Year: 2018

Amazon, Starbucks, Vulcan and other companies have pledged a total of more than $350,000 toward an effort to repeal Seattle's newly passed tax on large employers intended to combat homelessness. Just days after the Seattle City Council approved the levy, the No Tax On Jobs campaign, a coalition of businesses, announced it would gather signatures to put a referendum on the November ballot to repeal it.  Amazon, Starbucks, Vulcan, Kroger and Albertsons each promised $25,000 to the effort last week, according to a report filed by the campaign. The Washington Food Industry Association pledged $30,000.  Referendum backers will have to gather 17,632 signatures of registered Seattle voters by June 14 to get the measure on the ballot. The so-called head tax will charge businesses making at least $20 million in…

Starbucks Corp. on Wednesday revealed details of the employee anti-bias training program that will take place behind closed doors at 8,000 U.S. company-owned cafes on the afternoon of May 29. Starbucks announced plans to shutter stores and corporate offices to train 175,000 employees after the controversial April 12 arrests of two black men, who were detained for hours after the manager of a Philadelphia Starbucks called police because they had not made purchases and refused to leave. The arrests of Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, who were waiting to meet a friend, sparked protests and calls for a boycott of the coffee chain known for its diverse workforce and liberal stances on issues such as gay marriage. Starbucks said the first training on May 29 “will serve as a step…

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday “a different structure” is needed in trade negotiations with China, but he did not provide further details on the kind of change he seeks. “Our trade deal with China is moving along nicely,” Trump said in his Twitter post Wednesday morning, “but in the end we will probably have to use a different structure in that this will be too hard to get done and to verify results after completion.” The stock market reacted negatively after Trump cast doubt on trade negotiations with China but ultimately trimmed its losses, ending the day in the positive territory and gained 52.40 points, or 0.21 percent.   Trump said on Tuesday he was neither pleased nor satisfied with how the recent trade talks with China went,…

Households are feeling more stable, small businesses are making money and many expect to expand and hire in the coming year, signs of continued optimism in two key parts of the economy, the Federal Reserve reported Tuesday in a pair of annual surveys. Among more than 8,000 small businesses and more than 12,000 households covered in separate surveys late last year by the Fed and its 12 regional banks, the message was similar: economic conditions have been getting better and the expectation is for the good times to continue. "We see a decided uptick" in the economic and credit conditions faced by small businesses, said one Fed official involved in the small business survey. "We are seeing improved business confidence and improved business performance," with profitability and access to finance…

The Trump administration is preparing to publish on Thursday long-delayed proposed rule changes for the export of U.S. firearms, a State Department official said on Tuesday. The rule changes would move the oversight of commercial firearm exports from the U.S. Department of State to the Department of Commerce. The action is part of a broader Trump administration overhaul of weapons export policy that was announced in April. Domestic gun sales drop Timing for the formal publication of the rule change and the opening of the public comment period was unveiled by Mike Miller the acting secretary for the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, the State Department's body that currently oversees the bulk of commercial firearms transfers and other foreign military sales. He was speaking at the Forum on the Arms…

U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday "there is no deal" yet to lift the seven-year ban on the sale of American-made components to the giant Chinese telecommunications company ZTE, but that there might be a settlement as part of ongoing trade talks between the world's two biggest economies. Trump told reporters at the White House that he could envision a $1.3 billion fine against ZTE for violating the U.S. ban on trading with Iran and North Korea, the replacement of ZTE's management and board of directors and imposition of "very, very strict security" to prevent the theft of U.S. intellectual and national security secrets. "We caught them doing bad things," he said. Trump said Chinese President Xi Jinping asked him to look into the fate of ZTE after the firm…

