Category: Business

In Russia’s far north, the city of Vorkuta is slowly being reclaimed by the Arctic tundra. Its population has plummeted as the local coal mines have closed, and the very future of the city is in doubt. As Henry Ridgwell reports for VOA, Vorkuta’s fate reflects a wider population crisis across Russia’s far north as old Soviet industries have crumbled. ...

Tourist numbers in Indonesia swelled last year on the back of overseas advertising and infrastructure development. President Joko Widodo has said he wants to "create 10 tourist destinations like the island of Bali.” But the pleasing economic numbers also come with a social and environmental cost as rampant development threatens ecosystems and traditional livelihoods. Jack Hewson has this report. ...

German business leaders are expressing concerns that President Donald Trump’s 25 percent tariff on imported steel could affect the auto industry in the South.   WABE Radio reports Mercedes-Benz USA this month opened its new North American headquarters in Sandy Springs, Georgia, for 1,000 employees. The luxury car manufacturer is owned by Germany-based Daimler, but Mercedes-Benz USA CEO Dietmar Exler used the grand opening to remind the crowd of the brand’s U.S. presence. German automakers in US  That includes operations in South Carolina and in Alabama.   “We are now in the midst of construction of our own factory here, which will open doors in the fall in Charleston, South Carolina, and we’ll make all of the Sprinter vans for North America right here,” Exler said at the grand opening…

The United States has flouted trade rules with an inquiry into intellectual property and China will defend its interests, Vice Premier Liu He told U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a telephone call on Saturday, Chinese state media reported. The call between Mnuchin and Liu, a confidante of President Xi Jinping, was the highest-level contact between the two governments since U.S. President Donald Trump announced plans for tariffs on up to $60 billion of Chinese goods on Thursday. The deepening rift has sent a chill through financial markets and the corporate world as investors predicted dire consequences for the global economy should trade barriers start going up. Several U.S. chief executives attending a high-profile forum in Beijing on Saturday, including BlackRock Inc's Larry Fink and Apple Inc's Tim Cook, urged…

H. Wayne Huizenga, a college dropout who built a business empire that included Blockbuster Entertainment, AutoNation and three professional sports franchises, has died. He was 80. Huizenga died Thursday night at his home, said Valerie Hinkell, a longtime assistant. The cause was cancer, said Bob Henninger, executive vice president of Huizenga Holdings. Starting with a single garbage truck in 1968, Huizenga built Waste Management Inc. into a Fortune 500 company. He purchased independent sanitation engineering companies, and by the time he took the company public in 1972, he had completed the acquisition of 133 small-time haulers. By 1983, Waste Management was the largest waste disposal company in the United States. The business model worked again with Blockbuster Video, which he started in 1985 and built into the leading movie rental…

New orders for key U.S.-made capital goods rebounded more than expected in February after two straight monthly declines and shipments surged, which could temper expectations of a sharp slowdown in business spending on equipment in the first quarter. The Commerce Department's report on Friday could prompt economists to raise their economic growth estimates for the first three months of the year. They were slashed last week after data showed retail sales fell in February for the third month in a row. The Federal Reserve on Wednesday painted an upbeat picture of the economy when it raised interest rates and forecast at least two more increases for 2018. Orders for non-defense capital goods excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, jumped 1.8 percent last month. That was the…

Russia will likely prepare a list of restrictions on imported products from the United States in response to U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum, Moscow's trade ministry said on Friday, according to Interfax news agency. The announcement came after China threatened to retaliate to U.S. President Donald Trump's measures, stoking fears of a looming global trade war. "We will prepare our position, submit it to the Economy Ministry and apply to the WTO [the World Trade Organization]," Russia's Deputy Trade Minister, Viktor Yevtukhov, said, according to Interfax. "We will probably prepare proposals on the response measures. Restrictions against the American goods. I think that all countries will follow this path," Yevtukhov added. The United States has said the tariffs are needed to protect its national security and therefore do not…

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday signed a memo paving the way for major tariffs on Chinese imports. It's part of Trump's plan to crack down on China's theft of intellectual property. But many U.S. farmers are worried the tariffs will prompt China to retaliate against their products. VOA's Kane Farabaugh and Bill Gallo report on what some fear could be just the start of significant trade friction between Washington and Beijing. ...

