YCLOAK

China is witnessing a rare protest from heads of some major Chinese companies who say government controls on the outflow of funds are hurting their ability to strike business deals overseas. Starting late last year, the government began imposing strict controls on currency transfers in a desperate bid to curb outbound investments and stop the yuan from weakening. 

 

Last year alone, Chinese companies struck deals overseas worth $225 billion; but according to data compiled by Bloomberg, there have only been $19 billion in acquisitions abroad, announced by Chinese companies so far this year, a 74 percent drop from the previous year. 

Beijing asked banks to closely scrutinize money transfers, and reject requests from certain companies to move funds to foreign countries for investments in late 2016, a year when Chinese companies struck deals overseas worth $225 billion. China feels that massive fund outflows put pressure on the Chinese Yuan, which has been steadily devaluing against the U.S. dollar since early last year. 

The government clampdown has had a significant effect. According to Bloomberg’s data, there has only been $19 billion in acquisitions abroad announced by Chinese companies so far this year, a 74 percent drop from the previous year. 

Feeling the pinch

 

On the sidelines of high-level political meetings in Beijing, a time typically seen as an opportunity to build consensus and not air dissent, business leaders who attended the talks were blunt in their criticism of the controls.

 

Zhang Yichen, chief executive officer of investment firm Citic Capital Holdings, told reporters that it is almost impossible to use the yuan to invest overseas.

 

“To say that capital controls don’t have any impact – it’s a lie,” said Zhang.

 

Zheng Yuewen, chairman of Chinese drugmaker Creat Group, said, “The foreign exchange management is so strict now that it’s almost impossible to move funds out.”

 

Investments plunge 

 

Over the past two months, China’s outbound investments have nearly been cut in half and government controls are a key reason for this, Julian Evans-Pritchard, China economist for Capital Economics, told VOA.

 

“It has certainly hurt a lot of Chinese companies who are active in the overseas market,” he said. “But I don’t think the government is going to ease controls until outbound flows come down to the level it is comfortable with.”

 

According to China’s Ministry of Commerce, outbound investments plunged by 39.5 percent in December 2016 and 35.7 percent in January of this year as the government began applying the brakes. The drop was dramatic when compared to the surge seen in the previous two months when outbound investments increased 48.4 percent in October and 76.5 percent in November of last year. 

 

The government’s control of fund outflows could become even more stringent as the U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to review interest rates this week. A rate increase would make it more lucrative to invest in the United States, and make it increasingly difficult for Beijing to stem the exodus of money, analysts said. 

 

Standing firm

 

Although the blunt remarks from CEOs were aimed at persuading officials such as the head of the People’s Bank of China and others to loosen restrictions, the government is showing little sign of budging.

At a press conference on the sidelines of the Beijing meetings, People’s Bank of China Chairman Zhou Xiaochuan stuck to the government’s view that curbs were necessary to manage the currency. He also blamed “irresponsible investments” made by Chinese companies in foreign markets for causing the problems.

 

Zhong Shan, China’s minister of commerce, said a small number of companies was investing “blindly and irrationally overseas” and running into a range of financial problems. He said that is hurting the image of Chinese investors overseas; but, he did assure investors that what he called “normal investments” would not be impacted.

 

“There are clearly some who are of the view that China is cooling down, that it is not encouraging investments overseas, but this view is incorrect,” said Zhong.

 

Analysts agree that not all investments are off limits, but the government’s statements downplay the impact controls are having. A quick glance at the numbers reveals that clearly there are some types of investments authorities are looking to slow.

 

No superheroes

 

Right now, there is a big focus on property developers looking to invest overseas, said Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research. Media and entertainment investments are also facing challenges, he said, but adds the government is being very selective about just who it is saying no to.

 

“They are focusing most of their opposition on deals where they feel have no value to the Chinese country,” Collier said. In some cases, the government is saying, “It might be nice for you and your business to expand your business overseas, but we don’t think that making films about superheroes is going to benefit the Chinese economy.”

 

Chinese companies such as Dalian Wanda have been ramping up investments in Hollywood and entertainment over the past year. Last Friday, however, a $1 billion deal for the Chinese conglomerate to purchase Dick Clark Productions – which produces the Golden Globe Awards – fell through.

 

At the same time, however, a $43 billion deal between ChemChina and Swiss crop protection and seed group Syngenta is moving forward.

 

“That is a very large deal, and so far there has been no opposition to it,” Collier said. “If you have a deal for a-half-a-billion or a billion dollars it might get a lot of attention in the press, but it is actually not that much money compared to some of the other stuff that is still committed to be going forward.

 
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Political tension between China and Taiwan has affected cooperation on safety standards leading to a large number of cosmetic and food imports being stopped from entering China, the head of China’s quality watchdog said on Tuesday.

China deems Taiwan a wayward province to be taken back by force if necessary, though proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in being ruled by autocratic China.

China is deeply suspicious of Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, who took office last May, believing she wants to push for the island’s independence, a red line for Beijing. Tsai says she wants to maintain peace with China.

Beijing has cut off official communication with Taipei because Tsai has refused to accept China’s view that the island is a part of China, and has put pressure on the trade-reliant island diplomatically and economically.

China’s quality chief Zhi Shuping told reporters on the sidelines of China’s annual meeting of parliament that, although cosmetic and food imports do not account for a large percentage of China’s imports from Taiwan, a large number of imports of those products were substandard.

“Originally we had lots of cooperation, but now certainly it has been obstructed. Some information is not as smooth as it had been in the past,” Zhi said, referring to the period after Tsai took office.

Things would get better if Taiwan recognized the “1992 consensus”, he said.

The “1992 consensus”, agreed with Taiwan’s previous China-friendly Nationalist government, acknowledges Taiwan and China are part of a single China, but allows both sides to interpret who is the ruler.

“Communication would be a lot smoother,” Zhi said. “We all belong to one China, and blood is thicker than water.”

Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists.

Some Taiwanese companies also don’t really understand China’s standards, Zhi said, and Taiwan’s own quality standards have weak points and loopholes.

“We give feedback on each batch, but rectification is not good enough,” he said.

“We treat everyone in the world the same when it comes to safety. Brothers are brothers, but principles are principles.

Just because you’re a brother doesn’t mean we make things easier for you,” he Zhi said.

There have been repeated safety scandals over made-in-China goods, from tainted baby milk formula and rotten meat to fake rice and toxic toothpaste, unsettling consumers around the world, including in Taiwan.
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U.S. President Donald Trump this week will unveil a budget expected to massively increase military spending while slashing other federal programs.

The proposal, set to be released Thursday, will offer the most detailed look yet at how Trump intends to move ahead with his so-called “America First” policy.

The budget will likely face significant opposition in Congress, where lawmakers are already bickering over a plan to overhaul the nation’s health care program.

Many of Trump’s fellow Republicans support his plan for a larger military; but, unlike Trump, some want to pay for it by cutting Social Security and Medicare – the two largest federal programs.

Democrats are alarmed about the entire proposal, particularly his plan to cut domestic government programs aimed at protecting the environment and helping the poor.

