Year: 2018

A federal court in New York has charged 22 Chinese importers with smuggling nearly half-a-billion dollars in counterfeit goods into the United States from China. The fake products include such popular luxury items as Louis Vuitton bags, Michael Kors wallets, and Chanel perfume. Twenty-one of the defendants were arrested Thursday. U.S. attorneys say the suspects allegedly smuggled the China-made counterfeit goods in large shipping containers disguised as legitimate products and brought them into ports in New York and New Jersey. The defendants apparently intended to sell the fake products across the United States with a street value of nearly $500 million. Along with smuggling and trafficking in counterfeit goods, the suspects are also charged with money laundering and immigration fraud. “The illegal smuggling of counterfeit goods poses a real threat…

Russia says the latest U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian, Chinese, and Singaporean companies are “destructive" and "useless.”   The U.S. penalized the three companies Wednesday, accusing them of helping North Korea avoid international sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday the new U.S. sanctions come when “joint international efforts” are needed toward a settlement in North Korea. Moscow said the sanctions could undermine denuclearization talks. The U.S. has accused a Chinese trading company and its affiliate in Singapore of falsifying documents aimed at easing illegal shipments of alcohol and cigarettes into North Korea. The companies are said to have earned more than $1 billion. A Russian company was also sanctioned for providing port services to North Korean-flagged ships engaged in illegal oil shipments. The sanctions freeze any assets the companies…

A small number of Turks are responding to their president's call to boycott American electronic goods by posting videos in which they smash iPhones with bats, hammers and other blunt instruments. In one video , a man collects iPhones from several youths squatting in front of a Turkish flag, lays the devices on the ground and pounds them with a sledgehammer. "For the motherland!" he says at one point.   In another video, a boy pours a plastic bottle of Coca Cola into a toilet in a show of repugnance for U.S. goods.   American products remain widely used in Turkey, which is locked in a dispute with Washington over an American pastor being tried in a Turkish court and other issues. The two countries have also imposed tariffs on…

Mexico's economy minister on Wednesday said that Mexico and the United States may not meet an August goal to finish bilateral talks to revamp the NAFTA trade deal, which is beset by disagreements over automobile trade rules and other issues. Top Mexican officials started their fourth week of talks with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington over a new North American Free Trade Agreement. Asked if the August goal was still viable, Guajardo said, "That is why we are here. We are fully engaged. We don't know if there will be a successful conclusion." The U.S.-Mexico talks resumed in July, without Canada, after negotiations involving all three members of the $1.2 trillion trade bloc stalled in June. Guajardo said on Wednesday that he had spoken with Canadian Foreign Minister…

Singapore is the setting for new Hollywood movie 'Crazy Rich Asians' - an adaptation of a best-selling novel that explores the insatiable consumerism of new money and old-world opulence in a continent producing more billionaires than anywhere else. While the low-tax financial hub is often called a playground for the rich, Singapore's wealthy tend to live a more conservative, low-key life than Hong Kong's showy socialites or Macau's high-rollers. In step with the film's release in the United States on Wednesday and ahead of its release in the city-state next week, here are five ways to spend your cash in Singapore. 1. Orchid-shaped supercars Cars in Singapore are some of the most expensive in the world, owing to huge government taxes aimed at limiting their number in the tiny island-state.…

Toyota is likely to make 120,000 more cars a year in the Chinese port city  of Tianjin as part of a medium-term strategy that's gathering pace as China-Japan ties improve, said four company insiders with knowledge of the matter. The Japanese auto maker’s plan to boost annual production capacity by about a quarter in the port city will lay the foundation to increase sales in China to two million vehicles per year, a jump of over 50 percent, the four sources said. The Tianjin expansion signals Toyota’s willingness to start adding significant manufacturing capacity in China with the possibility of one or two new assembly plants in the world’s biggest auto market, the sources said. Car imports could also increase, they said. The move comes at a time when China’s…

U.S. retail sales rose more than expected in July as households boosted purchases of motor vehicles and clothing, suggesting the economy remained strong early in the third quarter. The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales increased 0.5 percent last month. But data for June was revised lower to show sales gaining 0.2 percent instead of the previously reported 0.5 percent rise. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast retail sales nudging up 0.1 percent in July. Retail sales in July increased 6.4 percent from a year ago. Excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services, retail sales advanced 0.5 percent last month after a downwardly revised 0.1 percent dip in June. These so-called core retail sales correspond most closely with the consumer spending component of gross domestic product. Core retail…

Turkey on Wednesday announced tariff hikes on a range of U.S. goods in the latest back-and-forth move amid a deteriorating relationship between the two countries. The extra tariffs apply to imports of vehicles, alcohol, coal, rice and cosmetics. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Twitter the increases were being done "within the framework of the principle of reciprocity in retaliation for the conscious economic attacks by the United States." President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accusing the United States of waging a targeted economic war on his country, and on Tuesday he proposed a boycott of U.S. electronic goods. "If they have the iPhone, there is Samsung elsewhere. In our own country we have Vestel," said Erdogan. Asked how U.S. President Donald Trump's administration would react to any such Turkish…

