Aurelia Butler

Standard DigitalWeekend Print + Standard Digitalwasnow $85 per monthBilled Quarterly at $199. Complete digital access plus the FT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts10 monthly gift articles to shareGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionEverything in PrintWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisPlusEverything in Premium DigitalEverything in Standard DigitalGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresFirstFT newsletterVideos & PodcastsFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit app10 gift articles per monthExclusive FT analysisPremium newslettersFT Digital Edition10 additional gift articles per monthMake and share highlightsFT WorkspaceMarkets data widgetSubscription ManagerWorkflow integrationsOccasional readers go freeVolume discountFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Standard DigitalFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Premium Digital More

Standard DigitalWeekend Print + Standard Digitalwasnow $75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts10 monthly gift articles to shareGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionEverything in PrintWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisPlusEverything in Premium DigitalEverything in Standard DigitalGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresFirstFT newsletterVideos & PodcastsFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit app10 gift articles per monthExclusive FT analysisPremium newslettersFT Digital Edition10 additional gift articles per monthMake and share highlightsFT WorkspaceMarkets data widgetSubscription ManagerWorkflow integrationsOccasional readers go freeVolume discountFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Standard DigitalFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Premium Digital More

Standard DigitalWeekend Print + Standard Digitalwasnow $75 per monthComplete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts10 monthly gift articles to shareGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionEverything in PrintWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisPlusEverything in Premium DigitalEverything in Standard DigitalGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresFirstFT newsletterVideos & PodcastsFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit app10 gift articles per monthExclusive FT analysisPremium newslettersFT Digital Edition10 additional gift articles per monthMake and share highlightsFT WorkspaceMarkets data widgetSubscription ManagerWorkflow integrationsOccasional readers go freeVolume discountFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Standard DigitalFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Premium Digital More

SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad said on Friday that resistance from some sectors to tighter rules for the use of tax credits will dissipate and Congress will make the best decision on whether the new rules are permanent.This week, the ministry unveiled tighter rules for the use of tax credits by companies, triggering a strong backlash from the most affected industries, including the powerful agribusiness sector.”The repercussion has a lot of heat of the moment. This will dissipate as people understand the objective of reducing tax expenditure,” he told journalists.The new rules aim to raise as much as 29.2 billion reais ($5.52 billion) to offset a revenue loss of 26.3 billion reais from tax benefits passed by Congress for the payrolls of some economic sectors and small cities.The measure was included in an executive order sent to Congress earlier this week. It takes effect immediately but needs legislative approval within four months to remain valid.Additionally, the so-called presumed PIS-Cofins tax credit will still be usable but no longer refundable in cash, cutting the government’s tax expenditures.Brazilian lobbies from soybean companies to the biofuel sector have come together to strongly criticize the new rules, increasing the odds that Congress, heavily influenced by farming interests, will reject the measure. “What did these sectors expect? For us to remain inert? We could not be inert, and this seemed to be the fairest of measures, because sectors that do not need subsidies were being benefited,” Haddad said in response to industry backlash.”Congress will make the best decision… We have time to explore possibilities and to open up the numbers to lawmakers,” he added.CONTINGENCY MEASURESHaddad said on Friday that President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s government might have to impose budget blocks this year to meet its hard-to-reach fiscal target.”We have a fiscal framework we have to respect. If we exceed the limit established in the fiscal framework, you must have contingency measures,” he told journalists.In May, Brazil’s government raised its primary deficit forecast for this year to 14.5 billion reais ($2.81 billion), or 0.1% of GDP. The goal for 2024 is to eliminate the primary deficit, with a tolerance margin of 0.25 percentage point of GDP in either direction.Haddad also said on Friday the government expects to send to Congress a decree to regulate the country’s inflation target this month. He reinforced that the current inflation target of 3% will not change, as previously reported by Reuters.The country’s National Monetary Council (CMN) currently sets an annual inflation target that must be met each calendar year. Haddad, however, has been calling for a shift to a continuous target horizon, which, in practice, would imply a 24-month period to assess compliance.($1 = 5.2912 reais) More

Standard DigitalWeekend Print + Standard Digitalwasnow $85 per monthBilled Quarterly at $199. Complete digital access plus the FT newspaper delivered Monday-Saturday.What’s included Global news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts10 monthly gift articles to shareGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit appFirstFT: the day’s biggest stories20+ curated newslettersFollow topics & set alerts with myFTFT Videos & Podcasts20 monthly gift articles to shareLex: FT’s flagship investment column15+ Premium newsletters by leading expertsFT Digital Edition: our digitised print editionEverything in PrintWeekday Print EditionFT WeekendFT Digital EditionGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresExclusive FT analysisPlusEverything in Premium DigitalEverything in Standard DigitalGlobal news & analysisExpert opinionSpecial featuresFirstFT newsletterVideos & PodcastsFT App on Android & iOSFT Edit app10 gift articles per monthExclusive FT analysisPremium newslettersFT Digital Edition10 additional gift articles per monthMake and share highlightsFT WorkspaceMarkets data widgetSubscription ManagerWorkflow integrationsOccasional readers go freeVolume discountFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Standard DigitalFT Weekend Print deliveryPlusEverything in Premium Digital More