State Dept., foreign aid cuts

Lawmakers in both parties have also expressed concerns about Trump’s steep proposed cuts to the State Department and foreign aid budgets – a move they say will reduce U.S. influence abroad.

White House officials point out the president’s proposals are only a blueprint and that ultimately Congress must agree on a final budget, but they insist difficult decisions must be made.

“Unfortunately, we have no alternative but to reinvest in our military and make ourselves a military power once again,” White House National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn told Fox News Sunday.

“It’s no different than every other family in America that has to make the tough decisions when they need to spend money somewhere, they have to cut it from somewhere else,” Cohn said.

Defense spending

In a blueprint released last month, White House officials said Trump intends to boost the military budget by $54 billion – one of the largest ever increases in national defense spending. This week’s proposal will outline how the president intends to pay for it.

According to budget documents leaked to the media, Trump will offset the military costs with far-reaching reductions in discretionary spending — the part of the budget that pays for various federal government agencies.

Trump is reportedly considering slashing up to 25 percent of the Environmental Protection Agency budget, 30 percent of the Energy Department budget, and 37 percent of the State Department and foreign aid budget.

Reduction in federal workforce

If passed, those cuts would result in a massive reduction of the federal government workforce, which Trump and his fellow Republicans have long said is bloated and inefficient. It is not clear, however, whether Trump’s plans would actually fulfill his campaign promise to reduce the national debt.

That won’t be clear until May, when the White House releases its plans to reform the tax code and its proposals for mandatory spending, which covers existing programs like Medicare and Social Security.

Trump has said it is not politically possible to reduce spending on Medicare and Social Security – which together account for nearly 40 percent of the federal budget. He is also considering a $1 trillion infrastructure plan to upgrade the country’s roads, airports and rail lines.

According to most analysts, that means Trump will likely continue to run a budget deficit.

The federal debt is expected to grow by nearly $10 trillion over the next decade, according to a recent projection by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

 
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U.S. chipmaker Intel agreed to buy driverless technology firm Mobileye for $15.3 billion on Monday, positioning itself for a dominant role in the autonomous-driving sector after missing the market for mobile phones.

The $63.54 per share cash deal is the biggest technology takeover in Israel’s history and the largest purchase of a company solely focused on the self-driving sector.

Intel will integrate its automated driving group with Mobileye’s operations, with the combined entity being run by Mobileye Chairman Amnon Shashua from Israel.

Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich said the acquisition, which unites Intel’s processors with Mobileye’s computer vision, was akin to merging the “eyes of the autonomous car with the intelligent brain that actually drives the car.”

Mobileye accounts for 70 percent of the global market for driver-assistance and anti-collision systems. It employs 660 people and had adjusted net income of $173.3 million last year.

Intel said it expected the transaction to close within the next nine months and to immediately boost its non-GAAP earnings per share and free cash flow.

The price represents a premium of around 33 percent to Mobileye’s Friday closing price of $47 a share.

“It’s an area where the company (Intel) has had very little presence – the automotive market, and so this is a tremendous opportunity for them to get into a market that has significant growth opportunities,” said Betsy Van Hees, an analyst at Loop Capital Markets who has a “buy” rating on Intel shares.

“Mobileye’s technology is very critical … The price seems fair,” she added.

Because Mobileye’s Shashua will remain in charge and the combined entity will be based in Israel, analysts said they expected it to be far more difficult for rivals to mount a counter offer for Mobileye.

Shashua and two other senior Mobileye executives stand to do well by the deal: together they own nearly 7 percent of the company. Shmuel Harlap, Israel’s biggest car importer and one of Mobileye’s earliest investors, also holds a 7 percent stake.

Yossi Vardi, seen as the godfather of Israeli high-tech, said the deal was a big endorsement of the whole sector.

“I’m sure that this … will be a very important impetus to create a whole industry related to autonomous and connected vehicles (in the country),” he said.

Battle for self-control

Automakers and their suppliers have been expanding alliances in the race to develop self-driving cars, a sector that once seemed a science-fiction dream but is drawing closer to reality month after month.

Mobileye and Intel are already collaborating with German automaker BMW on a project to put a fleet of around 40 self-driving test vehicles on the road in the second half of this year.

At the same time, Mobileye has teamed up with Intel for its fifth-generation of chips that will be used in fully autonomous vehicles that are scheduled for delivery around 2021.

While Intel is known for hardware chips and Mobileye for collision detection software, their merger promises to create the most complete portfolio of technologies needed for driverless vehicles, including cameras, sensor chips, in-car networking, roadway mapping, machine learning and cloud software, as well as the data-centres needed to manage all the data involved.

Last October, Qualcomm announced a $47 billion deal to acquire the Netherlands’ NXP, the largest automotive chip supplier, putting pressure on other chipmakers seeking to make inroads into the market for autonomous driving components, including Intel, Mobileye and rival NVIDIA.

The Qualcomm-NXP deal, which will create the industry’s largest portfolio of sensors, networking and other elements vital to autonomous driving, is expected to close later in 2017, subject to regulatory and shareholder approvals.

For a dozen years, Mobileye has relied on Franco-Italian chipmaker STMicroelectronics to produce chips that the Israeli company sells to many of the world’s top automakers for its current, third-generation of driver-assistance systems.

Mobileye’s relationships with automakers, leading suppliers and STMicroelectronics will continue uninterrupted, the companies said in their statement, and Mobileye’s current product roadmap will not be affected.

Founded in 1999, Mobileye made its mission to reduce vehicle injuries and fatalities. After receiving an investment of $130 million from Goldman Sachs in 2007, it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014.
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Vietnam will test U.S. President Donald Trump’s openness to one-on-one trade deals as it starts nudging Washington for an eventual agreement to replace its role in the defunct Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Official media outlets in Vietnam say Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told an American business delegation last week he was ready to visit the United States, and that he hoped to meet Trump for a discussion about trade, among other topics.

Vietnam depends heavily on factory exports, which are about 19 percent of a $200 billion economy.

“A trade agreement with the U.S., a very large market, would certainly bring some benefits, that’s clear,” said Marie Diron, senior vice president at Moody’s Investors Service in Singapore. “It would be about, kind of about anchoring these export markets with a trade agreement in place.”

Trump is not expected to prioritize free trade deals in the short term, analysts say, but he may someday consider them. Trade deals usually obligate signatories to cut tariffs on each other’s good or services.  

US companies eye Vietnam market

Nguyen may have a chance at working out a trade deal with the United States because American firms selling products such as fast food, mobile phones and even insurance want more access to Vietnam’s fast-growing middle class.

More than one-third of the country’s roughly 93 million people will be middle class or higher by 2020, according to a Boston Consulting Group study.

“You would expect the direction of goods coming from Vietnam to the U.S. picking up more sharply than the other way around,” said Rahul Bajoria, a regional economist with Barclays in Singapore.

But, he said, “it could be the case there might be some pressure from the large [American] industrial manufacturers like the aircraft manufacturers or train companies. All of them may be much more interested in exporting to Vietnam.”

