Page 66 - Plastics News December 2016

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Germany's plastics industry slams threat to free trade
Germany’s large and export-oriented plastics
machinery industry has decried any suggestion of
protectionism that might result from plans announced by
US President-elect Donald Trump to renegotiate the North
American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).
In a statement issued earlier this week the VDMA trade
body noted that the US was Germany’s largest export
market in 2015 for plastics and rubber machinery, at
€719m (£610m), surpassing China, while German plastics
and rubber machinery exports to Mexico rose 50% last year
to €168m (£142m), making it its fourth-largest market.
The VDMA said it expected German machinery exports to
remain strong to those two countries. “Existing free trade serial numbers denoting it as among the first. The
agreements are of fundamental importance for this,” said
Thorsten Kühmann, the VDMA’s managing director. “Any
form of protectionism on the other hand will be damaging
to the business activities of all concerned.” Kühmann
confirmed that the statement, while it did not mention
Trump directly, was timed around the President-elect’s
comments. The association said that in the case of Mexico, resident launched a petition on Change.org stating:
the “strong rate of growth may also be explained by Nafta
which has dismantled trade barriers in the region”. None
of the statistics in the VDMA’s statement were new: the
association had presented the details of its exports to
both the US and Mexico in extensive comments earlier
this year. “We are concerned as we believe that global
trade needs open markets,” Kühmann said adding “Trade
agreements will have a positive effect on [global] trade!”
In his campaign statements, Trump said his administration
• December 2016 • Plastics News 66
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would “tell Nafta partners that we intend to immediately
renegotiate the terms of that agreement to get a better
deal for our workers”.
A movement opposing the
new £5 notes in UK
There’s been a stampede of news coverage lately
about the new 5 pound note in the United
Kingdom. This time it’s not the design on the film-
based fiver that’s getting attention, but rather the
materials in it. It seems that some vegetarians, vegans
and the media has just discovered that beef tallow
is used in very, very small amounts as an additive in
the plastic.Innovia Security opened a film plant in
Wigton, England, earlier this year as it ramped up
production of the polymer substrate for the Bank
of England. The 5 pound note was introduced in
September, with collectors vying to nab a bill with
Bank of England, like other banks which have moved
to plastic-based notes, has cited increased security
and durability with the new money. Then in late
November, someone found out that tallow is used
as a lubricant additive in some plastics. The bank
admitted that tallow was a product in its notes. A U.K.
“The new £5 notes contain animal fat in the form of
tallow. This is unacceptable to millions of vegans,
vegetarians, Hindus, Sikhs, Jains and others in the U.K.
We demand that you cease to use animal products in
the production of currency that we have to use.” As
of November 30, it had 100,000 signatures.