Tag: U.S

U.S. business leaders meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping

by admin on November 28, 2023 in American Business News

American business leaders are expected to host Chinese President Xi Jinping at a dinner in San Francisco Wednesday after his meeting with President Biden at an international economic conference.

The dinner, hosted by the U.S. China Business Council and the National Committee on U.S. China Relations, will take place during the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit — an annual meeting of 21 Pacific nations that account for about half of all global trade. It comes at a consequential time for the U.S. and China, which represent the first and second largest economies in the world, respectively, and are strongly linked by trade.

Hundreds of executives from varying sectors including banking and technology are expected to attend, and Xi is also expected to speak at the dinner.

The forum offers an opportunity for U.S. business leaders to directly engage with Xi, who has courted foreign investment to help boost China’s slowing economy. Just this year, a parade of U.S. business leaders including Bill Gates, who met with Xi, have visited China. Elon Musk and JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon have also traveled to China.

US-CHINA-DIPLOMACY-APEC-SUMMIT — Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks during a meeting with US President Joe Biden, not pictured, during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders’ week in Woodside, California on November 15, 2023.

BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images

The Chinese Embassy in Washington did not comment on the dinner.

But American firms, which for decades poured cash into China and fueled its growth, are increasingly skeptical of contributing to expanded state control. Many fear that geopolitics — especially the economic competition between the U.S. and China — may make extensive investments in China too risky.

This summer, Chinese police raided the Shanghai offices of U.S. firm Capvision, Bain & Company and Mintz Group. Other American consulting firms — have

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Biden and Xi’s meeting sent an important signal for U.S. business in China

by admin on November 26, 2023 in American Business News

U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping at Filoli estate on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Woodside, California, on Nov. 15, 2023.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

BEIJING — U.S. President Joe Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week has set a bottom line in the relationship which reduces uncertainty for businesses, analysts said.

Biden and Xi met for the first time in about a year in San Francisco on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation conference.

“I think there’s a lot of consensus coming out of this summit,” Wang Dong, executive director of the Institute for Global Cooperation and Understanding at Peking University, told reporters Tuesday.

“What you get from this summit is a very clear signal the two countries, they are committed to what we can call recouple, in a way, on the basis of reciprocity and mutual respect,” he said. “I think this is very important for both countries and indeed for the global economy as well.”

In essence, the U.S. and China are working out what it means to cooperate where they can.

Ray Dalio on Xi dinner: A gathering of old friends and 'stepping back' from the risks of war

“I think for U.S. businesses the hope is that this kind of new tone can translate into a new normal for the economic relationship, where there’s a mutually beneficial relationship where China plays by the rules and the United States and China can get back to a more normal economic footing, have some of these tariffs and retaliations drop away,” said Jake Colvin, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Foreign Trade Council.

He said he participated in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO Summit in San Francisco last week.

In conversations with Xi, Biden did not budge on export controls, enacted out of national security concerns. But a White House readout said “the leaders affirmed the

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Xi Jinping to Address U.S. Business Leaders Amid Rising Skepticism of China Ties

by admin on November 9, 2023 in American Business News

The Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who is set to meet with President Biden in San Francisco next week, is expected to speak to top American business executives at a dinner following that bilateral meeting.

Mr. Xi, who is traveling to the United States for an international conference, will address business leaders at a challenging moment in U.S.-China relations. The United States has expressed growing concern about China’s military ambitions and has sought to cut off Beijing’s access to technology that could be used against the United States. China’s treatment of Western companies, which are facing tougher restrictions in how they do business, have also prompted firms to question the wisdom of investing in China.

Still, Chinese and American leaders have expressed interest in bolstering ties between their economies, the world’s two largest, which remain inextricably linked through trade. The Biden administration has sent several top officials to China this year to try to make clear that while the United States wants to protect national security, it does not seek to sever economic ties with Beijing.

It is unclear whether Mr. Xi’s visit will do much to alleviate the skepticism of foreign businesses, many of which are deterred both by China’s slowing economic growth and the tighter grip of the Chinese Communist Party on business activity under Mr. Xi.

Tickets to the dinner and reception, hosted by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations and the U.S.-China Business Council, cost $2,000 each, according to an invitation circulating online. For $40,000, companies can purchase eight seats at a table plus one seat at Mr. Xi’s table, a person familiar with the event said.

Engagements between Chinese officials and the U.S. business sector will try to send the signal that China remains an attractive place to do business, “as evidenced by these companies flocking

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U.S.-Africa trade program must be more than ‘symbolic,’ U.S. trade chief says

by admin on November 6, 2023 in American Business News

South Africa hosts US-Africa trade summit

AGOA programme expires in 2025
Biden administration calling for improvements
Africans fear changes could bog down renewal

JOHANNESBURG, Nov 4 (Reuters) – The United States is looking for a “more useful and effective” trade programme with Africa, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said on Saturday, as talks are underway to update a two decade-old duty free initiative.

