Annotations for Countries: Netherlands

In further news of Brazil, Prensa Latina reports, the scandal involving the Fiat Auto Corporation and the Minas Gerais state government is one of the main topics in Brazilian political and business circles. According to the Brazilian press, the government has submitted for the approval of the State Assembly, a bill for setting up a Fiat plant without clarification of important data on the amounts of investments and with large parts of the commitment completely blank. For example, the articles on the transfer of know-how and the technological aid to be provided by the parent corporation in Italy to its Brazilian subsidiary are all left blank, thus permitting endless undercover deals. 

The bill with all its defects was passed by the two existing political parties without important commentaries simply because none of the members of the state Assembly had seen the bill beforehand. Another point criticized in Brazil was the decision by the new partners to name the International Court of Justice at The Hague, not Brazilian courts as the body to settle any future disputes. Thus starting a precedent extremely favorable to transnational corporations. Meanwhile, Italy's Fiat workers have protested against the exploitation of Brazil's extremely cheap labor. The main reason why the plant was set up in Minas Gerais, this from the Latin American News Agency, Prensa Latina. 

Miami Herald also reports from The Hague the new socialist prime minister of the Netherlands says he hoped soon to initiate conversations aimed at granting full independence to Suriname and the Netherland Antilles, Dutch possessions in the western hemisphere. Suriname, formerly Dutch Guiana, is on the northeast coast of South America. The Netherlands Antilles consist of six Caribbean islands, with Curaçao as their administrative center. The prime minister, who heads a new center-left coalition, told the lower house of the Dutch parliament that the independence talks would begin as soon as a special commission on the subject could be formed. This from the Miami Herald.