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On the night of Friday June 7, 2013, a pre-wedding party was in progress at the Cavalli Club – named after the renowned Italian fashion designer Roberto Cavalli – within the 5-star luxury Fairmont Hotel in Dubai. There was champagne in abundance and some of the performers on ground for the all-night gig included DJ Jimmy Jatt, leading comedian, Basketmouth, singer Wizkid and rapper Naeto C. It was the summer party to be at.The next day, the wedding proper held at the JW Marriot Marquis Hotel on the same street. Most of the floors at the hotel and the nearby Mirage Palace were occupied by the over 300 guests who had flown in for the wedding from Nigeria to attend. Over 40 private jets were buzzing in and out of the United Arab Emirates with sitting governors, senators, traditional rulers, government officials, politicians and businessmen.The entire weekend was, as tabloids will call it, awash with pomp and pageantry. The groom was Oluwatosin Omokore, first son of Olajide Omokore, a maverick oil trader; and his bride was Faiza Fari, first daughter of Abdulkadir Fari, then Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources. Encomium Magazine reported that souvenirs at the wedding rumoured to have cost an estimated $8 million (N1.2 billion using the exchange rate at the time), included the Blackberry Q10 released in January of that year, other smartphones, Bang & Olufsen luxury speakers.In the aftermath, the then Nigerian president, Goodluck Jonathan, acting on the recommendation of his petroleum minister and Mr. Fari’s boss, Diezani Alison-Madueke,suspended and later redeployed the father of the bride to another parastatal. His accounts were also reportedly frozen by the Economic & Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. An insider at the ministry told The Nation newspaper that the wedding was deemed too lavish for a civil servant to fund and that in allowing his daughter marry the son of a major player in his sector, Mr. Musa had triggered a conflict of interest.In reality, the wedding had been primarily funded by Mr. Omokore who understandably spared no cost to give his first son the gift of a good wedding. Mr. Fari who reportedly had been a little too strict in demanding due process on some deals relating to marginal oilfields, was simply the sacrificial lamb who had to go for delaying Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s desires. He was one of many in a revolving door policy that saw five group managing directors and several permanent secretaries exit the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, in the five years of Mrs. Alison-Madueke’s tenure.Back in May 2010, the death of Umaru Musa Yar’adua precipitated the ascension of Goodluck Jonathan as Nigeria’s president. There was pressure on him from his kinsmen and others within the enclave of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to run for the 2011 elections. It was only expedient to turn to the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, a major source of election funding for incumbents since the return of democracy in 1999.To ensure a smooth process, Rilwanu Lukman, the incumbent minister who favoured a restructuring of NNPC into a full commercial entity, was replaced with Diezani Alison-Madueke in a cabinet reshuffle. Mrs. Alison-Madueke eventually became like an unofficial prime minister. From then till May 2015 when the Muhammadu Buhari presidency took over; anyone that stood in her way was removed either by her personally or the presidency acting on her recommendations.In an era where Nigeria earned over N51 trillion from oil and the commodity price peaked at $112 per barrel, it was the best of times to have the listening ears of the president and the discretionary powers of an oil minister as enshrined in the Petroleum Act of 1969. In that five-year period, Mrs. Alison-Madueke, whose name means ‘look before you leap’ in her native Ijaw, leapt to unbelievable levels of immense influence and the accompanying affluence.DIEZANI’S CHILDHOODBorn Diezani Kogbeni Agama in the city of Port Harcourt two months after Nigeria’s independence, the young girl had a decent childhood as the third of six children. Her father Frederick Agama – had a distinguished career at Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) as a management executive before retiring to become a traditional ruler of the Epie-Atissa Clan in Yenaka, Bayelsa State. Her mother, Beatrice Agama, is a retired schoolteacher. Though her parents were not as wealthy as rumoured, they lived a decent life by all standards. She grew up at the Shell residential camp in Rumuomasi, Port Harcourt and schooled in Warri, Port Harcourt and Mubi.An intervention from her maternal grandfather N. K. Porbeni, a renowned Ijaw chief from Delta State led her to study architecture rather than the creative arts. “He travelled all the way from Warri [to the UK] to tell me in no uncertain terms that my father hadn’t spent all that money on my education for me to study Fine Art”, she said in a 2007 interview.Mrs. Alison-Maueke began her architecture training in the UK. It is unclear why she abandoned her studies in the UK, but she later moved to the United States to do a 5-year architecture course at Howard University. She graduated in 1992. Right after her graduation from Howard, she was employed by SPDC and would continue to go through the ranks, heading strategy and planning team handling its joint ventures with the NNPC. By this time, she was married to a former military governor of Imo and Enugu State, Alison Madueke.In 2006, she was appointed Executive Director, Facilities, becoming the company’s first female Nigerian director in its entire history. Ann Pickard, the controversial American who headed Shell’s operations in Nigeria from 2005-2010 fast-tracked her from mid-level executive, singling out her and other promising young women for top roles. Perhaps Ms. Pickard, believed to have placed moles in the Nigerian government –according to US diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks – and described as “having a willingness to manipulate every available political angle to further the company’s interests”, saw a reflection of herself in the younger woman.While at Shell, she was rumoured to be involved in contract racketeering and it was not uncommon to see staff in the corridor whispering about her dirty deals during lunch breaks. “The Business Integrity Department takes time to act”, an insider in Shell Nigeria revealed on the condition of anonymity, because the company strictly forbids unauthorised persons from talking to the media. “It can be tracking an executive for years, so it would have caught up on her activities sooner or later. She got away with it because she was ED for just over a year.”In July 2007, she was named Minister of Transport. Her tenure was brief and uneventful save for when she wept openly in August that year while inspecting a bad road. Between December 2008 and March 2010, she was heading the Ministry of Mines & Steel Development.During her time in the Ministry of Mines & Steel Development, it funded ‘Hollywood Glamour Collection’, a new limited-edition collection of Nigerian gold and gemstone jewelry by the popular jeweler Chris Aire. The collection was unveiled at an exclusive event in Beverly Hills, California on April 7, 2010, barely hours after Mrs. Alison-Madueke had been moved to the petroleum ministry. In the months after, Mr. Aire registered new companies for the sole purpose of being awarded questionable contracts to handle crude lifting, earning over an estimated $30,000 daily.Her royal heritage, love for jewellery, style and the finer things of life inevitably drew swift comparisons with the late Princess Diana of Great Britain. In time, friends, well-wishers and hangers-on began to call her Princess Di.THE MENOne of these hangers-on was Donald Chidi Amamgbo, the lawyer who reportedly became her lover for a while when they met at Howard. Usually described by the Nigerian press as her cousin, he hails from Imo State, not Bayelsa and runs a thriving U.S.-based legal practice, Amamgbo & Associates. In 2012, he was put on probation by the state bar of California for misconduct.When government appointees and politicians in general assume office, friends, well-wishers, government contractors and stakeholders in their specific industry find ways to contact them through their network, sending unsolicited gifts to them and their relatives and taking out pages in the newspapers for congratulatory advertorials.“When someone sends you a $10,000 watch here or expensive jewellery there with no favours asked, you have to call one day to say thanks and have the person visit”, said a former staff of the ministry, who asked not to be named because he still works for the government and has not been permitted to talk to the press. “Or your daughter calls from Dubai that an unknown person paid her tuition for two years and sublet an apartment for her. Can you say no? Even the Bible says it that ‘A man’s gift maketh a way for him’.”No one knows for sure which gifts came to Mrs. Alison-Madueke from some of the men at the centre of the storm in her world today. But they worked regardless because they became her close associates soon enough. There was Kola Aluko, an oil trader seeking a big break; Mr. Omokore, a shipping magnate looking to diversify and swell his fortune. There were also the fronts and middlemen, Benedict Peters and Walter Wagbatsoma.One of the many billionaire conquests of supermodel Naomi Campbell, Mr. Aluko was born and bred in Lagos as one of the nine children of Akanni Aluko, a geologist and popular traditional chief in Ilesha, Osun State. His first reported stint in the oil business was in 1995, after years of wandering through the pharmaceutics and automobile industries, when he cofounded Besse Oil, an oil trading firm. By the mid-2000s, one of his serial companies, Exoro Energy International merged with a partner firm, Weatherford, to become Seven Energy. It was run by Aluko who had one per cent equity, alongside Mr. Omokore and a third man, Phillip Ihenacho.Kogi-born Mr. Omokore, who was given the title of Elegbe of Egbe in his hometown in October 2014 for his commitment to his town, was an affiliate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from state to national level. As a government financier, he was rewarded with waivers and mega contracts from agriculture to oil & gas.From time to time, there were contingency bailouts requested by members of the inner caucus of government. After the 2012 flooding disaster, he donated N50 million to the victims.In February 2014, Lamido Sanusi, then governor of the central bank was suspended by Mr. Jonathan after a controversial statement about missing $20 billion in crude oil earnings. According to an insider in the oil & gas sector who did not want to be identified due to his current position, Mr. Omokore allegedly doled out $200,000 to a number of local journalists to begin a campaign against the outspoken central bank governor; Mr. Jonathan had apparently fallen for the bait and wanted the pressure off his beloved minister.In 2010, Shell was plagued with a lot of issues in its onshore operations. Oil spills across the Niger Delta had gotten it into a lot of legal tussles; its goodwill with the host communities had been on a decline since the days of slain environmental activist, Ken Saro Wiwa in the 1990s; militants had wreaked considerable havoc on its asset causing countless force majeures; the government was seeking to get more local marginal field operators out onshore. It has gone on a large-scale divesting spree since then. That same year, Shell fixed one of the major pipelines in the country – the 97 kilometre-long Nembe Creek Trunkline passing through 14 oil pumping stations – for $1.1 billion. By November 2013, it was on the market.The company went ahead then to divest its stake (45 per cent) in asset held in joint venture partnership with NNPC which held the remainder (55 per cent) on behalf of the Nigerian government, and focus on the less ‘dramatic’ offshore fields. The divested fields were the OMLs 4, 26, 30, 34, 38, 40, 41 and 42 and Shell sold them to indigenous operators, raking in a total $2.3 billion.Meanwhile NNPC transferred its shares to one of its many loss-making subsidiaries, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, for $1.8 billion as valued by the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR. Till date, over $1.7 billion is outstanding as only $100m has been remitted to NNPC which wholly owns it.On September 16, 2011, a Strategic Alliance Agreement (SAA) was signed between the NPDC and Septa Energy, a subsidiary of Seven Energy for OMLs 4, 38 and 41. Another SAA was signed with Atlantic Energy Drilling Concepts (AEDC) Ltd for OMLs 30 and 34. These companies were registered in tax havens like the British Virgin Islands and in the United Kingdom, limiting the revenue payable to the Nigerian government in form of taxes.The contracts were awarded by single-source procurement, in clear violation of Nigeria’s Public Procurement Act which stipulates that bids be subject to public tender and competitive. Mrs Alison-Madueke also contravened a guideline under the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act 2010 that mandated companies wanting to lift Nigerian crude to show records of involvement in the industry in the preceding ten years.SAAs are usually signed between two or more companies for a number of reasons including collaborating to augment technical expertise, meet capital requirement or reduce high costs of operation. NNPC adopted this approach to meet the huge capital requirement for cash call and lack of required skill and manpower at the corporation.According to the terms of the SAAs, the partner company provides the capital outlay required to lift crude in the assets supplied by the NPDC as well as non-refundable entry fees of $0.30 per barrel and $0.010/mcf, 70 days after the start of exploration activity. It was to recoup its investment by lifting crude. Quite interestingly, another requirement was that the collaborating firm pay a fixed sum of $350,000 per asset annually for five years to facilitate the training of NPDC staff. This came to $1.4 million per year and Atlantic Energy never paid up.Till date, Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is pursuing Atlantic Energy to get its tax returns. And while the NNPC has moved to terminate the SAAs so it can get new partners who will pay as at when due, a court order obtained in October 2016 by Seven Energy, may be restraining it from doing so.“NPDC has till date paid only $100m for those eight OMLs but is still enjoying the benefits of an owner”, says Waziri Adio, executive secretary of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI) which tracks revenues accruing to government.An alternate commercial valuation byPricewaterhouseCoopers in 2015 took Shell’s divested assets into consideration and roughly estimated these eight assets to be worth $3.4 billion in total.“NPDC brought them on as partners because they are supposed to have financial capacity and technical capacity even though the assumption is that NPDC itself has financial and technical capacity to manage the assets”, Adio explains. “These firms had neither and the same assets were used in raising the money. What stops NPDC from raising the money and hiring contractors to do this job as well?”Essentially, an unnecessary medium was created to pay the SAA partners for sourcing capital which they used the national assets to raise. All of this was possible because of Mrs Alison-Madueke’s discretionary powers.In 2014, Mr Sanusi told the Senate that Atlantic had lifted over $7 billion worth of oil between January 2012 and July 2013, but while the NPDC had paid $400 million as petroleum profit tax (PPT), its partner had paid nothing, flouting the PPT Act 2007.“The profit sharing arrangement was too good to be true”, The Cable screamed in its analysis. “Under Article 10 (d) (i)-(v), the two parties were to share “profit oil” and “profit gas” in ratios of 90% for NPDC to 10% for Atlantic (“profit oil” and “profit gas” with regards to undepreciated costs associated to capital costs prior to execution of agreement); 40% to 60% (upon full recovery of development costs by Atlantic); and, thereafter, it would be 70% to 30%.”“Up to the full recovery of development costs related to the continental resources, “profit oil” was to be shared 40% to 60% and, thereafter, 70% to 30%. For the “profit gas” upon full recovery of development costs regarding non-associated gas by Atlantic, NPDC would take 30% and Atlantic 70%, and reverse to 30% to 70% thereafter. Profit gas” from the continental resources was to be shared 30% to NPDC and 70% to Atlantic, and thereafter, 70% to NPDC and 30% to Atlantic.”“When you look at the depositions from the US courts, you see that it (the SAA) was a cover for Mrs Alison-Madueke and others to cream off things that should have come to the Federal Republic of Nigeria”, Mr Adio concludes. According to a July 2017 affidavit at a federal high court, Messrs. Aluko and Omokore owe the Nigerian government the princely sum of $1,762,338,184.40.Curiously, the 55% held by NPDC was not given to the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), the NNPC subsidiary concerned with supervising Nigeria’s joint ventures (JVs), production sharing contracts (PSCs) and services contracts (SCs). Why then did the NNPC transfer them to the NPDC, which had no capacity for exploration?Back in March 1999, as former military head of state, Abdusalami Abubakar was wrapping up his eleven-month stint in office and preparing for the transition from military to democratic rule, the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act was sent to his desk. The bill was meant to stem declining investment in the upstream sector at that point in time due to the absence of a defined fiscal structure. Nigeria had also entered PSC agreements in 1993* and did not have legal backing for the agreements it was entering.Particularly significant was Section 16.For the purpose of the efficient management of Production Sharing Contracts and joint ventures under this Decree, the National Petroleum Investment Management Services (in this Decree referred to as “NAPIMS’) shall be incorporated into a limited liability company under the Companies and Allied Matters Decree 1990, as amended.Accordingly, NAPIMS shall be vested with the exploration and production properties and assets owned by the Federal Republic of Nigeria for the purposes of this Decree.It was following in a tradition of governments signing controversial or hard-hitting legislations at the end of their tenure. Nineteen days to Democracy Day (May 29, 1999), the bill was signed into law; however, a single clause present in the initial version had been deleted. It was Section 16.The amendment effectively opened the floodgates. “With that clause, JVs would have been incorporated”, says a source within the Ministry of Petroleum who requested to be named because he does not have the permission to on the matter. “If they were, as opposed to the unincorporated JVs agreement we run currently, quite a few things would not be permissible. NPDC would pay its bills, crude lifted will be accounted for, recently incorporated companies will not be given such juicy OMLs to operate, cash calls will not be paid ‘mistakenly’ etc.”“Will NPDC use shareholders’ funds to be doing rubbish?”, the source asked rhetorically. “Will an incorporated company setup to make profit be acting so silly? So many ifs.”If the deleted clause was a loophole, the discretionary powers given to the oil minister in the Petroleum Act was a spade that helped Mrs Alison-Madueke dig into depths previously unknown. The entire petroleum industry is controlled by the president and the minister; the former appoints the latter who is then empowered by law. Only the National Assembly could have checked her excesses, but it didn’t.