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which grants exports from qualifying countries duty-free access to the U.S. market, is due to expire in September 2025, with talks focused on renewal and possible reform.

AGOA was reauthorised twice before — in 2004 and 2015 — and Tai is in Johannesburg, South Africa, wrapping up three days of talks with African trade ministers over the programme’s future and a possible third reauthorisation.

“We would like to see this programme be more than just a symbolic one. We would like for it to be more useful and effective,” Tai told journalists.

Over $10 billion worth of African exports entered the United States duty free last year under the programme. However, in many areas AGOA, which was launched in 2000, has failed to live up to its promise.

Despite longstanding bipartisan support from U.S. lawmakers, who view AGOA as critical to countering the influence of China in Africa, there are divisions in Washington over the need for updates.

African countries, concerned that too many changes could bog renewal down in Congress, are pushing for an early 10-year extension. They say improvements can be made once the programme is reauthorised.

But the Biden administration wants changes as part

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The ‘sugar rush’ effect: Why the U.S. economy is growing faster than Canada’s

by admin on November 5, 2023 in American Business News

In a lot of ways, the U.S. and Canadian economies are similar. They’re both seeing progress in the fight to rein in inflation. They both have robust employment levels.

But the American economy is growing by 4.9 per cent, while ours has been flat.

Economists warn the numbers aren’t even capturing the full extent of the differences.

“Things are actually worse than the data would suggest,” said Royce Mendes, managing director at Desjardins Capital Markets.

He says explosive population growth has inflated economic growth in Canada. Without that, the economy would be decidedly worse than it is right now.

So why are the Canadian and U.S. economies performing so differently?

Two key factors are driving that. One is Canadian, one is American. One is well known, the other caught almost everyone by surprise.

The first is simple: Higher interest rates are having a disproportionately harsher impact in Canada than in the United States.

WATCH | About That: When will rates come down?

Why aren’t interest rates going down in Canada? | About That

Featured VideoCBC’s Andrew Chang looks at the Bank of Canada’s latest move to hold its key interest rate. Why haven’t rates dropped? And how does it impact your mortgage, loans and cost of living?

Canadians have higher debt loads. Those debt loads renew more quickly in Canada. That means higher borrowing costs bite harder, faster here.

Most Americans have a 30-year mortgage, so rising rates don’t have as big an impact as they do in Canada, where the average mortgage comes with a five-year term.

Americans spending more, saving less

Millions of Canadian households are bracing for their renewal in the next couple of years, so they’re spending less and saving more. In the United States, households are spending more and saving less.

“The U.S. is

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The ‘revenge of ancient American business’ pushes U.S. equities higher

by admin on October 26, 2023 in American Business News

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U.S. inflation rate flat at 3.7% in September, suggesting long road back to 2% target

by admin on October 20, 2023 in American Business News

Measures of U.S. inflation in September showed that the pace of price increases is still grinding lower, though at a slow and uneven pace.

Prices in the United States increased 0.4 per cent from August to September, a slowdown from the previous month. Thursday’s report from the Labour Department also showed that annual consumer inflation in September was unchanged from a 3.7 per cent rise in August.

And underlying inflation declined a bit: So-called core prices, which exclude volatile food and energy costs, climbed 4.1 per cent in September from 12 months earlier, down from a 4.3 per cent year-over-year pace in August. That is the smallest increase in the core measure in two years.

Still, on a month-to-month basis, prices are still rising faster than is consistent with the Fed’s 2 per cent target. Core prices increased 0.3 per cent in September, the same as the previous month.

Economists and Fed officials have long cautioned that inflation would likely ease in a bumpy and uneven way, though it is still expected to keep slowing into 2024. Thursday’s inflation data follows several speeches this week by Fed officials suggesting that they are inclined to leave their benchmark interest rate unchanged at their next meeting Oct. 31- Nov. 1.

Longer-term interest rates have spiked since the Fed’s policymakers last raised their key rate in July. Those higher long-term bond rates have led to more expensive mortgages, auto loans and business borrowing, a trend that could help cool inflation pressures without further Fed rate hikes.

Several factors have combined to force up longer-term rates. They include the belated acceptance by financial markets of the likelihood that the economy will remain on firm footing and avoid a recession.

WATCH | Global economy may tip into recession this year, IMF warns:

One-third of world

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Two former Latin American presidents, a U.S. business leader and diplomat, and a European foreign minister named Senior Leadership Fellows at the Adam Smith Center | FIU News

by admin on September 26, 2023 in American Business News

This fall, FIU’s Adam Smith Center for Economic Freedom is welcoming its fifth cohort of Senior Leadership Fellows. The distinguished group will include national and international public servants.

