Sabtu, 12 Oktober 2019
US, China strike trade deal that could end long dispute - Al Jazeera English
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCXXFmunzEA
2019-10-12 07:39:22Z
52780404540953
U.S. suspends China tariff hike in temporary trade war truce - Global News
The Trump administration and China declared a temporary truce Friday in their 15-month trade war. Yet the grievances that led them to impose tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of each other’s goods remain largely unresolved.
The administration agreed to suspend a tariff hike on $250 billion worth of Chinese imports that was set to take effect Tuesday. And China agreed to buy up to $50 billion in U.S. farm products.
The de-escalation in tension between the world’s two largest economies was welcomed by financial markets. The U.S.-China hostilities have alarmed investors and escalated costs and uncertainties for many businesses.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced the cease-fire in a White House meeting with the top Chinese negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He. The news followed two days of talks in Washington, the 13th round of negotiations between the two countries’ delegations.
“It took us a long time to get here, but it’s something that’s going to be great for China and great for the USA,” Trump said.
Many of the details, though, remained to be worked out. And some of the thorniest issues — such as U.S. allegations that China forces foreign companies to hand over trade secrets — were dealt with only partially, or not at all, and will require further talks.
“The president is acting as if a lot of Chinese concessions have been nailed down, and they just haven’t,” said Derek Scissors, a China specialist at the conservative American Enterprise Institute.
The negotiators have so far reached their tentative agreement only in principle. No documents have been signed.
And the threat of escalation still hangs over the two countries: Trump has yet to drop plans to impose tariffs that are set to take effect Dec. 15 on an additional $160 billion in Chinese products — a move that would extend the sanctions to just about everything China ships to the United States.
While providing scant details of what was agreed to Friday, the White House said Beijing pledged to be more transparent about how it sets the value of its currency, the yuan. The administration has long accused China of manipulating the yuan lower to give its exporters a competitive edge in foreign markets.
China has also agreed to open its markets to U.S. banks and other financial services providers, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
The trade war has inflicted an economic toll on both countries. U.S. manufacturers have been deeply hurt by rising costs from the tariffs and by uncertainty over when and how the trade hostilities may end. Friday’s truce at least opens the door to progress.
“They’re trying to de-escalate,” said Timothy Keeler, a former chief of staff at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representatives. “I think it serves both sides’ interests because both sides were feeling pain.”
Stock prices had been up substantially all day, mainly in anticipation of a significant trade agreement. But once the White House announced the contours of the tentative accord, the market shed some of its gains. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had risen more than 500 points at its high, closed up at 319.
“This is an encouraging first phase,” said Craig Allen, president of the U.S.-China Business Council. “We await word on how implementation will be measured and in what timeframe, as well as details on scheduling subsequent phases.”
The U.S. and Chinese negotiators didn’t deal this week with a major dispute over the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Huawei, saying it poses a threat to national security because its equipment can be used for espionage. Trump has said he was willing to use Huawei as a bargaining chip in the trade talks.
The administration still has in place tariffs on more than $360 billion worth of Chinese imports. What changed Friday was that Trump suspended plans to raise existing tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products from 25 per cent to 30 per cent next week.
Beijing has lashed back by taxing about $120 billion in U.S. goods, focusing on soybeans and other agricultural products in a shot at Trump supporters in rural America.
Last year, U.S. farm exports to China plummeted 53 per cent to less than $9.2 billion. The additional Chinese purchases that were promised Friday could provide an economic boost to hard-hit U.S. farmers.
The two sides were close to a more comprehensive deal in early May. But talks stalled after the administration accused China of reneging on earlier commitments. Trump acknowledged that Friday’s deal has yet to be put down on paper but said that wouldn’t be a problem.
“China wants it badly, and we want it also,” the president said. “We should be able to get that done over the next four weeks.”
Myron Brilliant, executive vice president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, drew encouragement from Friday’s developments.
“Finally, a ray of hope for the U.S.-China trade relationship,” he said. “While there remains significant work ahead to address many of the most important U.S. trade and investment priorities, we will continue to lend our full support.”
Still, Gregory Daco, an economist at Oxford Economics, suggested that the partial nature of the deal won’t relieve much of the uncertainty surrounding trade policy that has discouraged many American companies from investing in new equipment and expanding.
