said.

Former U.S. President Donald Trump's administration took more than 200 initiatives to tighten the decades-old trade embargo on Cuba over four years, citing concerns about a lack of democracy and Havana's support for Venezuela's socialist government.

Biden, a Democrat, vowed during his 2020 presidential campaign to reverse Trump's policy shifts that "have inflicted harm on the Cuban people and done nothing to advance democracy and human rights."

The tightening of the trade embargo under Trump, a Republican, has inflicted further pain on the communist-run island's ailing state-controlled economy, contributing to worsening food and medicine shortages.

The Biden administration says it is reviewing U.S. policy on Cuba but has not indicated when it will act or what it will do, nor whether Biden will fully revert to the historic detente between Washington and Havana that was initiated by Democratic former President Barack Obama.

(With input from Reuters)

U.S. lifts Trump-imposed sanctions against ICC

CGTN
North America 03-Apr-2021


The United States on Friday lifted sanctions against senior officials of the International Criminal Court (ICC) that imposed by the administration of former President Donald Trump.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that President Joe Biden had revoked an executive order against certain persons of the ICC, ending the threat and imposition of economic sanctions and visa restrictions in connection with the court.

"As a result, the sanctions imposed by the previous administration against ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and Phakiso Mochochoko, the Head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division of the Office of the Prosecutor, have been lifted," he said.

Gambian-born Bensouda is leaving her job in June and will be replaced by British human rights lawyer Karim Khan, who now can open his work without the burden of looming sanctions.

The Department of State also terminated a separate 2019 policy on visa restrictions on certain ICC personnel, he added. "These decisions reflect our assessment that the measures adopted were inappropriate and ineffective."

Public Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda attends a trial at the ICC in The Hague, the Netherlands July 8, 2019. /Reuters


In his formal announcement terminating the sanctions, dated Thursday, Biden said that while they were neither "effective or appropriate," the United States would "vigorously protect current and former United States personnel" from any ICC attempts to exercise jurisdiction over them.

The ICC later on Friday welcomed the U.S.' decision, saying it signaled a new era of cooperation with Washington.

"I welcome this decision which contributes to strengthening the work of the court and, more generally, to promoting a rules-based international order," Silvia Fernandez de Gurmendi, head of the Association of States Parties to the ICC, said in a statement.

Fernandez said the ICC had "always welcomed the participation" of the U.S. in achieving justice for war crimes, despite the fact that the U.S. did not ratify its founding Rome Statute.

Blinken, however, highlighted the disagreement between Washington and The Hague-based international tribunal.

"We continue to disagree strongly with the ICC's actions relating to the Afghanistan and Palestinian situations. We maintain our longstanding objection to the Court's efforts to assert jurisdiction over personnel of non-States Parties such as the United States and Israel," he noted.

The ICC in March last year authorized an investigation into possible war crimes in Afghanistan, including those that may have been committed by the U.S. military and the CIA, which could lead to the indictment of U.S. military and intelligence personnel.

Trump last June authorized economic sanctions against ICC officials engaged in an investigation into U.S. personnel, which drew criticism from the international community and some U.S. allies.

The ICC building is seen in The Hague, Netherlands, January 16, 2019. /Reuters


Then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also opposed an investigation launched in 2019 into alleged war crimes in the Palestinian Territories, including by Israeli forces.

The Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) said the termination of the sanctions came days before a U.S. government response was due to a lawsuit that OSJI filed charging that Trump's move had violated constitutional rights, including freedom of speech.

The ICC was established when the Rome Statute took effect in 2002. It prosecutes crimes of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of aggression.

(With input from agencies)

Implications of the Pandemic for Capitalism

By Sir Paul Collier

Faced with the Covid-19 pandemic, neither Chinese autocracy nor most of the Western democracies are emerging with much credit. To understand why both systems have revealed severe inadequacies, and what accounts for the exceptions, I draw on recent research that is starting to reveal the characteristics that a successful society needs. They are cohesion, a capacity for wisdom and learning, and trusted modest leadership. Covid has revealed why each of these mattered, and in doing so showed why they matter more generally.

Social Cohesion

The first characteristic is a degree of social cohesion within a community. By social cohesion I mean a ready ability of the people living together in a place to forge shared purposes, shared understanding about how things work and don't work, and shared obligations among citizens. So defined, social cohesion is enormously important in building willing compliance at many different levels. Most obviously, it is valuable at the political level: for democracy to work, its citizens need to be able to come together around some common purpose, such as containing Covid, reach some common understanding of how this is best achieved, such as "we all need to get vaccinated", and then accept the implications at the level of each individual: "I have a duty to get vaccinated."

But it is also valuable at a smaller scale. A successful firm works not as a nexus of contracts between individuals, but as a community. The workforce rallies around some common purpose set by good leadership – this is what Toyota managed to create when it developed "quality circles" to produce fault-free cars. The common purpose was linked to a common understanding of the problem – faults had to be spotted at the point on the production line where they first occurred. This translated into individual actions – "faults are treasures" to be spotted and reported instantly. Hence, they implied an obligation on each worker to stay vigilant, but not to abuse their new power to stop the production line. Most obviously, a successful family is a community in which those of its members in the prime of life accept obligations to the young and the elderly.