“The political pressure on petroleum ministers to finance elections has turned NNPC into petty cash machine for government”, says Bassey (last name withheld for anonymity), an industry insider. “That the minister has discretionary powers that makes things worse and that’s what we’re trying to unbundle with the PIB. Discretion can make or mar our industry but it is clear what happens in Nigeria.”Who and what institutions dropped the ball and allowed her fully exercise those powers? “The CBN was definitely not one of them, because Mr Sanusi kept harping on the rot in the oil sector”, says Mr Bassey. “The greatest enablers of corruption are civil servants who keep quiet or look the other way to save their jobs because of the god complex of chief executives in Nigeria. Red flags were raised only because of inter-agency collusion with banks, audit firms etc.”“The government is one single unit”, emphasizes Kola Banwo of Abuja-based Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center. “Institutions have roles but usually, with the nature of patronage and corrupt party system we operate, corruption is endemic. The NNPC has internal mechanisms and systems to prevent fraud. The relevant National Assembly Committees have oversight roles and could have prevented this. The Office of the Auditor-General could also have made some difference. The EFCC, ICPC, etc. However, these all formed part of the problem and so did nothing then. Some action from one or all of these, could have reduced if not prevented what happened during that period.”Those in the know say it was the impunitywith which Mrs Alison-Madueke broke the rules that set her apart from those before her. There were times when she stopped receiving visitors at the office and made them come to her in the comfort of her official residence. She would keep governors waiting for hours, dodge calls from CEOs and chairpersons of multinationals, employ domestic staff on the bill of the corporation and more.Mrs Alison-Madueke requested kickbacks from her collaborators to approve dubious contracts and the infamous oil swaps which Buhari ended in November 2015. Mr Aluko for instance, admitted paying rent for Mrs Beatrice Agama’s luxury home in Parkwood Point, St. Edmund’s Terrace, St. John’s Wood, London, describing it as “simply gifts to a friend, given long after Atlantic had signed its deal.”Under her, the NNPC ran accounts that CBN and Ministry of Finance were unaware of. The president would regularly send people to her with odd financial requests and she became the nation’s unofficial treasury with the state corporation as her petty cash ATM. As a result, she was not remitting funds and records to the Ministry of Finance which as in turn unable to remit to the CBN.In the run-up to the 2015 elections, pressure mounted again on Mrs Alison-Madueke to deliver funding and then something happened. In October 2014, Bernard Otti a director at the NNPC was appointed deputy group managing director (Finance and Accounts), a position created entirely out of thin air. The press release justified his appointment as needed to transform NNPC into a commercially-driven entity but the truth was that he had to close some deals to secure election funding.After the Mr Buhari’s inauguration, he ran to the UK after reportedly entering a plea bargain with the EFCC; With his help, the EFCC traced monies allocated for the Ekiti gubernatorial elections and other issues. His retirement was later announced by Kachikwu in August 2015.Audits by both PwC and KPMG showed that the NNPC had at its discretion, spent an average of $6 billion annually from 2011 to 2013 and there were no watertight records. A similar amount had also not been remitted on a yearly basis by NNPC to the CBN.After studying the patterns and making calculations, Mr Sanusi cried out in a September 2013 20-page memo to Jonathan that $20 billion was missing. The NNPC claimed the money had been spent on subsidy payments for kerosene and pipeline maintenance even though Mr Yar’adua had ended the payments in July 2009. Another audit by PwC was submitted before the 2015 elections but never released by the government.“Civil society has always suspected that there was corruption in the oil sector”, reveals Banwo. “When information of extravagant spending for maintain jet emerged, civil society raised alarm, called for investigations and her immediate resignation or removal, which the then president ignored. The NASS set up a committee to probe but nothing came out of it.”“When in 2015, the then CBN Governor alleged that she was responsible for the missing $20 Billion from the NNPC coffers, civil society also initiated a campaign for her investigation and removal. The impunity in the then government allowed her get away with the deeds.”If Mrs Alison-Madueke was Princess Di, then Mr Aluko, who was last seen in Porza-Lugano, Switzerland, in 2016, was The Fresh Prince. He owned quite a few private jets and an $80 million yacht, Galactica Star; in September 2013, it was rented to Jay-Z and Beyoncé at the cost of $900,000 a week for two weeks for the latter’s 32nd birthday party. A big fan of Ayrton Senna, he is also a car racing enthusiast and placed third with a Ferrari 458 GT2 at Rome’s Vallelunga circuit in December 2012. Mr Aluko was also the owner of the eighth most expensive condo in New York, costing a mere $50 million.Omokore likewise had expensive lovers including Porsha Williams of; Sanomi and co would reportedly send jets to different cities to pick random girls for weekend parties in cities in another continent. It was the good life.The US Department of Justice (DOJ) has filed a lawsuit under its Kleptocracy Asset Recovery Initiative against the trio asking for the forfeiture of assets worth $144 million,proceeds from the oil contracts. Mr Aluko remains elusive while Omokore has been arraigned in court since July 2016. Mrs Alison-Madueke herself has been arrested even though she is yet to be tried in court. The proverbial mills of God that grind slowly, seem to at last be grinding well“She kept saying ‘when we come back’, says Mr Bassey. “She did not think that Jonathan would lose the elections. Maybe the opaque deals would have continued till now.”Beyond Mrs Alison-Madueke and her oil men, perhaps the biggest fear of stakeholders in the industry is that there could be deja vu in this administration or another. As the salacious details of her time in government circulate, the loopholes that made this possible remain open. The NNPC currently remains more of a political financing tool than a truly national oil company like her peers globally. Newcomers to the party will be happy to take notes – literally.This report was made possible by the BudgIT Media Fellowship 2017 with support from Natural Resource Governance Institute.http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/242769-special-report-diezani-men-deals-bled-nigeria.html

