Category: Business

Chinese President Xi Jinping met Friday with members of the U.S. trade delegation in Beijing where China and the U.S. are attempting to hammer out a trade deal. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin posted on Twitter Friday that he and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer had "productive meetings with China's Vice Premier Liu He." Another round of negotiations between the two countries will continue next week in Wahington, Chinese state media reported. Earlier, a top White House economic adviser expressed confidence in the U.S. – China trade negotiations in Beijing. "The vibe in Beijing is good," National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters at the White House Thursday. Kudlow provided few details but said the U.S. delegation led by Lighthizer was “covering all ground.” “That's a very good sign…

Amazon will not be building a new headquarters in New York, a stunning reversal after a yearlong search. The online retailer faced opposition from some New York politicians, who were unhappy with the nearly $3 billion in tax incentives Amazon was promised. The Seattle-based Amazon had planned to bring 25,000 jobs to New York, and spend $2.5 billion building its offices.   "We are disappointed to have reached this conclusion — we love New York,'' the company said in a blog post, adding that it has 5,000 workers in the city and plans to grow those teams.   Amazon said Thursday it does not plan to look for another location at this time, and will continue to build out offices in Arlington, Virginia, and Nashville, Tennessee.     ...

Some taxpayers are getting a bitter surprise this year as their usual annual tax refunds have shrunk — or turned into tax bills — even though President Donald Trump loudly promised them largest tax cut "in American history." And with tax season under way, thousands of unhappy taxpayers have been venting their displeasure on Twitter, using hashtags like #GOPTaxscam, and some threatened not to vote for Trump again. "Lowest refund I have ever had and I am 50 yrs old. No wall and now this tax reform sucks too!!" a woman going by "Speziale-Matheny" wrote from the crucial political swing state of Florida. "Starting to doubt Trump. I voted for him and trusted him too." During the year, American wage earners see a portion of each paycheck withheld as income…

The Somali government says it will award exploration licenses to foreign oil companies later this year, despite calls from the opposition to wait until laws and regulations governing the oil sector are in place. Seismic surveys conducted by two British companies, Soma Oil & Gas and Spectrum Geo, suggest that Somalia has promising oil reserves along the Indian Ocean coast, between the cities of Garad and Kismayo. Total offshore deposits could be as high as 100 billion barrels. The government says it will accept bids for exploration licenses on November 7, and the winners will be informed immediately. It says production-sharing agreements will be signed on December 9, with the agreements going into effect on January 1, 2020. “We have presented our wealth and resources to the companies,” Petroleum Minister…

A new report finds the world’s unemployment rate has dropped to five percent, the lowest level since the global economic crisis in 2008. The International Labor Organization reports the jobs being created, however, are poor quality jobs that keep most of the world’s workers mired in poverty. Slightly more than 172 million people globally were unemployed in 2018. That is about 2 million less than the previous year. The International Labor Organization expects the global unemployment rate of five percent to remain essentially unchanged over the next few years. The ILO report — World Employment and Social Outlook: Trends 2019 — finds a majority of the 3.3 billion people employed throughout the world, though, are working under poor conditions that do not guarantee them a decent living.   ILO Deputy Director-General…

Democrats pushed on Tuesday for a nationwide paid family leave system in the United States, the only developed nation that does not guarantee pay to workers taking time off to care for children or other relatives. The proposal would establish a national insurance program to provide workers with up to 12 weeks paid leave per year for the birth of a child, adoption or to care for a seriously ill family member. The lack of paid family leave takes a particular toll on women who tend to care for children and aging relatives, and the proposed Family Act would bring national policy in line with other countries, supporters say. The United States is one of only five nations that have no guaranteed paid maternity leave, the other four being Lesotho,…

American whiskey makers are feeling the pain after their major overseas markets imposed hefty duties on their liquor in retaliation against President Donald Trump's tariffs on aluminum imports. U.S. global whiskey exports, which include rye and bourbons, recorded a nifty 28 percent year-over-year increase in the first six months 2018, the Distilled Spirits Council said on Tuesday. But once levies from Canada, Mexico, China and the European Union took effect, the collective whiskey exports from 37 U.S. states fell by 8 percent in the period from July to November last year, compared with the same five months in 2017, according to the Washington-based industry trade group. The tariff-induced drop wiped out the overseas sales gain the industry had enjoyed in the first half of 2018, the group's data showed. "Tariffs…