Fortunately, humans naturally form communities: evolution has equipped humans to be far more pro-social than any other mammal. We are hard-wired to belong to communities because they are more effective at achieving human goals than individuals in isolation. Rousseau was the first philosopher to see the advantage of co-operating at scale in a community: hunting solo we could only catch rabbits, whereas hunting together we can catch stags. Within them, we want to gain the good opinion of the other members through some attribute. That attribute can be thought of as being "a good person". What it means to be a good person will vary between communities. In some, the characteristics which make being so judged can be ranked.

For example, in a Viking community a good person was brave, strong, and brutal against the enemies of the group. In a modern meritocracy such as a university department, a good person may mean one who has high cognitive abilities and publishes a lot of influential papers. In both of these superficially very different communities, members were ranked: some people had higher status than others. But in other communities, people are not ranked but judged according to whether they meet a threshold, such as respectability, kindness, or loyalty, which can be met by all its members. Successful societies abound in such criteria, so that everyone can potentially gain respect. That desire for the good opinion of others is fundamental: by harnessing it to a common purpose, the group can create willing compliance with actions that are individually costly but collectively beneficial. This was needed during Covid. The common purpose of containment required everyone to avoid infecting their neighbors. Denmark could rapidly reopen schools because everyone accepted that children must be kept clear of older people. In contrast, in the United States the immediate response to Covid was queues outside gun-shops: shoot your neighbor was not a viable strategy.

A community forges common purposes through dialogue. Dialogue engages everyone: all members of the community can participate and co-own the outcome. It flows back and forth between equals who aim to understand each other, in contrast to instructions flowing down a hierarchy. An analogy is the game of ping-pong: participation implies mutual acceptance of its rules. The rules of dialogue preclude abuse, and presume a mutual willingness to search for common ground. Even when it cannot be found, people come to understand the validity of the other perspective, reflecting their different life experiences. Dialogue usually takes the form of narrative: it is the style that all of us have evolved to master. It is inclusive, in contrast to deductive analytics and quantification, both of which privilege skilled participants who may be drawn from a distinctive part of the population with its own priorities.

Dialogues not only build common purposes. To achieve those common purposes through coordinated action they need to build a common understanding of a situation, so that the community can forge a common strategy for action. They are necessary for coordinated action, but not sufficient in themselves. The final step is a sense of common obligation. The rules for bestowing good opinion are linked to the action required of each member. The key concept here is "contributive justice" proposed by the celebrated Harvard moral philosopher Michael Sandel (The Tyranny of Merit, 2020). By this he means that fairness hinges on mutuality: everyone must contribute what they can, and through this we gain the respect of others and self-respect. For people to be able to contribute, they need agency. They may contribute in multiple ways: through participation in the dialogue that builds the purpose, through bestowing good opinion, and most especially through actions that conform with the strategy.

In the Western democracies, this need for social cohesion has recently been questioned. Diversity has become highly valued, and most especially the assertion and celebration of distinct minority identities, and this is sometimes regarded as incompatible with social cohesion. That same fear of incompatibility is manifest in China and India, where the solution has been to suppress minority identities so as to strengthen cohesion. But I think that both these responses misunderstand the relationship between social cohesion and diversity: properly understood, there need be no tension between them. People can hold multiple identities. A society can be a mosaic of many groups, each with its own distinct identity, as long as all its members share some common overarching sense of a shared identity. Thus, at the level of a polity, people can have strong regional and class identities as long as these do not conflict with a common sense of belonging to the whole. Diversity is even compatible with such sub-national identities being mildly oppositional: "I am a Scot and we have long fought the English"; "I am a Yorkshireman and we have long struggled against the Lancastrians." They only become damaging if defined in opposition to the whole: "I am a Scot and therefore not British." But who should be included in the whole?

The answer was provided by Nobel Laureate Eleanor Ostrom (Governing the Commons, 1990). The first of her principles by which a community is able to overcome the tragedy of the commons is clarity of boundedness. Everyone in the community must know and accept that they themselves are a member, and know the criteria by which all others are included: the rules of membership must be common knowledge. As with common purpose, common understanding and common obligations, this common knowledge of the rules of membership can be built through dialogue. For practical purposes, the most realistic rules of membership for a society are those of citizenship.

Some societies were able to conduct a dialogue about Covid. In others Covid was instantly contaminated by prior political divisions and debate was abusive and polarizing, unable to build common purpose.

Wisdom & Learning

In addition to social cohesion, a successful society needs wisdom. Dialogue is an unguided missile that can lead a community into folly or trap a community in dysfunction. Plato thought that wisdom was incompatible with democratic inclusion: decisions must be entrusted to "guardian philosophers". But this proposition is a dangerous cul-de-sac. In denying the agency of dialogue to most people, it divides the community into "insiders" who set purposes and strategy, and "outsiders" who are expected to perform obligations to which they have not agreed. This, I think, is a fundamental breach of contributive justice. Worse, the role of being a Platonic Guardian attracts people who are over-confident of their abilities and a rationale for why their own values differ from those of the majority: they are wiser than others.

