Category: Business

In Iraq, a major Middle East grain buyer, will cut the irrigated area it plants with wheat by half in the 2018-2019 growing season as water shortages grip the country, a government official told Reuters. Drought and dwindling river flows have already forced Iraq to ban farmers from planting rice and other water-intensive summer crops. Water scarcity was one of the issues galvanizing street protests in the country this year. An investigation by Reuters in July revealed how Nineveh, Iraq's former breadbasket, was becoming a dust bowl after drought and years of war. This latest move is likely to significantly raise wheat imports. Deputy Agriculture Minister Mahdi al-Qaisi said irrigated land grown with winter grains, namely wheat and barley, would be halved. "The shortage of water resources, climate change and…

Residents in a Bangkok neighborhood are trying out a renewable energy trading platform that allows them to buy and sell electricity between themselves, signaling the growing popularity of such systems as solar panels get cheaper. The pilot project in the center of Thailand's capital is among the world's largest peer-to-peer renewable energy trading platforms using blockchain, according to the firms involved. The system has a total generating capacity of 635 KW that can be traded via Bangkok city's electricity grid between a mall, a school, a dental hospital and an apartment complex. Commercial operations will begin next month, said David Martin, managing director of Power Ledger, an Australian firm that develops technology for the energy industry and is a partner in the project. "By enabling trade in renewable energy, the…

Policymakers in Indonesia are grappling to deal with a weakened currency, the rupiah, which was valued at just 14,930 per U.S. dollar last week — its lowest point since the 1998 Asian financial crisis. But unlike 20 years ago, when economic turmoil led to major political upheaval in Indonesia, most observers say that Southeast Asia’s largest economy is now far better positioned to endure a poorly performing currency. The United States Federal Reserve’s planned interest rate hikes have impacted emerging markets worldwide as investors sell assets in countries such as Indonesia in favor of American ones. The Argentine peso and Turkish lira both crashed in late August, crises that sent major shockwaves across developing economies. President Donald Trump’s trade war with Beijing has also seen a devaluation of the Chinese…

United States is a land of opportunity. We have all heard this saying, but what does it mean and how does it happen? A Kurdish-American family in the state of Virginia is seeing how their 13-year-old son has made the most of a unique opportunity. VOA’s Yahya Barzinji recently visited this family and filed this report narrated by Bezhan Hamdard. ...

Japan will once again try to get the international ban on whale hunting overturned at the global conference of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which opened in Brazil on Monday. The proposal presented by Japan says, "Science is clear: there are certain species of whales whose population is healthy enough to be harvested sustainably.'' While the Japanese proposal is supported by other traditional whaling countries, such as Iceland and Norway, it faces fierce opposition from countries such as Australia and Brazil, and the European Union, as well as from numerous environmental groups. Japan, which has pushed for an amendment to the ban for years, accuses the IWC of siding with anti-whaling nations rather than trying to reach a compromise between conservationists and whalers. Whale meat has been a a traditional…

U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry met with Saudi Energy Minister Khalid al-Falih on Monday in Washington, the U.S. Energy Department said, as the Trump administration encourages big oil-producing countries to keep output high ahead of Washington’s renewed sanctions on Iran’s crude exports. Perry and Falih discussed the state of world oil markets, the potential for U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear cooperation and efforts to share technologies to develop “clean fossil fuels,” the department said in a statement. The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Perry will also meet with Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak, on Thursday in Moscow, a U.S. source and a diplomatic source said Sunday night. High oil prices are a risk for President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Nov. 6…

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland will meet U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer in Washington on Tuesday for another round of talks to renew the NAFTA trade pact, an official said on Monday, as time runs short to seal a deal. Freeland spokesman Adam Austen did not give details. After more than a year of negotiations, Canada and the United States are still trying to resolve differences over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which also includes Mexico. U.S. officials say time is running out to agree on a text on which the current Congress can vote. Canadian officials say they are working on the assumption they have until the end of September. Freeland spent three days in Washington last week and said on Friday as she prepared to leave that…

