Year: 2019

French President Emmanuel Macron is formally launching a "grand debate" to try to appease the yellow vest movement following weeks of anti-government protests. Macron heads Tuesday to Grand Bourgtheroulde, a small town in Normandy, where he is to meet about 600 mayors and local officials.   Despite a high security presence, a ban on traffic and restricted access to the town, dozens of yellow vests protesters gathered outside the town to express their discontent.   "We are being prevented from accessing the village," said protester Florence Clement. "I was crossing the road with my yellow vest but I was asked to remove it because it's forbidden."   Macron started his journey with a stop in the small town of Gasny to attend a local officials' meeting, where some expressed their…

China’s trade surplus with the United States rose dramatically in 2018, despite a tit-for-tat tariff war with the U.S. that has roiled global markets. The surplus stood at a record-high $323.3 billion, compared to $275.8 billion recorded the year before.  Data released Monday by China’s customs bureau shows the country’s exports to the U.S. grew more than 11 percent in 2018. Imports from the United States rose only slightly (0.7 percent).  But the data also revealed that exports slowed by 3.5 percent last month, as the administration of President Donald Trump imposed a series of stiff tariffs on billions of dollars of Chinese goods to force Beijing to buy more American goods and to resolve issues involving technology, intellectual property and cyber theft issues. The data also revealed mixed news…

The auto industry gathered in Detroit on Sunday, on the eve of the last winter edition of North America's premiere auto show, as carmakers grapple with a contracting market and uncertainty in the year ahead. Concerns over the health of the global economy and a US-China trade war loomed over the North American International Auto Show, as it prepared to open Monday with the first five days dedicated to the media and industry insiders. The show opens to the general public on January 19. While a number of major announcements were expected -- including an anticipated strategic alliance between Ford and Volkswagen -- there will be fewer automakers and new car unveilings, making it more subdued.  "This is a transition year for the Detroit show," said analyst Michelle Krebs of…

Saudi Arabia's energy minister said Sunday that major oil producers need to do better to narrow swings in prices that dip below $60 a barrel and rise above $86. "I think what we need to do is narrow the range... of volatility," Khalid al-Falih said.   "We need to do better and the more producers that work with us, the better we're able" to do so, he told the Atlantic Council's Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi.   Cautious not to set a price target or range, he explained there are consequences when oil prices dip too low or rise too high.   Last month, OPEC countries, including Saudi Arabia, and other major oil producers agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels a day to reduce oversupply and boost…

Zimbabwe will introduce a new currency in the next 12 months, the finance minister said, as a shortage of U.S. dollars has plunged the financial system into disarray and forced businesses to close. In the past two months, the southern African nation has suffered acute shortages of imported goods, including fuel whose price was increased by 150 percent Saturday. Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency in 2009 after it was wrecked by hyperinflation and adopted the greenback and other currencies, such as sterling and the South African rand. But there is not enough hard currency in the country to back up the $10 billion of electronic funds trapped in local bank accounts, prompting demands from businesses and civil servants for cash that can be deposited and used to make payments. ​Two…

Elon Musk's rocket company SpaceX will reduce its workforce by about 10 percent of the company's more than 6,000 employees, it said on Friday. The company said it will "part ways" with some of its manpower, citing "extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead." "To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space based Internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company. Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations," a spokesman said in an email. In June, Elon Musk fired at least seven people in the senior management team leading a SpaceX satellite launch project, Reuters reported in November. The firings were related to disagreements over the pace at which the team was developing and testing its Starlink satellites. SpaceX's Starlink program…

The United States on Friday signaled it would not bow to the European Union's request to keep agriculture out of planned U.S.-EU trade talks, publishing negotiating objectives that seek comprehensive EU access for American farm products. The objectives, required by Congress under the "fast-track" trade negotiating authority law, seek to reduce or eliminate EU tariffs on U.S. farm products and break down non-tariff barriers, including on products developed through biotechnology, the U.S. Trade Representative's (USTR) office said. Agricultural issues were among the major sticking points in past negotiations for a major U.S.-EU trade deal, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), before talks were shelved after Donald Trump was elected president in 2016. EU trade commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Wednesday that the…

