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Canada’s Upcoming Renminbi Trading Hub: How Will It Be Used?
2 September 2014
These two organizations announced “they would work together, with officials from the federal, Ontario and BC governments, and the financial industry, to promote Canada as a trading hub for the Chinese currency, the Renminbi (RMB)”. Journalist John Greenwood in an August 28 National Post article describes the two organizations in the following manner: “AdvantageBC is a non-profit business group whose members are a cross-section of the province’s economy, including Canfor Pulp International Ltd, Angiotech Pharamaceuticals, Salman Partners Inc., as well as most of the big Canadian banks. “The TFSA, whose mandate is to promote Toronto as a global financial centre, is a public-private partnership backed by the big banks and life insurers, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Rotman School of Management, and the Province of Ontario.” The TFSA and Advantage BC press release claims that major national organizations have already expressed support for the initiative: “Representatives of Canada’s business community have already expressed support for the initiative. “The establishment of Canada as a RMB centre will continue to raise our stature as a global financial centre and will facilitate increased trade and investment with China, thus benefitting the entire Canadian economy,” said Perrin Beatty, President & CEO of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. Support has also been expressed from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters and the Canada China Business Council.” An HSBC global survey conducted in 11 countries between April 3 and May 7, 2014 had set the stage for the Canadian initiative by concluding that “Canadian businesses trading with Mainland China are missing out on new opportunities and cost savings because they are not settling their trade transactions in Renminbi (RMB), the world’s fastest growing currency. Already in December 2013, Ms. Gloria Lo, the Director of the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office in Toronto, speaking at a forum organized by the Mergers & Acquisitions in Montreal, noted that “the government of British Columbia has issued just last month offshore RMB bonds in Hong Kong, setting the precedent of a foreign government issuing offshore RMB bonds.” On October 29th, 2013 LaRouchePac wrote a news item “Rebuilding the Brutish Empire Step by Step”, which explained that “Great Britain is attempting to rebuild its empire, step by step, in the midst of the meltdown of the trans-Atlantic system. Earlier this month while on tour in China, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced that the City of London hopes to become China’s offshore banking center, and it wants to corner 80% of the renminbi foreign exchange trade. Now both Osborne and Prime Minister David Cameron have announced that they want London to become the Islamic banking center of the world, as well. “This is the British-Saudi genocide policy at work, Lyndon LaRouche commented today. That is exactly what is behind these moves. “Writing in today’s Financial Times Osborne said, "I have already set out to ensure that the City of London is the home to fast growing new markets from Indian infrastructure funds to offshore Chinese renminbi. Now we have set ourselves this ambition: to be the unrivaled western center for Islamic finance." He pointed out that Britain is already a major center of Arab finance.” So, where are the mutually beneficial economic and infrastructural investment agreements between Canada and China? The same Financial Times reported on June 8, 2014 that Russia will be conducting trade with Asian nations in China’s renminbi (or yuan) currency. "This is not a blip; it’s a trend," the FT cites one European banker in Moscow. "Andrei Kostin, chief executive of state bank VTB, said that ’Given the extent of our bilateral trade with China, developing the use of settlements in rubles and yuan [renminbi] is a priority on the agenda, and so we are working on it now. Since May, we have been carrying out this work.’" The paper continues, "The move to open accounts to trade in renminbi, Hong Kong dollars or Singapore dollars highlights Russia’s attempt to pivot towards Asia as its relations with Europe become strained. Sanctions are pushing Russian companies to reduce their dependence on western financial markets while U.S. and European banks have dramatically slowed their lending activity in Russia since the annexation of Crimea in March." ’Non-Dollar Based Trade’ But it is, of course, the productive economic relationship between these two of the three major Eurasian economic powers, demonstrated in the recent meeting of Presidents Xi and Putin with 50 economic and infrastructural investment agreements, which allows such "non-dollar-based" trade expansion to occur. The City and Wall Street are worried that the presently systemic sanctions against Russia would push the Kremlin to adopt the overall “de-dollarization” proposals of Sergei Glazyev, a close advisor to President Putin. These include the transfer of Russia’s own assets and dollar-denominated accounts from NATO countries to banks in neutral countries; selling off government bonds of NATO countries; limiting the foreign currency operations of Russian banks, especially targeting non-trade-related transactions (i.e., speculative ones); rapid reduction of Russian reserves held in the currencies of countries party to sanctions against Russia; a public campaign on the disadvantages of holding funds in dollar accounts, which might be subject to freezing under sanctions. In addition, Glazyev proposes to shift the ownership jurisdiction of strategic companies from offshore zones into Russia; and to switch accounts within the Belarus-Kazakstan-Russia Customs Union and in other trade relations into national currencies. He proposes currency and credit swap arrangements with China, in order to ensure financing for critical categories of trade. These are the potential economic counter measures that are available to Russia as Stephen Harper and other NATO heads of government prepare to converge on Wales on September 4-5 to vote on a new package of sanctions against Russia. Also lined up for the September 4-5 NATO summit is "a new joint expeditionary force of at least 10,000 personnel to bolster NATO’s power in response to Russian aggression in Ukraine," London’s Financial Times reported August 28. "The force will incorporate air and naval units as well as ground troops, and will be led by British commanders, with other nations contributing a range of specialist troops and units. Countries involved at present include Denmark, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Norway and the Netherlands. Canada has also expressed an interest in taking part." Canada must join the BRICS world revolution It has now been over 6 weeks that the BRICS nations of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa held their historic summit in Fortaleza, Brazil. Their treaty agreements around fundamental financial-economic reforms have now been supported by well over 50% of the world’s population. The pre-war sanctions against Russia and the current provocations against China have now bonded these two Asian powers in a thermonuclear strategic alliance. Prime Minister Harper is being pressured to join another “Anglo-American coalition of the willing” orchestrated by desperately bankrupt London financial oligarchs ready to gamble away the existence of humankind in a military confrontation with Russia that can escalate to a thermonuclear nuclear showdown. The only path to economic progress and physical survival is to steer Canada away from NATO’s military follies and orient to the Pacific: which does not mean an anti-China Trans-Pacific Partnership Free-Trade Agreement (TPP) nor a speculative RMB hub, but rather that Canada join the BRICS revolution set in motion last July in Fortaleza, Brazil to establish economic and infrastructural investment agreements based on a new system of values opposed to those of the British Empire. The Silk Road Is the Hope for Peace in the World "Just like the ancient Silk Road, the Silk Road Economic Belt is not only capable of bringing people together economically, but also of enhancing cultural and other exchanges between peoples, becoming a completely new concept of peace order of the 21st century," said on August 7 Helga Zepp-LaRouche, the founder of the Schiller Institute, to reporters from Xinhua. As part of this new Silk Road Economic Belt the Chinese have proposed to build a rail tunnel under the Bering Strait to Canada and the United States. This first great intercontinental project in history is being offered to Canada in order to promote the long-term development of the real economy and the common good which would mutually benefit the citizens of each nation involved. This would certainly become a 21st century version of the famous 1648 Treaty of Westphalia that respected the principles of sovereignty and equality among nations and was based on the concept that each nation would promote the benefit and the advantage of the other. [GG] |
