Month: November 2018

The European Union and Iran are affirming their support for the international nuclear deal and say they aim to keep it alive despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the landmark pact.

Ahead of EU-Iran talks on civil nuclear cooperation in Brussels Monday, EU Energy Commissioner Arias Canete said the deal is “crucial for the security of Europe, of the region and the entire world.”

 

He said the agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions is working and that “we do not see any credible peaceful alternative.”

 

Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi said: “I hope that we can enjoy the niceties of this deal and not let it go unfulfilled.”

 

Should the deal break down, he said, it would be “very ominous, the situation would be unpredictable.”

 

 
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The European Union and Iran are affirming their support for the international nuclear deal and say they aim to keep it alive despite U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon the landmark pact.

Ahead of EU-Iran talks on civil nuclear cooperation in Brussels Monday, EU Energy Commissioner Arias Canete said the deal is “crucial for the security of Europe, of the region and the entire world.”

 

He said the agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions is working and that “we do not see any credible peaceful alternative.”

 

Iranian Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi said: “I hope that we can enjoy the niceties of this deal and not let it go unfulfilled.”

 

Should the deal break down, he said, it would be “very ominous, the situation would be unpredictable.”

 

 
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When Dan Katt opened Good City Brewing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2016 – a presidential election year – a trade war between the Trump administration and China was the furthest thing from his mind.

“I don’t think we even contemplated that that administration would exist,” he told VOA.

He also didn’t consider how one decision in particular – canning his beer for distribution instead of bottling it – would challenge his business growth. 

“We always planned to can our products. I don’t think we necessarily expected to have our single biggest expense – packaging materials – to be affected by tariffs.”

Katt’s cans are made of aluminum, and much of his supply comes from China. It’s now subject to a 10 percent tariff.

“The price of aluminum is a concern. When we buy, we buy in lots of about 215,000 cans at a time,” says Katt. “When we go back to market, which we’ll be doing very soon, we expect to see a price increase on cans.” 

The Trump administration imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to bolster U.S. producers of those metals and protect U.S. jobs in those industries. The tariffs are starting to impact many other segments of the U.S. economy, including the growing craft beer industry, that need aluminum and steel to make their products. 

President Donald Trump says the tariffs are working.

“We have taken historic action to bring back American jobs by cracking down on China’s very abusive trade practices, but that’s going to work out, taking in billions and billions of taxes from China – never happened before, but they want to make a deal and that’s good,” he told a large crowd of supporters at one of his final mid-term election rallies in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on November 5.

A U.S. Treasury Department report supports his views, showing government revenues from tariffs are up over 30 percent this year over last.

But Brian Kuehl disagrees with the president. 

“Tariffs are taxes on American citizens. When we put tariffs on steel and aluminum, it drives up the cost of steel and aluminum in the United States,” says Kuehl. He is executive director for Farmers for Free Trade, a nonpartisan group chaired by former Republican Senator Richard Lugar and Democratic Senator Max Baucus. Farmers for Free Trade is campaigning against the tariffs. 

“Farmers for Free Trade was founded to have a long-term vision about trade and speaking about trade regardless of who is in the White House,” says Kuehl, who argues that the tariffs do more harm than good to the U.S. economy.

For that reason, the group has launched a nationwide “Tariffs Hurt the Heartland” campaign. It includes an $800,000 multimedia advertising blitz as well as hosting public events across the country, profiling the negative impact of tariffs. 

During an event in Wisconsin, Dan Katt represented one of several businesses hurt by the trade dispute.

“We don’t think that the current trade war with China is going in the right direction,” says Kuehl. “We think it’s increasing costs for U.S. manufacturers, it’s increasing costs for U.S. farmers, and it’s decreasing export opportunities. We’re causing long-term damage to American agriculture and our ability to compete in foreign markets.”

A foreign market Dan Katt’s Good City Brewing doesn’t currently export to, but depends on not only for the aluminum to package his product, but also for steel used in the equipment that makes the beer.

“On a more significant level, we expect to see equipment prices – stainless steel – go up significantly,” he explained, standing in front of large shiny vats where the beer is brewed. “We do buy equipment, stainless steel, that comes through China. So that’s a concern for us as we look at continued growth and increased capacity.”

