Aurelia Butler

TORONTO (Reuters) -Canada ratcheted up pressure on Russia on Tuesday for its invasion of Ukraine by shutting ports to Russian-owned ships and saying that holdings of all Russian oligarchs and companies in the country are under review.Canada has announced a slew of measures to isolate Russia, including imposing sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin, closing Canadian airspace to Russian planes, banning oil imports and forbidding Canadian financial institutions from dealing with the Russian central bank, acting in tandem with other Western countries.Ottawa expanded its crude oil import ban to include refined petroleum products and “other petroleum products from Russia,” the country’s natural resources minister tweeted on Tuesday night.Earlier, Transport Minister Omar Alghabra said that while the number of Russian ships entering Canadian waters and ports is “small,” there will still be an impact, especially with other countries doing the same.Russia represents less than 2% of Port of Montreal’s annual containerized volumes, and the ban will have little commercial impact, a port spokesperson said.Port of Vancouver, Canada’s busiest, said the number of Russian-flagged vessels calling there is minimal. In the past, those have traded in crude oil, canola oil and copper concentrates, a spokesperson said.Canada is tracking three Russian-flagged vessels off the East Coast, one of which is a cargo vessel, a government official told Reuters.Canada is also scrutinizing holdings of all Russian oligarchs and Russian companies in the country, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on Tuesday. “We are reviewing them and everything is on the table,” she added.Canada is sending 1,600 bulletproof vests and almost 400,000 meal rations to Ukraine.Canada imported C$2.14 billion ($1.68 billion) worth of goods from Russia in 2021, Statistics Canada data showed, with metals and minerals among the most valuable categories. It imported C$289 million worth of Russian energy products last year, according to the agency.($1 = 1.2738 Canadian dollars) More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The International Monetary Fund and World Bank on Tuesday said they were racing to provide billions of dollars of additional funding to Ukraine in coming weeks and months, adding the war there is creating “significant spillovers” to other countries.IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President David Malpass said the war was driving commodity prices higher, which risked further fueling inflation, and disruptions in financial markets would continue to worsen should the conflict persist. Sanctions imposed by the United States, Europe and other allies would also have a significant economic impact.The leaders said they were deeply shocked and saddened by the war, but did not explicitly mention Russia, which is a shareholder in both institutions. Russia began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 and its armed forces are bombarding Ukrainian urban areas. “People are being killed, injured, and forced to flee, and massive damage is caused to the country’s physical infrastructure,” Georgieva and Malpass said in a joint statement. “We stand with the Ukrainian people through these horrifying developments. The war is also creating significant spillovers to other countries.”The IMF and the World Bank were urgently increasing financing and policy support for Ukraine, and had been in daily contact with the authorities on crisis measures, they said.The IMF board could consider Ukraine’s request for emergency financing through the Rapid Financing Instrument as early as next week, they said. An additional $2.2 billion was available before the end of June under its stand-by arrangement.The World Bank is also preparing a $3 billion package of support in the coming months, they said. That funding would start with a fast-disbursing budget injection of at least $350 million that the bank’s board will consider this week, followed by $200 million for health and education programs.Reuters first reported the $350 million loan earlier on Tuesday.The two institutions said they were also assessing the economic and financial impact of the war and refugees on other countries in the region and the world. They said they stood ready to provide enhanced policy, technical, and financial support to Ukraine’s neighbors as needed. More than 660,000 people have fled Ukraine to countries such as Poland, Romania and Hungary since the invasion began, the U.N. refugee agency said.”Coordinated international action will be crucial to mitigate risks and navigate the treacherous period ahead,” the institutions said. More

(Reuters) – Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO) Inc Chief Executive Marc Rowan said on Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could temper interest rate rises by central banks and that he expected inflation to slow down in the long term.The conflict in Ukraine has roiled global financial markets and fueled a surge in energy prices. While this could exacerbate inflation that was already raging because of supply chain shortages, any ensuing economic slowdown could drag inflation down, which would in turn alleviate the need for higher interest rates, Rowan said in a Reuters Newsmaker interview.”The path right now should be for higher rates to tamp down inflation. But with Ukraine, the uncertainty is going to modulate that,” Rowan said.Apollo, one of the world’s biggest investors in alternative assets such as corporate credit and private equity, does not have investment portfolio exposure to Russia or Ukraine, Rowan said. He added that the crisis was having a series of implications across the market and Apollo stood ready to capitalize on investment opportunities by providing liquidity to companies. The New York-based firm is experiencing higher labor, shipping and energy costs in the companies it owns, and expects these to remain elevated in the first half of the year, Rowan said. Inflation should abate longer-term as the effect fades of the economic stimulus that governments around the world launched two years ago in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rowan said.”The underlying factors that historically have given rise to increasing rates just don’t exist,” Rowan said.Rowan said he expects Apollo, which has about $500 billion in assets under management, to step up sustainable investments through a platform it unveiled last week. He said Apollo financed fossil fuel companies if they were in the process of transitioning into clean forms of energy.Rowan succeeded Leon Black last year, who stepped down as Apollo’s CEO after an independent review found that he had paid $158 million to late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein for advice on tax and estate planning and related services between 2012 and 2017. The review cleared Black of any wrongdoing.Black, who remains Apollo’s largest shareholder, and Apollo co-founder Josh Harris, who sits on the firm’s board, are now “completely out of the business,” Rowan said, adding that he did not need their advice at this stage.”This is a business I know well. I joke with people internally, it’s not a hard job, it’s just a lot of work,” Rowan said. More