The United States is Vietnam’s top export market, giving the Asian country a trade surplus last year, with exports worth $38.1 billion and imports of $8.7 billion.

But in January, imports increased 14.6 percent, pointing to a possible soft spot in Vietnam for Western brands. American names such as Apple, Dell and Starbucks are easy to find in cities such as the financial center Ho Chi Minh City.

“The U.S. could export to Vietnam, to a market that’s growing so fast, with 90 plus million people who are very brand conscious, where Western brands have a very high reputation,” said Vojislav Milenkovic, analyst with the business advisory BDG Insights in Ho Chi Minh City.

“You can see this every day on the street. You can see that people are trying to save and to buy high-quality products from the foreign countries,” he said.

But Vietnamese consumers still earn just half of their counterparts in China, Diron said. “For some companies, that could be a hurdle,” she said. China’s market is also much larger that Vietnam’s.

End of TPP

Leaders in Hanoi had hoped the TPP would give them access to the U.S. market plus 10 other countries, including Japan. Trump withdrew the United States from the TPP in January, saying it would hurt the country.

Because of the size of the U.S. economy, Trump’s withdrawal made it effectively impossible for other countries to keep the TPP alive.

Trump said shortly after taking office he could consider one-on-one free trade agreements instead of regional ones.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has said he is open to the idea of a bilateral trade pact with the United States, and members of the U.S. Congress advocate an agreement with Britain.

In a phone call after his election in November, Trump told Nguyen he wanted to strengthen ties with Vietnam and that he was willing to meet in the United States.

In exchange for trade favors, Trump might ask Vietnam to support the U.S. presence in the South China Sea where the United States is trying to resist Chinese maritime expansion, said Oscar Mussons, international business advisory associate with the Dezan Shira & Associates consultancy in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vietnam may need to wait out most of Trump’s current term before getting any trade deals, Bajoria cautioned.

Any deal takes time to negotiate, he said, and the U.S. government may try first to build its relations with China, the world’s number two economy after the United States. “I don’t think there’s scope for an FTA over the next 12 months,” Bajoria said.

Since Trump was elected, Vietnamese leaders afraid that the TPP would die began looking instead to other trade deals.

An agreement reached with the European Union in 2015 is due to take effect next year if it clears hurdles in the European bloc’s parliament.

China is also keen to bolster trade ties, but Vietnam hopes to avoid dependence on the long-time political rival that’s known for unloading cheap mass-produced goods in Vietnam at prices lower than what local companies can charge.
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King Salman and hundreds of business leaders from Saudi Arabia are in Japan for talks Monday mainly expected to focus on economic ties.

The visit is the first by a Saudi king in 46 years, though Salman visited more recently as crown prince.

Saudi Arabia is one of Japan’s biggest suppliers of crude oil, accounting for about a third of its total imports of oil from the Middle East.

The kingdom is striving to diversify its economy away from its heavy reliance on oil exports, and Salman is on a month-long tour of Asia to advance his kingdom’s economic and business interests.

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters Monday that Japan is willing to provide support for the economic power in the Middle East.

“We will discuss growth strategy, including our `Saudi Vision’ project,” he said, referring to Japanese collaboration with Vision 2030, a roadmap adopted by the kingdom last year for its development and economic objectives  

He did not confirm reports that the countries would agree to set up a special economic zone in Saudi Arabia.

Salman met with Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida and was to meet Prime Minister Shinzo Abe later Monday.

Reports say Japan plans to urge that Saudi Aramco, the state-run oil company that is being partially privatized, seek a share listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Separately, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and Japanese telecoms provider and energy company Softbank have joined forces in setting up a $25 billion private fund for technology investments.

Trade between the countries fell overall last year as oil prices dropped. Japan’s 2.1 trillion yen ($18.6 billion) in imports from Saudi Arabia in 2016, mostly oil and gas, dwarfed its exports of 546.3 billion yen ($4.8 billion). 

The delegation arrived late Sunday on about 10 aircraft. Officials said top hotels and car hire services would be busy handling the unusually large group during its four-day visit.

Salman’s stop in Japan follows visits to Indonesia and Malaysia. He is due to travel on to Brunei, China and the Maldives.

While seeking investment and help with Saudi industrialization and development of its services sector, Salman has also offered help. Earlier, he pledged $1 billion in development finance for Indonesia and closer cooperation for combating transnational crime such as human trafficking, terrorism and the drugs trade.
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The risk of a steep slide in China’s economy has reduced, the head of a government research center said on Sunday, adding the country had moved through an “L-shaped” pattern of slowing to now “horizontal” growth.

China’s economy grew 6.7 percent last year, according to the government, the slowest pace in 26 years. The country met its growth target with support from record bank loans, a speculative housing boom and billions in government investment.

But as Beijing moves to cool the housing market, slow new credit and tighten its purse strings, China will have to depend more on domestic consumption and private investment.

The government last week trimmed its economic growth target to about 6.5 percent for this year. Li Wei, the director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, China’s cabinet, said many positive economic signs were emerging domestically and internationally, and the risk of a large slide in economic growth had “clearly lowered”.

China’s economic development has gone from a “downward stroke in the L-shape to the horizontal stroke,” the official Xinhua news agency said, citing Li’s comments on the sidelines of China’s annual session of parliament.

The horizontal trend points to long-term steady development, but does not eliminate the possibility of short-term fluctuations, or mean the economic transformation is complete, Li said.

“Our economy still has many difficulties to resolve, so we must prepare to respond to the emergence of possibly relatively large risks,” Li said.

Earlier on Sunday, a vice chairman of the state economic planner said China’s industrial output grew more than 6 percent in January and February, and that the survey-based unemployment rate in 31 major cities was about 5 percent for the two months.

National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Vice Chairman Ning Jizhe gave the approximations, which were in line with expectations for official data set to be issued on Tuesday.

Fixed asset investment growth kept pace with the final few months of last year, Ning said.

“China’s economic growth still mainly relies on domestic demand,” he said.

January and February data will be released together in a bid to smooth out seasonal factors caused by the timing of the long Lunar New Year holidays, which began in late January this year but fell in February last year.

China unexpectedly posted its first trade gap in three years in February as a construction boom pushed imports much higher than expected. That upbeat import reading reinforced the growing view that economic activity in China picked up in the first two months of the year.
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On Feb. 19, 2016, at a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, then-candidate Donald Trump gave a stump speech in which he railed against American jobs moving to Mexico: “We lose our jobs, we close our factories, Mexico gets all of the work,” he said. “We get nothing.” 

 

That same day a law firm in Mexico City quietly filed on behalf of his company for trademarks on his name that would authorize the Trump brand, should it choose, to set up shop in a country with which he has sparred over trade, migration and the planned border wall. 

 

The Trump trademarks have now been granted by the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI). Records show the last three were approved February 21, just more than a month after Trump took office, and a fourth was granted October 6, about a month before the U.S. election.

