Representatives of the European Union, the United States and Japan announced their agreement to strengthen existing rules on industrial subsidies and condemned forced technology transfer practices. In a meeting held in Washington, the EU, the U.S. and Japan agreed that the current list of subsidies prohibited under the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) rules is insufficient to tackle market and trade distorting ...

Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa met with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Harare. Zimbabwe and China enjoy profound friendship and Zimbabwe regards China as a sincere and reliable friend. The Zimbabwean leader said that he has met with Chinese President Xi Jinping many times and the two heads of state decided to elevate bilateral relations to a ...

European shares treaded water as investors awaited the signing of an initial trade truce to end a prolonged U.S.-China tariff dispute, with attention also turning to the fourth-quarter corporate earnings season. The Phase 1 Sino-U.S. trade deal, due to be signed in Washington soon, marks the first step in winding down the prolonged and damaging trade war. In further signs of goodwill, ...

China’s 2019 exports rose 0.5% in U.S. dollar terms, though total trade for the year declined slightly. According to Vice Minister of General Administration of Customs Zou Zhiwu, the phase 1 deal between Washington and Beijing will see China increase imports from the United States but won’t affect China’s imports from other countries. This deal will be signed soon, marking a significant de-escalation but ...

US Senator Steve Daines expressed his support for the US-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement. The deal would replace NAFTA as a multilateral trade agreement designed to encourage freer and fairer trade between the three North American countries. Daines voted for the USMCA trade agreement to advance out of the Senate Finance Committee, which has jurisdiction over international trade deals, and onto the Senate ...

  China’s economy czar will visit Washington next week for the signing of an interim trade deal, the government said. Vice Premier Liu He, Beijing’s chief envoy in talks with Washington over their tariff war, had been expected to attend the signing but the Commerce Ministry’s statement was the first official confirmation. Washington postponed planned tariff increases following the announcement of ...

A strategy for strengthening relations between Malta and the continent of Africa was launched for public consultation, highlighting the already established connections between Europe’s smallest member state and the second-largest continent in the world. The strategy, which seeks to guide Malta’s path forward between 2020 and 2025, seeks to deepen and strengthen the relationship between Malta and Africa, as a union ...

From this New Year, Azerbaijan is offering fifth and seventh freedom rights to some 40 countries in Europe, North America and Asia. The move is part of an attempt by Azerbaijan to become a transport and logistics hub between Asia and Europe – a strategy that has been successful for Kazakhstan. Under the new rules, all foreign airlines will have the same rights as ...

      The new Austrian government will not support the trade deal between the EU and South American nations. The EU and the South American trade bloc Mercosur whose members are Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, concluded their trade deal in June, after 20 years of negotiations. However, the agreement is unpopular in farming areas in Austria, which fear that ...

More than two million West African farmers toil daily to produce precious cocoa beans, but few will ever taste the fine chocolate it eventually produces. The trees that produce these butter-rich pods do not grow outside the steamy tropics, thriving instead on the bulge of Africa. As such, the region produces the bulk of the world’s cocoa. Yet, Belgian, Swiss, Italian and ...