Dozens of German companies including Siemens attended meetings in Bolivia this week to discuss building a coast-to-coast railway through Brazil, Bolivia and Peru that could speed up the export of corn and soybeans to Asia, German and Bolivian officials said on Wednesday.

The massive, $10-billion project would involve building a 3,700-kilometer (2,299 miles) rail line across the continent, linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, through mountains and jungles.

“This is the project of the century,” said Germany’s State Secretary of German Transport, Building and Urban Development Rainer Bomba.

Representatives from Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia as well as Germany and Switzerland are still studying the feasibility of the train route, which would drastically shorten shipping routes from Brazil’s coast to Asian markets for key commodities.

Siemens, Europe’s top engineering group, participated in the meetings “to get more information about the project,” spokesman Dennis Hofmann said in an email.

“The project is at an early stage and questions have to be clarified,” he wrote.

The discussions, on Tuesday and Wednesday, come after a similar, Chinese-led project build a trans-South America railway ran into roadblocks late last year due to cost and environmental concerns.

Bolivian and German officials did not name other companies that attended the meetings, but Bomba said: “The presence of 40 German companies here demonstrates that Germany is not only in the planning phase, but also in the realization phase.”

Bolivia’s Public Works Minister Milton Claros told Reuters Bolivia and Germany had signed agreements for technical assistance and financing for the project. The ministry said the project would connect the Brazilian port of Santos to the Peruvian port of Ilo and had a preliminary cost estimate of $10 billion.

Brazil is expected to export 28 million tons of corn and 61 million tonnes of soybeans in the 2016/17 crop year according to the USDA. It is the world’s largest soybean exporter and second-largest corn exporter.

China and Peru agreed in 2015 to study a 3,000-mile-long railway through the Andes, but Peru balked when China estimated its cost at $60 billion. Peru’s President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski later said the rail should go through Bolivia.

Land-locked Bolivia has long pined for a corridor to the Pacific, blasting Chile for taking its coastline in a war in the late 19th century and maintaining its Navy on Lake Titicaca.

Brazil had also questioned the Chinese project and would likely back the Bolivian route, a member of the Brazilian delegation said.

“We identified problems in the reports made by the Chinese group. We communicated the points of disagreement to Chinese authorities and we are seeing how we can continue the studies,” said Joao Carlos Parkinson, coordinator of economic affairs at Brazil’s Foreign Ministry, who attended the meetings.

Brazil’s Ambassador to Bolivia Raymundo Santos said talks would continue.

“Our delegation confirmed Brazil’s interest in participating,” he said. “The political side has been resolved, but now the technical work has to move forward.”
…

The big snowstorm in the U.S. Midwest and East last week was a respite for some small-business owners whose revenue took a hit from the generally mild winter and who now are rethinking their cold-weather strategies.

Retailers who sell winter clothing or snow shovels have had fewer customers this season. Plumbers who expected to fix frozen pipes have had less work, and people who make money removing snow have had idle equipment. On the flip side, better weather means more business for companies that cater to people who want to be outdoors.

The period from December through February was the sixth-warmest winter on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. government agency that compiles statistics about the weather. The average January temperature in the lower 48 states, which excludes Alaska and Hawaii, was 33.6 degrees Fahrenheit (less than 1 degree Celsius). That’s a few degrees above the 20th-century average. And February was downright hot in some places — nearly 12,000 local warm records were set or tied, including a 99-degree (37-degree Celsius) reading in Oklahoma.

Meanwhile, snow was sparse in many places. Chicago, which has often had 1 foot (0.3 meter) or more in February, was virtually snowless last month. The temperate weather meant dog owners didn’t need warm coats and protective booties for their pooches. Hope Saidel, co-owner of the retailer Golly Gear in the Chicago suburb of Skokie, had half the normal amount of sales during January.

‘Devastating’ drop

“When we heard the 10-day forecast was going to be up in the 60s [Fahrenheit], we thought, ‘This is not going to be good,’ ” Saidel says. “It was devastating.”

Saidel quickly changed her strategy to focus on warm-weather items like leashes, harnesses and bicycle baskets that can carry small dogs, and moved the coats and booties away from the front of the store. That helped salvage the season.

The warmer weather saved homeowners from frozen and burst pipes, but their good fortune has curtailed business for Ted Puzio’s plumbing and electrical company in Roanoke, Virginia. The average low temperature in the area this winter has been several degrees above normal, according to the government figures. Southern Trust Home Services, whose business is entirely residential, also isn’t getting as many service calls as usual for heating system repairs.

Puzio’s overall business is growing, but he notices the shortfall from the plumbing side of the company.

“We’re not getting the bump-up we typically do,” Puzio said.

Atlantic Westchester, a Bedford Hills, New York, company that services commercial heating and air-conditioning systems, makes more money when it’s colder and heating systems have to work harder. But this has been the second mild winter in a row, and President Bud Hammer estimates revenue is down 15 percent from a typical season.

Maintenance work

To make back some revenue, the company has sought work at buildings that hadn’t maintained their heating systems during and after the Great Recession that began nearly a decade ago. Hammer’s salespeople are contacting building managers and keeping watch for potential customers with telltale signs of trouble — like a building that has open windows because the heating system is in overdrive.

Temperatures that the U.S. government said have been several degrees higher than normal have hurt both of Tara Saxton’s businesses in the Fremont, New Hampshire, area. Saxon’s contracting company, KTM Exteriors & Recycling, has missed out on cold-weather work like clearing snow off roofs. It also has been unable to start on warmer-weather projects like replacing roofs and siding, because temperatures that made it into the 60s (more than 15 degrees Celsius) have also quickly nose-dived. Although Saxton has been doing more interior work like kitchens, revenue is still down more than $200,000 this winter.

Saxton’s other business, Maple Rock Racing, a promoter of snowmobile races, was hurt when several races had to be postponed because of the lack of snow — the second straight year a mild weather has disrupted the schedule. For the races that were held, attendance was in the hundreds, not thousands. Some sponsors already withdrew after last winter, and Saxton is uneasy about the future.

“I’m sure after this year, we’ll be in a similar situation when we go calling [sponsors] this summer,” she said.

But some companies got a revenue boost this winter.

At Sunnyland Furniture in Dallas, a patio furniture retailer whose sales usually slow in winter, warmer weather enticed people to buy fire pits and seating so they can sit outside when the temperature is in the 50s (more than 10 degrees Celsius), Vice President Brad Schweig said. Shoppers are also looking ahead to spring.

“We’ve seen things ramp up earlier than usual,” Schweig said.

Swimming in customers

Jason Askins’ pool remodeling and repair franchise had an 80 percent increase in business the first two months of this year because of the warmer weather in Edmond, Oklahoma.