“For businesses this will mean less damage, not greater certainty … “Beyond the promises and niceties, the deal doesn’t address key underlying issues,” Daco said in a research note.
The two countries are deadlocked primarily over the Trump administration’s assertions that China deploys predatory tactics — including outright theft — in a sharp-elbowed drive to become the global leader in robotics, self-driving cars and other advanced technology.
Beijing has been reluctant to make the kind of substantive policy reforms that would satisfy the administration. Doing so would likely require scaling back China’s aspirations for technological supremacy, which it sees as crucial to its prosperity.
© 2019 The Canadian Press
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October 12, 2019 at 07:43AM
Canadian unemployment rate nears four-decade low; story in Alberta not as rosy - Calgary Herald
OTTAWA — Canada’s unemployment rate nudged down to a near four-decade low last month as the economy added more jobs than analysts expected — dropping an economic figure into a tight electoral race, and warnings from economists that things may not be as rosy as they seem.
Statistics Canada’s monthly labour force survey showed the country added about 54,000 net new jobs in September, driven largely by gains in full-time work, and dropping the jobless rate nationally by 0.2 points to 5.5 per cent.
However, much of the employment growth was concentrated in Ontario, where employment rose by 41,000 in September — mostly in full-time work. The unemployment rate declined 0.3 percentage points to 5.3 per cent. The story isn’t as rosy in Alberta, where the employment rate sits at 6.6 per cent.
Nationally, the numbers surpassed analysts’ expectations of a gain of 10,000 jobs, according to financial markets data firm Refinitiv, after an August jump of 81,000.
The national statistics office said September’s jobs growth was largely concentrated in an expansion of public-sector staff and self-employed workers. The report also said 70,000 of the new jobs were full-time, as the number of part-time workers declined.
The survey also said that young workers aged 15 to 24 years old saw drops in the ranks of full- and part-time workers, inching their unemployment rate to 11.9 per cent — not all that dissimilar from the same time one year ago.
Compared with a year earlier, the numbers show Canada added 456,000 jobs, for an increase of 2.4 per cent, and average hourly wages, too, were up about 4.3 per cent from the same time in 2018.
“Canada’s labour market has really been on a tear over the last year — job growth has been very strong,” said Josh Nye, senior economist with RBC Economics.
“Unemployment is low, wages are starting to pick up. Wage growth was really the missing ingredient in what looked like a pretty strong labour market backdrop last year.”
Even though year-over-year private-sector jobs were up, the month-over-month numbers for private-sector employment were down by 21,000. More health-care sector and education workers drove overall job gains.
Stephen Brown, senior Canada economist with Capital Economics, said the growth in public services and self-employment may suggest the economy is not as dynamic as the high-level numbers make it out to be.
“It’s still an encouraging thing that unemployment is falling, and certainly it suggests we’re not on the cusp of a serious downturn in the economy,” Brown said.
“But it’s maybe not quite what we would want to see if we could have our ideal jobs report.”
BMO chief economist Doug Porter said that despite the rock-solid growth in job numbers over the last year, the broader economy remains lacklustre with year-over-year GDP growth crawling along at 1.3 per cent.
“We’re getting the jobs gains, but it’s not really translating into the big gains in spending or the broader economy in terms of overall output gains,” Porter said.
“So I wouldn’t say the overall picture is entirely rosy, but it’s still I’d regard as encouraging that we’re continuing to churn out job increases.”
Avery Shenfeld, chief economist with CIBC Capital Markets, said in a note that the low jobless rate will likely cement the case for the Bank of Canada to hold its trend-setting interest rate in the short-term.
But he warned that economists will keep an eye towards any data over the rest of the year suggesting a global slowdown is lapping up on Canada’s economic shores.
With days before voting day, the federal Liberals pounced on the high-level numbers to push their re-election bid. Likewise, the Ontario Progressive Conservatives — whom Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has used as a foil during the federal campaign — also took credit for the 41,000 jobs created in the province in September.
In an online analysis of labour force survey data for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, economist Jim Stanford wrote the job market has fared well during the Trudeau Liberals’ time in office, although didn’t do as well on two measures — the employment rate and job creation rate — as Jean Chretien’s Liberal did during his terms as prime minister.
