
Argentina is looking to expand an existing currency swap arrangement with China, as Buenos Aires looks to stabilize the economy one month after applying for financial aid from the International Monetary Fund. In an interview with the Financial Times, Argentina’s Chief of Cabinet Marcos Peña, said “we have an active swap with China that the previous government left us and we will try to make it bigger.”

China said on Sunday it wouldn’t step up its purchases of United States products if President Donald Trump goes ahead with his threat to tax billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports. White House advisers insisted on fundamental changes in ties between the world’s two biggest economic powers.

Argentina is set to expand fresh beef exports to Asia, with Japan and China having already approved import deals, the country's agriculture minister said. Luis Miguel Etchevehere in Tokyo said that Argentina has signed a deal with the Japanese government under which Tokyo will authorize imports of fresh beef from Argentina by late July. His country has also inked a beef export agreement with Beijing.

A publicity stunt at a conference about blockchain technology in China, which saw an actor impersonate Mao Zedong, has sparked uproar on social media. Xu Guoxiang imitated Mao - by wearing a grey suit and speaking in his Hunan accent - at the Boao Blockchain Forum for Asia in Hainan Province.

The threat of trade protectionism is the biggest concern looming over a solid upswing in the global economy, IMF managing director Christine Lagarde said. The “darkest cloud” on the economic horizon is the “determination of some to actually rock the system that has actually presided over the trade relationships that we have all undertaken and enjoyed to some extent over the last many decades”, said Lagarde.

BYD, China’s biggest electric vehicle maker by sales, signed a 2.5 billion Brazilian real (US$ 689 million) deal this week to build a monorail system in Brazil’s Salvador city, the firm said. It’s the company’s biggest overseas monorail investment yet, according to a company spokesperson. Construction will start on the 20-kilometer route this year, and it’s expected to begin operations in 2021.

The trade dispute between the United States and China has benefited Brazil so far but could prove harmful long term as higher grain prices will make the country’s exports less competitive, Brazil’s farm minister said. Brazil is the world's leading poultry exporter.

China will import record volumes of U.S. oil and is likely to ship more U.S. soy after Beijing signaled to state-run refiners and grains purchasers they should buy more to help ease tensions between the two top economies, trade sources said on Wednesday.

The United States and China are pulling back from the brink of a trade war after the world's two biggest economies reported progress in talks aimed at bringing down America's massive trade deficit with Beijing. We are putting the trade war on hold, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday.

The number of international tourists to Mexico in the first quarter rose to a record high of 10.6 million, a 12.6% increase year-on-year, said the country's tourism ministry on Sunday.