"TURKEY SLAMS GERMAN IMMIGRATION LAW"

A new bill, which has already passed the German version of the house, will require all spouses who would like to immigrate to Germany to be able to speak a basic level of German and to be at least 18 year old. They claim that this law is to stop forced and fake marriages and to help improve integration of immigrants into German culture. Turkey however see this as a violation of human rights and does not see how it would help solve the problem.

The article goes on to discuss Turkey's desire to join the EU and how many members do not want this to happen. Turkey has been insulted by the way they have been treated and point out that they meet many of the requirements to be in the EU better than some member states. They hope with support from the current German Administration they will be admitted soon.

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German Outsourcing

Outsourcing has never been as popular in Germany as it has been in the US and the UK, but all that is starting to change, especially with the addition of Poland and the Czech Republic to the EU. Instead of shipping jobs to offshore countries like India and China, Germany companies prefer paying the higher wages for geographic and cultural proximity.

With outsourcing becoming more and more popular many German companies are using it as a threat to get their employees to move from a 35 hour work week to a 40 hour work week, or take pay cuts. Things like these are very hard to get in Germany due to very strict employment laws.

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The Russo-German Tariff War

In the late 1800's Russian corn was dirt cheap, so much so that German farmers were suffering huge losses. A Berlin paper wrote, "The Russians are perfect barbarians; They sell corn in our markets for next to nothing." The Farmers appealed to their friends in the government and got a large tariff placed on the import of Russian corn. The ironic thing is that the Russians had just decided to lower their tariffs on the import of German steel and chemicals, two of Germany's main exports at the time, and still today.

The Russian Government asked the German government to remove or reduce the tariff on corn because they had reduced their tariffs on German imports. Germany said they would think about it and nothing came of it. After some absurd request from the Germans the Russians decided to fight fire with fire and raised their tariffs on German imports.

The full article can be found here and starts near the bottom of the page.

Matt

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