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – An overwhelming vote by workers at a northern Mexican factory to elect an independent union, defeating an entrenched labor group, could presage more such showdowns amid growing U.S. pressure to strengthen worker rights.Independent union SNITIS won nearly 87% of the vote at the Tridonex auto parts plant in the border city of Matamoros late on Monday, clobbering powerful union CTM, which also recently lost an election at General Motors Co (NYSE:GM) in the central city of Silao.Tridonex came under U.S. scrutiny last year after U.S. unions pushed for a labor complaint under the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) trade deal, saying workers had been blocked from choosing their union.CTM’s latest defeat could encourage workers at other plants in industrial Matamoros to seek new representation, say workers and experts, in line with a recent Mexican labor reform meant to give workers a stronger voice, a tenet of the USMCA.Many workers at Tridonex, owned by Philadelphia-based Cardone, had accused CTM, one of Mexico’s biggest labor groups, of failing to demand higher wages.”Tridonex is going to push forward the entire Matamoros working class,” said Rosario Moreno, SNITIS secretary general.Cardone thanked workers for participating at Tridonex, which refits second-hand car parts for sale in the United States and Canada, and said it would work with the winning union once officials certify the vote.Tridonex’s longstanding union, a CTM affiliate called SITPME, declined to comment, but previously said it generates jobs and provides perks to members.Top Biden administration officials said the vote signaled the strength of USMCA labor provisions.For Tridonex worker Hector Manuel, the vote marked “justice” for colleagues who began a push to change unions two years ago. Some were fired for what they described as retaliation for their activism, beginning with wildcat strikes in 2019 at numerous Matamoros factories.”It’s a big step … for my colleagues to be able to lose their fear and think about their futures,” said Manuel, adding he barely gets by on a daily paycheck of 260 pesos ($12.62).Co-worker Alejandro Rodriguez said CTM’s ouster will encourage workers beyond Tridonex.”This will motivate people to make the effort to organize,” he said.Labor scholar Cirila Quintero said fledging SNITIS has hard work ahead to negotiate its first contract, but its victory sends a strong message after long-simmering resentment toward CTM.”This is a lesson to listen to workers and not belittle their claims,” she said.($1 = 20.5941 Mexican pesos) More

The currency had found some support after Russian authorities ordered exporting companies, among which are some of the world’s biggest energy producers from Gazprom (MCX:GAZP) to Rosneft, to sell 80% of their forex revenues on the market, as the central bank’s own ability to intervene on currency markets was curbed.Later in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree banning the export of cash in foreign currency exceeding $10,000 in value with effect from March 2, according to a Kremlin statement.But even the session-strong dip under 90 per greenback had left the rouble well shy of the 75 to the dollar it traded at before Russia recognised two breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine and sent troops into its neighbouring country last week.The rouble ended down 6.5% to 101.23 against the dollar in Moscow trading, and lost 5.8% to 112.49 versus the euro.After the Moscow close, the rouble weakened to as much as 117 per dollar and was trading near 105 in late trading in New York.”By nature, it’s a sign of disconnect between what’s going on in Russia and what’s going on abroad,” said Rachel Ziemba, founder of Ziemba Insights in New York.”Ultimately, a lot of foreign actors aren’t really able to participate in purchasing Russian assets right now.”Major Russian banks have been shut out of the SWIFT international payments system.The rouble has tumbled since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at one point losing a third of its value in Moscow trading, prompting the central bank to more than double interest rates to 20% and adopt a range of other urgent measures.Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special operation” that it says is not designed to occupy territory but to destroy its southern neighbour’s military capabilities and capture what it regards as dangerous nationalists.STOCKS ABROAD TUMBLEShare trading on the Moscow Exchange was suspended for a second day after sharp sell-offs hammered the market since mid-February.Russia said on Tuesday it was placing temporary restrictions on foreigners seeking to exit Russian assets, and it ordered the spending of up to $10 billion from its rainy-day fund on buying shares in Russian companies.But an ETF of Russian stocks traded in the United States fell 24% Tuesday for a combined 47% drop in two days and set a record closing low, while the London-listed iShares MSCI Russia ETF lost a third of its value on Tuesday and is down 83% since mid February.”Price is the great arbiter and the price falling the way it is tells you that at least right now, the market’s a bit skeptical about that demand,” said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo (NYSE:WFC) Investment Institute.”If that type of statement or show of force was credible, clearly it wouldn’t be falling as quickly.”Dominant state lender Sberbank’s depositary receipts in London tumbled 80% on Tuesday.LIVING STANDARDS DAMAGEDThe weak rouble is set to reduce living standards in Russia and fan already high inflation, while Western sanctions are expected to create shortages of essential goods that people in Russia have become used to, such as cars.The Institute of International Finance (IIF), a trade group representing large banks, warned that Russia was extremely likely to default on its external debts as well, and that its economy would suffer a double-digit contraction this year.The Russian central bank and finance ministry did not reply to a Reuters request for comment on the possibility of defaults.Inflation will spike in the short term but over the longer term could slow as people in Russia switch to a money-saving mode, said Dmitry Polevoy, head of investment at Locko-Invest. More

Tai said the U.S. would monitor Mexico’s certification of Monday’s vote, which came after a settlement reached with Tridonex following a U.S. complaint filed under a labor enforcement mechanism in the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement.“Workplace democracy is a cornerstone of the USMCA’s labor provisions. People on both sides of the border win when workers can choose their union representation in a free and fair manner – and without delay,” Tai said. More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday told European Commission Executive Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis that cooperation was needed on “further strong measures” in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine after unprecedented sanctions, the U.S. Treasury said.”Secretary Yellen affirmed the United States’ support for Ukraine’s sovereignty, working together with our partners to hold Russia accountable,” the Treasury said in a statement after a call between the U.S. and EU officials. More