Stanford, the Harold Innis Industry Professor of Economics at McMaster University, wrote that federal income-support programs like the Canada Child Benefit among other measures have contributed to the labour market performance.
— With files from Postmedia
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October 12, 2019 at 02:34AM
General Motors appeals directly to employees as strike losses mount - CBC.ca
General Motors Co. took the unusual step of appealing directly to employees in a blog post on Friday that laid out the terms of the automaker's latest offer aimed at ending a month-long strike, angering the union with which it is negotiating.
While emphasizing GM's commitment to the collective bargaining process, the letter, signed by Gerald Johnson, executive vice-president for global manufacturing, circumvents United Auto Workers (UAW) leadership and points to frustration at a lack of progress on ending a conflict that has already cost the company more than $1 billion US.
The UAW strike began on Sept. 16, with the union's 48,000 members at GM seeking higher pay, greater job security, a bigger share of profit and protection of healthcare benefits. Credit Suisse estimated the loss could hit about $1.5 billion.
As part of its revised offer, GM boosted the amount it plans to invest in the United States to about $9 billion from its previous offer of $7 billion, a source familiar with the offer said.
Of the new total, $7.7 billion would be invested directly in GM plants, with the rest going to joint ventures including a potential battery plant near the Lordstown, Ohio, factory that has been idled, the source said.
GM stock was up 3 per cent at $35.71 at midday on Friday.
What else the new offer includes
The company said the offer also includes increased compensation through wages and one-time payments, preserving industry-leading healthcare benefits without increasing workers' costs, enhanced profit sharing with unlimited upside and a higher ratification bonus than the $8,000 previously offered.
For temporary workers, GM said its offer would create a path to permanent employment and include a ratification bonus.
"The strike has been hard on you, your families, our communities, the company, our suppliers and dealers," GM's letter read, saying the latest offer increased compensation and promised a path to full-time jobs for temporary workers.
"We have advised the union that it's critical that we get back to producing quality vehicles for our customers. ... Our offer builds on the winning formula we have all benefited from over the past several years."
The UAW in a statement said GM was "playing games at the expense of workers" and accused the automaker of half-truths and "purposefully stalling the process to starve UAW-GM workers off the picket lines."
"At every step of the way, GM has attempted to undermine the ongoing, good-faith efforts the UAW has made to end this strike," said the union, which added it continues to negotiate for a deal.
In a Thursday letter to UAW leaders, GM urged the union to agree to around-the-clock negotiations, while the union insisted in its own letter on dealing with five specific issues first before it responded to the broader proposal made to union negotiators Monday.
GM Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra met on Wednesday with UAW President Gary Jones and lead GM negotiator Terry Dittes to urge a faster response by the union to the company's last offer.
The fate of factories
One of the five issues the committees are discussing is the fate of four U.S. factories that GM has indicated could close; another is future technological changes to production, according to the UAW letter. Dittes said he did not know when the issues would be resolved, suggesting a final deal may not be close.
UAW workers are concerned that as GM shifts to more electric vehicles it will require fewer workers, and that workers in battery production plants may earn less than those at existing transmission plants.
Reuters previously reported GM told the UAW it could build a new battery plant near the now-shuttered Lordstown factory, and assemble an electric truck at its Detroit Hamtramck plant.
Moody's said in a Friday report that GM must maintain its flexibility under any new deal to build electric and self-driving vehicles without its fixed costs rising further. It said GM's annual costs in wages and benefits are more than $1 billion higher than foreign automakers operating U.S. plants.
"It is critical for GM that any new UAW contract not allow an even wider differential," Moody's said.
"We expect that the long-term strategic benefits of obtaining a UAW contract ... will outweigh the costs of enduring a protracted strike that might last into November," Moody's added.
On Sunday, the UAW said the talks took a "turn for the worse" and on Tuesday the union urged GM to boost U.S. vehicle production. Union workers are angry about production of trucks and sport-utility vehicles in Mexico.
The UAW's membership is largely in the Midwest, in states that could be critical to both sides in the November 2020 presidential election, so the strike has drawn the attention of Republican President Donald Trump, his rivals seeking the Democratic nomination, and U.S. lawmakers. They have urged GM to build more vehicles in the United States and shift work from Mexico.