“People are starting to think about getting the pool ready,” said Askins, whose phone at America’s Swimming Pool doesn’t usually start ringing until April. The extra business allowed Askins to hire seasonal workers early; he’s already brought in five and expects six more, giving him a staff of 15.

When Michelle and Frank Griffith started their food truck business, Firehouse Grilling Co., last year, they expected to take the winter off, as Cleveland usually has high temperatures around 37 (3 degrees Celsius). But the average since December has been several degrees above that, with February’s highs around 50 (10 degrees Celsius), according to government figures — warm enough to bring people outdoors to get something to eat.

“The snowblower hasn’t been even taken out,” Michelle Griffith said. She estimated that the couple picked up an extra 20 percent in revenue because they kept the converted firetruck operating through the winter. But they did change the menu to fit the calendar.

“We’ve done chili, hot chocolate, warm comfort foods,” Griffith said. “I wouldn’t sell chili in the middle of the summer at an amusement park.”
…

Sears, once the monolith of American retail, says that there is “substantial doubt” that it will be able to keep its doors open.

 

Company shares, which hit an all-time low last month, tumbled more than 12 percent Wednesday.

 

Sears has been a member of the retail dead pool for years, but until this week the company had not openly acknowledged its tenuous existence, said Ken Perkins, who heads the research firm Retail Metrics LLC.

 

Sears has long maintained that by balancing the sale of key assets while at the same time enticing customers with loyalty programs, it would eventually turn the corner.

 

Yet industry analysts have placed the staggering sums of money that Sears is losing beside the limited number of assets it has left to sell, and concluded that the storied retailer may have reached the point of no return.

 

The company has lost $10.4 billion since 2011, the last year that it made a profit. Excluding charges that can be listed as one-time events, the loss is $4.57 billion, Perkins says, but how the losses are stacked no longer seem to matter.

 

“They’re past the tipping point,” Perkins said. “This is a symbolic acknowledgement of the end of Sears of what we know it to be.”

 

For Sears to survive, Perkins believes it would need to do so as a company running maybe 200 stores. It now operates 1,430, a figure that has been vastly reduced in recent years.

 

Analysts see not much of a future

As for Kmart, which Sears also owns, Perkins does not see much of a future.  

 

Millions of dollars have been funneled through the hedge fund of Chairman and CEO Edward Lampert to keep Sears afloat but with sales fading, it is burning through cash. Lampert combined Sears and Kmart in 2005, about two years after he helped bring Kmart out of bankruptcy

 

According to a regulatory filing late Tuesday, Sears Holdings Corp. lost more than $2 billion last year. Adjusted for one-time charges, its loss was $887 million.

 

Sears has been selling assets, most recently its Craftsman tool brand. But it says its pension agreements may prevent the spin-off of more businesses, potentially leading to a shortfall in funding.

“Our historical operating results indicate substantial doubt exists related to the company’s ability to continue as a going concern,” Sears said in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 

Sears, which employs 140,000 people, announced a major restructuring plan in February with hopes of cutting costs by $1 billion through the sale of more stores, jobs cuts and brand asset sales.  And it’s reconfiguring its debts to give itself more breathing room.

But it has to get more people through the doors or shopping online for what it’s selling.

 

Sales at Sears and Kmart locations that have been open at least a year, a key indicator of a retailer’s health, dropped 10.3 percent in the final quarter of 2016.

 

The company plans to use a big portion of the $900 million it got for Craftsman to shore up its pension plan. It will put $250 million in cash and some income from annual payments toward the plan as part of a deal with the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corp., a federal agency that protects private pension plans.

 

The company said in its regulatory filing, however, that its agreement with the agency might stand in the way of more asset sales that would buy it more time.

 

Lampert has long pledged to return Sears to greatness, leveraging best-known brands like Kenmore and DieHard, as well as its vast holdings of land.

 

Failing to reach new kind of consumer

Those aspirations have been scrambled by a new consumer that has ripped up the decades-old playbook that the industry has relied upon for years.

 

There are also new and dynamic players that have also revolutionized the market, namely Amazon.com.  

 

Department stores have been among the hardest hit by those seismic changers as Americans spend money on their homes or on dinners out, rather than on clothing. When they do buy clothes, they’re not spending much, hitting up places like T.J. Maxx for fat discounts.

 

Sears has upped its presence online, but is having a hard time disguising its age. Its stores are in need of a major redo.

 

Longtime rivals like Wal-Mart and Target are spending heavily to revitalize stores and they’re intensely focused on a new consumer that goes online before stepping into a store.  Meanwhile, J.C. Penney has been hitting Sears hard by bringing back major appliances to its stores. Penney, Macy’s and others have been shuttering locations as well. But real estate research firm Green Street Advisors says about 800 stores, or 20 percent of all U.S. mall anchor space, would need to close to match the inflation-adjusted sales productivity of 2006.

 

Sears in January said it would close 108 additional Kmart and 42 more Sears locations.

 

In its most recent quarter, Sears, based in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, just northwest of Chicago, lost $607 million. Revenue declined to $6.05 billion from $7.3 billion during the same period the year before.

 

It was the sixth consecutive quarter of losses.

 

“They’ve been delusional about their ability to turn around the business,” said Perkins.
…

Farmers in the U.S. agricultural heartland who helped elect Donald Trump are now pushing his administration to avoid a trade dispute with Mexico, fearing retaliatory tariffs that could hit over $3 billion in U.S. exports.

The value of exports at risk is based on a Reuters analysis of a tariff list that Mexico used in a trucking dispute six years ago and that  Mexican officials have said could serve as a model if Trump sets new barriers to Mexican goods.

Pork producers contacted Trump’s transition team soon after the November 8 election to stress that tariff-free access to Mexico has made it their top export market by volume, said John Weber, president of the National Pork Producers Council.

The council has sent the administration multiple letters, including one signed in January by 133 agricultural organizations, and is arranging for several hog farmers to fly to Washington next month to talk to officials.

‘Pounding them’ on trade

“We just keep pounding them on how critical trade is to us,” said Weber, who fears Mexico could revive the list of mostly agricultural products it successfully used to push Washington into letting Mexican truckers on U.S. highways in 2011.

Pork products topped that list and, if revived, the tariffs would apply to over $800 million worth of annual pork exports, according to data compiled by IHS Markit’s Global Trade Atlas.

“We’ll be the first to take the hit,” Weber said.

The lobbying effort by U.S. businesses that rely on the Mexican market shows how Mexico can press its case in Washington despite having an economy 1/17 the size of America’s and relying on the U.S. market for nearly 80 percent if its exports.

In Iowa, where pigs outnumber people 7 to 1, hog and grain farmer Jamie Schmidt voted for Trump in part on his promise to cut regulatory burdens for businesses.