Just a week after the empire he started announced it is shutting down, Toys R Us founder Charles Lazarus died at 94. "There have been many sad moments for Toys R Us in recent weeks and none more heartbreaking than today's news about the passing of our beloved founder," the company said Thursday. No cause of death was given. Lazarus, a World War II veteran, started Toys R Us in 1948 as a single store in Washington, D.C., selling baby furniture. At customer requests, he soon expanded his line to include toys and began opening large stores the size of supermarkets, devoted to toys and bicycles. Toys R Us and its massive selection became a favorite of suburban American families. Toys R Us opened stores all over the world before…

U.S. President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Thursday initiating actions to consider imposing tariffs on a long list of nearly 1,300 Chinese imported products worth about $60 billion. The move could limit China's ability to invest in the U.S. technology industry, setting the stage for a possible trade war with Beijing. The decision to take action is a result of an investigation conducted by the U.S. trade representative to determine whether Beijing's trade practices may be "unreasonable or discriminatory" and may be "harming American intellectual property rights, innovation or technology development." After a seven-month investigation, the USTR's office found the policies were in violation. At the signing ceremony, Trump said, "We have a tremendous intellectual property theft going on." He said the U.S. wants reciprocal trade and tariff deals…

Stocks plunged Thursday after the Trump administration slapped sanctions on goods and investment from China. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 700 points as investors feared that trade tensions between the world's largest economies would escalate. The planned sanctions include tariffs on $48 billion worth of Chinese imports as well as restrictions on Chinese investments. Trump said he's taking those steps in response to theft of American technology, and the Chinese government said it will defend itself. Investors are worried that trade tensions would hurt U.S. companies and harm the world economy. On Thursday they fled stocks and bought bonds, which sent bond prices higher and yields lower. With interest rates falling, banks took some of the worst losses. Technology and industrial companies, basic materials makers and health…

U.S. Federal Reserve officials voted to raise the central bank's benchmark interest rate by a quarter of a percent this week, signaling perhaps three or more rate hikes this year as economic conditions improve. But as Mil Arcega reports, rising rates mean higher borrowing costs for consumers, many who have yet to see a significant increase in wages. ...

U.S. President Donald Trump is expected at any time to fire a salvo directly at China in what could escalate into a full-scale trade war between the world’s two largest economies. Trade actions against China, partly in response to the theft and improper transfer of American technology to Chinese companies, are expected to be announced by Trump as soon as Thursday. His schedule includes a midday signing of a memorandum “targeting China’s economic aggression.” On the anticipated eve of the measures, U.S. officials spoke to reporters about their monthslong investigation under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 of Beijing’s trade practices. China has long been considered by many in the international community to have contravened fundamental principles of global trade, despite joining the World Trade Organization in 2001.…

U.S. congressional leaders have reached a deal on a $1.3 trillion spending bill as a budget deadline looms. Lawmakers now have until midnight Friday to approve it and prevent the year's third government shutdown. Passage of the massive bipartisan effort seems certain. The bill, which will keep the government funded until the end of September, has President Donald Trump's support, the White House said in a statement released Wednesday. "The president had a discussion with (House) Speaker (Paul) Ryan and (Senate) Leader (Mitch) McConnell, where they talked about their shared priorities secured in the omnibus spending bill," said White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Deadline late Friday The bill will give Trump a huge budget increase for the military, including a 2.4 percent pay raise for military personnel. It…

When Nestle executive Stephan Canz attended the German school in Nairobi in the early 1980s, it was surrounded by lush coffee farms. Today, the trees have long since been uprooted and replaced by a shopping mall and upmarket homes, driving a sharp drop in production of Kenya's premium beans. "The coffee has disappeared," said Canz, who co-manages Swiss-based Nestle's partnerships with coffee farmers globally. "You have to go almost to the slopes of Mount Kenya to find coffee." Kenya accounts for just 1 percent of the global crop, but its high-quality arabica beans are sought-after for blending with other varieties. Alarmed by a steep drop in the country's production, Nestle, which buys 10 percent of the world's coffee and has the leading packaged coffee business, is working with farmers to…

