Knootoss to leave Eurozone

[Soveriegn States]

Jefferson Business Day

Confederation Reserve Bank Pegs Gold Sov to Atlantic Ducat
President Announces Negotiations to Join Western Atlantic Currency Area

Jefferson – Confederation Reserve Bank Chairman Anthony Burns formally announced in a press conference today that the Gold Sov would be pegged to the new Atlantic Ducat. The Atlantic Ducat was introduced on New Year’s Day as the new common currency of the Western Atlantic Currency Area (WACA), and has been adopted as the official currency of Knootoss, Pantocratoria, Pantocratorian Ambara, Knootian Colombia and the Southern Low Countries. According to Burns, the peg will fix the exchange rate at 0.855 Gold Sovs to one Atlantic Ducat. At a later press briefing, Presidential Press Secretary Shannon Coles announced that President Tom Caine is dispatching Burns and Treasury Secretary Rachel McQuinn to negotiate the Confederation’s entry into the WACA.

Reaction in Congress to the announcement of the currency peg and of the pending negotiations to enter the currency union differed along party lines. House Speaker Sean Collins (Democratic Labour Party, Saxmere) expressed cautious support for the currency peg, while suggesting that the Confederation, and its constituent states, would be sacrificing too much sovereignty by joining the currency union and its related customs union.

[Knootoss]

From The Western Wire.

• Vologdov Administration Urges "Confederate fast track"
  
  HARTSTAD - According to a senior official in the Vologdov Administration, Knootoss is doing everything it can to ensure that the Confederation of Sovereign States is placed on a "fast track" for joining the Western Atlantic Currency Area. According to the source, a report commissioned by the Secretariat of Foreign Economic Policy confirms that "all the economic indicators are green, thanks to the sound economic policies that are being promoted by President Tom Caine and his administration."
  
  The leak follows a high-level bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Femke Vologdov, Minister Ivo Coppenol and the Confederate negotiating team, which includes Anthony Burns, the Confederation Reserve Bank Chairman, and Treasury Secretary Rachel McQuinn. Knootian governments have traditionally been supportive of the Caine administration, though the source stopped short of admitting that the administration wants any deal to be announced before the Presidential elections in the Confederation.

[Soveriegn States]

The Daily National Register

Democratic Party Threatens Currency Union
Saxmerean Government Expresses Cautious Support for Union

Jefferson –Democratic Delegate Evan Coombs has threatened to filibuster any move in the House of States to approval the Confederation’s entry into the Western Atlantic Currency Area. The party’s leader in the House of Representative, Congressman Michael Igewbo, has also vowed to use his party’s influence in the House majority to impede the currency union. In a joint press conference, Coombs and Igewbo warned that a currency union under strict fiscal guidelines would prevent a future, more liberal government from taking steps to protect labour and to support working class citizens.

House Speaker Sean Collins of the Democratic Labour Party has also expressed concerns about the impact the currency union could have on the States’ right to set their own social welfare policies. However, he stopped short of opposing the currency union and insisted that all parties needed to review the case for and against union with an open mind once it comes to the floor. He argued that it is premature to judge the package of legislative acts necessary to implement the union before they are introduced to Congress.

Meanwhile, Saxmere Grand Duke James and Saxmere Prime Minister Paul Mardan of the Christian Democratic Party issued an extraordinary statement expressing the Autonomous Grand Duchy’s cautious support for the currency union, “provided that reasonable guarantees are made ensuring Saxmere’s special constitutional status and preventing the currency and customs union from being used as a wedge to force the Confederation to accept the importation of goods from other members that the people of the Confederation would find morally repugnant.” It is widely believed that this was an expression of concern that the union could be used to force acceptance of the importation of Knootian consumer narcotics. It is also widely believed that the Saxmerean government’s surprisingly warm reception of the currency union is based on Pantocratoria’s role in forming the union. The Catholic empire has long been seen as an ally and patron of Catholic Saxmere.

[Soveriegn States]

The Daily National Register Online
Breaking News: Treasury Secretary Rachel McQuinn Signs Western Atlantic Currency Area Treaty

Jefferson – Presidential Press Secretary Shannon Coles announced this afternoon that Treasury Secretary Rachel McQuinn had been commissioned by the President to sign the Western Atlantic Currency Area (WACA) Treaty on behalf of the Confederation. It was confirmed several minutes later that McQuinn signed the treaty shortly after Coles’ announcement. The formal treaty signing followed successful negotiations, led by McQuinn and Confederation Reserve Bank Chairman Anthony Burns, which guaranteed that Saxmere will be permitted to print and coin its own version of the common currency – the Western Atlantic ducat – and that neither the Confederation nor any of the States will be required to change policies on the importation of currently banned or proscribed substances.

The President is expected to submit the treaty to the House of the States for ratification within a matter of days. Implementing legislation will also be taken up in the House of Representatives and in the House of the States. House of Representatives Speaker Sean Collins has previously pledged “expeditious consideration” of implementing legislation. Democratic Delegate Evan Coombs, however, has pledged to block ratification and passage of implementing legislation and has threatened a filibuster to prevent approval.
From dailynationalregister.co.ss