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell traveled Tuesday to a historically black university in the Mississippi Delta to deliver a message that the nation's prosperity has not been felt in many such areas around the country.   Powell said that many rural areas had been left out and needed special support, such as access to affordable credit to start small businesses and high-quality education to train workers.   In his comments, Powell did not address the future course of interest rates or the Fed's decision last month to announce that it planned to be "patient" in its future interest rate hikes. That decision triggered a big stock market rally from investors worried that the Fed was in danger of pushing rates up so much it could bring on a recession.  …

Toys R Us fans in the U.S. should see the iconic brand re-emerge in some form by this holiday season.   Richard Barry, a former Toys R Us executive and now CEO of the new company called Tru Kids Brands, told The Associated Press he and his team are still working on the details, but they're exploring various options including freestanding stores and shops within existing stores. He says that e-commerce will play a key role.   Toys R Us, buckling under competition from Amazon and several billions of dollars of debt, filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in September 2017 and then liquidated its businesses last year in the U.S. as well as several other regions including the United Kingdom.   In October, a group of investors won an auction…

A union declared total victory in a mass strike by about 25,000 workers at 48 assembly plants in a Mexican border city, but the movement spawned a storm of wildcat walkouts Monday at other businesses.   The Industrial Workers and Laborers' Union won 20 percent wage increases at all 48 "maquiladora" factories in Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas. It also won a one-time bonus of about 32,000 pesos, about $1,685 at current exchange rates.   Now workers at about a dozen non-union businesses as well as factories organized by other unions have started wildcat walkouts to demand the same increases, known colloquially as "20/32."   The Tridonex auto parts company said in posts on its Facebook page Monday that pickets had prevented employees from entering its Matamoros plant…

Vale SA, the world's largest iron ore miner, knew last year that the dam in Brazil that collapsed in January and killed at least 165 people had a heightened risk of rupturing, according to an internal document seen by Reuters on Monday. The report, dated Oct. 3, 2018, shows that Vale classified Dam 1 at the Córrego do Feijão mine in Brumadinho as being two times more likely to fail than the maximum level of risk tolerated under the company's own dam safety policy. Vale did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously cited an independent audit last year declaring the dam safe and said that equipment showed the structure was stable just weeks before the collapse. First evidence of concern The previously unreported document is…

U.S. Steel Corp. will restart construction on an idled manufacturing facility in Alabama, and it gave some of the credit to President Donald Trump's trade policies in an announcement Monday. Trump's “strong trade actions” are partly responsible for the resumption of work on an advanced plant near Birmingham, the Pittsburgh-based company said in a statement. The administration's tariffs have raised prices on imported steel and aluminum. The manufacturer also cited improving market conditions, union support and government incentives for the decision. Work will resume immediately, the company said, and the facility will have an annual capacity of 1.6 million tons (1.5 million metric tons). U.S. Steel said it also will update other equipment and plans to spend about $215 million, adding about 150 full-time workers. The furnace is expected to…

China struck an upbeat note on Monday as trade talks resumed with the United States, but also expressed anger at a U.S. Navy mission through the disputed South China Sea, casting a shadow over the prospect for improved Beijing-Washington ties. White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday also expressed confidence in a possible deal. Asked if the two countries were getting close to a trade agreement, she told Fox News in an interview, "It looks that way, absolutely." The United States is expected to keep pressing China on longstanding demands that it reform how it treats American companies' intellectual property in order to seal a trade deal that could prevent tariffs from rising on Chinese imports. The latest talks kick off with working level discussions on Monday before high-level…

Since November, tens of thousands of angry French have taken to the streets, first against a fuel tax hike and now with myriad demands including better pay, fewer taxes, greater equality and citizens' participation in governing. More than 50,000 protesters were on the streets Saturday, February 9. How and when the protests will end is still in question. From Paris, Lisa Bryant reports for VOA. ...

