Category: Business

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador reiterated on Sunday the need for oil independence as his government said it would tender six construction contracts in June for a planned oil refinery in the southern state of Tabasco. Tensions between Mexico and the United States have been running high in recent days after President Donald Trump threatened to impose punitive tariffs on Mexican goods unless Mexico halts a surge in illegal migration. "We, our children and grandchildren aspire to live in a free, independent, sovereign country and we do not want to be a colony of any foreign country," Lopez Obrador told a cheering crowd at an event to mark the start of the refinery's construction. "The most important thing at this moment in time is producing petroleum," he added, saying…

Joyce Huang contributed to this report. China says Washington bears the “sole and entire responsibility” for the breakdown in trade talks earlier this month and that Beijing won't back down on matters of principle. In a defiant rebuttal of who is to blame, China released a white paper Sunday, arguing that it is the United States that has backtracked in the talks and that tariffs will not resolve the two country’s trade issues. Since talks broke down earlier this month, Beijing has doubled-down, issuing its own tit-for-tat tariffs in response to Washington’s increase to 25% of a tax on $200 billion in Chinese goods. Beijing has also been stepping up anti-American propaganda through state media. On Friday, China’s Commerce Ministry announced the establishment of a “non-reliable entity list.” That move…

The Trump administration had taken steps in recent weeks to work with Democratic and Republican lawmakers to address concerns about the proposed United States-Mexico-Canada trade agreement — and then came the threat of a new tariff. President Donald Trump said this past week that he would put a 5% tariff on Mexican imports unless America's southern neighbor cracked down on Central American migrants' efforts to cross the U.S. border.      His recent decision to remove U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Canada and Mexico had appeased mostly Republicans who were using their trade votes as leverage to do away with those penalties.    The administration also had committed to meeting with a group of House Democrats to allay their concerns. That gesture created goodwill, and as House Speaker Nancy…

VOA News Center associate producer Jesusemen Oni contributed reporting from Washington.  Mexico's president suggested Saturday that his country could clamp down on migration, and he said he thought the United States was ready to discuss its threatened use of tariffs as a means to combat illegal migration from Central America. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said at a Mexico City news conference that "there is willingness on the part of U.S. government officials to establish dialogue and reach agreement and compromises." His comments came ahead of talks in Washington next week, and Obrador said he said he expected "good results." He added that Mexico was willing to "reinforce" existing "measures without violating human rights." Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said Friday that he began negotiating with U.S. officials after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs…

The Trump administration is committed to making fossil fuels cleaner rather than imposing ``draconian'' regulations on coal and oil, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Thursday at an energy conference in Salt Lake City. Perry previously said the administration wants to spend $500 million next year on fossil fuel research and development as demand plummets for coal and surges for natural gas.    ``Instead of punishing fuels that produce emissions through regulation, we're seeking to reduce those emissions by innovation,'' Perry said at the conference. Fossil fuel emissions have been cited by scientists as a major source of global warming.    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently said the world must change how it fuels factories, vehicles and homes to limit future global warming. Perry said the Trump administration has proven…

The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it had not pressured Venezuela to release economic indicators after years of silence, while two sources said the country's surprise data release this week was due to pressure from China. The central bank on Tuesday unexpectedly released data confirming Venezuela is suffering hyperinflation and massive economic contraction. The release reversed President Nicolas Maduro's unofficial policy of classifying economic indicators as state secrets. The data reported a 22.5 percent contraction in Venezuela's economy in the third quarter of 2018 from the same period of the previous year. The bank did not provide a full-year 2018 figure for economic activity. Monthly inflation in April 2019 was 33.8 percent, while 2018 full-year inflation reached 130,060 percent, the bank said. The IMF said it suspended work with…

U.S. stocks lost ground again on Thursday, as conflicting comments on trade talks from President Donald Trump and Beijing  reinforced investor nervousness that a lengthy battle could be in the offing and harm global growth. Trump said talks with China were going well but those comments were countered by a senior Chinese diplomat who said provoking trade disputes is "naked economic terrorism." The lack of clarity around the trade battle has rattled investors of late, after the S&P 500 had risen more than 17% through the first four months of the year on optimism a trade deal between the two countries could be reached. That optimism has faded, however, as the escalating dispute between the two countries has weighed heavily on Wall Street in May, with each of the three…