So, if everyone must participate in dialogue, but wisdom is an acquired rather than an innate attribute, what can be done? We know that knowledge comes in two forms: expert knowledge is what academics acquire through research, and share through teaching; tacit knowledge is acquired through "learning by doing" in a context. We have confused wisdom with expertise: wise decisions need to combine these different types of knowledge, held by different types of people. Wisdom evidently matters most when decisions are difficult, which arises from complexity. But the more complex is the issue, the higher is the ratio of tacit knowledge to expert knowledge involved in it (Paul Nightingale, "Tacit Knowledge and Engineering Design", in Anthonie Meijers (ed.) Handbook of the Philosophy of Science: Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences, North-Holland, 2009). Hence, drawing on tacit knowledge is the critical step in wise decision-taking. On complex matters, expert knowledge without tacit knowledge is dangerous: the confidence of experts becomes a menace. Fortunately, expert knowledge is designed to be shared – it can be taught. In contrast, tacit knowledge is very hard to share – you learn it by doing it, and it is very particular to context. So, the synthesis on which wise decisions depend is more easily achieved by sharing pertinent expert knowledge with practitioners, than providing experts with the vast mass of context-specific knowledge of experience. Hence the people who need agency for complex decisions are expert-informed practitioners, not experts.

The knowledge that matters changes in response to problems: we repeatedly need to adapt to new situations that we do not fully understand. And so a successful community is one that is continuously adapting, experimenting and learning from trial-and-error. By devolving agency around a new common purpose, many experiments can be conducted in parallel. Within a well-functioning community, once an experiment works it spreads fast: people learn from each other because they trust each other.

Covid was a new problem. Some societies learnt from the first societies to be infected, as did New Zealand, or experimented with different approaches by devolving agency to local communities, as did Denmark. In others, exemplified by Britain, experts pretended that they knew what to do based purely on their own modelling, and so decision-taking was highly centralized. In contrast to Denmark and New Zealand, Britain ended up with appallingly high excess mortality.

Leadership in a Hierarchy

Although both wisdom and adaptability are fostered by devolving agency across the population, there is still an important role for hierarchy and leadership. Many purposes depend upon coordination at scale and although small communities happen naturally, large ones have to be built by leadership. Hierarchy is necessary but dangerous: it tempts leaders to use their power for their own individual purposes. Bad intentions, arrogance, and charismatic grandiosity all need to be prevented from usurping community before hierarchy can safely be allowed into a group. Among all other mammals the only form of leadership is dominance. Both democracies and autocracies can stumble into such leaders: Donald Trump in the US, Xi Jinping in China. They centralize decisions rather than devolve them, undermining both wisdom and adaptability. Faced with such leaders, the advantage of democracy over autocracy is that the agency conferred by the vote tends to remove them, as has happened in the US.

But humans have evolved a second type of leader who wins the respect of the group through sacrificing self-interest for the common good. Joseph Henrich (The Secret of Our Success, 2016) notes that in contrast to dominant leaders pro-social ones commonly use self-deprecating humor. Such leaders win trust and so can be communicators-in-chief. With this power they can swiftly reset common purposes, strategies, and obligations.

Such leaders are able to reset not only purposes and strategy but the very architecture of the decision process so as to suit the situation. At times of uncertainty, the key priority is that experiments should proliferate through devolved agency. But at times when the situation requires a solution that is evident but demands substantial self-sacrifice by everyone, trusted leadership can itself take the decision. For example, in response to Covid a retail business may need to reduce its number of branches and expand its online service. Decisions as to which branch to close cannot be devolved to branches, but the leader may be trusted to take fair decisions on behalf of everyone.

This is why Covid has produced such dramatic differences between societies. In the US, Trump centralized decisions in the presidency; in Britain, the civil service centralized decisions in Whitehall; in China, local officials in Wuhan were so scared of Xi that they suppressed information about Covid until it was out of control. Dominance belatedly enabled containment, but too late to prevent a global pandemic. In contrast, the leaders of Singapore, Denmark and New Zealand had all built widespread trust among their citizens. In Singapore this was used for swift and decisive leadership without arousing dissent; in Denmark and New Zealand, leaders did not claim expertise, but placed responsibility on everyone – "a team of five million" was the slogan of New Zealand's prime minister.

Conclusion

The implication of Covid is that capitalism can work well, but only in a certain type of society. It is one in which agency has been devolved across the population; in which despite differences, the society is cohesive because people accept a shared identity; in which decision-taking is designed for wisdom and adaptability; and in which leadership is modest and widely trusted. And so the lessons of Covid indeed have implications for both the conduct of businesses and the design of political systems.