Recent trademark approvals

 

Trump’s company has notched several trademark wins recently. The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the Chinese government recently granted preliminary approval for 38 trademarks to Trump and a related company. 

That sparked outrage from some Democratic senators and critics, who have been pushing Trump to sever financial ties with his global businesses to avoid potential violations of the emoluments clause of the U.S. Constitution, which bars federal officials from accepting anything of value from foreign governments unless approved by Congress.

 

The Mexican trademarks cover a broad range of business operations that can roughly be broken down into construction; construction materials; hotels, hospitality and tourism; and real estate, financial services and insurance. They are all valid through 2026.

 

The same four trademarks were previously held in the name of Donald J. Trump and expired in 2015, a year before the new applications. The new approvals list the trademark owner as the company DTTM Operations LLC, with an address in the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York.

No new deals abroad

 

As president, Trump has handed management of his business to his two adult sons and vowed to strike no new deals abroad while he is in office. However critics say questions remain about possible conflicts of interest, noting that foreigners could still seek to influence Trump by helping his existing foreign operations or by easing the way for future ones after he leaves the Oval Office.

 

Trump Organization General Counsel Alan Garten said the Mexican government’s decision was not a special favor to the president.

 

“We’re not being granted anything we didn’t have before,” he said. The original trademarks came “years before (Trump) even announced his candidacy.”

 

Garten said the Mexican trademarks originally had two purposes: laying the ground for possible new ventures and keeping other people from using Trump’s name for their own businesses. 

 

He said the trademarks are wholly defensive now.

 

“Circumstances have changed,” Garten said. “He’s been elected and we agreed not to do foreign deals.”

Ethical gray area 

Richard Painter, the chief White House ethics lawyer under George W. Bush, said the Mexican grants are in an ethical gray area: defensive in nature now, perhaps, but setting the president up to profit when he leaves office.

 

“To what extent is this appropriate? I don’t know,” Painter said. “We never had Obama running around the world locking up his name, or Bush.”

 

Intellectual property lawyer Enrique Alberto Diaz Mucharraz is listed on the trademark filings. A junior partner at the Mexico City law firm Goodrich Riquelme y Asociados, he declined to comment citing client confidentiality rules. Phones rang unanswered at the public relations office of IMPI, and there was no response to an emailed request for comment on a list of questions. 

 

Trademarks can prove enormously valuable to companies, especially in countries with a growing number of middle class consumers who recognize the brand, said Ashwinpaul C. Sondhi of A.C. Sondhi & Associates, an investment consultancy in Safety Harbor, Florida.

Why do business in Mexico?

 

Mexican political analyst Alejandro Hope said IMPI is generally considered to be apolitical and the trademark concession was most likely a technical decision. 

 

More remarkable, Hope said, was that the application was filed during a heated campaign when “he had already started using Mexico as a pinata” for political purposes. 

 

“What I find striking is that these guys were thinking about doing business in Mexico while they were trashing Mexico on the campaign trail,” Hope added.

Spotty business record

 

Last decade he and his children aggressively promoted a luxury hotel and condo development with the Trump name on it that was planned for the northern Baja California coast, near Tijuana. In December 2006, 188 units were sold for $122 million during an event at a hotel in San Diego. 

 

But the Trump Ocean Resort Baja Mexico project collapsed, and dozens of buyers who had lost their 30 percent deposits sued in March 2009. Trump settled out of court in November 2013 for an undisclosed sum; in a separate settlement the previous year, developer Irongate, which had licensed the Trump name, agreed to pay the buyers $7.25 million. 

 

On the Caribbean island of Cozumel, near Cancun, Trump tried in 2007 to purchase land for a luxury resort complete with an airstrip and golf course, according to Mexican media reports. It met with local and environmental opposition, and never went anywhere. 

Unpopular in Mexico

 

In all, Trump controls at least 20 trademarks in Mexico, including for Trump Ocean Resort and Trump Isla Cozumel. Others cover activities such as concierge and spa services, alcoholic beverages, golf club operations and home furnishings. For clothing, there’s the Donald J. Trump Signature Collection. 

 

If there are plans to take the Trump brand to Mexico, it could be tough going because of widespread popular anger toward the president for his comments disparaging Mexican immigrants who come to the United States illegally, his threats to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement and his vows to make Mexico pay for the border wall. 

 

Hope said that if a Trump hotel were in the cards, its prospects could depend a lot on location. 

 

“In Mexico City, I guess they would face a lot of political backlash at this point,” Hope said. Maybe it would fly in more politically insulated areas, like the beach resorts of Cancun or Los Cabos. “But even that would be a hard sell.” 
…

Thousands of Native Americans from across the Unites States marched in Washington to protest President Donald Trump’s decision to advance the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline and Dakota Access oil pipelines. VOA’s Penelope Poulou has more.
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The first jobs report on President Donald Trump’s watch is a good one. The private sector added 235,000 jobs in February, more than expected, and a sign that the economy and consumer confidence are healthy. But the jobs report also means that higher borrowing costs, for consumers and businesses, are expected in the coming days and weeks. Mil Arcega reports.
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President Donald Trump is embracing government numbers he once maligned as “phony” as he tries to take credit for the latest U.S. jobs report.

The new administration on Friday promoted Labor Department statistics that show U.S. employers added 235,000 jobs in February. The unemployment rate dipped to 4.7 percent from 4.8 percent.

“Great news for American workers: economy added 235,000 new jobs, unemployment rate drops to 4.7% in first report for (at)POTUS Trump,” tweeted White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. “Not a bad way to start day 50 of this administration,” he later said.

Watch: US Job Gains Make Higher Interest Rates a Near Certainty

What a difference a year makes

What a difference from last year’s presidential campaign, when Trump repeatedly assailed the report’s legitimacy.

 

Back then, candidate Trump denounced “phony unemployment numbers” he claimed had been invented to make the Democrats look good.

“Don’t believe those phony numbers when you hear 4.9 and 5 percent unemployment. The number’s probably 28, 29, as high as 35,” he said last February, on the day of the New Hampshire presidential primary.

“The 5 percent figure is one of the biggest hoaxes in modern politics,” he said.

That’s last year’s 5 percent, not the new numbers reported on his watch.

Numbers ‘very real now’

Asked about the apparent disconnect, Spicer offered a smile and a quip: “I talked to the president prior to this, and he said to quote him very clearly: ‘They may have been phony in the past but they are very real now.’”

During a speech at the Detroit Economic club last year, Trump pointed to figures that show one in five American households do not have a single member in the labor force. He failed to mention the one in five includes children, young people in school and senior citizens who are retired.

Though the jobless report has been criticized by others for omitting people who aren’t actively searching for work, it provides a benchmark that is similar to most other nations.

Weather makes difference

While business and consumer confidence have risen since the presidential election, economists also say it’s too soon for Trump to be taking credit for jobs.

“No new economic policies have yet been enacted,” said Scott Anderson, chief economist at Bank of the West. Instead, he pointed to an unusually mild winter that likely boosted hiring by construction firms.

Cold weather in February typically shuts down work sites across much of the country. But last month was the second-warmest February since 1895, helping construction firms add the most new jobs in a decade.