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October 11, 2019 at 11:37PM
Visa, Mastercard shun Facebook's Libra digital currency plan - CTV News
Ken Sweet, The Associated Press
Published Friday, October 11, 2019 5:24PM EDT
Last Updated Friday, October 11, 2019 5:47PM EDT
NEW YORK -- Visa and Mastercard on Friday announced their departure from Facebook's Libra project, a potentially fatal blow to the social network's plan for a worldwide digital currency.
Along with the two payment giants, several other large companies have said they're exiting Libra. Payment processing company Stripe said it is stepping back, as well as online auction company eBay.
PayPal was the first of Libra's big partners to leave, announcing last week it would no longer be involved.
Facebook faced substantial criticism over its plans to create a separate, private currency system to allow cross-border payments. The Libra Association, based in Switzerland, was supposed to give the currency project a comfortable arm's length distance from Facebook, which wouldn't own Libra.
Despite those efforts, financial regulators, as well as members of Congress on both sides of the political divide, noted the privacy issues raised with the social networking company controlling a currency, while also expressing concern about money laundering. Even President Donald Trump tweeted that Facebook should be subject to U.S. banking laws if the Libra project were to move forward.
The impact of Libra's loss of Visa and Mastercard cannot be understated. The two hold an effective duopoly over credit and debit cards in the U.S. and Europe, and are making substantial inroads into developing countries' payment systems. Their initial agreement to join the Libra Association instantly gave Facebook's project legitimacy.
But both companies made it clear from the onset that their interest in Libra was at least partly out of curiosity. It now appears that the political pressure on Facebook to drop the project was enough to convince a chunk of the original members to cut ties.
The Libra Association said in a statement that it is "focused on moving forward."
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October 12, 2019 at 04:24AM
Metro Vancouver bus and SeaBus workers vote to go on strike - Vancouver Sun
Bus and SeaBus drivers in Metro Vancouver have voted to go on strike.
Bus and SeaBus workers in Metro Vancouver have voted overwhelmingly in favour of going on strike, but no disruption of service is imminent.
The drivers and maintenance workers are employed by Coast Mountain Bus Company, the subsidiary of TransLink that operates buses and Seabuses.
Unifor, the union representing about 5,000 of the transit workers, said 99 per cent of the some 3,200 members who voted Thursday were in favour of a strike mandate, after negotiations for a new collective agreement broke off on Oct. 3.
“Our members take the responsibility of providing safe, dependable public transportation seriously and they’re asking Coast Mountain to properly recognize the dedication and effort that the workers put in day in and day out to properly deliver it,” Unifor national President Jerry Dias said in a statement.
Dias said a significant increase in ridership has strained resources and eroded working conditions.
In a statement Friday, Coast Mountain Bus said it had been informed of the vote for strike action.
“CMBC remains committed to reaching an acceptable negotiated settlement. Both parties will continue bargaining in the coming days. We don’t anticipate imminent disruption to service at this time.”
The Unifor Western regional director, Gavin McGarrigle, says the system overload is affecting drivers’ breaks and recovery time between trips as they struggle to maintain service.
“The end result is overworked drivers and that’s a serious safety issue that must be dealt with at the table,” he said.
The workers have been without a contract since March 31. Negotiations between the union and the company are set to resume Tuesday, and the union must give 72 hours notice of strike intentions.
Strike mandates are good for 90 days.
— With a file from The Canadian Press
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October 11, 2019 at 09:47PM
Jumat, 11 Oktober 2019
U.S. suspends plans to hike tariffs Tuesday on Chinese imports - CBC.ca
The Trump administration is suspending a tariff hike on $250 billion in Chinese imports that was set to take effect Tuesday, and China agreed to buy $40 billion to $50 billion in U.S. farm products as the world's two biggest economies reached a cease-fire in their 15-month trade war.
The White House said the two sides made some progress on the thornier issues, including China's lax protection of foreign intellectual property. But more work will have to be done on key differences in later negotiations, including U.S. allegations that China forces foreign countries to hand over trade secrets in return for access to the Chinese market.