The genius of capitalism comes not from harnessing the primitive instinct of greed that we share with all other mammals, but from our unique human evolved characteristics of being able to bond into a community, to innovate, and to learn from each other. A successful and enduring firm is a purposive community – a network of relationships within and between teams that cooperate to achieve its purposes. It is not merely a nexus of incentivized contracts between individuals. A successful leader of a firm builds trust with employees, suppliers and customers and through these, also with banks, bondholders and shareholders. These relationships become the key assets of the firm, encapsulated by all the connotations of its brand. Being trusted, a leader can rapidly get a workforce and partner companies to coordinate around new purposes, and new problems, as has proved to be crucial during Covid.

Some firms have taken the short-term option of sacrificing their workforce and their suppliers, to maximize profits for shareholders. Others have recognized that this moment of supreme stress is an opportunity to demonstrate loyalties and thereby to invest in them. Such a network of enduring relationships is the fundamental asset of a successful company, since it cannot readily be threatened by competitors. It therefore makes the firm resilient to whatever shocks might occur, and this is itself a source of financial confidence.

A successful and enduring economy harnesses this potential of individual firms on a larger scale. Through competing in a market, firms are constantly subject to checks and balances that impose a degree of discipline and pragmatism. Despite this discipline, the considerable differences in productivity between firms are remarkably persistent. Hence, whatever is explaining them cannot be easily imitated. Evidently, it cannot simply be a matter of hiring a smart CEO, or getting the latest technology. The persistent difference between good performance and poor performance is that asset of trusting relationships which cannot be transferred. Indeed, successful firms do not just compete with others, they cooperate with them in enduring relationships, as exemplified by the value-chains and business clusters which dominate world trade. A good current example within Europe is Airbus, which is an enduring relationship between a group of European firms that challenged Boeing, in much the same way that a generation ago enabled Toyota to challenge General Motors. Disastrously, Boeing took the short-term opportunistic route to profits, undermining the regulation of safety through effective lobbying. Once its new planes started to crash, its own employees blew the whistle on its reckless strategy. It now faces a devastating loss of consumer confidence, being forced into distressed sales of its planes to bottom-of-the-market airlines.

A successful society applies these same principles at a yet larger scale, integrating economic relationships into larger social purposes. At any one time, around half the population is economically inactive – children and students, the retired, the sick, and the unemployed. Most of us move through a life-cycle of all these phases, and so the economy has to meet these wider needs. This is the foremost task of public policy. But the levels of public policy are so powerful that they carry dangers of abuse if captured either by leaders or sub-groups of citizens. At its best, democracy within the context of checks and balances implied by the rule of law is superior to autocracy because it guards against these abuses. Autocracies can sometimes work well for a while, but being prone to abuses they suffer much wider variations in performance than democracies. At some stage they implode into dysfunction. Indeed, there is no successful example in human history of an autocracy that has sustained a good standard of living for its citizens. But democracy itself only works if it is built on social cohesion, the integration of practical and expert knowledge that enables wisdom, the devolved agency that permits innovation and learning, and the self-sacrificing leadership that enables common purposes to evolve. In some societies, capitalism has derailed because these deeper conditions for a healthy society have derailed.

Nor are the goals of a society reducible merely to economic wants and needs. A society has a culture, and many sub-cultures, which are vehicles through which its citizens find meaning in their lives. Again, the advantage of the devolved agency which is the core strength of democracy is that through freedom of association it enables the dynamism and vitality without which a society ossifies. The supreme autocracy of Louis XIV of France devised a routine so enjoyable that it was designated "The Perfect Day". That routine was repeated daily for 150 years. Increasingly detached from the lives of ordinary citizens, this proved to be the prelude to a violent and cataclysmic revolution.

Japan SPOTLIGHT March/April 2021 Issue (Published on March 10, 2021)

(2021/03/10)

Sir Paul Collier

Sir Paul Collier is the author of The Future of Capitalism (2018), and Greed is Dead (with John Kay, 2020)

Canada's next federal election leaders' debates includes APTN as broadcast partner

OTTAWA — The commission overseeing leaders' debates during federal elections says Indigenous media outlet APTN will be one of the broadcast partners producing the next event.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The Leaders' Debates Commission announced today some details of the next two official election debates — one in English and one in French — as speculation continues to mount in Ottawa about the timing of the next federal vote.

A group of broadcast news organizations that includes CBC, CTV, Global and APTN will produce, promote and distribute the English-language debate during the next campaign.

The French-language debate will be produced by Radio-Canada, Noovo, La Presse, Le Devoir, the magazine L'Actualité and a co-operative of six regional media outlets in Quebec and eastern Ontario.

The debates will be carried across Canada by those in the broadcast group, as well as by OMNI Television, CPAC, the Toronto Star and third-party platforms, and it will also be translated into Indigenous and other non-official languages.

The timing of the debates will depend on when Canadians next head to the polls, which could be sooner than the next fixed-election date in 2023 if the Liberal minority government is dissolved before then.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2021.

The Canadian Pre

RCMP watchdog waiting over two years for Mountie views on its own foot-dragging

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2021.