A Chinese state TV anchor and a host from Fox Business, whose sparring over the U.S.-China trade war has been avidly followed on Chinese social media, brought their duel to the American cable network for what turned out to be a respectful encounter. The showdown between Liu Xin of China’s state-run English channel CGTN and Fox Business Network host Trish Regan was aired on Wednesday evening in the United States but was not shown live on TV in China, though it had been hyped by state and social media. Following U.S. moves this month to increase tariffs on Chinese imports and blacklist tech giant Huawei Technologies Co Ltd the rhetoric out of Beijing has become more strident. At the start of the roughly 16-minute segment, Liu corrected Regan to say…

In recent weeks, Australia and India have re-elected incumbent prime ministers. These Asia-Pacific countries, who have a difficult relationship with China, are unlikely to make the kind of policy changes that Beijing has been seeking for a long time, analysts said. Australia this month re-elected Prime Minister Scott Morrison stunning pollsters who had anticipated his defeat for several months. India gave a landslide victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, who campaigned largely on a nationalistic agenda. China wants support from Australia and India on issues like the U.S.-China trade war, the Huawei controversy, South China Sea controversy and the Belt and Road Initiative. The Communist Party in Beijing attaches great importance to obtaining support from democratic countries as a means to enhance China’s global influence. It has…

Water restrictions are to be imposed in Sydney, Australia’s biggest city, for the first time in almost a decade because of falling reservoir levels and a long-standing drought. Residents who breach the regulations could be fined US$150. The flow of rainwater into some of Sydney’s reservoirs is at its lowest since World War II. From Saturday, households will face restrictions that will target the use of water outdoors. Garden sprinklers will be banned, and tougher measures could follow. The New South Wales state government says that “early and decisive action” will help to conserve supplies as a record-breaking drought worsens. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology is predicting below-average rainfall and higher temperatures for the next three months across the much of the continent. “With the lowest inflows into Sydney’s water storage…

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that no major trading partner met its currency manipulation criteria but nine countries, including China, required close attention as Washington presses tariffs and negotiations to address trade deficits. The Treasury Department, in a semi-annual report to Congress, said it reviewed the policies of an expanded set of 21 major U.S. trading partners and found that nine required close attention due to currency practices: China, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, and Vietnam. "No major U.S. trading partner met the relevant 2015 legislative criteria for enhanced analysis" as a currency manipulator, the department said in a statement. President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports and begun the process of imposing tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese…

Officials in Zimbabwe say the bodies of eight illegal miners have been retrieved from an abandoned gold mine about 50 kilometers north of Harare. The news Monday was a reminder of the risk faced by desperate illegal miners trying to make a living in the economically troubled southern African country. Matopo is a gold rich area in southern Zimbabwe, and some men there enter such mines, despite the danger involved.  These men are illegal miners, using a metal detector to search for gold at the Nugget Mine, about an hour's drive from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second largest city.  ​Piniel Ndingi-Nyoni is one of those who entered the mine, despite the recent collapse of a mine shaft that killed four men.  Ndingi-Nyoni says he has no choice but to take the risk. …

Zimbabwe’s disused mines continue to be a death trap for poor and desperate illegal miners in search of the precious minerals to earn a living. Columbus Mavhunga travelled to Matopo a gold rich area about 500 kilometers south of Harare, where mining continues despite some having been trapped earlier this month. ...

Fiat Chrysler proposed a merger Monday with Renault, a union that would create the world's third biggest automaker. The merger, if it happens, would vault the new company, with annual sales of 8.7 million vehicles, into a position ahead of General Motors and behind only Volkswagen and Toyota, both of which sell about 10.6 million. The merger could give the combined companies a better chance in the battle among auto manufacturers to build new electric and autonomous vehicles. Investors in both companies showed their initial approval of the announcement, with Renault’s shares jumping 15 percent in afternoon trading in Paris and Fiat Chrysler stock up more than 10 percent in Milan. The proposal calls for shareholders to split ownership of the new company. Fiat Chrysler said the deal would save…