The U.S. and Chinese negotiators have so far reached their tentative agreement only in principle. No documents have been signed.
President Donald Trump announced the trade truce in a White House meeting with the top Chinese negotiator, Vice Premier Liu He. The news followed two days of talks in Washington.
"You're very tough negotiators," Trump said to the Chinese delegation.
Trump has yet to drop plans to impose tariffs Dec. 15 on an additional $160 billion in Chinese products, a move that would extend the sanctions to just about everything China ships to the United States. The December tariffs would cover a wide range of consumer goods, including clothes, toys and smartphones and would likely be felt by American shoppers.
While providing scant details of just what was agreed to Friday, the White House said Beijing has pledged to be more transparent about how it sets the value of its currency, the yuan. The Trump administration has accused China of manipulating the yuan lower to give its exporter a price advantage in foreign markets.
China has agreed to open its markets to U.S. banks and other financial services providers, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
Earlier Friday, China announced a timetable for carrying out a promise to allow full foreign ownership of some finance businesses, starting with futures traders on Jan. 1, as Beijing tries to make its slowing economy more competitive and efficient.
Ownership limits will be ended for mutual fund companies on April 1 and for securities firm on Dec. 1, the China Securities Regulatory Commission said. Until now, foreign investors have been limited to owning 51 per cent of such businesses.
Economic toll
For now, the two sides have come to "almost a complete agreement" on both financial services and currency issues, Mnuchin said.
The trade war has inflicted an economic toll on both countries. U.S. manufacturers have been hurt by rising costs from the tariffs and by uncertainty over when and how the trade hostilities may end.
"They're trying to de-escalate," said Timothy Keeler, a former chief of staff at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representatives. "I think it serves both sides' interests because both sides were feeling pain."
Stock prices had been up substantially all day, mainly in anticipation of a significant trade agreement. But once the White House announced the contours of the tentative accord, the market shed some of its gains. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had risen more than 500 points at its high, closed up 319.
The U.S. and Chinese negotiators did not deal this week with a dispute over the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. The U.S. has imposed sanctions on Huawei, saying it poses a threat to U.S. national security because its equipment can be used for espionage. Trump has said he was willing to use Huawei as a bargaining chip in the trade talks.
The United States still has in place tariffs on more than $360 billion worth of Chinese imports and is set to hit an additional $160 billion in December. What changed Friday was that Trump suspended plans to raise the existing tariffs on $250 billion in Chinese products from 25 per cent to 30 per cent next week.
"This is an encouraging first phase," said Craig Allen, president of the U.S.-China Business Council. "We await word on how implementation will be measured and in what timeframe, as well as details on scheduling subsequent phases"
Agreement skeptics
Among the skeptics of Friday's agreement is Derek Scissors, a China expert at the American Enterprise Institute, who suggested that the deal amounted to merely a temporary pause in the conflict.
"The president is acting as if a lot of Chinese concessions have been nailed down, and they just haven't," Scissors said.
The two countries were close to a more comprehensive deal in early May. But talks stalled after the U.S. accused China of reneging on earlier commitments. Trump acknowledged that Friday's deal has yet to be put down on paper but said that wouldn't be a problem.
"China wants it badly, and we want it also," Trump said. "We should be able to get that done over the next four weeks."
Gregory Daco, an economist at Oxford Economics, said the partial nature of the deal won't relieve much of the uncertainty surrounding trade policy that has discouraged many American companies from investing in new equipment and expanding.
"For businesses this will mean less damage, not greater certainty," Daco said in a research note.
Daco has estimated that the trade fight will cut U.S. growth by about 0.6 percentage point in 2020. Friday's pact might reduce that slightly to 0.5 percentage point, he said. "While market reacted positively to the news, we caution that beyond the promises and niceties, the deal doesn't address key underlying issues," Daco wrote.
The two countries are deadlocked primarily over the Trump administration's assertions that China deploys predatory tactics — including outright theft — in a sharp-elbowed drive to become the global leader in robotics, self-driving cars and other advanced technology.
Beijing has been reluctant to make the kind of substantive policy reforms that would satisfy the administration. Doing so would likely require scaling back China's aspirations for technological supremacy, which it sees as crucial to its prosperity.
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October 12, 2019 at 04:55AM
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