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde on Sunday met Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and assured him that IMF stands ready to support his country. The meeting took place on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai, hosted by the United Arab Emirates, both IMF and prime minister Imran Khan's office said. "I reiterated that the IMF stands ready to support Pakistan," Lagarde said in a statement following meeting Khan. A team from the International Monetary Fund visited Pakistan in November to discuss a possible bailout with officials, though the talks ended without agreement, but since then the government official said talks were still ongoing on a possible bailout. Pakistan — which has gone to the IMF repeatedly since the late 1980s — is facing a balance of payments crisis.…

A joint study by the International Labor Organization and U.N. Children’s Fund finds the vast majority of the world’s children lack effective social protection coverage. It says this dooms them to a life of extreme poverty, with negative implications for society. The study finds only one third of children between zero and 14 years of age have any social protection. That means two-thirds, or 1.3 billion children live without a social safety net. International Labor Organization Social Protection Department Director Isabel Ortiz says just slightly more than one percent of GDP is allocated to social protection for children. She says this huge under-investment gap needs to be covered. “And, of course, the numbers worsen as we go by region. In Africa, for instance, children represent 40 percent of the African…

A portion of TransCanada Corp's Keystone oil pipeline remained shut on Thursday for investigation of a possible leak on its right-of-way near St. Louis, Missouri, a company spokesman said. TransCanada shut the pipeline on Wednesday between Steele City, Nebraska and Patoka, Illinois and sent crews to assess the situation, spokesman Terry Cunha said in an email. The 590,000 barrels-per-day Keystone pipeline is a critical artery taking Canadian crude from northern Alberta to U.S. refineries. Two pipelines operating near the release site will be excavated on Friday to determine the source of the leak, said Darius Kirkwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. The agency is monitoring the response to the reported leak, he said. Canadian pipelines are already congested because of expanding…

Twitter said Thursday profits rose sharply in the fourth quarter, lifted by gains in advertising despite a drop in its global user base. The short-messaging platform said it posted a $255 million profit in the final three months of 2018, compared with $91 million a year earlier, as revenues rose 24 percent to $909 million. But Twitter's base of monthly active users declined to 321 million — a drop of nine million from a year earlier and five million from the prior quarter. Twitter said it would stop using the monthly user base metric and instead report "monetizable" daily active users in the US and worldwide. Using that measure, Twitter showed a base of 126 million worldwide, up nine percent over the year. "2018 is proof that our long-term strategy is…

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV and Robert Bosch have agreed to pay lawyers representing owners of U.S. diesel vehicles $66 million in fees and costs, according to court filing on Wednesday and people briefed on the matter. In a court filing late on Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, lawyer Elizabeth Cabraser said after negotiations overseen by court-appointed settlement master Ken Feinberg, the companies agreed not to oppose an award of $59 million in attorney’s fees and $7 million in costs. The lawyers had originally sought up to $106.5 million in fees and costs. Under a settlement announced last month, Fiat Chrysler and Bosch, which provided emissions control software for the Fiat Chrysler vehicles, will give 104,000 diesel owners up to $307.5 million or about $2,800 per vehicle for…

President Donald Trump says Treasury Department official David Malpass is his choice to lead the World Bank. Trump introduced Malpass on Wednesday as the "right person to take on this incredibly important job." Malpass is a sharp critic of the 189-nation lending institution. Malpass says he's honored by the nomination. He says a key goal will be to implement changes to the bank that he and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin helped negotiate, and to ensure that women achieve full participation in developing economies. Malpass would succeed Jim Yong Kim, who departed in January three years before his term was to end. Other candidates will likely be nominated for the post by the bank's member countries. A final decision on a new president will be up to the bank's board. ...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that President Donald Trump had a "quite productive" dinner with Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. He says they discussed a wide range of subjects, from the state of the economy to the Super Bowl and Tiger Woods' golf game. Talking to reporters at the White House, Mnuchin said that Trump was very engaged during the casual dinner Monday night. It took place in the White House residence and marked the first time Powell and Trump have met since Powell took office as Fed chairman a year ago.   Mnuchin said that Powell's comments were consistent with what he has been saying publicly about the economy. The Fed said in a statement that Powell did not discuss the future course of interest rates.    …