Greece's lead creditor warned the country on Monday not to stray from reforms agreed upon before the end of its international bailout, as European monitors arrived to check the nation's finances. The five-day inspection is expected to focus on government promises over the weekend to offer tax relief as well as plans to scrap promised pension cuts that are due to take effect in 2019. Klaus Regling, managing director of the European Stability Mechanism, the eurozone's rescue fund, told Austria's Die Presse newspaper that Greece needed to stick to its commitments. `We are a very patient creditor. But we can stop debt relief measures that have been decided for Greece if the adjustment programs are not continued as agreed," he said. "The debt level appears to be frighteningly elevated. But…

Ford says it has no plans to move production of a small car from China to the United States despite President Donald Trump's enthusiastic tweet Sunday. "It would not be profitable to the build the Focus Active in the U.S. given an expected annual sales volume of fewer than 500,000 units," a Ford statement said. Ford earlier announced it would not ship the cars from China to the United States because tariffs would make them too expensive, prompting a Trump tweet saying "This is just the beginning. This car can now be BUILT IN THE U.S.A. and Ford will pay no tariffs." Ford may keep building the Focus Active in China, but won't not sell them in the United States. Trump has imposed tariffs on $50 billion in Chinese imports…

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Saturday unveiled plans for tax cuts and pledged spending to heal years of painful austerity, less than a month after Greece emerged from a bailout program financed by its European Union partners and the International Monetary Fund. Tsipras, who faces elections in about a year, used a keynote policy speech in the northern city of Thessaloniki to announce a spending spree that he said would help fix the ills of years of belt-tightening and help boost growth. But he said Athens was also committed to sticking to the fiscal targets pledged to lenders. "We will not allow Greece to revert to the era of deficits and fiscal derailment," he told an audience of officials, diplomats and businessmen. Tsipras promised a phased reduction of the corporate tax to 25 percent from 29 percent from next year, as…

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the United States and Japan have begun discussion over trade, saying that Tokyo "knows it's a big problem" if an agreement cannot be reached, and that India has also asked to start talks on a trade deal. "We're starting that," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. "In fact Japan has called us ... they came last week." "If we don't make a deal with Japan, Japan knows it's a big problem," he added. Later in a speech in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Trump said: "India called us the other day. They said we'd like to start doing a trade deal. First time." "They wouldn't talk about it with the previous administrations. They were very happy with the way it was," he said…

China's trade surplus with the United States reached a record $31 billion in August, despite hefty tariffs recently imposed on Chinese goods.  The news of the surplus came just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose another $267 billion worth of tariffs on Chinese imports, which would cover virtually all the goods China imports to the United States.  The potential tariffs would come on top of punitive levies on $50 billion in Chinese goods already in place as well as another $200 billion that Trump says “could take place very soon.” He told reporters traveling with him to Fargo, North Dakota "behind that, there's another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want." “That changes the equation,” he added. Such a move would subject virtually…

U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to impose tariffs on another $267 billion worth Chinese imports, which would cover virtually all the goods China imports to the United States. The potential tariffs would come on top of punitive levies on $50 billion in Chinese goods already in place, as well as tariffs on another $200 billion worth of goods that Trump says "could take place very soon." He told reporters traveling with him to Fargo, North Dakota, on Friday that "behind that, there's another $267 billion ready to go on short notice if I want." "That changes the equation," he added. Such a move would subject virtually all U.S. imports from China to new duties. The president's comments came one day after a public comment period ended on his proposal to…

Millions of people covered under the Affordable Care Act will see only modest premium increases next year, and some will get price cuts. That's the conclusion from an exclusive analysis of the besieged but resilient program, which still sparks deep divisions heading into this year's midterm elections. The Associated Press and the consulting firm Avalere Health crunched available state data and found that “Obamacare's” health insurance marketplaces seem to be stabilizing after two years of sharp premium hikes. And the exodus of insurers from the program has halted, even reversed somewhat, with more consumer choices for 2019. The analysis found a 3.6 percent average increase in proposed or approved premiums across 47 states and Washington, D.C., for next year. This year the average increase nationally was about 30 percent. The…

