Already threatened by escalating U.S. taxes on its goods, China is about to find it much harder to invest in U.S. companies or to buy American technology in such cutting-edge areas as robotics, artificial intelligence and virtual reality. President Donald Trump is expected as early as this week to sign …
Chinese state media are reacting to U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade actions against China in diverse ways. While denouncing the U.S. leader’s actions, Beijing is also using its media to calm markets and express concern about the impact on the Chinese economy. An editorial in the Communist Party’s People’s Daily …
Longtime PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi will step down as the top executive and the world’s second-largest food and beverage company. Nooyi, who was born in India, is a rarity on Wall Street as a woman and a minority leading a Fortune 100 company. She oversaw the company during a turbulent …
Russia engaged in more extensive oil exports to North Korea than had been previously reported, by setting up an illicit trade network that is likely still being used today to evade United Nations sanctions, according a South Korean research organization. A recent report issued by the Asan Institute for Policy …
Washington is observing the latest escalation in tensions between the United States and its trading partners, with China threatening to slap tariffs on more than 5,000 American-made products totaling $60 billion. VOA’s Michael Bowman reports, Beijing’s announcement came after the Trump administration proposed raising tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese …
British Trade Minister Liam Fox said “intransigence” from the European Union was pushing Britain toward a no-deal Brexit, in an interview published on Saturday by the Sunday Times. With less than eight months until Britain quits the EU, the government has yet to agree a divorce deal with Brussels and has …
Honeybees are essential to our food supply, but bee colonies around the world are declining. Among the main culprits are insecticides containing chemicals known as neonicotinoids, which are highly toxic to honeybees. In Europe, where about 80 percent of crops rely to some degree on insect pollination, the chemical is …
China’s targeting of U.S. liquefied natural gas and crude oil exports opens a new front in the trade war between the two countries, at a time when the White House is trumpeting growing U.S. energy export prowess. China included LNG for the first time in its list of proposed tariffs …
George Kamau Githome uses a feather duster to clean off hardware and bootleg movies displayed for sale at his kiosk in Mathare, one of Nairobi, Kenya’s largest slums. Githome and his family of 10 kids recently lost everything they owned in a fire. But he was able to rebuild because …
The U.S. unemployment rate dropped slightly in July, while job gains were lower than many analysts predicted. Friday’s report from the Labor Department shows the jobless rate fell one-tenth of a percent to 3.9 percent, one of the lowest figures in years. The world’s largest economy also had a net …
U.S. President Donald Trump sought to ratchet up pressure on China for trade concessions by proposing a higher 25 percent tariff on $200 billion worth of Chinese imports, his administration said Wednesday. U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Trump directed the increase from a previously proposed 10 percent duty because China has refused to meet U.S. …
The Federal Reserve is leaving its benchmark interest rate unchanged while signaling further gradual rate hikes in the months ahead as long as the economy stays healthy. The Fed’s decision left the central bank’s key short-term rate at 1.75 percent to 2 percent – the level hit in June when …
European Union imports of U.S. soybeans were already rising substantially before a top EU official told President Donald Trump last week that the bloc would buy more. EU Commission figures released Wednesday show that 37 percent of the bloc’s soybean imports last month were coming from the U.S., compared with …
Each morning, Kamarunisa Poovummada sips her cup of tea while watching waves from the Arabian Sea crash around a water treatment plant opposite her house on Kavaratti island, off India’s southwest coast. She links the taste of her perfectly brewed cup to the desalination plant that has brought potable water …
Brazil’s three largest fuel distribution companies are under investigation for fixing prices at the pump, police said on Tuesday, reigniting debate over potential collusion among gas station owners in Latin America’s largest oil producer. The firms targeted by the probe are Petrobras Distribuidora SA, a subsidiary of state oil company …
The U.S. Treasury Department said on Tuesday that it had extended the deadline for investors to divest holdings in sanctioned Russian companies EN+, GAZ Group and Rusal to Oct. 23 from Aug. 5. The U.S. Treasury in April imposed sanctions against billionaire Oleg Deripaska and eight companies in which he …
Iran said on Tuesday U.S. President Donald Trump was mistaken to expect Saudi Arabia and other oil producers to compensate for supply losses caused by U.S. sanctions on Iran, after OPEC production rose only modestly in July. The comments, from Iran’s OPEC governor, came a day after a Reuters survey …
McDonald’s is fighting to hold onto customers as the Big Mac turns 50, but it isn’t changing the makings of its most famous burger. The company is celebrating the 1968 national launch of the double-decker sandwich whose ingredients of “two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions and a …
U.S. companies seeking to be exempted from President Donald Trump’s tariff on imported steel are accusing American steel manufacturers of spreading inaccurate and misleading information, and they fear it may torpedo their requests. Robert Miller, president and CEO of NLMK USA, said objections raised by U.S. Steel and Nucor to …
Iran’s currency hit new lows with just under a week before new U.S. economic sanctions are due to take effect on August 4, despite the appointment of a new central bank governor and a new economic team. Arab and Iranian media reported the Iranian riyal hit a new low of …
Building on President Donald Trump’s “Indo-Pacific” strategy, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will announce a series of investment initiatives in Asia on Monday focusing on digital economy, energy and infrastructure. The announcement, to be made at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce forum in Washington, comes at a time when …
White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said Sunday he believes the 4.1 percent growth the U.S. recorded in the last three months is sustainable in the coming months despite skepticism expressed by independent economists. “There’s just a lot of good things going on,” Kudlow told CNN. He said President Donald …
Agriculture ministers from the G-20 countries criticized protectionism in a joint statement Saturday and vowed to reform World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, but did not detail what steps they would take to improve the food trade system. In the statement, they said they were “concerned about the increasing use of protectionist nontariff trade measures, inconsistently with …
President Donald Trump falsely claimed he’s pulled off “an economic turnaround of historic proportions.” Speaking at the White House Friday after the government reported that the economy grew at an annual rate of 4.1 percent in the second quarter, Trump declared that the gains were sustainable and would only accelerate. …
Friday’s positive numbers on the U.S. economic growth are “very, very sustainable,” according to U.S. President Donald Trump. His comments came after figures showed U.S. GDP growth hit 4.1 percent in the second quarter. The question is whether that growth is sustainable, as VOA’s Bill Gallo reports from the White …
Some European companies are rethinking their strategies to cushion the impact of trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China. The focus will switch back to China after a truce on tariffs emerged from U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker …