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Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
Wheat starts to reach Syria as frozen funds unlocked
By Jonathan Saul and Michael Hogan
LONDON/HAMBURG (Reuters) - Deliveries of wheat are starting to reach Syrian ports as its bank accounts abroad are gradually being freed from sanctions, with grain traders detecting a greater willingness from European governments to allow deals to go ahead on humanitarian grounds.
As civil war grinds on, Syria is facing its worst wheat harvest in three decades. President Bashar al-Assad, who has already escaped air strikes as punishment for chemical weapons attacks, will now be able to bolster depleted food supplies.
Trade sources familiar with commercial deals said at least 500,000 tons of bread-making wheat that Syria had tried to obtain months ago, but which could not be paid for because its foreign bank accounts were frozen, were now starting to be delivered.
"What we are seeing at the moment is Syrian government business that was done in the past -- between four to six months ago -- that is only now being executed," a Middle East based trade source involved in deals said. "It looks like the payment issues are being resolved."
A source with Syria's state wheat buyer, the General Establishment for Cereal Processing and Trade, (Hoboob), confirmed deals were struck months ago for 500,000 tons of wheat, adding that 150,000 tons had recently been delivered using previously frozen funds.
"The willingness amongst governments that have frozen Syrian assets to offer waivers allowing the regime to tap into these funds in order to buy food staples is likely to increase in the short term," said Torbjorn Soltvedt of risk consultancy Maplecroft.
"Following the U.S. administration's decision to forgo air strikes - at least in the short term - the conflict remains a stalemate in which the humanitarian situation will continue to deteriorate."
Foodstuffs are not covered by international sanctions, but banking sanctions and asset freezes imposed by Washington and Brussels created a climate that had made it difficult for some trading houses to do business with Damascus.
Syria has struggled for several months to conclude deals to buy sugar, wheat and rice in international tenders using frozen funds, partly because of difficulties in securing permission from governments to free those funds.
UNLOCKING FUNDS
Unlocking the bank accounts is up to member states in the European Union and trade sources familiar with deals said the moves were due to concerns over the worsening humanitarian situation and attempts to free up funds were aimed at alleviating it. An EU spokesman has confirmed that such trades are not subject to restrictions, but it was up to authorities in member states where the banks are located to authorize the transactions.
Banking sources pointed to several Middle Eastern banks with operations in Europe that had frozen funds. One trade source said Syria had paid for the wheat using funds in some of the Arab owned banks.
Banking sources said banks had pooled previously blocked funds to close some of the deals.
"We have always been very strong in doing business with Syria. Of course under today's difficult circumstances, one tries to do the doable," said a source at one of the Arab banks, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivities of the trade.
"The Syrian government continues to heavily restrict the distribution of aid. This exposes any countries that unfreeze Syrian assets to criticism that they are strengthening the position of the regime, which relies on the distribution of food in the areas it controls to boost support," Maplecroft's Soltvedt said.
Before the conflict, banks with large Syrian activities included Germany's Commerzbank. Asked about humanitarian deals, a Commerzbank spokesman said, "we are currently not doing any such transactions".
France has cleared the use of frozen Syrian bank assets to pay for exports of food as part of a European Union system that allows such funds to be used for humanitarian ends, a trade ministry spokeswoman said last month.
Trade sources said the wheat had been sourced from France and Black Sea producers especially Ukraine and Romania.
Around 250,000 to 300,000 tons of French wheat is expected to load for Syria, some of which shortly, sources said.
"We are not in a similar situation to Egypt, where sales are well organized. This is a country at war with everything this implies in terms of disruptions," a trader close to the matter said.
MIDDLE MEN
Deals had been concluded using private companies including middle men in Syria.
The Middle East source said Syria was opting to conclude some business outside of formal tenders. "Non-tender business also allows them more channels including some involvement from the private sector."
A separate trade source said there was talk of a further purchase this week of up to 150,000 tons of grains comprising wheat and corn, although others could not confirm details.
"Although Russia and Iran will remain the main lifeline for the Syrian regime, the increasingly fragmented war economy continues allow a wide range of local and international actors to conclude ad-hoc commodity deals," Maplecroft's Soltvedt said.
Despite signs of business emerging, Syria is still behind on purchases. The conflict has taken its toll on Syria's vital sea-borne trade, which has dropped despite efforts to keep commercial supply lines open.
Agribusiness group Cargill said it aimed to sell agricultural commodities to places such as Iran and Syria as food is specifically excluded from sanctions.
"Obviously this is not an easy thing because when we do this business our thinking is first and foremost for the safety of the people involved in making these deliveries," Roger Janson, Cargill's head of ocean transportation, said in a recent interview.
Commodity traders say it is impossible to accurately estimate Syria's wheat needs.
Estimates collated by Reuters from over a dozen grain officials and local traders in late July after the harvest suggested Syria would need to import 2 million tons of wheat in the coming year to meet normal needs after a crop of 1.5 million tons, under half the prewar norm.
Syria's peacetime import needs varied greatly according to its harvest, with imports of about 400,000 tons needed in the year before the war began in 2011.
"No one really has an accurate picture of Syria's actual crop as the country is a war zone and independent crop analysts cannot visit the grain areas and see for themselves how the crop developed and how much was actually harvested," a European trader said.
"It must be assumed the fighting will have damaged peacetime farming patterns."
(Additional reporting by Maha El Dahan in Abu Dhabi, Dominic Evans in Beirut, Arno Schuetze in Frankfurt, Valerie Parent in Paris and Nigel Hunt in London, writing by Jonathan Saul, Editing by Veronica Brown and Giles Elgood)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/wheat-starts-reach-syria-frozen-funds-unlocked-155617654.html
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Friday, October 11, 2013
Higgs did not know he had won Nobel
11 October 2013
Last updated at 07:53 ET
Professor Peter Higgs: "She congratulated me on the news and I said 'oh, what news?'"
Nobel Prize-winning scientist Prof Peter Higgs has revealed he did not know he had won the award until a woman congratulated him in the street.
Prof Higgs, who does not own a mobile phone, said a former neighbour had pulled up in her car as he was returning from lunch in Edinburgh.
He added: "She congratulated me on the news and I said 'oh, what news?'"
The woman had been alerted by her daughter in London that Prof Higgs had won the award, he revealed.
He added: "I heard more about it obviously when I got home and started reading the messages."
The 84-year-old emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh was recognised by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for his work on the theory of the particle which shares his name, the Higgs boson.
He shares this year's physics prize with Francois Englert of Belgium, and joins the ranks of past Nobel winners including Marie Curie and Albert Einstein.
Watch: David Shukman profiles the "shy but brilliant" Peter Higgs
'God particle'
The existence of the so-called "God particle", said to give matter its substance, or mass, was proved almost 50 years later by a team from the European nuclear research facility (Cern) and its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Speaking for the first time about the award at a media conference at the University of Edinburgh, he said: "How do I feel? Well, obviously I'm delighted and rather relieved in a sense that it's all over. It has been a long time coming."
An old friend told him he had been nominated as far back as 1980, he said.
Prof Higgs added: "In terms of later events, it seemed to me for many years that the experimental verification might not come in my lifetime.
"But since the start up of the LHC it has been pretty clear that they would get there, and despite some mishaps they did get there".
Stressing the involvement of other theorists and Cern, he added: "I think clearly they should, but it is going to be even more difficult for the Nobel Committee to allocate the credit when it comes to an organisation like Cern.
"I should remind you that although only two of us have shared this prize, Francois Englert of Brussels and myself, that the work in 1964 involved three groups of people, (including) two in Brussels.
"Unfortunately Robert Brout died a few years ago so is no longer able to be awarded the prize, but he would certainly have been one of the winners if he had still been alive.
"But there were three others who also contributed and it is already difficult to allocate the credit amongst the theorists.
"Although a lot of people seem to think I did all this single-handed, it was actually part of a theoretical programme which had been started in 1960."
Landmark research
Prof Higgs was born in Newcastle, but developed his theory while working at the University of Edinburgh.
The landmark research that defined what was to become known as the Higgs boson was published in 1964.
Discovering the particle became one of the most sought-after goals in science, and the team of scientists behind the $10bn LHC at Cern made proving its existence a key priority.
In July of last year, physicists at Cern confirmed the discovery of a particle consistent with the Higgs boson.
Prof Higgs, who had often been uncomfortable with the attention his theory brought, was in Geneva to hear the news, and wiped a tear from his eye as the announcement was made.
Reacting to the discovery at the time, he told reporters: "It's very nice to be right sometimes."
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-24493400#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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