Hiring picked up in August as U.S. employers added a strong 201,000 jobs, a sign of confidence that consumers and businesses will keep spending despite the Trump administration's conflicts with U.S. trading partners. The Labor Department said Friday the unemployment rate remained 3.9 percent, near an 18-year low.  Americans' paychecks grew at a faster pace in August. Average hourly wages rose last month and are now 2.9 percent higher than they were a year earlier, the fastest year-over-year gain in eight years. Still, after adjusting for inflation, pay has been flat for the past year. The economy is expanding steadily, fueled by tax cuts, confident consumers, greater business investment in equipment and more government spending. Growth reached 4.2 percent at an annual rate in the April-June quarter, the fastest pace…

Britain risks huge disruptions to its economy and society, including trade, transport, health care and citizens' rights, if it leaves the European Union next March without a deal. That's the conclusion of a new report on the short-term risks of a so-called 'no-deal Brexit.' The report comes as lawmakers return to London after a six-week summer break to face growing uncertainty over Britain's future relations with the EU. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. ...

She is many things that would seem to irritate President Donald Trump: a liberal Canadian former journalist. That makes Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland an unusual choice to lead Canada's negotiations over a new free trade deal with a surprisingly hostile U.S. administration. Recruited into politics by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Freeland has already clashed with Russia and Saudi Arabia. Those who know her say she's unlikely to back down in a confrontation with Trump. "She is everything the Trump administration loathes," said Sarah Goldfeder, a former official with the U.S. Embassy in Canada. Freeland, a globalist negotiating with a U.S. administration that believes in economic nationalism and populism, hopes to salvage a free trade deal with Canada's largest trading partner as talks resumed Wednesday in Washington. The 50-year-old Harvard graduate…

Trump administration officials and Canadian negotiators are resuming talks to try to keep Canada in a North American trade bloc with the United States and Mexico. "We are looking forward to constructive conversations today," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters as she entered a meeting with U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer. Last week, the United States and Mexico reached a preliminary agreement to replace the 24-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement. But those talks excluded Canada, the third NAFTA country.   Freeland flew to Washington last week for four days of negotiations to try to keep Canada within the regional trade bloc. The U.S. and Canada are sparring over issues including U.S. access to Canada's protected dairy market and American plans to protect some drug companies from generic…

An international money transfer company has launched an online service for East Africans to send and receive money more easily. Analysts say WorldRemit will lower the cost of transferring money and boost African trade and economies. Africa has become a thriving market for money transfer companies as its telecommunication facilities improve and its economies grow. WorldRemit, a British-based money transfer company, recently launched a new digital service in four East African countries. The company facilitates the transfer of at least $1.6 billion to Africa each year. The co-founder and the head of WorldRemit, Ismail Ahmed, told VOA how money transfers in Africa have changed over the years. “When we launched our services, 99 percent of remittances were cash both on the sending and receiving side. But today that is changing…

First it was Argentina, quickly followed by Turkey. Now anxious investors and policy-makers are watching with alarm the plummeting currencies of several emerging-market economies, most of which have borrowed heavily in dollars. The nosediving currencies are prompting fears of a repeat of the 1997 Asian financial crash or the "Tequila Effect" of Mexico's 1994 financial crisis. Or is something even worse coming — a financial contagion to compare with 2008? Argentina's peso dropped 29 percent against the U.S. dollar in August, the worst performer among major emerging-market currencies. Turkey's currency followed closely, with a 25 percent slide.South Africa's rand saw an almost 10 percent drop. The Indonesian rupiah fell to its weakest level since the 1997 Asian financial crisis, while India's currency slid into unprecedented territory against the dollar. September…

A tiny Alaska Native village has experienced a boom in tourism in recent years as polar bears spend more time on land than on diminishing Arctic sea ice. More than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaska village of Kaktovik on the Beaufort Sea last year to see polar bears in the wild, Alaska's Energy Desk reported Monday.  The far north community is located on north shore of Barter Island on the Beaufort Sea coast in an area where rapid global warming has sped up the movement of sea ice, the primary habitat of polar bears. As ice has receded to deep water beyond the continental shelf, more bears are remaining on land to look for food.  The village had fewer than 50 visitors annually before 2011, said Jennifer Reed of the…

