International

Friday, September 21st 2018 - 08:35 UTC
US/Beijing trade war: China plans to reduce tariff rates on imports next October, reports Bloomberg

China plans to reduce the average tariff rate on imports from most of its trading partners as soon as October, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. In July, China cut import tariffs on almost 1,500 consumer products ranging from cosmetics to home appliances as part of efforts to open up its economy, the world’s second biggest.
Thursday, September 20th 2018 - 08:42 UTC
WTO deeply concerned with US/China trade dispute: both sides have “significant” ammunition

The trade dispute between the United States and China could well expand into other areas given the significant “ammunition” the two countries have, the director-general of the World Trade Organization (WTO) said on Wednesday.
Thursday, September 20th 2018 - 08:32 UTC
US supplants Brazil as leading supplier of soybeans to the European Union

The United States has supplanted Brazil as the European Union's top supplier of soybeans since a deal in July with President Donald Trump to avert a trade war, according to EU data seen by Reuters on Thursday.
Thursday, September 20th 2018 - 08:24 UTC
Polite EU 27 plus Theresa May meeting , but Irish border bogs any deal on Brexit

Prime Minister Theresa May appealed directly to fellow European Union leaders on Wednesday to drop “unacceptable” Brexit demands that she said could rip Britain apart, urging the bloc to respond in kind to her “serious and workable” plan.
Thursday, September 20th 2018 - 08:20 UTC
Shouts for unification of the Korean Peninsula at HWPL's World Peace festival

On September 18th, leaders of the two Koreas have met in Pyongyang, North Korea, for the third meeting for inter-Korean reconciliation. With the international attention focused on the movements of the two leaders, families from around the world expecting the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula, further world peace attended a peace festival held in South Korea.
Wednesday, September 19th 2018 - 09:05 UTC
EU ready to address UK concerns over a “hard border” in post Brexit

The European Union is ready to address key British concerns over Northern Ireland, the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said on Tuesday, in a clear push to get a Brexit deal effectively done in the next month.
Wednesday, September 19th 2018 - 08:59 UTC
Apple pays €14.3bn to the Irish treasury, an EU tax Dublin does not want to collect

Apple has paid the Irish government €14.3bn (£12.7bn), money that the European Commission ruled the tech giant owed due to illegal tax breaks. Ireland's Finance ministry said the payment was a “significant milestone”, although Dublin insists Apple was not given any special tax treatment. In 2016 the Commission ruled the below 1% effective tax rate the firm paid in Ireland amounted to illegal state aid.
Wednesday, September 19th 2018 - 08:56 UTC
Mini factory in Oxford will shut down for a month in April 2019 in case of a no deal Brexit

Mini factory in Oxford will shut down for a month after Brexit at the end of March to minimize disruption in case of a no-deal outcome. Owner BMW said its summer maintenance shutdown had been brought forward to 1 April to reduce any “possible short-term parts-supply disruption”.
Wednesday, September 19th 2018 - 08:50 UTC
Record US$ 27.5 million settlement with New York Catholic church regarding sex abuses

The Catholic church in New York has reached a record US$ 27.5 million settlement with four men who said they were sexually abused as children, attorneys said on Tuesday. The Diocese of Brooklyn, one of the city's boroughs, agreed to make the payments to the four, who were sexually abused between 2003 and 2009 by their religion teacher, their lawyers said.
Wednesday, September 19th 2018 - 08:50 UTC
Tit for tat: China adds US$ 60bn of US imports to its tariff retaliation list

China and the United States plunged deeper into a trade war on Tuesday after Beijing added US$60 billion of US products to its import tariff list in retaliation for President Donald Trump's planned levies on US$200 billion worth of Chinese goods.