Via China's Investments Prompt Call for New Rules
By Bob Davis
The political furor that accompanies many overseas investments by China is easy to understand. What to do about the investments is a lot more complicated.
Unlike private companies, China's state-owned enterprises serve two masters: the Communist Party and private shareholders. And the party holds the trump card, because it, not the board, appoints CEOs. Western policy makers suspect such...
Read MoreVia China's Investments Prompt Call for New RulesEgypt Plans to Double Non-Oil Exports to U.S.
Egypt is planning to double its non-oil exports to the United States in the new year, minister of trade and industry Hatem Saleh said in a statement on Tuesday. Egypt aims to "create new opportunities for exports through cooperation with retail chains in the United States," the minister added.
According to the ministry's website, Egyptian non-oil exports to the U.S. in the first nine...
Read MoreBy Marina Sysoyeva
The U.S., the world’s largest soybean exporter, may double shipments of the oilseed to Russia after eliminating some trade barriers with the country.
The U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 16 passed legislation that would allow President Barack Obama to grant permanent normal trade relations with Russia. The U.S. won’t be able to take full advantage of Russia’s joining the World Trade...
Read MoreBy Jack Ewing
A free-trade agreement between the United States and Europe, elusive for more than a decade but with a potentially huge economic effect, is gaining momentum and may finally be attainable, business and political leaders say.
Arduous negotiations still lie ahead, but if technical hurdles can be overcome, supporters of a pact argue, it could rival the North American Free Trade Agreement in...
Read MoreVia CEPR
Paul Krugman and Ezra Klein both say, following Joe Gagnon, that the time for criticizing China for "currency manipulation" has passed. This is partly true in the sense that China's currency has risen substantially in real terms against the dollar over the last few years. However this does not mean either that the relative value of the dollar and the yuan is now at a sustainable level or that...
Read MoreIf the sparks flying in Canada are any indication, the next round of Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations set for Auckland, New Zealand December 3-12 will reach beyond issues of market access for goods such as dairy, sugar and textiles into a whole new arena – access to information.
Canada formally joined the TPP talks, which now involve 11 countries with a combined population of...
Read MoreVia The Daily Beast
China-U.S. trade tensions are mounting. The two presidential candidates are falling over themselves to bash China. GOP nominee Mitt Romney routinely chastises President Obama for being soft on China, and promises that, if elected, he will deem China a currency manipulator. President Obama is using more than his bully pulpit to express anger at China. This week, his administration filed a case...
Read MoreVia National Journal
Former British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday said President Obama was equipped to turn around the global economy, but was critical of U.S. trade policy.
Pushing for cooperation between the U.S., China, India and Europe in global trade, Brown said the U.S. needs to refocus some of its economic policies.
“You, America, need to export to the rest of the world,” the former...
Read MoreProtectionists have never found an international trade agreement they don’t hate – even when their protectionist President is on board.
Two months after approving the 2009 tariff on Chinese tires that only served to raise prices for U.S. consumers without restoring a single lost American tire job, President Obama did something smart and announced U.S. participation in the Trans-Pacific...
Read MoreThe race for the White House is all about jobs and the economy.
Question is, in the seven weeks between now the Election Day, will either President Obama or Governor Romney connect free trade to job growth in a way that seizes the advantage with worried voters?
At this point, it’s hard to say whether either side really gets it.
Meeting in Charlotte, Democrats talked jobs but...
Read MoreVia Business Insider
In the FX world, nothing captures differentials in Chinese and US growth like AUD/CAD. Australia and Canada are tied at the neck to their trading partners.
Early in the year, AUD/CAD declined as the US economy showed signs of surprising to the upside. Jobs were plentiful and economists were talking about 3% growth. At the same time, worries about slower Chinese growth were beginning to...
Read MoreVia Asia Times
By Benjamin A Shobert
Something has to be done to balance the United States' trade problem with China. Or, at least, that is the belief that is animating much of the political discourse taking place in Washington DC.
This very specific objective is front and center in the minds of US politicians as they rush towards the upcoming general elections in November. The problem is that the specific nature of their...
Read MoreVia China Daily
China urged the world's major economies to increase trade openness in order to revive the global economy, as world leaders reached a consensus on further countering protectionism in a last-minute deal during the G20 Summit on Wednesday.
In the final communique of the summit, which was held in the Mexican resort city of Los Cabos, leaders pledged not to put up new trade barriers until...
Read MoreVia Economist.com
TRADE negotiations sometimes seem like scrubbing the floor. They feel virtuous, take for ever and entail back-breaking work; but, when done, it is often hard to see any difference. So a first reaction to the announcement on May 13th that China, Japan and South Korea are to open talks on establishing a trilateral free-trade area is to shrug. The idea has been around for a decade. There are many...
Read MoreThe U.S. Commerce Department set duties from 13.74 percent to 26 percent on imports of wind towers from China used by the energy industry, siding with U.S. manufacturers including Broadwind Energy Inc. (BWEN) (BWEN) The shares surged.
The agency released preliminary results today of its investigation into a complaint from the Wind Tower Trade Coalition, which claims its members are...
Read MoreThe U.S. Commerce Department set duties from 13.74 percent to 26 percent on imports of wind towers from China used by the energy industry, siding with U.S. manufacturers including Broadwind Energy Inc. (BWEN) (BWEN) The shares surged.
The agency released preliminary results today of its investigation into a complaint from the Wind Tower Trade Coalition, which claims its members are...
Read MoreVia Yahoo Finance
BEIJING (MarketWatch) — China’s Ministry of Commerce said Thursday that a months-long investigation had revealed that U.S. support for six clean energy projects violated World Trade Organization rules and acted as barriers to trade.
State-controlled Xinhua news agency said later that the ministry found that the U.S. government provided renewable energy companies unfair grants that are...
Read MorePetroChina Co Ltd will focus on storage and refining assets in the Americas this year, as part of its plan to establish three overseas operation centers to facilitate trade, said Chairman Jiang Jiemin on Wednesday.
Two other foreign operation centers - one for Asia, based in Singapore, and one for Europe, based in London - are taking shape.
Jiang sought to deflect media reports...
Read MoreCollision looms between growing cooperation of East Asian countries and US-dominated regionalism\
The Fifth Trilateral Summit between China, Japan and the Republic of Korea on May 13-14, was undoubtedly a weather vane indicating the future development of the trilateral relationship and East Asian integration.
The summit issued the Joint Declaration on the Enhancement of Trilateral...
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