 

Now he and others who farm the flat, rich land around Garner, Iowa, worry about trade. Schmidt gets about half of his income from hogs, earning $4 to 5 for each of the 425 pigs he sells per week, usually to a Tyson Foods packing plant in nearby Perry, Iowa.

Tariffs from Mexico could depress U.S. wholesale prices and wipe out his profits, Schmidt said. “It would be devastating.”

Targeting states

In December, after fears of a trade dispute fueled a deep peso slump, Mexico started mapping out U.S. states that are most reliant on its market, replicating the strategy it used in the trucking dispute, said two senior Mexican officials.

Mexican officials also prepared briefs, seen by Reuters, on Mexico’s own risks in a dispute, including losing much of its cost advantage in building cars, such as the Ford Fusion made in Hermosillo, Mexico.

Reuters could not verify a complete list of products and states Mexico considered targeting this time around.

But the country’s foreign minister said last month that tariffs could target Iowa, which raises a third of U.S. hogs and exports about a quarter of its pork production, $100 million of which went to Mexico last year.

The minister also said tariffs could aim at Wisconsin, the center of U.S. cheese production, and has singled out Texas for its “notable” trade surplus with Mexico. All three states voted for Trump in the 2016 election, with the president taking Iowa and Wisconsin by slim margins.

 

Trump has accused Mexico of destroying U.S. jobs and has vowed to leave the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico if he cannot renegotiate better terms with Mexico. The United States went from running a small trade surplus with Mexico in the early 1990s to a $63 billion deficit in 2016.

Besides pork, cheese was also a top target in the trucking dispute in which Mexico retaliated with tariffs against rules that banned its trucks from U.S. roads.

$3B-plus in U.S. exports

Some $200 million in current annual exports of cheese would be targeted if the tariff list were revived, according to the IHS database, which the U.S. government uses to measure the impact of trade disputes. The full tariff list would apply to $3.25 billion in current U.S. exports.

John Holevoet, the director of government affairs at Wisconsin’s Dairy Business Association, said he has attended multiple meetings with Wisconsin federal lawmakers this year where risks of Mexican trade were discussed.

Weber of the pork producers group said he believed the Trump administration understands the vulnerability of U.S. farm exports. Republican Representative Steve King, who represents Iowa’s agriculture-focused 4th Congressional District, also pointed out that Iowa’s role as the first state in the presidential nominating process helps keep farm interests in Washington’s view.

But King told Reuters he was worried the White House was still not taking trade risks seriously enough.

A possible 20 percent tax on Mexican imports, which White House spokesman Sean Spicer has said could also pay for Trump’s proposed border wall, would cause a trade war, he said.

King said he had been in contact with the White House on the matter but had yet to secure a one-on-one meeting with the president. “I’m making sure that here in Washington they know what this means.”
…

Oil prices dipped on Wednesday as rising crude stocks in the United States underscored an ongoing global fuel supply overhang despite an OPEC-led effort to cut output.

Prices for front-month Brent crude futures, the international benchmark for oil, were at $50.79 per barrel at 0451 GMT, down 17 cents, or 0.3 percent, from their last close.

U.S. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were down 18 cents, or 0.4 percent, at $48.08 a barrel.

“Crude oil prices fell as concerns over rising U.S. inventories resurfaced,” ANZ bank said on Wednesday.

U.S. crude oil inventories climbed by 4.5 million barrels in the week to March 17 to 533.6 million barrels, the American Petroleum Institute (API) said late on Tuesday.

“The American Petroleum Institutes’ crude inventories stuck the knife into crude overnight, coming in at a 4.5 million barrel increase against an expected increase of 2.8 million barrels,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at futures brokerage OANDA in Singapore.

“If the API stuck the knife in, tonight’s EIA Crude Inventory figures may twist it. A blowout above the 2.1 million barrel increase expected, may well torpedo oil below the waterline,” he added.

Official U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) oil storage data is due on Wednesday.

The bloated storage comes as U.S. oil production has risen over 8 percent since mid-2016 to more than 9.1 million barrels per day (bpd), levels comparable to late 2014, when the oil market slump started.

Rising production in the United States and elsewhere, and bloated inventories, are undermining efforts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to cut output and prop up prices.

“OPEC’s market intervention has not yet resulted in significant visible inventory draw-downs, and the financial markets have lost patience,” U.S. bank Jefferies said on Wednesday in a note to clients, although it added that the cutbacks would likely start to show by the second half of the year if OPEC extends its production cuts beyond June.

Despite cuts, analysts warned of renewed or ongoing oversupply in coming years, especially as U.S. shale producers ramp up and once OPEC returns to full capacity.

U.S. bank Goldman Sachs warned its clients in a note this week that a U.S. shale led production surge “could create a material oversupply in 2018-19.”
…

Brazil’s government plans to announce spending freezes of 30 billion to 35 billion reais ($9.7 billion to $11.3 billion) this week to help meet part of its 2017 budget deficit target, the Senate leader said on Tuesday.

The rest of the shortfall will have to come from raised taxes and higher revenues from such sources as infrastructure concessions to private companies, Senator Romero Jucá said in an interview.

Jucá said tax increases being studied include one on gasoline and another on financial operations called IOF, both of which would not require legislation.

“The freezes will be a maximum of 30 to 35 billion reais, More than that would be an amputation,” Jucá said.

Brazil’s primary budget deficit target for this year is 139 billion reais, but a severe recession shrunk revenues and the government is expected to miss that goal by 65 billion to 70 billion reais.

Nothing has been decided

Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles told reporters that the freezes have not been decided yet, nor any tax hikes.

President Michel Temer’s key measure to bring the widening deficit under control, reform of Brazil’s costly social security system to make it pay for itself, is facing a battle for approval in Congress.

Jucá said the government is working on an agreement between the Senate and lower chamber on the proposal which established a minimum retirement age among other unpopular changes.

The consolidated report will cover possible adjustments to make the bill more palatable to lawmakers, and some of them will be announced by Temer by the end of this week, Jucá said.

Change in retirement age?

Jucá said he believed the government must insist on the introduction of a minimum retirement age of 65, a controversial move in a country where people on average work until they are 54.

Modernizing labor laws, next on the government’s reform list to lower business costs and help pull Brazil from its worst recession, will get off the ground before the pension bill clears Congress, Jucá said.

An outsourcing bill will be put to a vote this week in the Senate and merged with another proposal from the lower chamber, so that it can be quickly sent to Temer to sign into law.