Optimism on the rise

A survey of small businesses shows that their optimism is up since the election, reaching the highest level in 12 years in January, according to the National Federation of Independent Business. Other measures also show greater business confidence.

But many of the corporate announcements of new jobs that Trump has promoted – by ExxonMobil, Intel and Ford, for example – will take place over many years and were already planned before the election.

Trump and Republicans have been quick to claim credit nonetheless.

“The February jobs report exceeded expectations by 50,000 jobs,” said the Republican National Committee in an email, “another sign President Donald Trump’s pro-growth agenda is spurring businesses to hire ‘aggressively.’”

Spicer offers apology

Spicer, meanwhile, may have jumped the gun with his tweets. A 1985 rule bars executive branch officials from commenting publicly on economic data until at least an hour after its release. Jason Furman, President Barack Obama’s top economic adviser, said on Twitter that the rule was intended to prevent White House officials, some of whom see the report a day early, from immediately spinning the data.

Spicer downplayed that mini-controversy, saying he didn’t think happily touting news that had been widely reported was “exactly a market disruption.”’

“I apologize if we were a little excited and we’re so glad to see so many fellow Americans back to work.”
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Happy birthday to the U.S. bull market! Eight years ago, the S&P 500 closed at 676.53, the low point for the worst bear market in equities since the Great Depression.

“No one would have ever believed it possible at the time, but at 97 months old, this now ranks as the second-longest bull market since World War II,” said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial. “On a percentage basis, though, both the 1950s and 1990s bull markets saw larger percentage gains.”

Detrick essentially says that age is just a number.

“We don’t believe bull markets die of old age; they die of excesses. This bull might be old, but we aren’t seeing the same type of overspending, overborrowing or overconfidence we’ve seen at other major market peaks.

“This doesn’t mean there won’t be pullbacks along the way, because there will be, but it does suggest this old bull could still have a few tricks up his sleeve.”

Stocks boosted by jobs

U.S. stocks ended higher Friday on the back of a very solid employment report. U.S. job growth increased more than expected in February, and wages rose steadily. Nonfarm payrolls rose by 235,000 jobs last month as the construction sector recorded its largest gain in nearly 10 years, thanks to unseasonably warm weather. And perhaps it reflects President Donald Trump’s infrastructure spending plans.

The unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percentage point to 4.7 percent, even as more people entered the labor market.

Oil slick

U.S. crude oil prices fell below $50 a barrel to their lowest levels since mid-December early Thursday, after the Energy Information Administration reported an 8 million-barrel rise in U.S. stockpiles last week. That was about four times as much as analysts had expected, and marked the ninth week in a row of inventory gains.

J.J. Kinahan, chief market strategist at TD Ameritrade, points out in a note that “as supplies keep posting new record highs, energy sector stocks now bring up the rear in sector performance year to date, down more than 6 percent.”

Anticipated interest rate hikes

All eyes will be on the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, when the Federal Open Market Committee delivers its decision on interest rates.

Following the strong employment report, traders have essentially priced in a rate hike, giving a better-than-even chance of two more rate hikes during 2017, with a small chance of a fourth increase. Based on the price of fed funds futures contracts traded at CME Group, it appears the risk is to the downside, should the Fed not raise rates, or, conversely, if the central bank decides on a rise of more than 25 basis points.

If the Fed were to keep rates unchanged, it would send a signal that it does not have much confidence in the economy, and that could cause a spike in market volatility.

Trading week ahead

This month has been an unusually busy month for global markets, and that will continue next week. In addition to the Fed, the Bank of Japan and Bank of England are set to meet, the Netherlands holds an election, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang is holding a news conference and the G-20 finance ministers are meeting in Germany.

Stateside, investors will have a fresh set of retail sales data, as well as the Consumer Price Index, housing starts and leading indicators.

Debt ceiling

By the end of Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury is expected to reach its maximum debt ceiling, which means Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will have to scramble to ensure the country can continue to keep paying its bills in full and on time.

The debt limit is the total amount of money that the U.S. government is authorized to borrow to meet its obligations, including Social Security and Medicare benefits, military salaries, interest on the national debt, tax refunds and other payments.

Failing to increase the debt limit would have catastrophic economic consequences and is considered unthinkable. It would cause the government to default on its legal obligations, an unprecedented event in American history. Mnuchin sent a letter to Congress this week addressing the issue.

Merkel to meet Trump

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with Trump in the U.S. capital on Tuesday, and the results of their talks will be watched closely to see if Berlin and Washington can get past a variety of potential strains to the trans-Atlantic relationship that have arisen this year.

During the U.S. political campaign, Trump said Merkel’s policy of accommodating immigrants was steering Germany toward “disaster.” And in contrast to Trump’s policies, Merkel has insisted that Europe can never isolate itself socially and economically from its neighbors.
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Foreign ministers and other officials from 25 Caribbean countries met in Havana on Friday to discuss a joint response in the face of Trump administration threats to migrants and trade.

Opening remarks at the closed-door event, attended by representatives from Colombia, Mexico, Cuba and other countries in Central America and the Caribbean islands, made clear the new U.S. administration and key economic partner was uppermost on the agenda, though the name “Trump” was never uttered.

“We are meeting at an exceptional historic moment when there are geographic changes on the global scene and we have to be prepared,” said June Soomer, from Saint Lucia and secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States.

“We are not going to resign ourselves to what others in the world dictate. We are not a mediocre region, we are one of excellence and peace,” Sooner added.

Cuban President Raul Castro also attended the meeting.

His foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, lit into U.S. President Donald Trump’s policies in his opening remarks and said the organization should come up with a joint response, as they threaten the development models of local economies.

“The excluding and repressive migration policies announced by countries of destination… as well as the implementation of extremely protectionist trade measures, are real challenges for our sub region,” he said.

“In the face of the walls intended to be built, our choice should continue to be unity, solidarity and cooperation to defend the most legitimate interests of our peoples,” he said.
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A World Bank arbitration panel has determined that Venezuela will not have to pay $1.4 billion to ExxonMobil for confiscating company assets during a wave of nationalizations.

 

ExxonMobil asked the bank’s investment dispute panel for $12 billion for the seizure of its Cerro Negro facilities in the Orinoco Basin under then-President Hugo Chavez. The panel awarded $1.4 billion, a decision that was appealed by Venezuela.

 

The Washington-based panel issued a ruling Friday that annulled most of a $1.6 million judgment against Venezuela. The decision was celebrated in Caracas, where the socialist government is facing a cash shortfall triggered by collapsing oil production in recent years.

 

A lawyer for Venezuela said the decision as “correct and courageous.”

ExxonMobil did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says he hopes to launch formal talks to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Mexico and Canada in a little more than three months.

Ross spoke with reporters in Washington Friday, saying he hopes to notify Congress in the next couple of weeks that the 90-day countdown to talks has begun. He spoke in a joint news conference with Mexican Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo.