Good City Brewing is one of about 75 such companies now in Wisconsin, a state with a long history of beer production. Katt says his company will continue to grow regardless of the short-term impact of the tariffs, but he hopes the U.S. and China can reach an agreement on trade before he has no choice but to pass on the increased costs to those he needs most for his new and growing business to prosper: his customers.
…

When Dan Katt opened Good City Brewing in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2016 – a presidential election year – a trade war between the Trump administration and China was the furthest thing from his mind.

“I don’t think we even contemplated that that administration would exist,” he told VOA.

He also didn’t consider how one decision in particular – canning his beer for distribution instead of bottling it – would challenge his business growth. 

“We always planned to can our products. I don’t think we necessarily expected to have our single biggest expense – packaging materials – to be affected by tariffs.”

Katt’s cans are made of aluminum, and much of his supply comes from China. It’s now subject to a 10 percent tariff.

“The price of aluminum is a concern. When we buy, we buy in lots of about 215,000 cans at a time,” says Katt. “When we go back to market, which we’ll be doing very soon, we expect to see a price increase on cans.” 

The Trump administration imposed tariffs on imported steel and aluminum to bolster U.S. producers of those metals and protect U.S. jobs in those industries. The tariffs are starting to impact many other segments of the U.S. economy, including the growing craft beer industry, that need aluminum and steel to make their products. 

President Donald Trump says the tariffs are working.

“We have taken historic action to bring back American jobs by cracking down on China’s very abusive trade practices, but that’s going to work out, taking in billions and billions of taxes from China – never happened before, but they want to make a deal and that’s good,” he told a large crowd of supporters at one of his final mid-term election rallies in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on November 5.

A U.S. Treasury Department report supports his views, showing government revenues from tariffs are up over 30 percent this year over last.

But Brian Kuehl disagrees with the president. 

“Tariffs are taxes on American citizens. When we put tariffs on steel and aluminum, it drives up the cost of steel and aluminum in the United States,” says Kuehl. He is executive director for Farmers for Free Trade, a nonpartisan group chaired by former Republican Senator Richard Lugar and Democratic Senator Max Baucus. Farmers for Free Trade is campaigning against the tariffs. 

“Farmers for Free Trade was founded to have a long-term vision about trade and speaking about trade regardless of who is in the White House,” says Kuehl, who argues that the tariffs do more harm than good to the U.S. economy.

For that reason, the group has launched a nationwide “Tariffs Hurt the Heartland” campaign. It includes an $800,000 multimedia advertising blitz as well as hosting public events across the country, profiling the negative impact of tariffs. 

During an event in Wisconsin, Dan Katt represented one of several businesses hurt by the trade dispute.

“We don’t think that the current trade war with China is going in the right direction,” says Kuehl. “We think it’s increasing costs for U.S. manufacturers, it’s increasing costs for U.S. farmers, and it’s decreasing export opportunities. We’re causing long-term damage to American agriculture and our ability to compete in foreign markets.”

A foreign market Dan Katt’s Good City Brewing doesn’t currently export to, but depends on not only for the aluminum to package his product, but also for steel used in the equipment that makes the beer.

“On a more significant level, we expect to see equipment prices – stainless steel – go up significantly,” he explained, standing in front of large shiny vats where the beer is brewed. “We do buy equipment, stainless steel, that comes through China. So that’s a concern for us as we look at continued growth and increased capacity.”

Good City Brewing is one of about 75 such companies now in Wisconsin, a state with a long history of beer production. Katt says his company will continue to grow regardless of the short-term impact of the tariffs, but he hopes the U.S. and China can reach an agreement on trade before he has no choice but to pass on the increased costs to those he needs most for his new and growing business to prosper: his customers.
…

U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, a move by the Trump administration to bolster the domestic industry and protect U.S. jobs, are just starting to have a far-reaching impact on different sectors of the U.S. economy, including the growing craft beer industry. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, one thing that wasn’t in the business model for a new brewery in the Midwestern United States was the cost tariffs would have on each can of beer.
…

U.S. tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, a move by the Trump administration to bolster the domestic industry and protect U.S. jobs, are just starting to have a far-reaching impact on different sectors of the U.S. economy, including the growing craft beer industry. As VOA’s Kane Farabaugh reports, one thing that wasn’t in the business model for a new brewery in the Midwestern United States was the cost tariffs would have on each can of beer.
…

It took Britain’s Theresa May and 27 other European Union leaders just 40 minutes to sign the Brexit deal after two years of tortuous negotiations, but the trials and tribulations of Britain’s withdrawal agreement approved Sunday in Brussels are far from over.