French commuters face major train service disruptions on Thursday due to an unexpectedly large walkout by railway workers angry at the government's plans to shake up the state-owned and highly indebted SNCF rail company. Labor unions said last week they would launch rolling strikes in early April, but France's transport minister said many were planning to join a wider day of public service protests on Thursday, reducing rail services by 50 percent. "There will ultimately be serious disruption tomorrow," Transport Minister Elisabeth Borne said. Unions are on a collision course with the government over its plans for the biggest shake-up of SNCF (Societe Nationale des Chemins de Fer) since the nationalization of the railways in the 1930s. Among the government's plans are the trimming of benefits received by SNCF's 260,000…

Peter G. Peterson, a billionaire and business executive who became one of the most prominent voices to argue for entitlement reform and reducing the U.S. national debt, died of natural causes early Tuesday, his family said. He was 91. Born in the small town of Kearney, Nebraska, to Greek immigrants, Peterson was CEO of two major U.S. companies and co-founded one of the world’s largest private-equity firms. He was a national figure in business by the early 1960s, serving as chairman and CEO of Bell and Howell, one of the largest manufacturers of movie cameras at the time.   He left Bell and Howell to work for the Nixon administration in the early 1970s, eventually serving as secretary of commerce from 1972 to 1973. Lehman Brothers  He took over as…

An Egyptian court on Tuesday ordered authorities to revoke the operating licenses of the Uber and Careem ride-hailing services and block their mobile apps and software. The government and the companies are expected to appeal the administrative court verdict, which would prevent it from being implemented until a higher court weighs in. The administrative court in Cairo ruled that it is illegal to use private vehicles as taxis. Both companies provide smartphone applications that connect passengers with drivers who work as independent contractors. In a brief statement posted on its Facebook account, Careem said it "hasn't been notified officially to stop its operations" and was operating normally. There was no immediate comment from Uber. Uber was founded in 2010 in San Francisco, and operates in more than 600 cities across…

Nearly 50 countries expressed concern on Tuesday about the "serious threat" to the World Trade Organization posed by unilateral trade actions, a pointed reference to U.S. import tariffs that have caused a global outcry. Delivering concluding remarks after a two-day informal meeting of the WTO members in New Delhi, Indian Trade Minister Suresh Prabhu did not refer to the United States by name. He said members expressed deep concern over the "serious threat" posed to the credibility of the WTO, particularly on its principle of "non-discrimination" following the cycle of recent unilateral trade measures. "In some interventions, the need for WTO members taking urgent and coordinated action to address the underlying issues was highlighted," Prabhu said. "It was recognized by almost all the participants that it is the collective responsibility…

The European Union said on Tuesday that the right of citizens from poorer member states to work in richer ones on a low salary would be limited to 18 months under a reform of the bloc's labor laws sought by France. The new law, promoted by French President Emmanuel Macron and backed by Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, among others, would rein in current rules on the so-called posting of workers, which richer EU states say undercut their labor markets. Poorer EU states from Spain to Poland have opposed the change, saying their citizens should be allowed to work in a wealthier state on a lower salary than a worker from the host country under the bloc's competition rules. The deal, which had been tentatively agreed earlier this month, also…

A New York City councilman and a tenants' rights group said they will investigate allegations that the real estate company formerly controlled by Jared Kushner, a presidential adviser and President Donald Trump's son-in-law, falsified building permits. In allegations first uncovered by The Associated Press, the Kushner Companies is accused of submitting false statements between 2013 and 2016, stating it had no rent-controlled apartments in buildings it owned when it actually had hundreds. Rent-controlled apartments come under tighter oversight from city officials when there is construction work or renovations in buildings.  The councilman and tenants' rights group charged the Kushner Companies of lying about rent-control in order to harass and force out tenants paying low rents so it can move in those who would pay more. They also blame city officials…