Ross is obligated to formally notify Congress of his plans to renegotiate the deal; the letter he sends to Congress officially starts the process. If he carries through on his promise, talks would likely begin in early July.

Ross said any revision of NAFTA would either be two bilateral agreements with Mexico and Canada or one deal among all three countries.

At Friday’s news conference, Guajardo voiced his support for a trilateral deal, resembling the trade agreement now in place. Rather than separate U.S.-Mexico and U.S.-Canada discussions, he said all three nations should negotiate together.

“NAFTA is a trilateral agreement, and it would make a lot of sense to have trilateral discussions,” he said. He also noted that Mexico will be ready to start negotiations by the end of May.

In Houston, Texas, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters he is open to working with the Trump administration to revise NAFTA.

President Donald Trump has said he plans to renegotiate NAFTA because, he says, the United States has lost more than one-fourth of its manufacturing jobs to Mexico. But the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service reported in 2015 that NAFTA caused only a modest effect on job losses.

Ball State University in Indiana reported that trade deals like NAFTA were responsible for about 10 percent of factory job losses since the 1970s, while automation was responsible for 88 percent of factory job losses over the same period.

 
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South African taxi drivers on Friday blocked roads around Johannesburg’s main international airport to protest against ride-hailing company Uber, causing some passengers to miss their flights.

The protest by drivers with metered cabs, who say Uber unfairly siphons business from them, caused morning traffic jams on two highways near O.R. Tambo International Airport. Police later cleared the roads.

The impact of the blockade will continue “to be felt throughout the day due to earlier delays, particularly on flights that need to return to O. R. Tambo International Airport,” Airports Company South Africa, which manages the airport, said in a statement. “Airlines have informed the airport that passengers that missed flights in the morning are being accommodated on other flights.”

South African Airways urged passengers to arrive at the airport earlier than usual, even if they planned to fly later in the day.

In a statement, Uber said many South African drivers with metered taxis are also picking up customers with its ride-hailing app.

“Our technology is open and pro-choice and we are keen to offer it to a broad number of taxi drivers to boost their chances for profit,” said Uber, adding that threats and intimidation toward Uber drivers are unacceptable.

Meanwhile, some Uber drivers protested outside the company’s Johannesburg office on Friday, local media reported. That group of protesters reportedly said Uber does not do enough to address their safety concerns.

Taxi drivers in some other countries also have protested, sometimes violently, against Uber because of concerns over allegedly unfair competition.
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The U.S. economy had a net gain of 235,000 jobs in February, while the unemployment rate fell one-tenth of a percent to 4.7 percent.

Friday’s report from the Labor Department was stronger than most economists expected. Some experts say it takes around 100,000 jobs a month to accommodate new entrants to the work force.  

A survey of accountants who manage companies across the nation shows firms “are now looking to expand,” according to Ash Noah of AICPA. He tells VOA there is “pent-up” demand for labor.

Job gains were seen in private education, manufacturing, health care, mining and construction. The Associated General Contractors of America said construction employment jumped by the largest number since 2008. The National Council of La Raza said the construction hiring may have helped cut the unemployment rate for Latinos to 5.6 percent. 

On Twitter, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer called the report “Great news for American workers.” Since President Donald Trump has previously called official jobless numbers “phony” and “complete fiction,” Spicer joked with reporters that the figures may have been “phony in the past, but they are very real now.”

WATCH: Jobs Report ‘Real Now,’ Spicer Says

The tight job market means companies may have to start raising wages to attract and keep the best workers. Friday’s report said wages rose about 2.8 percent over the past year, which is a stronger gain than the previous month, and stronger than inflation.  

Top officials of the U.S. central bank have said they are watching the labor market closely, and the strong report may encourage them to raise interest rates. The Federal Reserve meets next week to debate interest-rate policy, and is scheduled to make an announcement Wednesday.

PNC Bank economist Gus Faucher says rates will go up one-quarter of one percent because the labor market is where the Fed “wants it to be.” Officials slashed rates to near zero during the recession to boost growth and fight unemployment.  

While the latest job data is stronger than expected, it also shows that 7.5 million Americans are still unemployed. Another 5.7 million who want to work full-time can only find part-time employment. The government figures count people as unemployed if they are available for work and tried to find a job sometime in the past four weeks. The figures do not count as officially unemployed those who stay home to raise children, those who are enrolled in school or those who have retired.
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The productivity of American workers grew at a slower pace in fourth quarter and last year recorded the smallest annual gain in five years.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that productivity grew at a 1.3 percent annual pace from October through December, down from 3.3 percent in the third quarter. For 2016, productivity eked out a 0.2 percent increase, the smallest since a 0.1 percent gain in 2011.

Labor costs, which account for changes in productivity, rose at a 1.7 percent annual pace in the fourth quarter. That’s up from a 0.7 percent increase from July through September.

The fourth-quarter numbers were unchanged from an original report in February.

Gains in productivity have slowed in recent years for reasons economists are struggling to understand. Since 2007, productivity has grown by an average 1.2 percent a year, compared to an average 2.6 percent from 2000 through 2007 and 2.1 percent from 1947 through 2016.

Productivity measures output per hour worked. Increases are crucial for economic prosperity. When their workers are more productive, employers can afford to pay them more. And productivity gains, along with growth in the number of people working, determine how fast the economy grows.

The U.S. economy grew at a sluggish annual 1.9 pace from October through December, down sharply from 3.5 percent growth in the third quarter.

President Donald Trump vowed during the election campaign to double growth to 4 percent a year through tax cuts, deregulation and increased government spending on infrastructure and defense. Economists are skeptical he can reach that goal – or even the target of 3 percent or better offered by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin – given the productivity slump and a slow-growing labor force.
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Home-renting site Airbnb is providing women with a new way to earn money and build businesses with more women than men on the site and women in Kenya gaining the most, the company said on Tuesday.

Airbnb said women have outnumbered men using the site since its 2008 launch and there are currently more than one million women hosts — amounting to 55 percent of users — who have earned over $10 billion in the past nine years.

A report released to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8 showed Kenyan women were gaining the most, earning about one-third of their annual household expenditure from Airbnb and often using this to launch their own businesses.

Women in India came second in the list, earning 31 percent of their annual household expenditure through Airbnb.

This contrasted with Germany and France, where Airbnb income was lowest among 14 countries surveyed, amounting to about three and four percent of average household expenditure, with many using this money to supplement part-time jobs.

“Through platforms like Airbnb, women around the world are finding a new source of supplemental income and a new opportunity for economic security and independence,” Airbnb said in a statement.

The positive message from Airbnb comes as the San-Francisco based start-up runs into disputes in cities like Barcelona, Berlin and Paris that claim it deprives locals of accommodation for permanent rent and hikes rental prices.

Studies show that one of the biggest obstacles for women entrepreneurs around the world is lack of access to capital to start businesses.

But the sharing economy business is billed for explosive growth, estimated by PricewaterhouseCoopers to reach $335 billion by 2025, from around $15 billion in 2016.

“The money I’ve made has helped pay part of my sister’s doctorate degree,” Airbnb cited one of its Kenyan hosts, Pamellah Gakenia, as saying.