OTTAWA — The RCMP watchdog has waited more than two years for the national police force to respond to its interim report that found, perhaps fittingly, the Mounties were too slow in reviewing the watchdog's findings in an earlier matter

.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

An official in the watchdog's office details the wait — one of dozens of such delays — in an affidavit filed in the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association's court case against RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki.

The association is seeking a Federal Court declaration that Lucki violated the RCMP Act by failing to submit her response to the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission's interim report about allegations of spying on anti-oil protesters "as soon as feasible."

The Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP was granted permission to intervene in the case so it could assist the parties and the court by presenting evidence and making arguments about the complaints process and the systemic RCMP delays affecting the commission's work.

Nika Joncas-Bourget, general counsel for reviews with the complaints commission, says in her affidavit that as of Jan. 18, 156 interim reports by the complaints body were awaiting a response from the top Mountie.

This included 130 outstanding interim reports that had been awaiting replies from the RCMP commissioner for more than six months.

In 106 of those cases the complaints body had been waiting on a response for at least one year.

The watchdog cannot make final findings and recommendations on a complaint until the RCMP commissioner responds to an interim report. In turn, the complainant and the public are left waiting for resolution of the matter.

As a result, the civil liberties association also wants the Federal Court to declare that the commissioner's "unconscionable delay" in responding to the interim report on the anti-oil protests violated the association's right to freedom of expression.

Extreme delay has been the hallmark of the complaints process for over a decade, said Paul Champ, counsel for the association.

"It is time to hold the RCMP commissioner accountable for these systemic delays," he said Thursday in a statement. "We hope a strong judgment by the court will compel the RCMP to treat public complaints with the seriousness and respect they deserve.”

In an affidavit filed with the court, Michael O'Malley, director of the RCMP's National Public Complaints Directorate, says the force has hired new staff with the aim of eliminating the backlog of cases awaiting responses from the RCMP.

Joncas-Bourget says in her affidavit that the commissioner's unreasonable delays thwart the watchdog in carrying out its mandate.

“The delay also undermines the legitimacy, fairness, and efficacy of the public complaint process. Both the complainants and the RCMP members who are the subjects of the complaint must live with the stress and uncertainty of an unresolved complaint,” she said.

Any remedial action, such as training or policy changes, that the complaints commission recommends must also wait, she added.

In many cases, these delays have led to situations where the RCMP members who are subjects of the complaint have retired or resigned before the commission's report is completed, she said.

In one case, the commission investigated a complaint from a member of the public who was frustrated at waiting for the RCMP's response to an interim report on the behaviour of two civilian force members.

The complaints body's March 2019 interim report about the delay found the RCMP commissioner had not replied on the matter of officer behaviour "within a reasonable time frame."

It also recommended the Mounties apologize to the complainant for the "unreasonable delay."

More than two years later, the watchdog awaits the RCMP commissioner's response.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2021.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M BIG PHARMA
Company producing J&J vaccine had history of violations

The company at the centre of quality problems that led Johnson & Johnson to discard 15 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine has a string of citations from U.S. health officials for quality control problems.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Emergent BioSolutions, a little-known company vital to the vaccine supply chain, was a key to Johnson & Johnson's plan to deliver 100 million doses of its single-shot vaccine to the United States by the end of May. But the Food and Drug Administration repeatedly has cited Emergent for problems such as poorly trained employees, cracked vials and problems managing mould and other contamination around one of its facilities, according to records obtained by The Associated Press through the Freedom of Information Act. The records cover inspections at Emergent facilities since 2017.

Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday that a batch of vaccine made by Emergent at its Baltimore factory, known as Bayview, cannot be used because it did not meet quality standards. It was unclear how the problem would affect future deliveries of J&J's vaccine. The company said in a statement it was still planning to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June and was “aiming to deliver those doses by the end of May.”

“Human errors do happen," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said Thursday in an interview on CBS' “This Morning.” "You have checks and balances. ... That’s the reason why the good news is that it did get picked up. As I mentioned, that’s the reason nothing from that plant has gone into anyone that we’ve administered to.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday that none of the J&J vaccine doses on the market are affected and the company was on track to deliver 24 million doses in April and 100 million doses by the end of May.

“These are doses that the U.S. government has purchased, but we also have plenty of doses from Pfizer and Moderna, regardless, Psaki said.”

J&J locked arms with Emergent in April 2020, enlisting the lesser-known company to manufacture the vaccine J&J was developing with federal money. At the time, Emergent’s Bayview facility wasn’t scaled for making millions of doses of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, according to the FDA records, which describe the plant as a contract testing laboratory that “did not manufacture products for distribution.” Upgrades in technology and personnel were required before Bayview could begin making what is known as “drug substance” material for the vaccine, a two-month process during which the required biological cells are grown.

The FDA inspected Emergent’s Bayview plant in April 2020, just as the agreement with J&J was being announced. The federal agency criticized Emergent for problems with its testing of a potential treatment for anthrax, according to the records obtained by the AP. The FDA’s lead investigator cited the company for failing to train employees “in the particular operations they perform as part of their function and current good manufacturing practices.”