Firstly, that after the conflict over the previous three and a half years culminating in Parliament being paralysed at the end of 2019, it was unexpected that within one year the EU and the UK would have negotiated the Withdrawal Agreement, the Northern Ireland Protocol including an agreement on its implementation and the Trade and Cooperation Agreement on their future relationship.”Secondly, it is unexpected given media coverage that after the end of the Transition Period the Trade and Cooperation Agreement would contain clauses that will apply to faciliate cross-border trade and fisheries such as:Preamble“RECOGNISING the need to ensure an open and secure market for businesses, including medium-sized enterprises, and their goods and services through addressing unjustified barriers to trade and investment.”“CONSIDERING the importance of cross-border connectivity by air, by road and by sea, for passengers and for goods, and the need to ensure high standards in the provision of transportation services between the Parties”“NOTING that, the United Kingdom withdrew from the European Union and that with effect from 1 January 2021, the United Kingdom is an independent coastal State with corresponding rights and obligations under international law,”Sanitary and phytosanitary measures“The Parties shall not use SPS measures to create unjustified barriers to trade.”“3. Regarding trade-related SPS procedures and approvals established under this Chapter, each Party shall ensure that these procedures and related SPS measures: (a) are initiated and completed without undue delay; (b) do not include unnecessary, scientifically and technically unjustified or unduly burdensome information requests that might delay access to each other’s markets; (c) are not applied in a manner which would constitute arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination against the other Party’s entire territory or parts of the other Party’s territory where identical or similar SPS conditions exist; and (d) are proportionate to the risks identified and not more trade restrictive than necessary to achieve the importing Party's appropriate level of protection.4. The Parties shall not use the procedures referred to in paragraph 3, or any requests for additional information, to delay access to their markets without scientific and technical justification.5. Each Party shall ensure that any administrative procedure it requires concerning the import conditions on food safety, animal health or plant health is not more burdensome or trade restrictive than necessary to give the importing Party adequate confidence that these conditions are met. Each Party shall ensure that the negative effects on trade of any administrative procedures are kept to a minimum and that the clearance processes remain simple and expeditious while meeting the importing Party’s conditions.”“The importing Party shall not introduce authorisation requirements which are additional to those which apply at the end of the transition period, unless the application of such requirements to further products is justified to mitigate a significant risk to human, animal or plant health.”“Each Party shall ensure that all SPS control, inspection and approval procedures are initiated and completed without undue delay. Information requirements shall be limited to what is necessary for the approval process to take into account information already available in the importing Party, such as on the legislative framework and audit reports of the exporting Party.”Customs and trade facilitation“In order to improve working methods and to ensure non-discrimination, transparency, efficiency, integrity and the accountability of operations, each Party shall: (a) simplify and review requirements and formalities wherever possible with a view to ensuring the rapid release and clearance of goods; (b) work towards the further simplification and standardisation of the data and documentation required by customs and other agencies; and (c) promote coordination between all border agencies, both internally and across borders, to facilitate border-crossing processes and enhance control, taking into account joint border controls where feasible and appropriate”“Each Party shall adopt or maintain customs procedures that: (a) provide for the prompt release of goods within a period that is no longer than necessary to ensure compliance with its laws and regulations; (b) provide for advance electronic submission and processing of documentation and any other required information prior to the arrival of the goods, to enable the release of goods promptly upon arrival if no risk has been identified through risk analysis or if no random checks or other checks are to be performed; (c) provide for the possibility, where appropriate and if the necessary conditions are satisfied, of releasing goods for free circulation at the first point of arrival; and (d) allow for the release of goods prior to the final determination of customs duties, taxes, fees and charges, if such a determination is not done prior to, or upon arrival, or as rapidly as possible after arrival and provided that all other regulatory requirements have been met.”“Each Party shall work towards simplification of its requirements and formalities for customs procedures in order to reduce the time and costs thereof for traders or operators, including small and medium-sized enterprises.”“Each Party shall adopt or maintain measures allowing traders or operators fulfilling criteria specified in its laws and regulations to benefit from further simplification of customs procedures. Such measures may include inter alia: (a) customs declarations containing a reduced set of data or supporting documents; (b) periodical customs declarations for the determination and payment of customs duties and taxes covering multiple imports within a given period after the release of those imported goods; (c) self-assessment of and the deferred payment of customs duties and taxes until after the release of those imported goods; and (d) the use of a guarantee with a reduced amount or a waiver from the obligation to provide a guarantee”Facilitation of roll-on, roll-off traffic“In recognition of the high volume of sea-crossings and, in particular, the high volume of roll on, roll off traffic between their respective customs territories, the Parties agree to cooperate in order to facilitate such traffic as well as other alternative modes of traffic.”“To this effect the Parties: (a) shall adopt or maintain procedures allowing for the submission of import documentation and other required information, including manifests, in order to begin processing prior to the arrival of goods with a view to expediting the release of goods upon arrival; and (b) undertake to facilitate the use by operators of the transit procedure, including simplifications of the transit procedure as provided for under the Common Transit Convention.”Fisheries“1. The Parties shall cooperate with a view to ensuring that fishing activities for shared stocks in their waters are environmentally sustainable in the long term and contribute to achieving economic and social benefits, while fully respecting the rights and obligations of independent coastal States as exercised by the Parties. 