Globally, women’s annual earnings, estimated at $10,778, are roughly half those of men, the World Economic Forum says, partly because fewer women have formal jobs.

Women hosts interviewed by Airbnb said they often employ others to help them with the rental business.

“My cleaner Lulu, a recent migrant from the Eastern Cape who doesn’t speak much English, now earns enough to pay her kids’ school fees,” it quoted South African host, Belinda, as saying.

The top five countries for women Airbnb hosts among the 14 surveyed were Kenya where women earned 34 percent of average household expenditure, India at 31 percent, Morocco 20 percent, China 19 percent and Japan 15 percent.

The data was based on an email survey of 112,000 Airbnb hosts with more than 44,000 responses from Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, South Africa, Spain, Britain and the United States.

 

 

 
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China has granted preliminary approval for 38 new Trump trademarks, paving the way for President Donald Trump and his family to develop a host of branded businesses from hotels to insurance to bodyguard and escort services, public documents show.

Trump’s lawyers in China applied for the marks in April 2016, as Trump railed against China at campaign rallies, accusing it of currency manipulation and stealing U.S. jobs. Critics maintain that Trump’s swelling portfolio of China trademarks raises serious conflict of interest questions.

 

China’s Trademark Office published the provisional approvals on Feb. 27 and Monday.

 

If no one objects, they will be formally registered after 90 days. All but three are in the president’s own name. China already registered one trademark to the president, for Trump-branded construction services, on Feb. 14.

 

If President Trump receives any special treatment in securing trademark rights, it would violate the U.S. Constitution, which bans public servants from accepting anything of value from foreign governments unless approved by Congress, ethics lawyers from across the political spectrum say. Concerns about potential conflicts of interest are particularly sharp in China, where the courts and bureaucracy are designed to reflect the will of the ruling Communist Party.

 

Dan Plane, a director at Simone IP Services, a Hong Kong intellectual property consultancy, said he had never seen so many applications approved so quickly. “For all these marks to sail through so quickly and cleanly, with no similar marks, no identical marks, no issues with specifications boy, it’s weird,” he said.

 

The trademarks are for businesses including branded spas, massage parlors, golf clubs, hotels, insurance, finance and real estate companies, retail shops, restaurants, bars, and private bodyguard and escort services.

 

Spring Chang, a founding partner at Chang Tsi & Partners, a Beijing law firm that has represented the Trump Organization, declined to comment specifically on Trump’s trademarks. But she did say that she advises clients to take out marks defensively, even in categories or subcategories of goods and services they may not aim to develop.

 

“I don’t see any special treatment to the cases of my clients so far,” she added. “I think they’re very fair and the examination standard is very equal for every applicant.”

 

Richard Painter, who served as chief ethics lawyer for President George W. Bush, said the volume of new approvals raised red flags.

 

“A routine trademark, patent or copyright from a foreign government is likely not an unconstitutional emolument, but with so many trademarks being granted over such a short time period, the question arises as to whether there is an accommodation in at least some of them,” he said.

 

Painter is involved in a lawsuit alleging that Trump’s foreign business ties violate the U.S. Constitution. Trump has dismissed the lawsuit as “totally without merit.”

 

China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce, which oversees the Trademark Office, and Trump Organization general counsel Alan Garten did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 
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Wednesday March 8 marks International Women’s Day, with festivals, concerts and exhibitions among the numerous events planned around the world to celebrate the achievements of women in society.

The annual event has been held since the early 1900s and traditionally promotes a different theme each year, with this year’s edition calling on people to #BeBoldForChange and push for a more gender-inclusive working world.

Reuters photographers have been speaking with women in a range of professions around the world about their experiences of gender inequality.

Here are just a few of the women and their comments:

Doris Leuthard, Switzerland

 

Doris Leuthard says she still sees gender inequality occur in the workplace.

“Salaries. The differences between wages of men and women can be up to 20 percent. It happens to many women. Transparency helps, discussions about salaries are important. In upper management and leading positions in politics we still seem to be the minority. I encourage women to work on their career,” she said.

Cristina Alvarez, Mexico

 

“I’ve never felt any gender inequality,” Alvarez said.

“I believe women can do the same jobs as men and that there should be no discrimination.”

Serpil Cigdem, Turkey

“When I applied for a job 23 years ago as an engine driver, I was told that it is a profession for men. I knew that during the written examination even if I got the same results with a male candidate, he would have been chosen. That’s why I worked hard to pass the exam with a very good result ahead of the male candidates,” Cigdem said.

“In my opinion, gender inequality starts in our minds saying it’s a male profession or it’s a man’s job,” she said.

Phung Thi Hai, Vietnam

Hai is among a group of 25 women working at a brick factory where she has to move 3,000 bricks a day to the kiln.

“How unfair that a 54-year-old woman like me has to work and take care of the whole family. With the same work male laborers can get a better income. Not only me, all women in the village work very hard with no education, no insurance and no future,” she said.

Tomoe Ichino, Japan

“In general, people think being a Shinto priest is a man’s profession. If you’re a woman, they think you’re a shrine maiden, or a supplementary priestess. People don’t know women Shinto priests exist, so they think we can’t perform rituals. Once, after I finished performing jiichinsai [ground-breaking ceremony], I was asked, ‘So, when is the priest coming?,'” Ichino said.

“When I first began working as a Shinto priest, because I was young and female, some people felt the blessing was different. They thought: ‘I would have preferred your grandfather.'”

“At first, I wore my grandfather’s light green garment because I thought it’s better to look like a man. But after a while I decided to be proud of the fact that I am a female priest and I began wearing a pink robe, like today. I thought I can be more confident if I stop thinking too much [about my gender].”

Yanis Reina, Venezuela

“No doubt this is a job initially intended for men, because you have to be standing on the street all your shift, it is dirty, greasy and there is always a strong gasoline smell. I have to adapt the pants of my uniform because they are men’s and make me look weird but I adore my work. My clients are like my relatives, they come here everyday and we chat a couple of minutes while the tank is being filled. They come every day because they feel safer to be served by a woman,” Reina said.

“With the difficult situation that we have in Venezuela, having a job that covers your expenses is almost a luxury, but beyond that, I’m very proud of my job. I believe that now we, the women, have to be the  warriors,” she said.

Januka Shrestha, Nepal

“There is no difference in a vehicle driven by a woman and man. While driving on the road people sometimes try to dominate a vehicle especially when they see a woman driving it,” she said.

“People have even used foul language toward me. When this happens I keep quiet and work even harder to prove that we are as capable as men,” Shrestha said.

Maxine Mallett, Britain

“The most stressful time of my career was when I had children. Women who return to work after having a child are sometimes treated with suspicion, as if they now lack commitment to the school when it is quite the opposite,” Mallett said.

“We need to remove barriers and support all. Having a fulfilling career should not have to be a battle that you have to constantly fight.”

Jeung Un, South Korea

“Most news outlets prefer to employ male photographers. I feel strongly about gender inequality,” Un said.