Only the chirping of birds and insects break the silence at a gold mining site in the Eastern Region of Ghana, right at the foot of the Atewa forest reserve. Caterpillar excavators stand still, as the two Ghanaian companies operating them wait for a new mining permit  a process that has been in the works for months. But a fresh pile of sludge spilt over a patch of vegetation suggests the mine is being operated illegally. Felix Addo-Okyreh, who works for Ghana's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), says the sludge — referred to as slime' in mining jargon — is dirty waste water created when gold is separated from sediment, sometimes with the help mercury. It is stored in dams on the site. "It rained heavily last week. The embankment of the dam…

President Donald Trump says he is "honored" to give U.S. farmers hurt by the trade war with China another $16 billion in aid.  Flanked by potato growers, ranchers and dairymen in the White House, Trump said Thursday the aid "will help keep our cherished farms thriving and make clear that no country has a veto on America's economic and national security." Trump added that trade has been "very unfair" to the farmers who he says support him politically. This is the second multibillion-dollar bailout the Trump administration has provided to U.S. farmers who have seen Chinese markets for their products dry up because of tariffs China imposed on U.S. goods to retaliate for U.S. tariffs on Chinese products. The White House gave farmers $12 billion last year. U.S. Agriculture Secretary…

In a potential challenge to U.S.-led efforts to build consensus on the Boeing Co 737 MAX flying again, Canada and Europe said on Wednesday they would bring back the grounded aircraft on their own terms if their specific concerns are not addressed. Global regulators will meet in Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday where the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration hopes to reach an international consensus on how to move forward with the MAX, U.S. officials told Reuters. The plane was grounded worldwide in March following a fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash just months after a similar Lion Air disaster in Indonesia which together killed 346 people. Global airlines that had rushed to buy the fuel-efficient, longer-range aircraft have since canceled flights and scrambled to cover routes that were previously flown by the…

British lawmakers are denouncing Prime Minister Theresa May's latest proposal to withdraw from the European Union (EU) amid growing demands from her own Conservative Party for her resignation. May said on Tuesday a bill she plans to present to Parliament next month would include a provision to vote on whether to hold a second referendum to leave the EU, a key demand of many opposition lawmakers. May also offered closer trading arrangements with the EU as another incentive in what she called a "last chance" opportunity to finalize a Brexit deal. Speaking before the House of Commons on Wednesday, May implored lawmakers to support her bill, warning a rejection would lead to "division and deadlock." May said her withdrawal bill would be disclosed Friday so that lawmakers would have time…

Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver's restaurant chain in Britain has filed for bankruptcy protection, closing 22 of its 25 eateries and leaving some 1,000 people out of work. The remaining outlets, two Jamie's Italian restaurants and a Jamie's Diner at Gatwick Airport outside London, will stay open, the financial firm KPMG, which will oversee the process, said in a statement Tuesday. Oliver said on Twitter he was "devastated that our much-loved UK restaurants have gone into administration," a form of bankruptcy protection, and thanked people "who have put their hearts and souls into this business over the years." ​Oliver gained fame as "The Naked Chef" on television, which aired in dozens of countries, after premiering in Britain some 20 years ago.  The television success was followed by a number of cookbooks.…

The Trump administration is considering payments of $2 per bushel for soybeans, 63 cents per bushel for wheat and 4 cents per bushel for corn as part of a package of up to $20 billion to offset U.S. farmers' losses from the trade war with China, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday. Caitlin Eannello, spokeswoman for the National Association of Wheat Growers, said that 63 cents per bushel for wheat is the number the organization has been hearing for the next round of U.S. trade aid. "That is the number that we've been hearing, she told Reuters. Those payments would exceed the rates paid last year to farmers in a similar aid package. President Donald Trump earlier this month directed the Department of Agriculture to work on a new aid plan for…

The Portuguese economy is resisting the prevailing gloom in Europe. Activity remained strong, with GDP rising by 0.5% in the first quarter, or 1.8% at an annual rate, compared with 1.2% in the euro zone, forecasts Brussels. Following the trend of 2018, Portugal's good economic health comes mainly from private consumption fueled by rising wages and employment dynamics. The preliminary data, says the national statistics institute, "reflect a significant acceleration in investment." The government deficit has fallen from 7.2% of GDP to 0.5% of GDP since 2014, and the unemployment rate from a peak of 17.9% in early 2013, to about 6% currently. "The tourism sector has been the largest driver of the export recovery in Portugal," Ben Westmore, the head of the Portugal desk in the Economics Department of the…