2. The Parties share the objective of exploiting shared stocks at rates intended to maintain and progressively restore populations of harvested species above biomass levels that can produce the maximum sustainable yield.”“2. The Parties shall hold consultations annually to agree, by 10 December of each year, the TACs for the following year for the stocks listed in Annex FISH.1. This shall include an early exchange of views on priorities as soon as advice on the level of the TACs is received. The Parties shall agree those TACs: (a) (on the basis of the best available scientific advice, as well as other relevant factors, including socio-economic aspects; and (b) in compliance with any applicable multi-year strategies for conservation and management agreed by the Parties.3. The Parties’ shares of the TACs for the stocks listed in Annex FISH.1 shall be allocated between the Parties in accordance with the quota shares set out in that Annex.”

And then there’s this from WaPo:Fact-checking President Trump’s 2020 State of the Union addressGlenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Sarah Cahlan Feb. 5, 2020 at 7:25 a.m. ESTPresident Trump’s State of the Union speech once again was chock-full of stretched facts anddubious figures. Many of these claims have been fact-checked repeatedly, yet the presidentpersists in using them. Here, in the order in which he made them, are 31 statements by thepresident.As is our practice with live events, we do not award Pinocchio ratings, which are reserved forcomplete columns.“I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been.”The president can certainly brag about the state of the economy, but he runs into trouble when herepeatedly makes a play for the history books. Our database of Trump claims shows he has madea variation of this claim some 260 times. There are several metrics one could look at, but thecurrent economy falls short, according to experts we consulted. The unemployment rate reacheda low of 3.5 percent under Trump, but it was as low as 2.5 percent in 1953. Trump has neverachieved an annual growth rate above 3 percent, but in 1997, 1998 and 1999, the gross domesticproduct grew 4.5 percent, 4.5 percent and 4.7 percent, respectively. But even that period paledagainst the 1950s and 1960s. Growth between 1962 and 1966 ranged from 4.4 percent to 6.6percent. In 1950 and 1951, it was 8.7 percent and 8 percent, respectively.“From the instant I took office, I moved rapidly to revive the U.S. economy … enactinghistoric and record-setting tax cuts.”Trump constantly claims he passed the biggest tax cut in U.S. history, but that’s Four-Pinocchiosfalse. The best way to compare tax cuts (or spending plans) over time is to measure them as apercentage of the national economy. The Trump tax cut, according to Treasury Department data,is nearly 0.9 percent of GDP — compared with 2.89 percent of GDP for Ronald Reagan’s 1981tax cut, the actual largest tax cut. When measured as a share of the U.S. economy, Trump’s taxcut is the eighth-largest in the past century.“Since my election, we have created 7 million new jobs.”Trump often inflates the number of jobs created under his presidency by counting from ElectionDay, rather than when he took the oath of office. There have been almost 6.7 million jobs createdsince February 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.Job creation under President Barack Obama’s last three years, 227,000 a month, still exceeds themonthly average of 191,000 a month under Trump.“Incredibly, the average unemployment rate under my administration is lower than anyadministration in the history of our country.”This is ingenious and worth fact-checking because the average over three years is hardlycomparable to a four- or eight-year average for other presidents. For example, the unemploymentrate average was lower in Lyndon B. Johnson’s second term than it has been under Trump. Butwhen Johnson’s first term is factored in, Trump gains the edge.“The unemployment rate for disabled Americans has reached an all-time low.”The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported this rate since 2008, so it’s a big stretch to call it an“all-time low.” The rate was 7 percent in December.“Under my administration, 7 million Americans have come off of food stamps.”About 6 million people (not 7 million) have stopped receiving food stamps since February 2017,according to the latest data. (An earlier version of this article offered an out of date number.) Butexperts say the improvement in the economy may not be the only reason for the decline. Severalstates have rolled back recession-era waivers that allowed some adults to keep their benefits forlonger periods of time without employment. Reports have also suggested immigrant familieswith citizen children have dropped out of the program, fearing the administration’s immigrationpolicies. Moreover, the number of people collecting benefits has been declining since fiscal year2014.“In eight years under the last administration, over 300,000 working-age people droppedout of the workforce. In just three years of my administration, 3.5 million people, working-age people, have joined the workforce.”Trump never seems to remember — or prefers to forget — that Obama took office during theworst economic crisis since the Great Depression, when 800,000 jobs a month were being shed.The labor force participation rate fell, sharply, as millions of jobs were eliminated and peoplehad trouble finding work. In January 2009, the labor force participation rate was 65.7 percent,and it fell to 62.8 percent by the time Obama left office. It has since inched up a bit, to 63.2percent, under Trump, but it is still not back to pre-recession levels of 66 percent.As for Trump’s math here, we’re not able to replicate it. Over the course of Obama’s two terms,labor force participation times the working-age population gets you a gain of about 5.5 millionunder Obama and nearly 5 million under Trump.“This is a blue-collar boom.”In the past year, things have gotten grimmer for many blue-collar workers. The manufacturingsector is in a technical recession, and only 9,000 manufacturing jobs have been gained sinceJune, compared with the 460,000 in the first 2½ years of Trump’s presidency. Job growth hasslowed in many “blue-collar” sectors such as transportation, construction and mining.