Americas > North America > Business / Trade

Business / Trade in Northern America

  • Tech product tariff eliminated by Canadian international trade minister

    CANADA, 2016/07/08 Canada has always been an island in the digital world. According to a statement from Chrystia Freeland, the minister of international trade, Canada will eliminate tariffs that contribute to this mentality. As a result of the implementation of an expanded Data Technology Agreement (ITA), Canadians may see lower costs and increased trade opportunities, particularly on technology products. In implementing the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) expanded ITA, Canada eliminated tariffs on a inventory of 201 tech and data-related products. This agreement builds on the original 1996 ITA.

  • United States sees China investment talks ‘productive’ after new offers

    CHINA, 2016/06/20 Bilateral investment talks between the United States and China “continue to be productive,” the US Trade Representative’s office said on Friday next the two sides exchanged new offers this week. A USTR spokeswoman said US and Chinese negotiators exchanged revised “negative lists” of sectors that would remain off-limits from foreign investment as they try to reach a transaction for a bilateral investment treaty.

  • US to renew most of its sanctions against Myanmar

    MYANMAR, 2016/05/15 Washington plans to renew most of its sanctions against Myanmar at the same time as they terminate next week, though the US will make some adjustments aimed at boosting investment and trade with the Asian country. An announcement on extending considerable portions of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act may be made as any minute at this time as May 17 prior to an upcoming visit to Myanmar by US Secretary of National John Kerry on May 22, the Guardian reported Saturday citing senior American officials and congressional aides. The development comes as the US Treasury Department has drastically eased sanctions against Myanmar’s government, infamous for carrying out massive human rights abuses against its Rohingya Muslim minority, by issuing general licenses that give companies and investors exemptions to sanctions that target over 100 individuals and businesses, inclunding some of Myanmar’s biggest business figures.

  • The New Truth About Free Trade

    UNITED STATES, 2016/03/20 I used to believe in trade agreements. That was before the wages of most Americans stagnated and a relative few at the top captured just about all the economic gains. The old-style trade agreements of the 1960s and 1970s increased worldwide request for products made by American workers, and thereby helped push up American wages. The new-style agreements increase worldwide request for products made by American corporations all over the world, enhancing corporate and financial profits but keeping American wages down.The fact is, recent trade deals are less about trade and additional about world investment .

  • The Chinese elephant in Australia–Japan relations

    CHINA, 2016/03/04 Before this month, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visited Tokyo, where she outlined an increasing emphasis on security cooperation between Japan and Australia. The next day she was in Beijing, where she reportedly received a frosty reception. The two are not unrelated — Beijing is not thrilled about Australia’s growing security ties with Japan. Because Australia is concerned about China’s increasing assertiveness in the region, but at the same time benefits from China economically, we find ourselves in somewhat of a foreign policy pickle. In this very complex situation, it is critical that Australian policymakers respond with both immediate and long-term outcomes in mind. To understand the long-term implications for Australia’s interests of policies drawing Japan and Australia closer together, we need to understand how Chinese policymakers view the world and China’s role within it.

  • Obama administration loosens Cuba embargo with new measures

    CUBA, 2016/01/28 The Obama government is loosening the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba with a new round of regulations allowing American companies to sell to Cuba on credit and export a potentially wide range of products to the Cuban government for the initial time, officials said Tuesday. The changes are President Barack Obama's third attempt to spur U.S.-Cuba commerce despite an embargo that still prohibits most forms of trade with the island. U.S. travel to Cuba has exploded since Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro declared detente in 2014. But U.S. hopes of building wider trade between American businesses and Cuba's private sector have been largely frustrated by Congressional reluctance to end the embargo itself and by the island's labyrinthine restrictions on imports, exports and private business.

  • Peru-Colombia-Mexico-Chile Pacific Alliance boosts regional ties

    CHILE, 2015/12/26 Four years have passed since the Pacific Alliance united Peru with Colombia, Mexico and Chile and the benefits on the agreement are presently clear to see Peru has enjoyed sustained economic expansion during the completed decade, but with commodity prices falling in additional recent times the country’s government has been exploring new avenues for increase. Numerous sectors of the Andean country’s economy have by presently enjoyed rapid increase inclunding markets such as insurance and financial services, and the result has been an enlarged and affluent middle class. With this have come better amounts of disposable gain, much of it derived from the successes of the country’s extensive export-led industries.

  • U.S. Trade Deficit Unexpectedly Widens To $43.9 Billion In October

    UNITED STATES, 2015/12/11 With exports falling at a faster rate than imports, the Commerce Department released a statement on Friday showing that the U.S. trade deficit unexpectedly widened in the month of October. The Commerce Department said the trade deficit climbed to $43.9 billion in October from a revised $42.5 billion in September. Economists had expected the trade deficit to narrow to $40.6 billion in October from the $40.8 billion originally reported for the previous month. The unexpectedly wider trade deficit was half due to a steep drop in the price of exports, which tumbled by 1.4 % to $184.1 billion in October from $186.8 billion in September.

  • CARICOM and USAID reach agreement on development assistance for Caribbean

    ARUBA, 2015/11/27 The United States Agency for International Improvment(USAID) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) today signed agreements that will see nations of the eastern and southern Caribbean benefiting from US$165 million in development assistance. An estimated US$89 million will target the reduction of youth involvement in crime and violence in target communities, while US$52 million is designated to achieving epidemic control of HIV/AIDS part key populations, and $31 million will go towards reducing the risks to human and natural assets resulting from climate vulnerability. CARICOM Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and USAID Eastern and Southern Caribbean Mission Director, Christopher Cushing, initialled the five-year Development Objective Agreements (DOAGs) at the CARICOM Secretariat in Guyana.

  • Israeli PM Netanyahu Returns From 3-Day Trip To US

    ISRAEL, 2015/11/17 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left the United States early Thursday next a three day visit to the ally country, Israeli media reported. The visit — the PM’s initial to the US since the Iran nuclear transaction was finalized — included a conference with US president Barack Obama that Netanyahu deemed during a press briefing as “one of the best meetings” to take place between the two leaders. Despite a series of recent diplomatic blow-ups between the two parties, Obama told Netanyahu during a Monday conference that he hoped to get a “chief start” planning next aid to Israel.
Trending Articles