On the same day, Johnson & Johnson, in a separate news release, heralded its partnership with Emergent as a step toward the pharmaceutical giant’s goal of supplying more than 1 billion doses of the vaccine globally by the end of 2021.

But the FDA’s inspection of Emergent’s Bayview plant had faulted the company for a series of quality control shortcomings, according to the records. Although the inspection was not triggered by work on a COVID-19 vaccine, the issues listed by agency inspectors stand out due to the large role Emergent would soon have to combat the pandemic.

The FDA criticized the Bayview plant for failing to ensure that electronic data generated through testing of drug ingredients “was protected from deletion or manipulation.” A closer review found 202 deletions and 543 reprocessed files, yet the company had not investigated how those alterations had occurred or their possible impact, according to the records. The FDA’s lead investigator, Marcellinus Dordunoo, wrote that Emergent had not investigated what he described as “data integrity concerns.”

Emergent also did not follow proper testing and lab procedures at Bayview, the FDA said, noting that “deviations from test methods are not investigated, and are manually corrected days after performance, with no supporting data or documented justification.”

The FDA also criticized Emergent for carelessness in the handling of rejected materials in the Bayview plant. An inspector observed items in a “reject cage” that did not have reject labels, and wrote that “separate or defined areas to prevent contamination or mix-ups are deficient.”

The inspection was the most recent in a series of critical reports from the FDA about Emergent, including one following a December 2017 inspection at a plant in Canton, Massachusetts, in which the FDA said the company had not corrected “continued low level mould and yeast isolates” found in the facility.

In September 2018, agency investigators questioned why Emergent had “an unwritten policy of not conducting routine compliance audits” at a separate plant in Baltimore, known as Camden, where an anthrax vaccine, BioThrax, is filled into vials.

A few months earlier, FDA inspectors noted that the company's processes there were flawed. “Your firm received 3 complaints for residue on the outside of the vials for 3 different lots,” the FDA's inspection report said. Tests on that residue confirmed it was vaccine, according to the June 2018 report.

The agency, in another finding from that inspection, noted Emergent's ongoing problems managing contamination at the Camden facility: “Procedures designed to prevent microbiological contamination of drug products purporting to be sterile are not adequately established and followed.” FDA's inspectors also noted that Emergent staff filling vials of vaccine held “their hands directly above open vials” in a way that violated sterility safeguards.

The FDA declined repeated requests to discuss the inspections at Emergent’s facilities. A spokesman said the agency “cannot comment on any particular company or any potential or ongoing compliance matters.”

In an emailed statement, Emergent spokesman Matt Hartwig said the company’s “rigorous quality checks” identified a batch of drug substance that did not meet its standards.

“Discarding a batch of bulk drug substance, while disappointing, does occasionally happen during vaccine manufacturing, which is a complex and multi-step biological process,” he said.

Emergent’s revenues skyrocketed during the Trump administration, from about $523 million in 2015 to more than $1.5 billion in 2020. Emergent has invested heavily in lobbying the federal government, according to disclosure records that show the company spent $3.6 million on lobbying in 2020 alone.

Emergent is one of about eight companies that Johnson & Johnson is using to speed up manufacturing of its recently approved coronavirus vaccine, the company said. The Bayview factory where the tainted vaccine ingredient was found had not yet been approved by the FDA, so no vaccine in circulation is affected.

President Joe Biden has pledged to have enough vaccines for all U.S. adults by the end of May. The U.S. government has ordered enough two-dose shots from Pfizer and Moderna to vaccinate 200 million people to be delivered by late May, plus the 100 million single-dose shots from J&J.

A federal official said Wednesday evening that the administration’s goal can be met without additional J&J doses.

A J&J spokesman said earlier Wednesday that the company met the end-of-March goal. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s online vaccine tracker showed J&J had provided about 6.8 million doses to the U.S. vaccine effort. J&J has been shipping finished vaccines from its factory in the Netherlands to the U.S.

J&J said it was putting more of its manufacturing and quality experts inside Emergent’s factory to supervise production of the COVID-19 vaccine, a move meant to enable delivery of an additional 24 million vaccine doses through April.

J&J said it still expects to deliver more than 1 billion vaccine doses globally by the end of the year.

The J&J vaccine has been viewed as crucial for vaccination campaigns around the world because only one shot is required and it can be shipped and stored at standard refrigeration temperatures, unlike some other vials that must be kept frozen. The company also has pledged to sell the vaccine without a profit, but only during the pandemic emergency.

The problem with the vaccine batch was first reported by The New York Times. The FDA said it was aware of the situation but declined further comment.

___

Lardner reported from Washington, Dearen from Gainesville, Florida, and Johnson from Fairless Hills, Pennsylvania. Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org. Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter at @RPLardner. Follow Jason Dearan on Twitter at @JHDearen and Linda Johnson at @LindaJ_onPharma

___

This story has been corrected to show the name of the company is Emergent BioSolutions, not Emergent BioSolutons.