The bills face fierce opposition from labor unions who see allowing temporary workday contracts as an attack on workers’ rights. Jucá said temporary union payments will be added to the legislation to keep labor leaders happy.
…

Amid continuing economic turmoil, Venezuela skipped heating oil contributions to a Massachusetts-based nonprofit for a second consecutive winter, signaling that the popular program that began with fanfare after Hurricane Katrina may be kaput.

The decision by Venezuela’s Citgo Petroleum Corp. to bow out of the program founded by Joseph P. Kennedy II, which has helped hundreds of thousands of U.S. residents, coincides with plummeting oil prices and corresponding economic problems in oil-rich Venezuela.

Hopes of a late contribution to the “Joe-4-Oil” program to help the poor heat their homes faded with spring’s arrival this week, Kennedy said.

“While this is not good news, it certainly isn’t surprising,” the businessman and former congressman told The Associated Press.

Citgo officials declined to comment.

The Citgo heating oil program was launched after Katrina damaged U.S. refining capacity in 2005, causing energy costs to spike as winter approached.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the fiery leader who died in 2013, responded to an appeal from Kennedy to help out after criticizing then-Republican President George W. Bush for failing to do enough for the poor. Houston-based Citgo is a subsidiary of the Venezuelan national oil company.

Over the years, the program has provided $500 million in heating assistance to 2 million program participants in 25 states and the District of Columbia, supplementing federal energy assistance.

Rita Soucier, 80, said she and her husband received assistance many times over the years, helping the couple stay warm in their trailer in Howland, Maine.

This year, there was no help, said Soucier, whose husband, a retired paper mill worker, died last month. But she said she’s grateful for past help, typically 100 gallons of heating oil.

“It helps a lot when you’re not the richest people in the world,” said Soucier, who said her needs are few. “As long as I can get by, I don’t want any more or any less.”

 

Venezuela, which has the world’s largest proven oil reserves, has been hurt by declining prices. The unraveling economy, cuts to social programs and growing political divisions have rocked the once-stable country, leading to food shortages and a dramatic drop in currency value.

Citizens Energy continues to operate other programs. The nonprofit was created in 1979 to channel revenue from commercial enterprises to charitable programs.

But the heating oil program may fold. The “Joe-4-Oil” television advertisements did not run this year or last, and a message online said that applications for winter heating oil help were not being accepted.

The nonprofit isn’t giving up hope, however. The Citgo program was suspended in 2009, only to return a few months later.

Citizens Energy continues to operate solar, wind and transmission projects that provide assistance, including solar panels for low-income homes, energy grants for homeless shelters and natural gas subsidies for low-income households.

“The good news is Citizens Energy continues to grow and prosper and provide significant benefits to low-income people around our country as a result of businesses that provide the financial firepower to fulfill our mission,” Kennedy said.
…

Namibia’s president said Tuesday that the government is considering radical land expropriation to spur the transfer of property to the country’s black majority.

Speaking at Namibia’s 27th independence celebrations, President Hage Geingob said the government should evoke part of the Constitution allowing for land expropriation with fair compensation since the redistribution process has been slow.

“If we are committed to achieving further economic growth and maintaining peace, then everyone should be open to new approaches,” said Geingob, Namibia’s third president since the country gained independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.

“This means we need to refer back to our Constitution which allows for the expropriation of land with fair compensation and also look at foreign ownership of land, especially absentee land owners.”

Namibia wants to transfer 43 percent, or 15 million hectares, of its arable agricultural land to previously disadvantaged blacks by 2020. By the end of 2015, 27 percent was redistributed, according to the Namibia Agriculture Union.

Geingob is under pressure from factions within his ruling party, the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), to speed up the program which many say has failed to adequately address the problem and is currently skewed in favor of whites.

Land reform is an emotive issue, also in neighboring South Africa where President Jacob Zuma last month called for a review of laws to allow expropriation of land without compensation.

Expropriation would mark a radical policy departure for both Namibia and South Africa, shifting from an agreed buyer-seller approach to more provocative alternatives.
…

The University of Southern California each year hosts the African Economic and Development Summit, bringing delegations of African business leaders, government officials and others to network with their counterparts in the U.S. But this year, the African summit has no Africans. All were denied visas. Michelle Quinn reports from Los Angeles.
…

The World Bank reports Africa will receive the bulk of the $75 billion the International Development Association, or IDA, will spend to finance life-saving and life-changing operations over the next three years mainly in 30 of the world’s poorest, most fragile countries.

The IDA is a part of the World Bank which supports anti-poverty programs in the most poor developing countries through long-term, no interest loans.

The World Bank reports the African region will receive $45 billion of the $75 billion allocated for development purposes. It says other recipients will include small Pacific island states threatened by climate change and fragile countries in the Western Hemisphere, such as Haiti.

The fund, which runs from July 1 through June 30, 2020, also will support specific development projects in 82 additional fragile states, including Guinea, Nepal, Niger, and Tajikistan.

Axel van Trotsenburg, vice president for Development Programs at the World Bank, says the aid package will make a huge difference in the lives of hundreds of millions of people. For example, he says it could deliver essential health and nutrition services for up to 400 million people.

“We will or expect to train up to 10 million teachers to benefit 300-plus million children. We intend to immunize between 130 and 180 million children… and would undertake investments that could improve the access to improved water resources for up to 45 million people,” he said.

Long-term and emergency assistance 

While IDA is largely focused on supporting long-term development projects, it does have provisions for helping people in crisis situations. Van Trotsenburg tells VOA that IDA has just announced a $1.6 billion support package for emergencies, with critical support going for famine relief in Yemen, South Sudan, Somalia, and northern Nigeria, where an estimated 20 million people are at risk of famine.

“The financial support will be a combination of recently approved operations that we have been in the last six, eight months that were already started to target, for example, the north of Nigeria to the remaining resources that are still available in our crisis response window,” he said.

Van Trotsenburg says IDA still has about $360 million left over from development projects executed over the past three years. He says that money will be used for famine relief.
…

There was bad news for the United Nations last week, as President Donald Trump announced he is seeking a 28 percent budget cut for diplomacy and foreign aid, which includes an unspecified reduction in funding to the United Nations and its agencies. VOA’s U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer reports that the potential cuts come as the U.N. is struggling to cope with an unprecedented number of conflicts, approaching famines and the effects of climate change.
…

China, the world’s third-largest bond market accounting for $9 trillion in debt instruments, has started the process of opening up to foreign investors. Two major investment banks, including Citigroup, have announced plans to join the fray and several others are expectantly watching the unfolding situation.

It’s not a sudden desire to liberalize, but pressure from shrinking foreign capital inflows and expanding outflows that has motivated Beijing’s communist leaders into this new and uncertain path.

