“China is in desperate need of both food and oil; the Grain Consortium would be the perfect tool to leverage those needs to our advantage. We can also add an additional charge to food and oil products being sold to China.”
Jeff, sensing that the President wanted to “stick it” to the Chinese, asked, “Can you explain that a little better Mr. President? I’m having a hard time following.”
“We sell the goods to China for the price we paid for through the Consortium, and we then add an extra 5 % to it. Rather than taking it in the form of cash, we take it in the form of them forgiving that amount of our debt. So the Chinese would be able to secure a steady supply of food and oil from the US, while we get an even larger portion of our debt paid off. By doing this, the government wouldn’t be losing any money on the purchase of the food from our own markets and at the same time, we would reduce our debt by 5 % with each sale made to the Chinese,” said the President, clearly excited at the possibility of reducing the debt even further while “getting even.”
“I hadn’t thought about it like that Sir. I think it could work, but the Chinese aren’t going to like buying the food and fuel from us when they could just buy it directly from the market,” said Jeff.
“Normally you’d be right. However, since the Global Depression hit, most of America’s food and fuel supply has been reserved for Americans only; very little has been authorized for overseas sales. We can tighten that restriction even further, forcing the Chinese to have to play by our rules.”
“All right, Mr. President. I’ll start work with the Commerce Secretary and we’ll start putting this into action. I’m also going to meet with our various farmer groups; I want to see what we can do to help encourage our farmers to produce more products and increase the supply going forward. I think food could become the key to our economic success and recovery, at least in the short term, Mr. President,” Jeff said.
“Ok, ladies and gentlemen, let’s get things moving and we’ll reconvene next week,” said President Stein.
The Americans immediately began to implement the concept of the Grain Consortium (or “the GC” as it was quickly coined). Through a series of legislation and Executive Orders, AFC took the lead in purchasing commodities from American farmers willing to join in the GC. Canada quickly jumped on board, and so did a number of other countries. It would take the rest of the year to fully integrate all of the participating members into the GC, but the initial concept and American/Canadian partnership began to have an almost immediate impact. As the first planting season began, farmers in both countries reported a 120 % increase in the number of acres planted for the first growing season.
Meeting between EU President, Canadian President, the Prime Minister of Great Britain, the NATO Secretary General and the President of the United States
President Stein hated dealing with his European counterparts. Despite having lived and worked in Europe with NATO during the early part of his career, Henry still found that Europe was a continent so fragmented and diverse it was hard for anything of substance to get done. The US had spent so much blood and treasure on Europe during the 20th Century to ensure they remained a free people; most Americans did not believe Europe was worth spending any additional lives or resources on any longer.
The Europeans had so fouled up the Syrian refugee crisis and the Arab Spring in the early 2010s that millions of refugees had poured across their borders and never left. During the following 25 years, the demographics of Europe had changed as a result, and despite the central government’s having very little in common with (or love for) the Islamic Republic, a large percentage of their population did. There was a cultural undercurrent of support for the IR and a distrust of the central government by European Muslims.
President Stein had landed in Paris, and as his motorcade made its way through the city to the location of the meeting, he could not help but notice how so much of the city had changed. There were a lot more minarets dotting the skyline and women wearing headscarves, despite the bans on them. The air hung with a certain darkness that was not there before; the atmosphere just seemed a bit bleaker, lacking the usual energy and hopefulness one would expect in Paris.
The motorcade pulled up to the official entrance of the Elysee Palace, and as Henry stepped out he could not help but feel that he was entering a bubble that brought him back to another time and place in history. As he followed his security agents through the entrance, he was struck by the building’s grand décor and ceaseless beauty. Despite all of his travels, he was still amazed by his surroundings, like a child who has seen Disneyland for the first time. When he arrived in the Salon Doré, he was jolted back to reality a bit as he realized that he was the last one to arrive for the meeting. This meant that business would begin right away. He took a deep breath and refocused his mind on the task at hand.
Without further hesitation, he extended his hand to greet the man closest to him in the room. “It’s good to see you again Chancellor Lowden. How have you been?”
Chancellor Lowden took the President’s hand and gave him a firm handshake.
“Things are going well. I hear America is experiencing an economic renaissance; you will have to share your secret with us.” A wry smile crossed his lips. President Stein tipped his head towards him in acknowledgement and smiled back.
Turning to the next prominent leader in the room, President Stein continued the task of introductions. “Prime Minister Blair, how are things faring in Great Britain?”
“We are doing great. Things are really starting to turn around. I do want to personally thank you for the generous food prices to England and the EU; this will make a big impact in our continued economic recovery,” replied PM Blair.
In response, President Stein made some polite exchange with Blair that the rest of the room did not hear. The two men were not-so-secret fans of one another, and always enjoyed being face-to-face whenever possible. The benefits of teleconferences were a bit overrated in situations like these, especially with the potential security breaches from hackers.
PM Stannis Blair was a strong leader, just as his cousin was, and worked hard to ensure Britain did not lose their British identity despite the recent massive influx of foreign immigrants. Unlike his EU counterparts, he wanted to model more of the British economy around what the Canadians and Americans were doing, especially with regards to their trade agreements with Asia.
After shaking each leader’s hand, President Stein turned to the group and said, “Our goal in the US is to continue to strengthen our military and economic ties with England, the EU and our NATO partners. To that end, we cannot have our friends starving. The Grain Consortium can be used as both a relief program, and as a weapon if need be. The GC is only a month old, and as we get more organized, I can assure you greater quantities of commodities will be made available at reduced prices for those countries in our grand alliance,” Stein said with a warm and disarming smile.
The leaders all nodded their approval; they were a very eager audience. President Stein spent some time going over the finer details of the Grain Consortium program; most of the leaders were taking notes and asking questions during the presentation. They were all very engaged.
As President Stein finished speaking, the group stood for a brief restroom break. As some left the room and others mingled, Henry saw the Canadian PM, Troy Peck, approach him. “Mr. President, on a different topic, I wanted to thank you on behalf of Canada for the help America continues to provide in putting down the civil unrest in Toronto and Vancouver. These extremist Muslims have been causing all sorts of problems across Canada since the Grain Consortium stopped selling food products to the Islamic Republic.”