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HONG KONG, June 26, 2024 (AFP) – Asian markets swung Wednesday following a tech-led bounce on Wall Street as investors prepare for the release of crucial US inflation data, while the yen fell back towards levels that have stirred intervention warnings from Japanese officials. The euro also remained under pressure ahead of weekend elections in France that polls suggest will see big wins for the far-right and leftwing parties pushing President Emmanuel Macron’s centrists into […]
WASHINGTON, June 6, 2024 (AFP) – The US trade deficit expanded slightly less than analysts expected in April, to the widest since late 2022, as imports rose more quickly than exports, according to government data released Thursday. The overall gap was $74.6 billion, growing from March’s revised $68.6 billion figure, said the Commerce Department. This was the largest deficit since October 2022, according to official data. US consumption has been more resilient than anticipated […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 18, 2024 (AFP) – The European Union and the Philippines announced the resumption of negotiations for a free trade agreement on Monday, with Brussels saying the first round of talks should begin “later this year”. “The conditions are right to take our trade relations to the next level,” EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said at a press conference in Brussels. Talks began in 2015 under then-Philippine president Benigno Aquino but stalled […]
MELBOURNE, March 4, 2024 (AFP) – The Philippines hopes to launch formal free trade agreement negotiations with the European Union “very soon”, Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo told AFP in an interview Monday. The Southeast Asian nation, which depends heavily on trade with China, wants to expand its economic relations with other countries to achieve greater “resiliency”, the minister said. “We’re hoping… to very soon begin free trade negotiations with the EU,” Manalo said. The Philippines […]
By Steven TRASK MELBOURNE, March 4, 2024 (AFP) – Leaders from Southeast Asian nations and Australia gathered in Melbourne on Monday are expected to denounce the “threat or use of force” to settle disputes in the region, a collective swipe at China. “We strive for a region where sovereignty and territorial integrity is respected,” a draft joint ASEAN-Australia statement obtained by AFP read. “We strive for a region where differences are managed through respectful dialogue, […]
By Hashem Osseiran and Agnes Pedrero ABU DHABI, March 1, 2024 (AFP) – A high-level WTO conference ended Saturday with a temporary extension of an e-commerce moratorium but no deals on agriculture and fisheries, throwing into doubt the effectiveness of the multilateral trade body. The outcomes of the World Trade Organization’s 13th ministerial conference in Abu Dhabi highlighted the sharp divisions between the body´s 164 members amid geopolitical tensions and economic headwinds that are threatening […]
DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 17, 2024 (AFP) – The World Trade Organization’s chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday said she was “less optimistic” about world trade in 2024, pointing to tensions in the Red Sea. The head of the international trade body said weaker global economic growth, “worsening geopolitical tensions, the new disruptions we see in the Red Sea, on the Suez Canal, the Panama Canal” meant “we are less optimistic”. She was speaking to journalists at […]
By Antoine GUY, with Emeline Burckel in London PARIS, Jan 5, 2024 (AFP) – International maritime trade has hit stormy waters as attacks by Yemen’s Huthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea has reduced the availability of ships, causing freight rates to surge. Most large international shipping companies have decided to reroute trading to avoid the Red Sea and Suez Canal through which 12 percent of world trade usually passes. The Huthis say the […]
By Grégory PLESSE SYDNEY, Dec 30, 2023 (AFP) – Three years after steep Chinese tariffs halted imports of Australian barley as tensions between the two countries ratcheted higher, the grain is once again flowing freely. Barley is not only used to brew beer but to feed pigs, and China was Australia’s leading market, taking 50 percent of its barley exports. China has imported 314,000 tonnes of Australian barley worth 139 million Australian dollars (around $94 […]
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20, 2023 (AFP) – Malaysia banned on Wednesday Israeli-flagged cargo ships from docking at its ports in response to Israel’s actions in Gaza, which it said ignores “basic humanitarian principles”. Ships on their way to Israel will also be barred from loading cargo at any port in the largely Muslim Southeast Asian nation with immediate effect, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said in a statement. Anwar singled out Israel’s biggest shipping firm ZIM. […]
By Peter CATTERALL BEIJING, Dec 7, 2023 (AFP) – EU President Ursula von der Leyen told Chinese leader Xi Jinping on Thursday that the bloc and its biggest trading partner must address their differences, as they began the first in-person EU-China summit in over four years. China and the EU have ramped up diplomatic engagement this year in an attempt to steer post-pandemic recovery and repair damaged ties, with a number of its commissioners visiting […]
BRUSSELS, Dec 5, 2023 (AFP) – European Union member states won’t tolerate their growing trade imbalance with China forever, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen warned Tuesday, ahead of a key summit. “We have tools to protect our market,” von der Leyen told an AFP reporter in an interview for the European Newsroom, while adding: “But we prefer to have negotiated solutions.” Von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, and Charles Michel, who […]