“China’s purpose is to attract capital inflows from investors needing RMB [Chinese yuan] assets for their portfolio,” said Jacob Kirkegaard, economist with the Peterson Institute of International Affairs. “This will also help to stabilize RMB exchange rate.”

China has suffered some serious loss of capital because of uncontrolled outflows and a recent decline in its foreign direct investments, which saw a drop of 9.2 percent in January. The country also suffered its first trade deficit in three years last month.

To overcome the situation, Beijing recently allowed overseas investors to hedge their currency risks at the local derivative market. This partially opened the doors to foreign players who saw currency risk as a major deterrent in the Chinese bond market.

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang threw in a sweetener in mid-February, saying the government would launch a trial program to connect the bond market in mainland China with Hong Kong, which is the base of operations for a large number of foreign investors. The bond connect will make it easier for Hong Kong-based investors to access domestic Chinese instruments without leaving the city.

“I see that as a part of China of becoming a major player and becoming an important destination for financial investors, ” Lourdes Casanova, Director of Emerging Markets Institute at Cornell University’s SC Johnson School of Management, said.

International currency

This move is also meant to promote the use of RMB as an international currency.

“These efforts indicate that China wants to assert its economic, business and financial power with all the inherent advantages and risks,” Casanova said.

The past few weeks have seen Bloomberg Barclays become the first major index provider to include Chinese yuan bonds in its global offerings. Citigroup has announced plans to embed China bonds into its bond market benchmark WGBI-Extended. JPMorgan Chase & Co., another index maker, said it is evaluating the entry of China markets into its JPMorgan Global Emerging Market Bond Index.

This is not surprising because the RMB, or the Chinese yuan, is now part of the International Monetary Fund’s coveted special drawing-rights basket.

“There are global investors who wish to shadow the IMF SDR basket, and needs RMB exposure,” Kirkegaard said.

At present, foreign investments account for just about $120 billion, or 1.33 percent, of China’s bond market. But the situation is expected to change soon as investment banks and index makers have started the process of measuring steps before entering the market in a big way.

Given China’s role as the second-biggest economy, it is natural for Chinese investors to want Chinese bonds in their portfolio, Casanova said. In fact, foreign investors face fewer challenges in China’s bond market compared to what they are up to in other emerging markets, she said.

“Yes, there are many doubts, there are many doubts in many countries. I am European, I am from Spain, there are doubts about the viability of the euro. In the U.S. there are other types of worries,” she said adding, “That’s why also for the international investors, China is not as risky as it used to be.”

Casanova said, “The risk of default is minimal given the amount of Chinese reserves and the risk related to currency swings are also much less than, let’s say, Argentina, which has been issuing debt recently.”

Doubts and challenges

But foreign investors will have to tread carefully because it is not easy to seriously analyze credit risk in China where the markets are not transparent and there is not much information available about issuers and major buyers of debt instruments, he said.

“Their [foreign investors’] willingness to invest will be dependent on the implicit government guarantee against default… foreign investors won’t be able to seriously analyze credit risk in China,” he said.

Casanova sees the situation differently. She points out there are risks in most markets across the globe, and international investors will choose what suits them best.
…

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe spoke up for free trade at a major technology fair on Sunday with jabs clearly pointed at an increasingly protectionist United States.

Both called for a free trade deal to be reached quickly between Japan and the European Union, in comments made after G-20 finance ministers and central bankers dropped a long-standing mention of open trade in their final communique after a two-day meeting in Germany.

Neither leader named the U.S. government as they opened the CeBIT technology fair in Hanover, but both used the opportunity to distance themselves from protectionist tendencies coming from the Trump administration.

“In times when we have to argue with many about free trade, open borders and democratic values, it’s a good sign that Japan and Germany no longer argue about this but rather are seeking to shape the future in a way that benefits people,” Merkel said.

As G-20 president, Germany feels especially committed to these principles, she added.

After meeting President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday for the first time, Merkel said she hoped the United States and the European Union could resume discussions on a trade agreement. Trump said he did not believe in isolationism but that trade policy should be fairer.

Merkel stressed that Germany was strongly in favour of free trade and open markets.

“We certainly don’t want any barriers but at a time of an ‘Internet of things’ we want to link our societies with one another and let them deal fairly with one another, and that is what free trade is all about,” she said.

Speaking at the same event, Abe said: “Japan, having gone through reaping in abundance the benefits of free trade and investment, wants to be the champion upholding open systems alongside Germany.”

He added: “Of course to do so it will be necessary to have rules that are fair and can stand up to democratic appraisal.”

He also said the European Union and Japan should soon reach an economic deal. Merkel welcomed his comments, saying: “It’s very, very good that Japan says we want a free trade agreement, we want it soon because that could be the right statement and Germany would love to be a driving force behind this.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker told Bild am Sonntag newspaper he was pleased that he would be meeting Abe on Tuesday and said the bloc wanted to conclude a free trade deal with Japan this year.
…

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said the meeting of finance ministers of the G20 countries was a success Saturday despite the ministers not reaching agreement on trade protectionism.

“I will leave here confident that my colleagues and I are able to work in partnership to …foster and promote global growth and financial stability,” he said.

Citing President Donald Trump’s commitment to American companies and workers, Mnuchin pushed back on and effectively omitted a ban on protectionism from the joint statement released at the end of the summit.

Mnuchin did, however, say that the United States still believed in free trade.

“We believe in free trade, we’re one of the largest markets in the world, we’re one of the largest trading partners in the world,” Mnuchin said. “Having said that, we want to re-examine certain agreements,” he continued, speaking specifically about NAFTA.

Other world powers present played down any disagreement between the countries.

“It’s not true we are not agreed. It’s completely clear we are not for protectionism,” Wolfgang Schaeuble, finance minister of host country Germany, told reporters, though he did, without mentioning a country by name, say that “maybe one or the other important member state needs to get a sense of how international cooperation works.”

The G20 is a informal forum on economic cooperation between 19 countries plus the European Union. Representatives from the 19 countries and the EU will meet for a formal summit in July.

 
…

In Greece’s grinding economic crisis, a home for abused children is now taking in those whose parents are struggling to feed them.

It is perhaps the darkest sign of economic devastation in Greece, where traditionally strong family ties are starting to crumble after years of depression.

A quarter of Greece’s workforce is unemployed and a quarter of its children live in poverty, according to United Nations figures, forcing parents to depend on grandparents for handouts.

But pensions too have been cut a dozen times.

In Athens, the Model National Nursery, set up a century ago for orphans of war, can hardly keep up with the number of parents turning to it for help. Unable to cover their basic needs, parents leave their children in the home all week.

Iro Zervaki, its head, says at least 40 children are on the waiting list, four times as many as a couple of years ago.

The home sleeps 25 in a bare room with rows of beds draped in blue blankets, and lacks the staff and funds to increase capacity, she said. Most places are for abused children.