Colombia proposed on Monday that the International Monetary Fund provide assistance to help several hundred thousand Venezuelan refugees who have fled an economic and political crisis to  neighboring countries, officials at the G20 summit said. The proposal was discussed at a meeting on Venezuela by leading finance ministers from the Western Hemisphere, the European Union and Japan, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. "The consensus is that the situation is extremely negative and we must by any means possible try to influence a solution to the problem and a change in Venezuela's situation, mainly from the humanitarian point of view," Brazilian Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles told reporters. The fund, to be decided by the IMF next month, would only be used outside Venezuela and not by socialist President Nicolas Maduro's…

The Trump administration on Monday banned all use by Americans of Venezuelan cryptocurrency, saying that its introduction is intended to skirt U.S. sanctions. In a separate move, the administration also slapped sanctions on four current and former senior Venezuelan officials accused of corruption and mismanagement.   In an executive order that took effect immediately upon its issuance, President Donald Trump declared illegal all U.S. transactions related to Venezuelan digital currencies, coins or tokens. The prohibition applies to all people and companies subject to U.S. jurisdiction. The move follows the introduction last month of a Venezuelan cryptocurrency known as the "petro," for which the government says it has received investment commitments of $5 billion.   In the executive order, Trump said it was an "attempt to circumvent U.S. sanctions" imposed for…

Indonesian president Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has instructed ministers to keep fuel prices stable over the next two years, said Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan, which would, in effect, continue a controversial fuel subsidy scheme that analysts say has negatively impacted growth and the environment.  The Ministry said it would increase the per-liter subsidy for diesel and regular petrol from 500 Indonesian rupiah (about $0.35) to 700-1000 rupiah ($0.49-$0.70) while keeping pump prices unchanged. The measure indicates how protectionist measures have been hard to shake for the initially reform-minded Jokowi, who made several inroads against subsidies in 2014 and 2015.  Meanwhile, the rupiah continues to sink in the global market, due in part to Indonesia's widening current-account deficit. On Monday, Credit Suisse said "the rupiah is among the most vulnerable emerging market currencies…

Air bags in some Hyundai and Kia cars failed to inflate in crashes and four people are dead. Now the U.S. government’s road safety agency wants to know why. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it’s investigating problems that affect an estimated 425,000 cars made by the Korean automakers. The agency also is looking into whether the same problem could happen in vehicles made by other companies. In documents posted on its website Saturday , the safety agency says the probe covers 2011 Hyundai Sonata midsize cars and 2012 and 2013 Kia Forte compacts. The agency says it has reports of six front-end crashes with significant damage to the cars. Four people died and six were injured. Electrical circuits  The problem has been traced to electrical circuit shorts in…

The pot revolution is alive and well in the state of Colorado where recreational cannabis has been legal since 2014. While the full impact of legal marijuana in Colorado has yet to be determined, what is clear is that cannabis has become a giant moneymaker for the state. And as Paula Vargas reports from Denver, women entrepreneurs — weed warriors, as some have called them — are leading the way. ...

Britain should consider a limited extension to its exit process from the European Union if needed to ensure details of its future relationship with the bloc are agreed, a committee of lawmakers said in a report. Prime Minister Theresa May formally notified the EU of Britain's intention to leave by triggering Article 50 of the membership treaty on March 29, 2017, setting the clock ticking on a two-year exit process. Britain has said it wants to have the basis of a trade deal set out with the EU by October, but the Exiting the EU Committee said in a report published Sunday that deadline would be tight. "In the short time that remains, it is difficult to see how it will be possible to negotiate a full, bespoke trade and market access agreement, along with a range of other agreements, including…

A former midlevel employee of German industrial giant Siemens pleaded guilty Thursday of conspiring to pay tens of millions of dollars to Argentine officials to win a $1 billion contract to create national ID cards. Eberhard Reichart, 78, who worked for Siemens from 1964 to 2001, appeared in federal court in New York to plead guilty to one count of conspiring to violate the anti-bribery Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and to commit wire fraud. Reichart was arraigned last December in a three-count indictment filed in December 2011 charging him and seven other Siemens executives and agents with participating in the decadelong scheme, the Justice Department said Thursday.  The men were accused of conspiring to pay more than $100 million in bribes to high-level Argentine officials to win the contract in…