As they endorsed the 585-page the agreement, and a 26-page accompanying political declaration that sets out the parameters of negotiating a possible free trade deal between Britain and the European Union, powerful political foes in London plotted strategies to undo it.

There is little evidence Britain’s embattled prime minister will have sufficient support to win legislative endorsement of the deal in a House of Commons vote next month. That was clearly on the minds of European Commission officials Sunday as EU leaders gave their backing to the terms of Britain’s split from Brussels after 44 years of membership.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker warned that Britain cannot expect to get a better deal, if its parliament rejects the agreement. “Now it is time for everybody to take their responsibilities, everybody,” he said.

“This is the deal, it’s the best deal possible and the EU will not change its fundamental position when it comes to this issue, so I do think the British parliament — because this is a wise parliament — will ratify this deal,” he added.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte warned British lawmakers that no better deal was on offer from the European Union, urging them to back the agreements.

“If I would live in the UK I would say yes to this, I would say that this is very much acceptable to the United Kingdom,” Rutte said, because the deal “limited the impact of Brexit while balancing the vote to leave”. In a bid to help the prime minister, he said May had “fought very hard” and now there was “an acceptable deal on the table”.

“You know I hate [Brexit], but it is a given,” he told reporters. “No one is a victor here today, nobody is winning, we are all losing.”

Opposition in Britain

Maybe it is a “given” in Brussels, but in Britain that is another matter altogether.

Both Remainers and Leavers in the British Parliament are warning that May doesn’t have the necessary support with the all the opposition parties lined up against the deal and as many as 100 lawmakers, Remainers and Leavers among them, from May’s ruling Conservatives pledging to vote against it as well.

Iain Duncan Smith, a former Conservative leader, said he would continue to oppose the deal because it “cedes huge amounts of power” to the European Union.

In Scotland, first minister and leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party Nicola Sturgeon said, “This is a bad deal, driven by the PM’s self defeating red lines and continual pandering to the right of her own party. Parliament should reject it and back a better alternative.”

She wants a second Britain-wide referendum, like a majority of Britons, according to recent opinion polls.

The agreement calls for Britain to stay in the bloc’s customs union and largely in the EU single market, without the power to influence the rules, regulations and laws it will be obliged to obey for a 21-month-long transition period following formal withdrawal on March 29. The deal would allow an extension of “up to one or two years” should the negotiations over “the future relationship” not be completed by the end of 2020.

May is campaigning to sell the agreement to the British public, hoping she she can build enough support in the wider country to pressure the House of Commons to endorse the deal. European Parliament approval is almost certain.

May’s warning

In an open letter to the British public published Sunday, May promised to campaign “with my heart and soul to win that vote and to deliver this Brexit deal.” If she is unable to do so, Britain would be plunged into what May herself has called, “deep and grave uncertainty.”

Her aides say she is banking on the “fear factor,” daring the House of Commons to vote down a deal which if rejected would leave Britain most likely crashing out of the bloc, its largest trading partner, without any agreements, which would be costly economically and would almost certainly push the country into recession.

Ominously, the Northern Ireland party, the Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 lawmakers May’s minority government relies on to remain in power, says it will vote against the deal. And DUP leader Arlene Foster warned Sunday she is ready to collapse the government to block a deal that would see Northern Ireland treated differently than the rest of Britain.

And a senior Labour lawmaker Tony Lloyd said there was a “coalition of the willing” in the Parliament ready to reject May’s deal and support a softer Brexit. So, if the deal is voted down, what then? A vote against could trigger a general election, a second Brexit referendum or even more negotiations, despite Brussels’ threat there can be no other deal.

 
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U.S. stocks closed lower after a shortened session Friday, bumping the benchmark S&P 500 index into a correction, or drop of 10 percent below its most recent all-time high in September. 

 

Energy companies led the market slide as the price of U.S. crude oil tumbled to its lowest level in more than a year, reflecting worries among traders that a slowing global economy could hurt demand for oil. 

 

“Oil is really falling sharply, continuing its downward descent, and that appears to be giving investors a lot of concern that there’s slowing global growth,” said Jeff Kravetz, regional investment director at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. “You have that, and then you have the recent sell-off in tech and in retail, and then throw on there trade tensions and rising rates.” 

 

Losses in technology and internet companies and banks outweighed gains in health care and household goods stocks. Several big retailers declined as investors monitored Black Friday for signs of a strong holiday shopping season. 