Dozens of other children, all aged two to five, come in daily, but the days away from their parents are long.

“We had incidents where children even attempted to leave, to run away, to go to their mother,” Zervaki said.

In the buzzing playground, a little girl tugged the social worker’s blouse and yelled: “Miss! When will I go to my mum?” “They can’t tell the days apart so every day they ask: ‘Is it Friday?'” Anthoula Zarmakoupi, the social worker, said. “They know mum will pick them up at the weekend.”

But sometimes even that was not possible, she said. “We have children whose parents are homeless so it’s very difficult for them to even collect them for the weekend.”

 

For the home too, brighter days seem as far away as ever.

State funding has been cut and covers just half of the staff’s wages. The home depends on donations for food and clothes, and Zervaki says it is hard to tell if she will be able to make next month’s payments.

“It doesn’t look like tomorrow will be any better,” she said. “It will take some years. I hope not too many.”
…

It could be a Hollywood screenplay. Juliana Armelin and her husband Paulo Siqueira decided to radically change their lives in 2010, quitting jobs in Sao Paulo’s financial sector and moving to a farm seven hours away to start growing coffee.

Seven years later, they clinched for a second consecutive year Brazil’s most prestigious coffee award, beating hundreds of established producers in a country that has exported coffee for more than 200 years.

“I would never imagine we could reach this status in such a short period,” Siqueira told Reuters on Friday after the couple received the annual award from Italian roaster Illy.

“I used to say that we don’t have a story on coffee, but only some chapters so far,” said Armelin.

The couple met during college, graduating in engineering from Brazil’s top ranked university, USP. They spent some years together in the United States getting Master of Business Administration degrees at the University of Chicago before starting careers in Sao Paulo.

Armelin is a former Mckinsey & Company consultant, while Siqueira held positions as a fund manager at Credit Suisse and boutique investment firm Vector Investimentos.

They ended up in the coffee business due to Armelin’s father, who decided to start producing the beans.

“I helped him in the research and started to like the idea.

We already had thoughts at running something together,” Armelin said.

After studying the possibility, they bought a 210-hectare (518 acres) farm in the municipality of Ibiá in a coffee-producing region known as the Cerrado Mineiro, in Minas Gerais state.

“It was an old cattle ranch, only pasture,” Siqueira recalled. They planted the first trees in 2011, collected the first beans two years later and had their first full harvest in 2015. Within a year, they received the first award.

The couple’s farm is a state-of-the-art facility. The fields are 100 percent irrigated, with a fully mechanized harvest. The washed arabicas are put to dry in raised beds to avoid contact with the soil, which could affect the flavor.

“We studied a lot, talked to a lot of people who knew how to produce high quality coffee and we did everything they said we should,” said Armelin. “Some people used to say that we were nerds that went to coffee production. And we used to say, ‘yes, we are.'”

The Terra Alta farm was chosen for aspects like the plentiful availability of water and its flat terrain to allow for mechanization.

The couple used as much government-backed credit as they could to buy all the equipment. “We have debt for the rest of our lives,” said Armelin, smiling.

The farm today exports 80 percent of its production, which varies from 10,000 to 13,000 60-kg bags per year. Many deals are done directly with gourmet coffee sellers in the United States.

Siquiera said the coffee community in the Cerrado region has always been very receptive, despite their unusual background.

But the couple stops short of recommending their experience to others.

“Even if you have the money, it really is not easy. Growing coffee requires extreme dedication,” Armelin said, adding that she takes care of the financial details while her husband likes to be out in the fields.

But they have no regrets. “We like this a lot. We will probably be coffee growers for the rest of our lives,” she said.
…

Airbnb expects to maintain its rapid growth in Africa this year and double its customer numbers to 1.5 million, its Chief Executive Brian Chesky and regional head told Reuters on Friday.

The number of people using the online room rental service on the continent rose by 143 percent to about 765,000 guests in 2016 from the year before, said Nicola D’Elia, the firm’s Africa and Middle East chief.

“If you just look at 2017, it’s going to double, you will have 1.5 million people at the end of this year,” added D’Elia.

Airbnb CEO Chesky confirmed that the California-based company expected to double African customer numbers this year.

“Certainly that would be the forecast,” he said in an interview in Cape Town, adding: “This is literally just the beginning. It [Africa] is still relatively under-penetrated.”

Chesky said the company had 77,000 homes across Africa – out of its 3 million globally – but that it could easily have “hundreds of thousands” in a continent that’s home to over a billion people.

The 77,000 homes represented an increase of 95 percent from 2015 to 2016, the company said.

South Africa, which was an early adopter of Airbnb, is the top-ranked country in Africa in terms of listings and visitors, who mainly come from the United States, Germany, Britain and the Netherlands.

The top five cities in Africa are Cape Town, Marrakesh, Johannesburg, Nairobi and Casablanca, although listings are found in diverse locations from St Helena island in the south Atlantic Ocean to Freetown in Sierra Leone, and even a smattering in Somalia.

Chesky, who described Africa as “an incredibly exciting emerging market for travel”, was speaking to Reuters in Langa, Cape Town’s oldest township where he put in an appearance to surprise graduates from an Airbnb training program.    
…

In the latest outreach effort following a contentious campaign, top Trump administration officials – as well as first daughter Ivanka Trump – met Thursday with Hispanic business leaders.

 

Underscoring her unusual role working outside the administration, Ivanka Trump attended a round-table discussion Thursday morning with Hispanic women business owners in Washington.

 

Later, White House officials, including chief of staff Reince Priebus, held a meeting with other Hispanic business leaders, focused on jobs, the economy and access to capital.

 

The meetings were organized by the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, whose president, Javier Palomarez, slammed Donald Trump during the presidential campaign, calling him a buffoon, among other slights. He has since joined the president’s National Diversity Coalition and says he’s open to working with the president on issues they agree on.

 

“The reality of it is,” Palomarez said, “I’d much rather campaign from the inside than complain from the outside.”

Trump has been eyed warily by the Hispanic community since the beginning of his presidential campaign, when he claimed Mexico was sending its criminals over the border and railed against illegal immigration. Nonetheless, Trump won about 28 percent of the Latino vote – a similar share to Mitt Romney in 2012, according to exit polls.

 

“My representatives had a great meeting w/ the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at the WH today,” the president tweeted after the meetings.”Look forward to tremendous growth & future mtgs!”

Palomarez said Ivanka Trump, who has no official role in the administration, spent an hour and a half with the women business owners, talking about issues such as entrepreneurship and science education.

 

“She made it clear that she has a passion around empowering women,” Palomarez said in an interview between the two meetings, adding that the topics of Trump’s proposed border wall and his crackdown on people living in the U.S. illegally had not been raised.