The Senior Leadership Fellowship program is one of the center’s most prestigious and well-known programs, bringing students close to prominent leaders through exclusive off-the-record study groups. It allows participants to engage in exciting and candid discussions and mentorship opportunities.

“I am truly privileged to welcome to our center this exceptional class of Senior Leadership Fellows,” said Carlos Díaz-Rosillo, founding director of the Adam Smith Center. “Their remarkable achievements and dedication to public service will be a source of great inspiration for our students.”

The introduction of the new cohort will take place at “We Hold These Freedoms… A conversation with the Fall 2023 Senior Leadership Fellows,” a discussion on Tuesday, Sept. 26, 2023, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., at the MARC Pavilion, Management and Advanced Research Center at FIU’s MMC Campus,11200 SW 8th St., Miami, 33199. To register, please visit freedom.fiu.edu/events.

The new cohort of Senior Leadership Fellows includes:

Jamil Mahuad, president of Ecuador from 1998 to 2000. Before becoming president, Mahuad served as mayor of Quito from 1992 to 1998. Mahuad played an instrumental role in negotiating and signing a definitive peace treaty with neighboring Peru, ending one of the longest territorial disputes in the region. He also earned the prestigious 1999 World Wildlife Fund’s Gift to the Earth award in recognition of his exemplary efforts in safeguarding the pristine tropical rainforests nestled in the Ecuadorian headwaters of the Amazon River. He also is responsible for dollarizing the Ecuadorian economy, a topic of great interest today.

Mahuad’s study group is titled “In the President’s Shoes: Leading in a Globalized and Angry World.”

“We will explore how the tools of

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U.S. business optimism about China outlook falls to record low – survey

by admin on September 22, 2023 in American Business News

Illustration shows U.S. and Chinese flags

SHANGHAI, Sept 19 (Reuters) – Political tensions and a slowing economy are sapping the confidence of U.S. businesses operating in China, with the number of companies optimistic about their five-year outlook falling to a record low, a survey published on Tuesday showed.

Even after the ending of COVID curbs, which weighed heavily on revenues and sentiment in 2022, the percentage of surveyed U.S. firms optimistic about the five-year China business outlook fell to 52%, according to the annual survey published by the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Shanghai.

This was the lowest level of optimism reported since the AmCham Shanghai Annual China Business Report was first introduced in 1999.

“Frankly, if there was one thing that surprised me about the survey this year it was that number,” said AmCham Shanghai Chairman, Sean Stein. “By the time we did this year’s survey a lot of the illusions had fallen away that we would see a sustained rebound in economic growth (post-COVID).”

Tensions between major world powers remained a concern for many companies, with U.S.-China tensions cited as a top business challenge by 60% of the survey’s 325 respondents, equal to the number who pointed to China’s economic slowdown as a significant challenge.

Unease about the transparency of China’s regulatory environment also rose, with one third reporting that policies and regulations towards foreign companies had worsened in the past year, although many respondents pointed to U.S. government policy rather than China’s when asked about pressure to decouple.

The European Union Chamber of Commerce’s European Business in China position paper, released later on Tuesday, outlined how European companies are already struggling with competing requests from Chinese and Western customers to produce goods containing

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U.S. firms in China say vague rules, tensions with Washington, hurting business, survey shows

by admin on September 21, 2023 in Business Breaking News

American companies operating in China view tensions with Washington over technology, trade and other issues as a major hindrance for their businesses there, according to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai.

The survey released Tuesday showed a continued downgrading of China’s importance as an overseas destination for investment, even though two-thirds of the 325 companies responding said they had no immediate plans to change their China strategy.

Just over one in five of the companies surveyed said they were decreasing their investment in China this year, with the top reason being uncertainty about the U.S.-China trade relationship, followed by expectations of slower growth in China, it said.

Overall, the survey showed sentiment worsened from last year, when companies were embroiled in disruptions from “zero-COVID” policies that caused parts of entire cities, transport networks and travel to be shut down, sometimes for weeks at a time.

Such disruptions were a major “push factor” that companies cited in expanding their operations outside China, the survey showed.

While 52% of those surveyed said they were optimistic about their five-year business outlook in China, that was the lowest figure since the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai began the annual survey in 1999.

Nearly nine in 10 companies said rising costs were a big challenge.

Companies named geopolitical tensions as a major concern, followed by an economic slowdown that has foiled hopes for a strong, post-pandemic boom.

Intensifying competition has also been worsened by policies that favor local companies over foreign ones and courts that tend to favor Chinese companies in decisions on protection of intellectual property such as patents and trademarks.

Companies face a growing threat from “nimble, innovative local businesses and state-owned enterprises, which have enjoyed stronger support in recent years and whose consolidation has made them increasingly

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