Wednesday 9 March 2011

JAPAN AND IMPORTED ENERGY

The Diplomat

JAPAN’S CRISIS OPPORTUNITY

Arab world unrest has prompted countries to again question their dependency on oil. Japan could cash in.

Andy Sharp

The Diplomat, March 9, 2011

Doomsayers will no doubt be pointing out that the insurrections across the Arab world—and the ensuing oil and food price hikes—threaten to knock the global economic recovery off track. So what can Japan do to help stave off such destabilizing uncertainty?

Once the unrest began, Tunisia and Egypt disposed of their brutal dictators relatively quickly. But the delusional Col. Muammar Gaddafi seems determined to maintain his grip over the Libyan people through all means at his disposal. Western powers are mulling military responses such as no-fly zones, but with its hands constitutionally tied, Japan has only been able to join in with the United States and other Western nations in deciding to implement trade and financial sanctions against Tripoli.

But Japanese trade sanctions will have little impact—Libya only exports scraps of seafood to Japan each year (although a Majirox News report states that a fall in imports of blue fin tuna from Libya, Egypt and Tunisia could see the price of sushi spiking), while trade in the opposite direction is about six-times greater and consists mainly of Japanese autos. The Finance Ministry, for its part, said it would freeze any assets belonging to Gaddafi and his family in Japan in the unlikely event any were found.

(...) [artículo aquí]

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