Rwanda said on Tuesday it had signed a $400 million deal to produce bottled gas from Lake Kivu, which emits such dense clouds of methane it is known as one of Africa's "Killer Lakes." The project by Gasmeth Energy, owned by U.S. and Nigerian businessmen and Rwandans, would suck gas from the lake's deep floor and bottle it for use as fuel. This should, in turn, help prevent toxic gas bubbling to the surface. The seven-year deal, signed on Friday, was announced on Tuesday. Rwanda already has two companies that extract gas from Lake Kivu to power electricity plants. Clare Akamanzi, chief executive of the Rwanda Development Board, told Reuters bottled methane would help cut local reliance on wood and charcoal, the fuels most households and tea factories use in…

When he was younger, the only thing that Enrique Morales knew about marijuana was that you smoked it to get high.   Today, the former driver is a horticulturist on a cannabis plantation about 80 miles (130 kilometers) west of the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo and he says drops of marijuana oil have been key to treating his mother's osteoarthritis.   "My perception has now changed. It is a plant that has a lot of properties!" he said.   The company that owns the plantation, Fotmer SA, is now part of a flourishing and growing medical cannabis industry in Uruguay.   The country got a head start on competitors in December 2013 when it became the first in the world to regulate the cannabis market from growing to purchase, a…

Taxi-drivers in the Spanish capital seeking tighter regulation of Uber and other ride-hailing services called off their indefinite strike on Tuesday after 16 days during which they obtained no concessions from the Madrid regional government. Madrid's refusal to accept drivers' demands came after ride-hailing companies Uber and Cabify said last week they were suspending their services in Barcelona in response to the regional government's imposition of limits on how they operate in the city. Union representatives in Madrid said the strike had demonstrated the unity and power of the drivers, which would help them continue the fight for their demands. "It is a long war, in which you can lose battles, but in the end I'm sure we can win," Julio Sanz, head of the Taxi Federation union, told reporters.…

President Donald Trump plans to nominate David Malpass, a Trump administration critic of the World Bank, to lead the institution.   That's according to a senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorized to comment publicly on personnel decisions.   Trump is expected to make an announcement later this week.   Malpass, the undersecretary for international affairs at the Treasury Department, has been a sharp critic of the World Bank, especially over its lending to China.   Malpass would succeed Jim Yong Kim, who announced in January that he is stepping down three years before his term was set to expire.   The final decision on a successor to Kim will be up to the bank's board.   Politico was first to report on…

Negotiating new World Trade Organization rules to try to rein in China's "mercantilist" trade practices would be largely a futile exercise, the Trump administration's trade office said on Monday, vowing to pursue its unilateral approach to protect U.S. workers, farmers and businesses. The U.S. Trade Representative's office used its annual report to Congress on China's WTO compliance in part to justify its actions in a six-month trade war with Beijing aimed at forcing changes in China's economic model. The report also reflects the United States' continued frustration with the WTO's inability to curb what it sees as China's trade-distorting non-market economic policies, and offered little hope that situation could change soon. "It is unrealistic to expect success in any negotiation of new WTO rules that would restrict China's current approach…

Brazil's government has opened discussions with congressional leaders, state governors and mayors on a pension reform bill that would set the minimum retirement age for men and women at 65, a government official said on Monday. The proposal is one of several under consideration, as President Jair Bolsonaro looks to get the legislative ball rolling on his ambitious plans to overhaul Brazil's creaking social security system. Currently, if workers have contributed into the system for at least 15 years, the earliest men can retire is 65 and for women it is 60. But men can retire at any age if they have paid into the system for at least 35 years, and women if they have contributed for 30 years. Speaking to reporters outside the Economy Ministry in Brasilia, Rogerio…

Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, who was arrested in Canada and faces possible extradition to the United States, is exploring a defense that claims U.S. charges against her are politically motivated, the Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday. Meng, the chief financial officer of China's Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., is the central figure in a high-stakes dispute between the United States and China. Canada arrested Meng in December at the request of the United States and last month she was charged with wire fraud that violated U.S. sanctions on Iran. "The political overlay of this case is remarkable," Richard Peck, lead counsel for Meng, told the Toronto newspaper in a telephone interview. "That's probably the one thing that sets it apart from any other extradition case I've ever seen. It's…