“When I cover violent scenes, sometimes I am harassed and hear sexually-biased remarks.”

Deng Qiyan, China

“Sometimes [gender inequality] happens,” Qiyan said.

“But we cannot do anything about that. After all, you have to digest all those unhappy things and carry on.”

Emilie Jeannin, France

“Once I could not help laughing when an agricultural advisor asked me, where the boss was, when I was standing right in front of him. I can assure you that the meeting got very quickly cut short!,” Jeannin said.

“Being a breeder is seen as a man’s job. In the past women were usually doing the administrative work or low level tasks. People need to be more open-minded. This change needs to happen everywhere not just on the fields.”

Meet more of the women in our photo gallery:
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Wednesday March 8 marks International Women’s Day, with festivals, concerts and

exhibitions among the numerous events planned around the world to celebrate the achievements of women in society.

Reuters photographers have been speaking with women in a range of professions around the world about their experiences of gender inequality.
…

Hundreds of Egyptians protested around the country on Tuesday, blocking roads and surrounding government offices, after a change to the way bread rations are managed raised fears that the government was cutting food subsidies by the back door.

Bread subsidies are an explosive issue in Egypt, where over 70 million receive state rations. Core inflation in the country has soared above 30 percent since Egypt floated its currency in November, securing a $12 billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to support a government austerity program.

Protests began on Monday after changes to a bread subsidy scheme left some people without their ration.

Unrest grew on Tuesday, with angry crowds gathering in the port city of Alexandria, in at least one poor Cairo neighborhood, and several other cities across Egypt.

Supply—Uprising became the top trending Twitter hashtag for Egypt as Egyptians posted pictures of confused people outside bakeries and in the street.

“We were surprised when the bakers refused to give us bread with the excuse that the Supply Ministry reduced their rations,” said Ahmed Faraj, an Alexandria resident.

Most protests drew small crowds and dissipated quickly, but offered the first major evidence of public anger over rising living costs.

“We are suffering from high prices. We have nothing left to live on but bread and now the government wants to deprive us of it,” said Samia Darwish, a 50-year-old homemaker in Alexandria.

Sale of bread subsidized

Egypt operates a system in which each family receives a plastic card to buy five subsidized loaves per person per day.

The government then pays bakeries a subsidy per loaf.

Bakers also receive “gold cards” to sell bread to individuals without a smartcard — generally those waiting for cards.

The Supply Ministry issued a statement on Monday denying it planned to cut bread subsidies after local media reported that rations would go from five to three loaves a day.

However, last week it did reduce the amount bakers can sell via the “gold card” scheme, according to a document seen by Reuters. The move is likely aimed at reducing misuse of those cards, which costs the government hundreds of millions of pounds a year.​

Bread sales lead to black market

A Reuters report last year revealed flaws in the system allow bakers to overstate sales to profit from the black market, where they sell subsidized flour to private bakeries at a profit, costing the government billions of pounds.

The dangers are not lost on President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, in a country where economic discontent has helped unseat two presidents in five years. He has promised prosperity and stability in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring uprising, and has committed to protecting the poorest from the pain of austerity.

“We want the president to know that the poor are dying of the high prices,” said Gamal Ahmed, from Alexandria.

Abdel Aal Darwish, the head of the bakeries division at the Alexandria Chambers of Commerce, called on the government to reverse the move and issue all Egyptians with cards.
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Brazil’s worst-ever recession intensified unexpectedly in the final quarter of 2016, data showed on Tuesday, frustrating hopes for signs of a recovery and stepping up pressure on President Michel Temer and the central bank to do more to promote growth.

Brazil’s gross domestic product contracted by 3.6 percent last year, statistics agency IBGE said, following a 3.8 percent drop in 2015. The nation’s two-year downturn is the longest and deepest on record for Latin America’s biggest nation.

The economic contraction worsened in the fourth quarter, with a steeper-than-expected decline of 0.9 percent, following a 0.7 percent drop in the previous three months.

Investment tumbled 10.2 percent in 2016, in a sharp drop that is partly blamed by economists on Brazil’s chronically high interest rates.

The central bank started to cut its benchmark rate from a decade-high of 14.25 percent in October and is expected to take it to single digits this year.

The disappointing data fueled calls for the central bank to accelerate the pace of rate cuts, currently running at 75 basis points per meeting. Yields on rate futures showed an increasing chance of a steeper cut when the bank makes its next scheduled policy decision in April, according to traders.

“There’s a lot of idle capacity in the economy and that’s a reason for the central bank to move faster,” said Cristiano Oliveira, chief economist at  Sao Paulo-based Banco Fibra, responding to Tuesday’s data.

Slow growth rate expected

The majority view among economists is that Brazil will emerge from recession in 2017, but at a very slow growth rate of 0.5 percent, which would be insufficient to reduce unemployment.

The government has forecast growth of 1 percent.

Some economists tempered their views even further following the dismal performance in 2016.

“We see zero growth in 2017, or maybe just a little bit above that,” said Carlos Kawall, chief economist at Banco Safra, in Sao Paulo. “We should not see any big recovery this year; we will have to wait until 2018.”

Green shoots sprouting slowly

Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles rebuked that pessimism by saying after the figures were announced that Brazil is “clearly” starting to grow again, based on indicators ranging from cardboard and motorcycle production to supermarket sales.

A revised forecast for economic growth in 2017 will be announced by March 22, Meirelles said, taking into account the worse-than-expected fourth-quarter data.

Betting that investors’ growing confidence in Brazil would hold, the government reopened on Tuesday a 10-year global bond seeking to raise at least $500 million.

Signs of an imminent recovery include a rebound in vehicle traffic, which appears to have hit bottom in the fourth quarter, according to a senior executive at CCR SA, the country’s biggest toll road operator.

Car output also jumped nearly 15 percent in February, according to the national automakers’ association Anfavea, and farmers hope to harvest a record soy crop this year.

None of that, however, is likely to make for anything more than a shallow and underwhelming recovery, according to Goldman Sachs economist Alberto Ramos.

“A very weak labor market backdrop and still high levels of household and corporate indebtedness should limit the strength of the recovery,” Ramos said.

Tax hikes not ruled out

The downturn has left nearly 13 million people unemployed, caused a record number of bankruptcy filings and led agencies to strip Brazil of its hard-won investment grade credit rating.

It also contributed to the impeachment of former President Dilma Rousseff last year and to the low approval ratings of her successor, President Temer, whose agenda of budget and pension reforms has helped fuel a strong rally in Brazilian equities and currency since last year.

If the economy continues to disappoint, tax revenues could fall short of expectations, putting the country’s budget target at risk. Meirelles said the government could raise taxes or cut spending further if necessary to achieve its 143.1 billion reais ($45.87 billion) primary deficit goal.

Although this recession has been the deepest in Brazil’s history, it has not been marked by the financial upheaval seen in other crises in the country’s turbulent economic past.

Previous downturns were often accompanied by sovereign debt crises, capital flight and hyperinflation, none of which happened during the current slump.
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