A federal court in New York has charged 22 Chinese importers with smuggling nearly half-a-billion dollars in counterfeit goods into the United States from China. The fake products include such popular luxury items as Louis Vuitton bags, Michael Kors wallets, and Chanel perfume. Twenty-one of the defendants were arrested Thursday. …
Russia says the latest U.S. sanctions imposed on Russian, Chinese, and Singaporean companies are “destructive” and “useless.” The U.S. penalized the three companies Wednesday, accusing them of helping North Korea avoid international sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Thursday the new U.S. sanctions come when “joint international efforts” are …
A small number of Turks are responding to their president’s call to boycott American electronic goods by posting videos in which they smash iPhones with bats, hammers and other blunt instruments. In one video , a man collects iPhones from several youths squatting in front of a Turkish flag, lays …
Mexico’s economy minister on Wednesday said that Mexico and the United States may not meet an August goal to finish bilateral talks to revamp the NAFTA trade deal, which is beset by disagreements over automobile trade rules and other issues. Top Mexican officials started their fourth week of talks with …
Singapore is the setting for new Hollywood movie ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ – an adaptation of a best-selling novel that explores the insatiable consumerism of new money and old-world opulence in a continent producing more billionaires than anywhere else. While the low-tax financial hub is often called a playground for the …
Toyota is likely to make 120,000 more cars a year in the Chinese port city of Tianjin as part of a medium-term strategy that’s gathering pace as China-Japan ties improve, said four company insiders with knowledge of the matter. The Japanese auto maker’s plan to boost annual production capacity by …
Turkey on Wednesday announced tariff hikes on a range of U.S. goods in the latest back-and-forth move amid a deteriorating relationship between the two countries. The extra tariffs apply to imports of vehicles, alcohol, coal, rice and cosmetics. Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Twitter the increases were being …
New Zealand school teachers went on strike on Wednesday for the first time in more than 20 years, challenging the Labor government’s plans to balance promised fiscal responsibility against growing demands to increase public sector salaries. The government’s first budget in May was stretched to fulfill its promise to juggle …
Tonga Prime Minister Akalisi Pohiva has called for China to write-off debts owed by Pacific island countries, warning that repayments impose a huge burden on the impoverished nations. Chinese aid in the Pacific has ballooned in recent years with much of the funds coming in the form of loans from …
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened Tuesday to boycott U.S. electronic goods in response to what he says is a targeted economic war being waged against Turkey by the United States. The diplomatic dispute between the two countries has helped spark an economic crisis in Turkey and push its currency, …
Vienna has dislodged Melbourne for the first time at the top of the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index, strengthening the Austrian capital’s claim to being the world’s most pleasant city to live in. The two metropolises have been neck and neck in the annual survey of 140 urban centers …
Venezuela’s heavily subsidized domestic gasoline prices should rise to international levels to avoid billions of dollars in annual losses due to fuel smuggling, President Nicolas Maduro said in a televised address on Monday. “Gasoline must be sold at an international price to stop smuggling to Colombia and the Caribbean,” Maduro …
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, embroiled in a bitter dispute with the U.S., a NATO ally, contended Sunday the plunging value of his country’s lira currency amounted to a “political plot” against Turkey. Erdogan, speaking to political supporters in the Black Sea resort of Trabzon, said, “The aim of the …
Iran’s official IRNA news agency is reporting that China’s state-owned petroleum corporation has taken a majority share of the country’s South Pars gas project after French oil and gas company Total announced it would pull out because renewed U.S. economic sanctions against Iran. The Saturday report quotes Mohammad Mostafavi, an …
France deems unacceptable a European Commission proposal to exclude French ports from a rerouting of a strategic trade corridor between Ireland and mainland Europe after Brexit, the government said. At the moment much of Ireland’s trade with the continent goes via Britain in trucks. However, with less than eight months to go until Britain leaves …
By most indicators, the U.S. economy is doing well. An achievement that President Donald Trump has boasted about on many occasions. But whether Americans see it that way, may depend on which side of the political aisle they’re on. This report by White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara explores partisanship and …
The Turkish lira suffered its worst one-day loss in a decade Friday after President Donald Trump announced that the United States would hike tariffs, prompting investor confidence to slump. Trump announced the doubling of aluminum and steel tariffs in a tweet Friday, citing bilateral strains. Ties between the countries have …
A threat of more U.S. sanctions has sent the ruble tumbling to its weakest since mid-2016 but authorities are not expected to leap to the currency’s defense after weathering a similar storm in April, analysts said. The ruble crashed to 67.67 versus the dollar on Friday, losing more than 6 …
Consumer prices in the U.S. rose a modest 2.9 percent in July from a year ago, as inflation rose gradually but slowly. Friday’s Labor Department report showed the Consumer Price Index, a broad measure of Americans’ living expenses, increased two-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month. Core prices, …
Chinese state media on Thursday accused the United States of a “mobster mentality” in its move to implement additional tariffs on Chinese goods and warned that Beijing had all the necessary means to fight back. The comments marked a ratcheting up in tensions between the world’s two largest economies over a trade dispute, which …
New York’s city council on Wednesday dealt a blow to Uber and other car-for-hire companies, passing a bill to cap the number of vehicles they operate and impose minimum pay standards on drivers. The city of 8.5 million is the biggest app-ride market in the United States, where public transport …
China and Germany defended their business ties with Iran on Wednesday in the face of President Donald Trump’s warning that any companies trading with the Islamic Republic would be barred from the United States. The comments from Beijing and Berlin signaled growing anger from partners of the United States, which …
China’s exports to the United States surged last month as its merchants rushed to fill orders ahead of a jump in U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods. Its shipments to the United States climbed 13 percent in July from a year earlier, to $41.5 billion, after a roughly similar rise in …
U.S. President Donald Trump predicted Tuesday the United States and China will have a “fantastic trading relationship” but one that will be different from the way it has been under previous presidents. Speaking to a group of invited business leaders, Trump said he wants China to do well, but also …
New York City’s iconic but imperiled yellow cab industry may be getting help from lawmakers who want to pump the brakes on fast-expanding ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft. In what would be a first-in-the-nation step if passed, the City Council on Wednesday is set to vote on proposals that …
Venezuela’s state-run oil company PDVSA has limited the damage from an unprecedented slump in crude exports by transferring oil between tankers at sea and loading vessels in neighboring Cuba to avoid asset seizures. But the OPEC member nation is still fulfilling less than 60 percent of its obligations under supply …