 

“There will be time and the circumstances to do that,” said Palomarez, adding: “They’re not done deals. The negotiation, the conversation continues.”

 

Trump said Thursday night at a rally in Nashville that his wall is “way ahead of schedule,” and he has signed orders making it easier to deport people living in the U.S. illegally.

 
…

Foreign tourism to the United States, which supports millions of American jobs, is slowing, possibly because President Donald Trump sought controversial travel restrictions on some Muslim-majority nations. Online searches for flights to the United States are down in most major nations, not just those hit by restrictions. Jim Randle reports some travel experts say the push to restrict immigration is making some foreign tourists and students wary of visiting.
…

Africa’s rising youth population is outpacing available jobs in the public and private sectors, leaving would-be workers vulnerable to exploitation, terrorism and human rights abuses. Nigerian entrepreneur Tony Elumelu believes the solution to Africa’s unemployment problem is for the private sector to lead and drive growth, a philosophy he calls “africapitalism”. He was on a two-day working visit to Ghana.

The president of Coca-Cola, Central, East and West Africa, Kelvin Balogun, says almost 50 percent of graduates churned out by universities in Africa each year do not find jobs.

 

The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates the youth unemployment rate in sub-Saharan Africa is nearly 12 percent. A World Bank report in 2016 said nearly half, (48 percent) of Ghanaian youth are unemployed. Analysts blame the country’s poor macroeconomic performance and a surge in population growth for the problem.

 

African leaders have committed to reduce poverty in the continent to below 20 percent by 2030, but the entrepreneur Tony Elumelu said this cannot be achieved if entrepreneurs are not empowered.

 

Elumelu believes the solution to unemployment is his ‘africapitalism’ philosophy- a concept in which the private sector leads and transforms development in Africa.

 

Elumelu says African entrepreneurs must partner to create more jobs for its youth. VOA caught up with him after he gave a lecture to students at the University of Ghana.

 

“Partnerships don’t work well in Africa and we must address this because collective effort is better than singular effort,” said Elumelu. “From my experience I think trust is very important. So alignment of interest is key panacea for addressing partnership failures in Africa.

 

VOA: And africapitalism is the solution?

 

Elumelu: “Africapitalism is the solution because (of) Africans coming together from (the) private sector perspective to address the development of our continent. Africans realizing that (there is) no one but us to develop Africa. Africans realizing that saving our monies abroad is not the solution. We need to let our governments know that what is good for private sector is good for the society.”

 

In Accra, John Amoah Kusi, enrolled in a master’s degree program in business at the University of Ghana, hoping to be more employable. But if a job doesn’t come his way Kusi says he’ll go back to school again.

 

“One other option is trying to look for PhD programs outside Ghana or probably in Ghana,” said Kusi. “It’s not just about the jobs. Yes, I want to get the experience but . . .

VOA: So if the job doesn’t come you’ll further your education?

 

Kusi: “Sure.”

 

VOA: And you’re certain that with the PhD you’ll get a job?

 

Kusi: “That’s a high possibility.”

 

Parry Allotey, a freshman at the University of Ghana, is also worried about not finding a job after graduating.

 

“I feel very worried because being unemployed is not a good thing,” said Allotey. “So I think going for leadership roles or you can go for internship or your masters. Like doing something that would make you look solid (for work).”

 

In Ghana, the unemployment problem was worsened by four years of interrupted electricity supply, which resulted in the loss of thousands of existing jobs and closure of many businesses.

 
…

Zimbabwe has opened its 2017 tobacco-selling season with hopes the “golden leaf” will change the economic fortunes of the southern African nation. Officials say the tobacco yield has been increasing after a downward turn in 2000 when the government chased white commercial farmers off their land.

Zimbabwean farmers applauded after the 2017 tobacco selling season began Wednesday in Harare at the country’s biggest auction floor.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor John Mangudya saluted the farmers.

“Producers of tobacco are indeed our heroes. You are important to this economy. The foreign currency you produce is above $800 million a year.  That amount is enough to [buy oil for] Zimbabwe throughout the whole year. Zimbabwe spends about $60 million in fuel per month. You do produce enough fuel in this economy, therefore your importance can never be underestimated,” Mangudya said.

This year, the government says it expects 205 million kilograms, three million kilograms more than last year. That is more than in the early 2000’s when the agriculture industry took a nosedive after President Robert Mugabe’s government took white commercial farmers’ land and replaced them with black farmers.  

Zimbabwe Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made said the yield and quality of tobacco are due to good rains.

“As a result, the nation is naturally elated by the prospects of growth in the agriculture sector. Already the minister of finance [Patrick Chinamasa] has revised his [national] projections on the back of that anticipated performance [to 3.7 percent]. I really commend farmers for doing so well,” Made said.

Farmers still face uphill battle

But farmers at the auction said they do not feel enough gratitude from the government. Besides delays in payments, the farmers said they spend days queueing to withdraw cash from banks, due to a national cash shortage.  

Farmer Laina Magombedzi says she can spend up to a week at the auction floors waiting to be served.

She says the farmers get “a raw deal” because the buyers re-sell the tobacco on the black market for more money. She says she has been waiting five hours and the farmers are not told how the sales are progressing and are not allowed at the auction of their tobacco. She adds that a new electronic auction system has not improved the process.

No improvement is what many Zimbabweans have been saying for years.  

Independent economist John Robertson says this year’s tobacco yield is higher, but will not quickly improve Zimbabwe’s economy.

“We need to … greatly broaden the agriculture aspect. We need to bring the large commercial farmers back. Small-scale farmers cannot feed the nation. Now that half the nation is nearly urbanized, we need [to get] large-scale farmers into wheat growing, cotton growing, soybean growing, all the things we used to do better than we are doing now. We will be importing food this year, in spite of a better season.”

Before Mugabe’s land reform, Zimbabwe was a breadbasket of southern Africa. The United Nations says about five million Zimbabweans are now relying on food handouts.
…

President Donald Trump is to tell American autoworkers Wednesday in the state of Michigan that he is setting aside strict fuel-economy requirements imposed by the previous administration in its waning days.

The Trump White House contends that action broke an earlier agreement with the auto industry to wait until 2018 to review the standards.

“The auto industry, rightly, cried foul,” a senior White House official told reporters Tuesday. “We’re going to get this midterm review back on track.”

Advocates of the tougher standards dispute that.

The year 2018 “was the deadline by which they were obligated to complete the review. No agreement was broken,” Therese Langer, transportation program director at the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) told VOA News.

“The agencies completed a comprehensive technical assessment report in July 2016, which made clear that the standards as adopted remained feasible and cost-effective. At that point, making the decision promptly was consistent with the goal of providing adequate lead time for manufacturer product planning.”