If you already subscribe to digital services like Netflix to binge on TV shows and Spotify to groove to an endless mix of music, the auto industry might have a deal for you: Subscribe to your next car as well. Make that cars, plural. Some of these packages — which charge a monthly fee for the bundled use of a car, insurance and maintenance — let you trade in your vehicle on a regular basis, sometimes almost as readily as you can skip to a new tune on Spotify. These still-developing car subscription programs are gaining traction among motorists who don't want to be locked into the hassles of car ownership or even multiyear leasing commitments. All they want is a vehicle available whenever they want or need it. "It…

U.S. manufacturing activity accelerated to more than a 14-year high in August, boosted by a surge in new orders, but increasing bottlenecks in the supply chain because of a robust economy and import tariffs could restrain further growth. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) survey was at odds with another survey published on Tuesday that suggested a peak in manufacturing and pointed to a slowdown in the months ahead against the backdrop of a strong dollar. Recent surveys have also signaled a cooling in regional factory activity. "The surge in the ISM manufacturing index is difficult to square with other evidence, which indicate that growth in the factory sector has started to slow," said Michael Pearce, a senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics in New York. "With export orders now waning as a result of the dollar's rapid appreciation over the…

Turkey saw the inflation rate rise to nearly 18 percent in August, a 15-year high fueled by a collapse in the Turkish lira, which fell more than 20 percent over the past few weeks. The rising inflation and a falling currency are stoking fears Turkey is on the verge of financial and economic crisis. "It's the beginning of the slippery slope. It's going to get worse unless there is a miraculous improvement in the exchange rate," political analyst Atilla Yesilada of Global Source Partners said. "We've reached the stage where there is nothing to anchor price expectations. People simply can't gauge what prices or wages or costs will be next month." "It's a very dismal set of numbers. The likelihood is headline inflation will reach 20 percent in (the) coming…

Yemen's government says it is giving civil servants and pensioners pay raises, after protests against the country's woeful economy nearly paralyzed a major port city Sunday. Officials have not said when the raises would take effect or how much they will be. Demonstrations against the economy in the port of Aden continued Monday. Many shops were closed, and some people burned tires in the streets. Some of the marchers demanded to be paid in dollars, accusing senior officials of taking their salaries in the U.S.-based currency while paying the rank-and-file in the increasingly weak Yemeni rial. The rial has lost more than half its value against the dollar since Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital of Sanaa in 2014, sending the Western-recognized government into exile in Saudi Arabia. It has…

It’s coal people like miner Steve Knotts, 62, who make West Virginia Trump Country. So it was no surprise that President Donald Trump picked the state to announce his plan rolling back Obama-era pollution controls on coal-fired power plants. Trump left one thing out of his remarks, though: northern West Virginia coal country will be ground zero for increased deaths and illnesses from the rollback on regulation of harmful emission from the nation’s coal power plants. An analysis done by his own Environmental Protection Agency concludes that the plan would lead to a greater number of people here dying prematurely, and suffering health problems that they otherwise would not have, than elsewhere in the country, when compared to health impacts of the Obama plan. Knotts, a coal miner for 35…

When President Donald Trump pulled the plug on an upcoming trip to North Korea by his secretary of state, he pointed a finger of blame at China and the global superpower’s trade practices. In his recent trade breakthrough with Mexico, Trump praised the country’s outgoing president for his help on border security and agriculture. Both developments offered fresh evidence of how Trump has made trade policy the connective tissue that ties together different elements of his “America First” foreign policy and syncs up them with his political strategy for the 2020 presidential election. Trump’s 2016 triumph was paved in part by his support among blue-collar voters in Midwestern manufacturing states that narrowly supported him over Democrat Hillary Clinton, including Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio and Pennsylvania. His aggressive trade tactics, epitomized by…

Tanned and wearing a swimsuit, So Myong Il walks to the barbecue pit and throws on some clams.   He obviously loves the beach he's on as well as the rugged, emerald Chilbo mountains that rise abruptly behind it. He loves them enough to forget, for a moment at least, that he is a senior official sent to deliver an ideology-soaked pitch singing their praises and instead lets the natural beauty surrounding him speak for itself.   Comrade So sees great things for North Korean attractions like this. Hotels, big and small. Tourists from all over the country, maybe the world. "As long as we have the leadership of our respected Marshal," he says, referring to leader Kim Jong Un, "our future will be bright indeed."   So wouldn't think…