More than 170 American shoe manufacturers and retailers, including such well-known athletic shoe brands as Nike, Under Armour and Adidas, urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday to exempt footwear from any further tariffs he imposes on imported goods from China. The lobby for the shoe industry, the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, told Trump in a letter that his proposed 25 percent tariff on shoes imported from China "would be catastrophic for our consumers, our companies and the American economy as a whole." The industry imported $11.4 billion worth of shoes from China last year, although some manufacturers have been shifting production elsewhere, especially to Vietnam and Cambodia. It said the proposed tariffs on shoes made in China could cost U.S. consumers more than $7 billion annually on top…

Trump administration sanctions against Huawei have begun to bite even though their dimensions remain unclear. U.S. companies that supply the Chinese tech powerhouse with computer chips saw their stock prices slump Monday, and Huawei faces decimated smartphone sales with the anticipated loss of Google's popular software and services.  The U.S. move escalates trade-war tensions with Beijing, but also risks making China more self-sufficient over time. Here's a look at what's behind the dispute and what it means. What's this about? Last week, the U.S. Commerce Department said it would place Huawei on the so-called Entity List, effectively barring U.S. firms from selling it technology without government approval.  Google said it would continue to support existing Huawei smartphones but future devices will not have its flagship apps and services, including maps,…

The U.S.-China trade war has not spared European companies in China. More than one-third of them are feeling a direct impact on their businesses and fear the situation will worsen in the coming weeks. “They [European companies] are feeling more anxious than they felt last year, rising tensions such as the trade tensions that we are facing currently that don’t seem to be on the point of being sorted out quickly,” European Chamber Vice President Charlotte Roule told VOA. The trade conflict has come on top of several other problems faced by European companies in China. “Macroeconomic challenges such as the Chinese economic slowdown and global economic slowdown are worrying them,” Roule said. In a survey conducted last January and released Monday, the European Chamber of Commerce in China reported…

Ford plans to cut 7,000 jobs, or 10 percent of its global workforce, as part of a reorganization as it revamps its vehicle offerings, the company said Monday. The reorganization will involve some layoffs and reassignments and should be complete by the end of August, a Ford spokeswoman said. Ford has been phasing out most sedan models in the United States as more consumers have opted for pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles. The move, which began last year, will lead to 800 layoffs in North America in total, including about 500 this week, said Ford spokeswoman Marisa Bradley. The company has yet to determine the specifics in other regions, she said. "As we have said, Ford is undergoing an organizational redesign process helping us create a more dynamic, agile…

Vietnam and Europe could be swapping more pomelo fruit and Portuguese cheese soon if a new trade deal comes into effect, linking two regions that have been looking for an alternative to the trade tensions brought on by the United States. The European Parliament is scheduled to discuss the trade deal on May 28, after years of negotiations between Vietnam and the European Union. The deal is significant not only because it facilitates exports, like tropical fruit, but also as it lays out commitments on human rights, labor unions, and protection of the environment. Critics, though, say the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement would not really enforce human rights standards and would continue the offshoring of jobs that has left workers vulnerable. For the EU, the deal is one more way…

Huawei Technologies' founder and chief executive said Saturday that the growth of the Chinese tech giant "may slow, but only slightly," because of recent U.S. restrictions.     In remarks to the Japanese press and reported by Nikkei Asian Review, Ren Zhengfei reiterated that the Chinese telecom equipment maker had not violated any law.  "It is expected that Huawei's growth may slow, but only slightly," Ren said in his first official comments after the U.S. restrictions, adding that the company's annual revenue growth might undershoot 20%.     On Thursday, Washington put Huawei, one of China's biggest and most successful companies, on a trade blacklist that could make it extremely difficult for Huawei to do business with U.S. companies. China slammed the decision, saying it would take steps to protect its companies.  Trade, security issues   The developments surrounding…

Senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi told U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Saturday that recent U.S. words and actions had harmed the interests of China and its enterprises, and that Washington should show restraint, China's Foreign Ministry said.    Speaking to Pompeo by telephone, Wang said the United States should not go "too far" in the current trade dispute between the two sides, adding that China was still willing to resolve differences through negotiations but that the nations should be on an equal footing.    On Iran, Wang said China hoped all parties would exercise restraint and act with caution to avoid escalating tensions. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement that Pompeo spoke with Wang and discussed bilateral issues and U.S. concerns about Iran, but she gave no other details.   …