Glancing constantly at his rear view mirror, truck driver "El Flaco" journeys the highways of Mexico haunted by the memory of when he was kidnapped with his security detail by bandits disguised as police officers two years ago. Back then, El Flaco, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, was beaten, blindfolded and taken to a house near Mexico City where his captors threatened to kill him. Three days later he managed to escape and flee. Today he travels with a machete and a satellite tracking device in his cab that can pinpoint him in emergencies. Truckers covering Mexico's vast territory often move in convoys to reduce the risk of robberies, which in 2017 almost doubled to nearly 3,000. Some drive with armed escorts traveling alongside them.…

U.S. President Donald Trump says American farmers will be big beneficiaries of more trade with China. "Under our potential deal with China, they will purchase from our Great American Farmers practically as much as our Farmers can produce," Trump said Monday on Twitter. In another comment, he said China "has agreed to buy massive amounts of ADDITIONAL Farm/Agricultural Products - would be one of the best things to happen to our farmers in many years!" The U.S. leader said one result of talks with China last week in Washington is barriers to U.S.-Chinese trade and tariffs on each country's exports will "come down for (the) first time." President Trump's tweets come a day after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced the two nations have agreed to back away from imposing…

China's state media are playing up what it says is a trade war truce and de-escalation in tensions after negotiators from Washington and Beijing agreed to hold off on tariffs and “substantially reduce” the U.S. trade deficit. However, economists and business leaders argue that there is more to managing the relationship than balancing imports and exports. State media in China are focusing heavily on the argument that Beijing did not give any ground and adopting their own take on the deficit question — focusing instead the country’s pledge to boost imports from the United States. An editorial in the China Daily entitled “Sino-US agreement benefits both countries and the world” said that: “For China, ‘significantly increasing' imports of U.S. goods and services, such as agricultural and energy products, will help meet its…

Washington is digesting China’s stated intention to purchase more American goods and reduce the trade imbalance between the two countries. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, last week’s talks between U.S. and Chinese negotiators did not yield specific commitments from Beijing in dollar figures, sparking criticism from some lawmakers in Washington. ...

South Korea’s fourth-largest conglomerate, LG Group, said its Chairman Koo Bon-moo did Sunday. Koo, 73, had been struggling with an illness for a year, LG Group said in a statement. “Becoming the third chairman of LG at the age of 50 in 1995, Koo established key three businesses — electronics, chemicals and telecommunications — led a global company LG, and contributed to driving (South Korea’s) industrial competitiveness and national economic development,” LG said. A group official said Koo had been unwell for a year and had undergone surgery. The official declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. Before its chairman’s death, LG Group had established a holding company in order to streamline ownership structure and begin the process of succession. Heir apparent Koo Kwang-mo is from…

The United States and China agreed to take measures to reduce the U.S. trade deficit in goods by having China purchase more American goods, particularly agriculture and energy products, according to a joint statement the two nations released Saturday. "There was a consensus on taking effective measures to substantially reduce the United States trade deficit in goods with China," the joint statement said. "To meet the growing consumption needs of the Chinese people and the need for high-quality economic development, China will significantly increase purchases of United States goods and services. This will help support growth and employment in the United States." The statement concluded joint talks Thursday and Friday between the two countries, which included several U.S. Cabinet secretaries and China's State Council Vice Premier Liu He. President Donald Trump made reducing the U.S. trade deficit with China a key campaign promise. The…

India and the European Union have given the World Trade Organization lists of the U.S. products that could incur high tariffs in retaliation for U.S. President Donald Trump's global tariffs on steel and aluminum, WTO filings showed Friday. The EU said Trump's steel tariffs could cost $1.5 billion and aluminum tariffs a further $100 million, and listed rice, cranberries, bourbon, corn, peanut butter, and steel products among the U.S. goods that it might target for retaliation. India said it was facing additional U.S. tariffs of $31 million on aluminum and $134 million on steel, and listed U.S. exports of soya oil, palmolein and cashew nuts among its potential targets for retaliatory tariffs. One trade official described the lists of retaliatory tariffs as "loading a gun," making it plain to U.S.…