“Since my election, the net worth of the bottom half of wage earners has increased by 47percent — three times faster than the increase for the top 1 percent.”Trump is just spinning here. Net worth for the bottom half has gone up, but it was from such alow base that it’s pretty silly to call it a boom. People in the bottom half have essentially nowealth — just 1.6 percent of the nation’s wealth — as debts cancel out whatever assets theymight have. The top 5 percent hold more than 70 percent of all net worth in the United States.“Everybody said that criminal justice reform couldn’t be done, but I got it done and thepeople in this room got it done.”Trump signed the First Step Act in 2018. One of the biggest pieces of the First Step Act — aprovision that reduced sentences for crack cocaine offenses — was an extension of Obama’sefforts in 2010.We gave Three Pinocchios to Trump for claiming that he accomplished what Obama could not.(In his speech tonight, Trump didn’t mention Obama when discussing the criminal justice law.)“All of those millions of people with 401(k)s and pensions are doing far better than theyhave ever done before with increases of 60, 70, 80, 90 and even 100 percent.”Trump often boasts that the value of 401(k) retirement accounts has skyrocketed during hispresidency, even though there’s no evidence of such huge gains and even though the CensusBureau reports only 32 percent of Americans are saving for retirement with such plans. Ananalysis by Fidelity Investments showed the average 401(k) balance increased less than 1 percentwhen comparing the first quarters of 2018 and 2019.“Thanks to our bold regulatory reduction campaign, the United States has become thenumber one producer of oil and natural gas in the world, by far.”The notion that a revolution in energy began under the Trump administration is wrong. TheUnited States has led the world in natural gas production since 2009. Crude oil production hasbeen increasing rapidly since 2010. The United States was the top producer in 2013. InSeptember 2018, the United States once again passed both Russia and Saudi Arabia to becomethe largest global crude oil producer. But the energy revolution he takes credit for began underObama.“With the tremendous progress we have made over the past three years, America is nowenergy independent.”This is false. The United States continues to import energy. “In 2018, the United States importedabout 9.94 million barrels per day (MMb/d) of petroleum from nearly 90 countries,” according toan Energy Information Agency report, with 43 percent coming from Canada and 16 percent fromPersian Gulf countries.“After losing 60,000 factories under the previous two administrations, America has nowgained 12,000 new factories under my administration, with thousands upon thousands ofplants and factories being planned or built.”“Factories” conjures up images of smokestacks and production lines, but the data set Trumpcited is not really about factories.Trump is using a Bureau of Labor Statistics database set known as the Quarterly Census ofEmployment and Wages. The data show that United States gained nearly 12,000 additional“manufacturing establishments” between the first quarter of 2017 through the second quarter of2019. (There was also a gain of 10,000 in Obama’s second term.)But more than 80 percent of these “manufacturing establishments” employ five or fewer people.If those sound like pretty small factories, that’s because many are not “factories.” The BLScounts any establishment “engaged in the mechanical, physical, or chemical transformation ofmaterials, substances, or components into new products,” so that also includes businesses “thattransform materials or substances into new products by hand or in the worker’s home and thoseengaged in selling to the general public products made on the same premises from which they aresold, such as bakeries, candy stores, and custom tailors.”“Following NAFTA’s adoption, our nation lost one in four manufacturing jobs.”This is misleading, as Trump attributes all manufacturing lost to the North American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA) when many other factors were responsible, such as automation andChina’s entry into the World Trade Organization.“Many politicians came and went, pledging to change or replace NAFTA — only to do soand then absolutely nothing happened. But unlike so many who came before me, I keep mypromises. We did our job. Six days ago, I replaced NAFTA and signed the brand newUnited States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) into law.”The USMCA is a modest reworking of NAFTA launched in 1994, with about 85 to 90 percentthe same as the deal Trump repeatedly trashed as terrible.The U.S. International Trade Commission, which is tasked with evaluating the impact of tradeagreements, calculated the new deal would have a relatively minor impact: The USMCA wouldraise U.S. real gross domestic product by $68.2 billion (0.35 percent) and U.S. employment by176,000 jobs (0.12 percent).“The USMCA will create nearly 100,000 new high-paying American auto jobs.”This is an invented figure. The USITC report said the agreement would create about 28,000 jobsin the auto sector.“To safeguard American liberty, we have invested a record-breaking $2.2 trillion in theUnited States military.”Trump is just talking about three years of defense funding added up together. On an inflation-adjusted basis, not one year of Trump’s defense budgets has exceeded the high point in 2010under Obama.“I have raised contributions from the other NATO members by more than $400 billion,and the number of allies meeting their minimum obligations has more than doubled.”Trump gives himself too much credit. Since 2006, each NATO member has had a guideline ofspending at least 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense spending. Defense expendituresfor NATO countries other than the United States have been going up — in a consistent slope —since 2014. That’s when NATO decided to boost spending in response to Russia’s seizure ofUkraine’s Crimea region. NATO estimates that its European members and Canada will add $130billion in cumulative defense spending through 2020, in 2015 dollars, as an increase over 2016spending. NATO also estimates the cumulative figure will rise to $400 billion through 2024.“Before I took office, health insurance premiums had more than doubled in just five years.I moved quickly to provide affordable alternatives. Our new plans are up to 60 percent lessexpensive.”Trump often makes this claim, but we have not been able to verify the claim of a 60 percentreduction in costs. The new short-term health plans authorized by the Trump administration areless expensive for a reason: They offer skimpier coverage and thus provide less protection. Asfor the doubling in health insurance premiums, that claim is based on a White House report thatmade some questionable methodological choices.