Richard Lardner, Jason Dearen And Linda A. Johnson, The Associated Press

Biden launches community corps to boost COVID vaccinations

WASHINGTON — Seeking to overcome vaccine hesitancy, the Biden administration on Thursday stepped up its outreach efforts to skeptical Americans, launching a coalition of community, religious and celebrity partners to promote COVID-19 shots in hard-hit communities.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The administration's “We Can Do This” campaign features television and social media ads, but it also relies on a community corps of public health, athletic, faith and other groups to spread the word about the safety and efficacy of the three approved vaccines. The campaign comes amid worries that reluctance to get vaccinated will delay the nation’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic — and is kicking off as the U.S. is anticipating a boost in vaccine supply that will make all adult Americans eligible for vaccines by the beginning of May.

President Joe Biden encouraged more than 1,000 faith leaders on Thursday to continue their efforts to promote vaccinations in their communities. “They’re going to listen to your words more than they are to me as president of the United States,” Biden said.

Vice-President Kamala Harris and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy held a virtual meeting with the more than 275 inaugural members of the community corps on Thursday to kick off the effort. The Department of Health and Human Services was also encouraging other groups, as well as everyday Americans, to join the effort.

“You are the people that folks on the ground know and rely on and have a history with,” Harris said. “And when people are then making the decision to get vaccinated, they’re going to look to you.”

A White House official said Harris plans to take on a larger role in promoting the uptake of vaccines, in addition to her efforts selling the president's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill and working to address the root causes of migration driving an increase in unaccompanied minors entering the U.S. along the southern border.

The focus on trusted validators stems from both internal and public surveys showing those skeptical of the vaccines are most likely to be swayed by local, community and medical encouragement to get vaccinated, rather than messages from politicians.

Courtney Rowe, the White House's COVID-19 director of strategic communications and engagement, briefed governors on the new initiative Tuesday, telling them that people “want to hear from those they know and trust.” She added that the initiative would be “empowering the leaders people want to hear from."

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research conducted late last month finds that three-quarters of American adults now say they have or will get a vaccine, compared with 13% who say they probably will not, while 12% say they definitely will not. The share saying they probably or definitely will not has ticked down since January, when a combined 32% said that.

The coalition includes health groups like the American Medical Association and the National Council of Urban Indian Health, sports leagues like the NFL, NASCAR and MLB, rural groups, unions and Latino, Black, Asian American Pacific Islander and Native American organizations, as well as coalitions of faith, business and veterans leaders.

The community corps will receive fact sheets and social media messages to share with members of their communities, as well as regular updates from the Biden administration with the latest vaccine confidence resources.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced last week that it will devote $3 billion to support outreach by community leaders and groups to boost vaccine confidence.

HHS was also launching its first national ad campaign promoting vaccinations, aimed at senior, Latino and Black Americans, with the roughly $250 million initial ad campaign. And in partnership with Facebook, it was deploying social media profile frames so that ordinary Americans could share their intent to get vaccinations and their experience with the shots to their peers.

The White House is also deploying Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, and Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, who chairs Biden's COVID-19 equity task force, to speak directly to the public about the benefits of the vaccines. On Wednesday, the pair conducted an interview with rapper and actor LL Cool J and DJ Jazzy Jeff.

By the end of May, the U.S. will have enough supply of COVID-19 vaccine to cover all adults in the country. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-disease expert, has estimated that 70% to 85% of the population needs to be immune to the virus to reach herd immunity.

___

Associated Press writer Emily Swanson contributed to this report from Washington.

Zeke Miller, The Associated Press

Christian Pastor Claims Biden Surrounded By 'Demonic Hedge of Protection'

TEFLON PRESIDENT BY ANY OTHER NAME

Pastor Mario Murillo claimed this week that President Joe Biden is surrounded by a "demonic hedge of protection," urging fellow Christians to pray for a "powerful move of God" to bring it down.

© Screenshot/YouTube In this screenshot, Pastor Mario Murillo speaks during an interview with Christian program Flash Point, claiming that President Joe Biden is protected by a "demonic hedge."

Murillo's remarks came during an interview with the Christian TV program Flash Point. The evangelical Christian minister leads Mario Murillo Ministries, based in Reno, Nevada, and frequently criticizes Biden and the Democrats. He has previously suggested that former President Donald Trump is still the legitimate president, not Biden. Right Wing Watch first reported Murillo's remarks this week.

"War has been declared on your faith," Murillo said during the interview, discussing his staunch opposition to LGBTQ rights, specifically the transgender community. The pastor argued that "this is not a gentle moment, this is not a courteous moment, this is a declaration of war," before taking aim at Biden

"There is a demonic hedge of protection around Joe Biden. That's why he can say and do the most insane things with no backlash," Murillo said. He then urged viewers to "pray," saying God had changed the way he prayed for America. "He helped me to understand how to pray," the pastor said.