 

Trading volume was lighter than usual, with the markets open for only a half day after the Thanksgiving holiday. 

 

The S&P 500 index fell 17.37 points, or 0.7 percent, to 2,632.56. The index is now down 10.2 percent from its last all-time high set Sept. 20. The last time the index entered a correction was in February. 

 

The latest correction came as investors worry that corporate profits, a key driver of stock market gains, could weaken next year. 

 

“The market is repricing and trying to assess where we’re going to be in the early part of 2019,” said Quincy Krosby, chief market strategist at Prudential Financial. 

 

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 178.74 points, or 0.7 percent, to 24,285.95. The Nasdaq composite dropped 33.27 points, or 0.5 percent, to 6,938.98. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks picked up 0.40 point, or 0.03 percent, to 1,488.68. 

 

Crude oil prices fell for the seventh straight week on worries that a slowing global economy could hurt demand, even as oil production has been increasing.  

The benchmark U.S. crude contract slid 7.7 percent to settle at $50.42 per barrel in New York. That is the lowest since October 2017. Brent crude, the international standard, lost 6.1 percent to close at $58.80 per barrel in London. 

 

Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members have recently signaled a willingness to consider production cuts at the oil cartel’s meeting next month. Such cuts would prop up oil prices. The U.S. has been increasing pressure on Saudi Arabia and OPEC to not cut production. 

 

The slide in oil prices weighed on energy stocks. Concho Resources, a developer and explorer of oil and natural gas properties, slumped 6.3 percent to $126.96. 

 

Tesla fell 3.7 percent to $325.83 after the electric auto maker said it intends to cut prices for its Model X and Model S cars in China to make them more affordable. 

 

Traders had their eye on retailers as Black Friday, the traditional start to the crucial holiday shopping season, began. Shares in L Brands, operator of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, added 2 percent to $29.97. Other retailers put investors in a selling mood. Kohl’s fell 3.7 percent to $63.83, while Target lost 2.8 percent to $67.35. Macy’s dropped 1.8 percent to $32.01. 

 

Rockwell Collins climbed 9.2 percent to $141.63 after Chinese regulators conditionally approved the sale of the maker of communications and aviation electronics systems to United Technologies Corp. 

 

Investors will be watching next week when Presidents Xi Jinping and Donald Trump meet at the Group of 20 summit in Argentina for signs that the two leaders can find common ground to begin unwinding the spiraling trade dispute. 

 

The dispute between the U.S. and China has weighed on the market, stoking traders’ worries that billions in escalating tariffs imposed by both countries on each other’s goods will hurt corporate earnings at a time when the global economy appears to be slowing.  

“If you can get President Trump and President Xi to even just come closer with their rhetoric and make a bit of progress on the trade front, that could be the catalyst for markets to move higher,” Kravetz said. 

 

It may take more than a meeting to work out deep-seated issues between Washington and Beijing, which resumed talks over their trade dispute earlier this month. According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. has asked its allies to stop using telecommunications equipment from Huawei, which is Chinese-owned. The report cited people familiar with the matter. 

 

Bond prices fell Friday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 3.05 percent from 3.04 percent late Wednesday. 

 

The dollar fell to 112.88 yen from 112.97 yen late Thursday. The euro weakened to $1.1330 from $1.1406. The pound eased to $1.2810 from $1.2876. 

 

Gold declined 0.4 percent to $1,223.20 an ounce. Silver dropped 1.8 percent to $14.24 an ounce. Copper slid 1 percent to $2.77 a pound. 

 

In other commodities trading, wholesale gasoline plunged 7.9 percent to $1.39 a gallon. Heating oil lost 4.8 percent to $1.88 a gallon. Natural gas fell 3.2 percent to $4.31 per 1,000 cubic feet. 

 

Major indexes in Europe finished mostly higher after shaking off an early slide. 

 

Traders were weighing the latest developments in the negotiations for Britain’s exit from the European Union. Both sides were finalizing the terms of the divorce Friday and expected to sign off on the deal Sunday, though it’s unclear whether the British Parliament will pass the deal. 

 

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares slipped 0.1 percent. Germany’s DAX index rose 0.5 percent, while France’s CAC 40 gained 0.2 percent. 

 

Earlier in Asia, South Korea’s Kospi shed 0.6 percent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 0.4 percent. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 bucked the trend, gaining 0.4 percent. Shares fell in Taiwan and rose in Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. Japanese markets were closed for a holiday. 
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