New Zealand school teachers went on strike on Wednesday for the first time in more than 20 years, challenging the Labor government's plans to balance promised fiscal responsibility against growing demands to increase public sector salaries. The government's first budget in May was stretched to fulfill its promise to juggle investing in much-needed infrastructure with a self-imposed rule to pay down debt and insulate the economy from potential shocks. Almost 30,000 primary school teachers did not turn up to work on Wednesday and held protests across the country, leaving parents of children aged 5 to 13 at public schools scrambling to find childcare. "Teachers and principals voted for a full day strike...to send a strong message to the Government that the current collective agreement offers from the Ministry of Education…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, embroiled in a bitter dispute with the U.S., a NATO ally, contended Sunday the plunging value of his country's lira currency amounted to a "political plot" against Turkey. Erdogan, speaking to political supporters in the Black Sea resort of Trabzon, said, "The aim of the operation is to make Turkey surrender in all areas, from finance to politics. We are once again facing a political, underhand plot. With God's permission we will overcome this." U.S. President Donald Trump has feuded with Erdogan over several issues, including the detention of an American pastor in Turkey, whom Turkey has held since 2016 and accused of espionage. Turkey last month released the evangelical preacher from a prison, but is still detaining him under house arrest pending his trial,…

Iran’s official IRNA news agency is reporting that China’s state-owned petroleum corporation has taken a majority share of the country’s South Pars gas project after French oil and gas company Total announced it would pull out because renewed U.S. economic sanctions against Iran. The Saturday report quotes Mohammad Mostafavi, an official in Iran’s state oil company, as saying CNPC now owns 80 percent of the shares in the $5 billion project, having bought shares from Total. CNPC originally had about 30 percent of shares in the project. The renewal of U.S. sanctions took effect on Tuesday. ...

France deems unacceptable a European Commission proposal to exclude French ports from a rerouting of a strategic trade corridor between Ireland and mainland Europe after Brexit, the government said. At the moment much of Ireland's trade with the continent goes via Britain in trucks. However, with less than eight months to go until Britain leaves the European Union, there is still little clarity on its future trade relations with the bloc and on the nature of the Irish Republic's border with the British province of Northern Ireland. The new route put forward by the commission would connect Ireland by sea with Dutch and Belgian ports, including Zeebrugge and Rotterdam. French ports such as Calais and Dunkirk would be bypassed. "France and Ireland maintain important trade channels, both overland via Britain and via direct maritime routes. The geographical proximity between Ireland and…

By most indicators, the U.S. economy is doing well. An achievement that President Donald Trump has boasted about on many occasions. But whether Americans see it that way, may depend on which side of the political aisle they're on. This report by White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara explores partisanship and the American economy. ...

The Turkish lira suffered its worst one-day loss in a decade Friday after President Donald Trump announced that the United States would hike tariffs, prompting investor confidence to slump. Trump announced the doubling of aluminum and steel tariffs in a tweet Friday, citing bilateral strains. Ties between the countries have been strained as Washington has urged Ankara to release Andrew Brunson, an American pastor being held under house arrest on terrorism charges. The White House dismisses the charges as baseless and has accused Ankara of hostage taking. Turkey wants Brunson to stand trial. The Brunson dispute triggered the collapse in the Turkish currency as investors feared U.S. financial sanctions. All week, the lira has been under pressure, which accelerated with the failure of diplomatic talks in Washington this week. 'Just the stick'…

A threat of more U.S. sanctions has sent the ruble tumbling to its weakest since mid-2016 but authorities are not expected to leap to the currency’s defense after weathering a similar storm in April, analysts said. The ruble crashed to 67.67 versus the dollar on Friday, losing more than 6 percent of its value in just one week, as the United States said it would impose fresh sanctions against Moscow. The ruble’s slide was akin to its drop in April when, also battered by sanctions from Washington, it lost 12 percent in just a few days. Lack of action The lack of action by authorities back then is convincing market players now that they will not intervene this time either. “When we think about what has happened in April, when…

Consumer prices in the U.S. rose a modest 2.9 percent in July from a year ago, as inflation rose gradually but slowly. Friday's Labor Department report showed the Consumer Price Index, a broad measure of Americans' living expenses, increased two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month. Core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy prices, rose at the same pace. The main driver of inflation in July was higher housing costs. Food expenses increased slightly, while energy, medical care and clothing prices fell modestly. The data showed that prices were rising a little faster than wages, leaving the buying power of paychecks one-tenth of a percentage point lower today than a year ago, despite an otherwise healthy economy. Inflation increases and wage declines in the past 12 months…