Setting standards

The Trump administration wants to set standards “that are technologically and economically feasible,” according to the official who briefed reporters on condition he not be named.

Some automakers argued that the tougher standards, set just prior to the January inauguration, will be too costly.

The pro-business president and his new head of the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt, who has expressed skepticism about the scientific consensus on climate change, support rolling back the stricter standards.

But the administration cannot scrap the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) mandate completely without Congress’ consent. Lawmakers originally approved the CAFE regulations in the mid-1970s, following the oil embargo by OPEC members.

The current issue deals with rules on fuel economy and emissions affecting automobiles that will appear in showrooms from the years 2022 through 2025.

The proposed vehicle standards for those model years “will save consumers tens of billions of dollars at the pump and help domestic automakers stay competitive in a global vehicle market that is moving steadily toward highly efficient vehicles,” ACEEE executive director Steve Nadel told VOA.

Detroit automakers

But the move to cars and trucks that do not rely on conventional fossil fuels, such as gasoline and diesel, has slowed, say those in the Trump administration and in the auto industry.

“Because we have low gas prices, consumers just aren’t buying those vehicles” that run on batteries in addition to or instead of fuel, said the Trump administration official briefing reporters at the White House.

Trump’s trip to Michigan will include meetings with Detroit automakers, suppliers and unions, and then attending a rally of automakers.

At the last event Wednesday, the president is to announce his intention to stall the goal of having a fleet average of 54.5 miles per gallon (23.2 kilometers per liter) by the year 2025.

One hitch for the industry and other proponents of the looser standards is that 13 states say they will follow California in adhering to stricter fleet fuel efficiencies – a market that makes up more than 40 percent of the U.S. automotive sales market.

“That’s an issue we’ll have to confront, but it’s farther down the road,” the senior White House official said when asked about that issue by reporters.
…

China is warning about the possible impact of a trade war with the United States, even as the world’s two biggest economies take steps to map out relations under the administration of President Donald Trump.

Speaking at an annual news conference Wednesday, at the end of high-level political meetings in Beijing, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang talked up the benefits of good relations between the two countries. He said he was optimistic about ties, but also warned a trade war would hurt American businesses first.

“We do not want to see any trade war breaking out between the two countries. That would not make our trade fairer and would harm both sides,” Li said. “Our hope on the Chinese side is that no matter what bumps the China-U.S. relationship hits, we hope it will continue to move forward in a positive direction.”

Getting personal

Chinese state media this week have been releasing a steady drumbeat of opinion pieces and editorials supporting that view. Some even going so far as to highlight the personal benefits Trump’s business empire would reap through better economic relations with China.

One opinion piece in the Communist Party-backed Global Times highlighted the huge business interests Trump’s commercial empire has in China and Beijing’s recent and unprecedented “preliminary approval” of more than 30 Trump trademarks. The approval of so many trademarks at once – covering business ventures such as golf clubs, hotels and restaurants – has surprised analysts.

Much like Li did in the press conference Wednesday, the Global Times article argued that American businesses would suffer if there was a trade war. It also added a not so subtle threat: “Trump’s position as U.S. president would not offer his business immunity from a trade war with China and would be impacted just as other U.S. enterprises if Sino-U.S. relations were to suffer.”

The piece ended by arguing that one tough test of Trump’s political wisdom will be how he manages following through on his pledge to put “America First” while avoiding setbacks in U.S.-China relations.

Tough talk

On the campaign trail and since his election, President Trump’s blunt criticisms of China have unnerved leaders in Beijing. Trump has talked and Tweeted about a wide range of issues from trade to the South China Sea, as well as Beijing’s handling of North Korea.

But it is his threats on the campaign trail to label China a currency manipulator and to impose huge tariffs on Chinese goods that worry Beijing the most. So far, he has not followed through on either of those pledges, but the U.S. Treasury will issue a semi-annual currency report in April.

 

That continues to unnerve Beijing despite recent signs that the two sides are beginning to engage.

 

Reports this week have suggested that Trump and Xi could meet in early April in Florida. On Saturday, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will make his first trip to Beijing.

 

Fairer trade

 

In an interview with CNBC earlier this week, Acting Assistant Secretary of State Susan Thornton said Tillerson’s visit would help set up the relationship going forward and lay out a framework for issues on which Washington wants to see progress.

 

And one of the key issues for that visit that she highlighted in that interview was fairer trade.

 

“While we have a very important economic relationship with China, it hasn’t been a level playing field vis a vis U.S. companies and U.S. interests,” Thornton said. “We are going to be insisting that there be fair trade measures that be put in place and that be observed and implemented.”

 

Concerns about the lack of a level-playing field for American businesses in China and the impact of trade on U.S. jobs persist. Last year, the United States trade deficit with China was $347 billion, down only slightly from the previous year.

 

At his press conference, Li pledged that China would continue to open up its economy and argued that American companies and others were already seeing benefits.

 

 “We may have different statistical methods, but I believe whatever differences we may have, we can always sit down and talk to each other, and work together to reach consensus,” Li said.

 

China’s premier also added that statistics show that trade and investment between the two countries created over one million jobs in the United States last year.
…

Asia needs to make extra efforts to defeat hunger after progress has slowed in the last five years, including promoting so-called “smart crops” as an alternative to rice, the head of the U.N. food agency in the region said.

Kundhavi Kadiresan, representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Asia, said the region needs to focus on reaching the most marginalized people, such as the very poor or those living in mountainous areas.

The Asia-Pacific region halved the number of hungry people from 1990 to 2015 but the rate of progress slowed in many countries – such as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India and Cambodia – in the last five years, according to a December FAO report.

“The last mile is always difficult.. so extra efforts, extra resources and more targeted interventions are needed,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on the sidelines of a business forum on food security in Jakarta on Tuesday.

She said government and businesses needed to develop policies to help make food more affordable, while changing Asians’ diets that rely heavily on rice.

“We have focused so much on rice that we haven’t really looked at some of those crops like millets, sorghum and beans,” she said.

A campaign is underway to promote these alternatives as “smart crops” to make them more attractive, Kadiresan said.

“We are calling them smart crops to get people not to think about them as poor people’s food but smart people’s food,” she said, adding that they are not only nutritious but also more adaptable to climate change.

Soaring rice prices, slowing economic expansion and poorer growth in agricultural productivity have been blamed for the slowdown in efforts to tackle hunger.

More than 60 percent of the world’s hungry are in Asia-Pacific, while nearly one out of three children in the region suffers from stunting, according to the FAO.

Achieving zero hunger by 2030 is one of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals adopted by member states in 2015.
…