“We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions.”In an ongoing court case, the Trump administration is supporting a total repeal of the AffordableCare Act — including its guarantee that patients can’t be denied coverage for preexistingconditions. Republicans in Congress tried for years to repeal the whole law. Trump has notpresented a plan to cover the gaps in case the court challenge is successful. Moreover, he haspromoted short-term plans (which he touted in his speech) that are not required to coverpreexisting conditions.“Through our Pledge to American Workers, over 400 companies will also provide new jobsand education opportunities to almost 15 million Americans.”Trump usually describes this as jobs already created, but apparently his language was tamed by ateleprompter. These are not new jobs but training opportunities. Moreover, the numbers reflectpledges over a five-year period, not something already achieved. Many companies signed up byoffering training programs that already existed.“I was pleased to announce last year that, for the first time in 51 years, the cost ofprescription drugs actually went down.”The consumer price index for prescription drugs in 2018 fell for the first time in 46 years. Butthat’s only when measuring calendar years from January to December, which is somewhatarbitrary. The president’s record shrinks to 5½ years when measuring non-calendar years. (TheCPI had last declined in the 12-month period ended July 2013.)Experts say the CPI for prescription drugs fails to account for rebates, which can be substantial,and may be giving a skewed picture because of recent market shifts toward generics andelectronic payments by third parties. Studies we found show drug prices have not declined,especially when it comes to branded drugs.“As we speak, a long, tall, and very powerful wall is being built. We have now completedover 100 miles and have over 500 miles fully completed in a very short period of time. Earlynext year, we will have substantially more than 500 miles completed.”Trump doubled down on a promise for 500 miles of new border fencing by “early next year,”which would require the current pace of construction to more than double. Department ofHomeland Security officials have been trying to lower expectations lately, saying they will havethat much built or “under construction.”He also exaggerates the barrier’s sturdiness. The Washington Post has reported that the steel-and-concrete bollard fence can be cut through with a souped-up power saw and that a series oflarge floodgates “must be left open for months every summer during ‘monsoon season’ in thedesert.”“With unyielding commitment, we are curbing the opioid epidemic. Drug overdose deathsdeclined for the first time in nearly 30 years.”Overall, drug overdose deaths fell in 2018 for the first time in 28 years, according to data fromthe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But fentanyl overdose deaths increased 10percent.“Last year, our brave ICE officers arrested more than 120,000 criminal aliens chargedwith nearly 10,000 burglaries, 5,000 sexual assaults, 45,000 violent assaults and 2,000murders.”Many of the “criminal aliens” Trump is describing are immigrants who were convicted ofimmigration or nonviolent offenses. He quickly switched from the total for ICE arrests (120,000)to a different number that includes all the different charges. It’s a misleading, apples-and-orangescomparison because one individual may face multiple charges — and not all arrests result inconvictions.“Before I came into office, if you showed up illegally on our southern border and werearrested, you were simply released and allowed into our country, never to be seen again.My administration has ended catch-and-release. If you come illegally, you will now bepromptly removed from our country. Very importantly, we entered into historiccooperation agreements with the governments of Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador andGuatemala. As a result of our unprecedented efforts, illegal crossings are down 75 percentsince May — dropping eight straight months in a row. And as the wall rapidly goes up,drug seizures rise, and border crossings are going down.”The Trump administration has tried but has not ended catch-and-release, the policy of releasingasylum seekers and refugees — many of them women and children — into the country whilethey await a hearing in the clogged U.S. immigration court system. Immigrants continue to bereleased.Southwest border apprehensions dropped 75 percent when measuring from May to December,but when looking at all of Trump’s presidency, the gains are almost negligible: 42,359apprehensions in January 2017, and 40,620 in December 2019.“In the Senate, we have confirmed a record number of 187 new federal judges.”It’s not a record. Trump has a long way to go to have appointed the most federal judges. Reaganhas the record, with 383, followed by Bill Clinton with 378 and then Obama with 329. ThroughJan. 18, 187 judges nominated by Trump have been confirmed by the Senate.“Forty million American families have an average $2,200 extra thanks to our child taxcredit.”This is an example of Trump using correct numbers, but he gives too much credit to himself andhis Republican colleagues. The child tax credit has existed since 1997, and it has been expandedsince then, including in the recent tax law. In 2016, under Obama, 35 million American familiestook the tax credit, with an average benefit of over $1,500 a year, according to the TreasuryDepartment. So there’s only been a modest increase (in part because of inflation).“Three years ago, the barbarians of ISIS held over 20,000 square miles of territory in Iraqand Syria. Today, the ISIS territorial caliphate has been 100 percent destroyed, and thefounder and leader of ISIS — the bloodthirsty killer known as AlBaghdadi — is dead!”The U.S. military warned, in a report issued the day Trump spoke, that the Islamic Stateremained a dangerous threat and that the killing of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi did not degrade thegroup’s capabilities. “USCENTCOM told the DoD OIG [Office of the Inspector General] thatfollowing the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the group’s capabilities in Syriaremained the same,” the report said. “USCENTCOM said that ISIS remained cohesive, with anintact command and control structure, urban clandestine networks, and an insurgent presence inmuch of rural Syria.”“Qasem Soleimani … directed the December assault and went on to assault U.S. forces inIraq, and was actively planning new attacks.”Other than Trump’s assertion, there is no publicly available evidence that Iranian Maj. Gen.Qasem Soleimani directed the December attacks or that any possible attack was imminent.(About our rating scale)Send us facts to check by filling out this formSign up for The Fact Checker weekly newsletterThe Fact Checker is a verified signatory to the International Fact-Checking