(Reuters) -A planned strike by thousands of Canadian border workers was put on hold on Friday to give more time for mediation in negotiations with their employer, the federal government, the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) union said.Mediation is scheduled to continue until Wednesday, PSAC said just ahead of Friday afternoon’s strike deadline.The government is pleased the union is staying at the bargaining table, Canada’s Treasury Board said in a statement late Friday afternoon.”To date, discussions have been productive, and we remain committed to reaching an agreement that is fair and reasonable for members of the Border Services Group as quickly as possible,” it said.The U.S. is Canada’s biggest trading partner, with an average of C$3.6 billion ($2.62 billion) worth of goods and services crossing the border in both directions combined in 2023, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce. About 4,870 of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) 5,400 frontline officers are designated essential, meaning they cannot legally stop working, an agency spokesperson said. But experts said the wide discretion border officers have to stop, question and search travelers could slow down border traffic significantly at airports and land crossings. That could hit sectors ranging from the automotive industry, which relies on a just-in-time supply chain, to the food industry, which deals in perishable goods, said Fraser Johnson, a business professor at Western University.”If you’re trying to ship lettuce into Canada (and) you get held up at the border, it has a shelf life. It becomes problematic,” he said.”It’s not that the border is going to be shut down. (Goods are) just not going to get through as quickly.”The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters association said it fears potential business disruptions.”Extended delays will disrupt operations and production schedules, harming manufacturers, and their workers,” President Dennis Darby said. Last year, a strike upended operations at Canadian west-coast ports. There are also potential labor stoppages by Canada’s rail workers and at the Port of Montreal, Darby said.”Manufacturers kind of treat the (Canada-U.S.) border as if it isn’t there, so anything that happens to disrupt that, it starts to affect production,” he said.Two options for the government, said Carleton University associate professor of management Ian Lee, are binding arbitration or, as a last resort, back-to-work legislation.Sticking points between the workers and government include wages, remote work, retirement benefits and workplace protections, according to PSAC. More

NEW YORK/MEXICO CITY (Reuters) -The Mexican governing party’s unexpectedly lopsided victory this week has investors concerned that it may use its mandate to sweep aside some of the checks on presidential power which have long been a source of comfort to the business community.The possibility that current president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador could push through some of those changes during his final month in office in September has some investors especially on edge.That period will overlap with a new legislature in which his MORENA ruling party is likely to be enjoying a super-majority that would give it the power to rewrite the country’s constitution. Some analysts hold out hope that Lopez Obrador’s anointed successor, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, who will be sworn in on Oct. 1, may take a more gradualist approach, but even that is not a given. She has mostly professed her loyalty to her charismatic mentor’s policies.Lopez Obrador proposed a bevvy of constitutional changes in February that would drastically remake Mexico’s judiciary, eliminate or neuter some key regulatory agencies and introduce some expensive new social benefits, including an expanded state pension plan.Although none of the measures are welcome by investors, what makes some observers particularly nervous are the proposed changes to Mexico’s court system – which would include the popular election of Supreme Court judges – plus the evisceration of key oversight bodies.”What an investor wants least, and even less an investor who is going to install a factory worth billions in Mexico, is for the rules of the game to suddenly change,” said Esteban Polidura, Julius Baer’s director of investment strategy for the Americas.”That’s why they place a big importance on the continued existence of a State of Law, that the existing rules are respected and that the independence of institutions which are there to make decisions not linked to a particular government are respected.”CHECKS AT RISKMexico’s peso weakened further on Friday as Lopez Obrador reiterated the call for his controversial judicial overhaul. The peso was on track to fall more than 7% this week versus the dollar, its largest weekly decline since the start of the covid pandemic lockdowns in March 2020.Lopez Obrador proposes to cut the number of Supreme Court judges to nine from 11 and all judges would need to be reconfirmed in an extraordinary election next year.The plan has been criticized as a hit on an independent court system, which has served as a check over some of Lopez Obrador’s most extreme policies.”One of the great checks that the government has had has been the independent institutions and in particular the judiciary,” Ramse Gutierrez, co-director of investments at Franklin Templeton in Mexico City, said.Sheinbaum told local media on Thursday night that any reform has to be properly evaluated and explained to the Mexican people.If the fate of checks and balances looms as the key issue for many investors, others are also anxious about plans to boost retirement and other social benefits at a time of already heightened concerns about election-year spending by the once frugally minded Lopez Obrador.Mexico’s overall fiscal deficit is set to end 2024 at 5.9% of economic output, according to the government estimate, which would be the country’s highest since the 1980s.While it may be compelling for Lopez Obrador to spend more on universal pensions, healthcare and education, the costs and fiscal constraints could make it complicated, said Aaron Gifford, senior emerging markets sovereign analyst at T. Rowe Price.”Still, with the budget deficit where it is, markets are worried about fiscal slippage even despite Sheinbaum’s pledge to be fiscally responsible.”Some still expect Sheinbaum, like Lopez Obrador through most of his six years in power, to end up being a moderate spender. The 2024 budget “was pretty political in the sense that it was aimed at providing fiscal leeway for (Lopez Obrador) to complete a number of pet projects,” said Damian Buchet, London-based chief investment officer at Finisterre Capital. “But after that, Sheinbaum has already signaled that without being called fiscal tightening, she would actually return to fiscal orthodoxy.”Another question is whether Sheinbaum will emulate Lopez Obrador’s tendency to meddle in various aspects of the economy from mining to energy and water, to a partially-built airport near Mexico City which he scuttled early in his term – and whether the guard-rails which sometimes boxed him in will survive the September legislative session.”The main issue is the rules of the game, the State of Law, that the established rules are followed,” Franklin Templeton’s Gutierrez said, noting that markets were particularly nervous about the idea of choosing judges and justices through popular vote. More