"Tear it down. So that the nation will wake up from this spell and not only understand that they were ripped off from their votes, that they're now going to have their children taken from them, their rights," he continued. "They're gonna have womanhood itself erased. And somehow the scales will fall off the eyes of pastors and a powerful move of God can begin if we will declare that those strongholds of demonic power will come down in the name of Christ."

Murillo made the same claim in a blog post this past Sunday. "The Holy Spirit let me see the demonic hedge of protection around Biden and the leftist agenda. This hedge is what is blinding millions. It is dulling the natural sense of danger and outrage that America should be feeling right now," he wrote.

Christians—and particularly white evangelicals—have long been a key base of support for Trump and Republicans. In 2016 and again in 2020, exit polling showed that about eight in 10 white evangelicals voted for Trump. The conservative religious community has been motivated to vote for right-wing candidates largely because of their opposition to LGBTQ rights and women's reproductive rights. Many Christian pastors have also promoted conspiracy theories and Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was "rigged" or "stolen."

However, dozens of election lawsuits filed by the former president and his supporters in state and federal courts have been rejected, including by judges appointed by Trump and other Republicans. Last November, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, which was led by a Trump appointee, asserted that the 2020 election was the "most secure in American history."

The agency also said there was "no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised."

Multiple recounts and audits in key battleground states confirmed Biden's victory. And former Attorney General William Barr, who was widely viewed as one of Trump's most loyal Cabinet members, said in December that there was "no evidence" of widespread voter fraud that would change the election's outcome.

Newsweek reached out to Mario Murillo Ministries for further comment but did not hear back before publication.

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Steelworkers united in defending Canada against perils of American protectionism

WASHINGTON — The largest industrial union in North America came to Canada's defence Thursday, vowing to protect businesses and workers north of the border from the growing peril of protectionism in the United States.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

United Steelworkers international president Tom Conway issued a joint statement with Canadian counterpart Ken Neumann aimed at making Canada's case for an exemption from Joe Biden's "Buy America" regulations.

“Canada is not the problem facing U.S. manufacturing and workers," said Conway, citing the exemption Canadian businesses won when similar restrictions were imposed in 2009.

"Co-operation between Canada and U.S. will build on our long-standing and productive trading relationship."

Neumann — addressing a persistent concern in the U.S. when it comes to imports of Canadian steel — urged Ottawa to get more aggressive in its efforts to prevent illegal dumping of foreign products to ensure they don't find their way south.

"With a clear procurement strategy, Canada must prioritize the use of environmentally sustainable, low-carbon materials that will create and maintain jobs," he said.

"The Canadian government must also employ stronger tools to address the transshipment of illegally dumped imports, and take pride in the products that Canadians harvest, mine, manufacture and produce."

The statement from the union, which represents more than 850,000 workers in both countries, came one day after President Joe Biden delivered a long-awaited $2-trillion infrastructure plan.

That plan came with a now-familiar caveat.

"We're going to make sure that we buy American," Biden said. "That means investing in American-based companies and American workers."

During his first week in office, Biden signed an executive order imposing more rigid Buy American rules on federally funded projects — restrictions from which Canada is already exempt, thanks to U.S. commitments to the World Trade Organization.

However, "Buy America" — another suite of made-in-the-U.S. rules designed to apply to federally supported state, regional and municipal projects — promise to be more problematic for Canada.

International Trade Minister Mary Ng emphasized the distinction Thursday as she testified before a special House of Commons committee that's exploring the economic ties between Canada and the U.S.

"If there's a (U.S.) effort to expand or introduce new domestic content requirements, we will absolutely work to ensure that it does not apply to Canada or affect Canadian supply chains," Ng said.

Conservative committee member Leona Alleslev expressed little faith in Ng, noting that the governing Liberals had already failed to prevent Biden's cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline project.

Ng promised a "Team Canada" group effort, the same bipartisan strategy that ultimately proved fruitful in the federal government's marathon talks with the Trump administration to update NAFTA.

"What I'm going to do is work in a Team Canada approach, as we have done and we have demonstrated over the last five years, to stand up for Canadian interests."

Buy America, as it stands, is written to primarily ensure manufactured end products used in eligible projects, as well as iron and steel, are made entirely in the U.S. Experts say they can be difficult to navigate, given the multiple levels of government, bureaucracy and red tape involved.

A lot can and likely will change between now and when Biden's infrastructure plan gets passed, if indeed it does, Steve Verheul, assistant deputy minister at Global Affairs Canada, told the committee.

Verheul, who served as chief negotiator during the NAFTA talks, acknowledged the possibility that the Buy America caveats could get even more stringent as the package makes its way across Capitol Hill.

"We have heard some suggestions this could be expanded to cover construction materials, such as cement, aggregate, asphalt, potentially some other products," he told the committee.

"The package that was announced (Wednesday) has none of these specifics, so we're going to have to see how this evolves as it starts to move through Congress to determine what kind of coverage the U.S. may be considering."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 1, 2021.

James McCarten, The Canadian Press