Uganda's growing debt is sustainable, and the country is not at risk of losing state assets to China, the country's finance minister, Matia Kasaija, said this week. Uganda's auditor-general warned in a report released this month that public debt from June 2017 to 2018 had increased from $9.1 billion to $11.1 billion. The report — without naming China — warned that conditions placed on major loans were a threat to Uganda's sovereign assets.  It said that in some loans, Uganda had agreed to waive sovereignty over properties if it defaults on the debt — a possibility that Kasaija rejected. "China taking over assets? … in Uganda, I have told you, as long as some of us are still in charge, unless there is really a catastrophe, and which I don't…

Despite the U.S. stock market recovery, Macy's and American Airlines' revised revenue forecasts for 2018 have sent their stock prices spiraling. Other retail stocks fell, too, including J.C. Penney, Nordstrom and Kohl's. The reports come amid news of another iconic department store, Sears, fighting for survival. But U.S. trade and financial officials say the U.S. economy is on solid ground and will continue to grow for years to come. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports. ...

The 800,000 federal workers who are not being paid or are working without pay during the partial government shutdown were the first to feel its impact. But as Anna Kook reports, other segments of the economy are also being hurt, especially in Washington, home to the largest number of federal workers in the country. ...

U.S. officials expect a visit from China’s top trade negotiator this month in Washington, signaling that higher-level discussions are likely to follow this week’s talks with midlevel officials in Beijing as the world’s two largest economies try to reach a deal to end a tit-for-tat tariff war. “The current intent is that the Vice Premier Liu He will most likely come and visit us later in the month and I would expect the government shutdown would have no impact,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told reporters Thursday in Washington. “We will continue with those meetings just as we sent a delegation to China.” The U.S. government is in the 20th day of a partial shutdown with President Donald Trump, a Republican, and congressional Democrats feuding over funding and Trump’s desire…

China’s Commerce Ministry says that the United States and Beijing made progress in discussions about structural issues such as forced technology transfers and intellectual property rights during trade talks this week. But the lack of details from both sides following the meetings highlights the uncertainty that remains, analysts say. The talks, which were originally scheduled to wrap up on Tuesday stretched to the evening and into Wednesday.   U.S. officials have said the talks are going well, a point Commerce Ministry spokesman Gao Feng echoed on Thursday at a regular briefing.   “The length of the meetings shows that both sides were serious and sincere about the talks,” he said. “Structural issues were an important part of this round of talks and there has been progress in these areas.”  …

The United States says talks in Beijing on ending a bruising trade war focused on Chinese promises to buy more American goods. But it gave no indication of progress on resolving disputes over Beijing’s technology ambitions and other thorny issues. China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday the two sides would “maintain close contact.” But neither side gave any indication of the next step during their 90-day cease-fire in a tariff fight that threatens to chill global economic growth. That uncertainty left Asian stock markets mixed Thursday. Share prices had risen Wednesday after President Donald Trump fueled optimism on Twitter about possible progress. The U.S. Trade Representative, which leads the American side of the talks, said negotiators focused on China’s pledge to buy a “substantial amount” of agricultural, energy, manufactured goods…

Deep in a provincial region of northwestern Turkey, it looks like a mirage — hundreds of luxury houses built in neat rows, their pointed towers somewhere between French chateau and Disney castle. Meant to provide luxurious accommodations for foreign buyers, the houses are however standing empty in what is anything but a fairy tale for their investors. The ambitious development has been hit by regional turmoil as well as the slump in the Turkish construction industry — a key sector — as the country's economy heads towards what could be a hard landing in an intensifying downturn. After a long period of solid growth, Turkey's economy contracted 1.1 percent in the third quarter, and many economists expect it will enter into recession this year. The country has been hit by…

With the March deadline approaching for Britain to depart the European Union, there are concerns that Britain's exit could undermine Western sanctions against countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea. Analysts note that Britain has been influential in persuading the EU to take action, saying there are risks Britain will seek a different path as it carves out new economic and strategic partnerships. “Some estimates hold that up to 80 percent of the EU’s sanctions that are in place have been put forward or suggested by the UK," said Erica Moret, chair of the Geneva International Sanctions Network. She says Britain's future absence from EU meetings will impact the bloc's future relations. "The UK is also a very important player of course as a leading economic and political power, a…

Concerns have arisen that European sanctions against countries like Iran, Syria and North Korea could be undermined by Britain’s upcoming departure from the European Union. Britain will be free to implement its own sanctions regime — and while both Brussels and London insist they will continue to work together, analysts say there are risks that Britain will seek a different path as it carves out new economic and strategic partnerships after Brexit. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. ...