Aurelia Butler

Speaking at a Reuters Breakingviews event, Frydenberg said China would find it especially hard to replace Australia’s iron ore exports which fuel its massive steel industry. Australia is the world’s largest exporter of the mineral, which is also the country’s single biggest export earner.A souring in diplomatic relations has seen China slap tariffs on Australian wine and barley, while severely limiting imports of coal from the country.”We have been on the receiving end of economic coercion from China,” Frydenberg said. More

The transaction could bring Oracle a raft of health data to train and improve its artificial intelligence-based cloud services, boosting its presence in the healthcare sector. If the deal materializes, it will be the biggest ever for Oracle, which has a market value of more than $280 billion, the WSJ report said, adding that the Oracle-Cerner deal could become one of the largest takeovers of 2021.Cerner is the biggest seller of electronic health record software in the United States after Epic Systems Corp. In 2019, it had named Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) Web Services as its preferred cloud provider and said the two companies were collaborating on AI services for health companies.Oracle and Cerner did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment. More

(Reuters) – Americans face an uncertain and anxiety-filled holiday season for the second consecutive year, as the highly contagious Omicron variant threatens to intensify an already alarming surge of COVID-19 cases.Public health officials have voiced deepening concerns about the rising number of infections, warning that hospitals – still fighting the effects of the Delta variant – could find themselves stretched beyond their limits if the two variants combine to create a fresh wave.While states have not sought to impose broad shutdowns, the disease’s advances have prompted a new round of restrictions, as offices have postponed return-to-office dates, universities have moved exams online and some states and cities have reimposed mask mandates. In New York City, several Broadway shows, including “Hamilton,” “Tina” and “Mrs. Doubtfire: The Musical” canceled performances, citing breakthrough COVID infections among their cast or crew. In Puerto Rico, the finale of the Miss World beauty pageant was called off on Thursday after several contestants tested positive.Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said on Thursday that the Omicron variant would soon dominate infections.”We’ve seen that in South Africa, we’re seeing it in the UK, and I’m absolutely certain that’s what we’re going to be seeing here relatively soon,” said Fauci, who met with President Joe Biden on Thursday afternoon to discuss the government’s response.In South Africa, the United Kingdom and Denmark, the number of new Omicron infections has been doubling every two days.Preliminary data suggests Omicron may be more contagious than Delta but less likely to cause severe illness, though much remains unknown. Research also indicates that the two-dose vaccine regimens have vastly reduced protection against Omicron but that a third booster dose restores much of the vaccine’s efficacy.Experts have warned that Omicron could still have deadly consequences due to its transmissibility.”When you have a disease that is highly infectious – even if it causes milder disease – you can still have many, many deaths, Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease expert, said during a panel discussion at New York University on Thursday. Maine set a record for the number of hospitalized COVID patients on Wednesday, a day after Michigan hit a new high. New Jersey recorded its highest number of cases on Thursday since mid-January, at the peak of last winter’s surge.Over the past month, new cases have risen nearly 40% to a seven-day average of 121,000 new infections per day, according to a Reuters tally.Deaths have risen 18% since mid-November to an average of 1,300 lives lost a day. COVID hospitalizations have risen about 45% over the last month.In New York City, the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 doubled in three days, according to Dr. Jay Varma, a senior public health adviser to Mayor Bill de Blasio.”We’ve never seen this before in #NYC,” he wrote on Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), adding that the only explanation is Omicron’s ability to evade both natural and vaccine-induced immunity.De Blasio announced the city would ramp up capacity at testing sites, which have seen long lines in recent days, and distribute 500,000 rapid at-home test kits through community organizations.”This variant moves fast,” he said. “We need to move faster.”New York Governor Kathy Hochul said the state would allow residents to request test kits be mailed to their homes, joining several other U.S. states.U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday it is past time for people to get booster shots and urged them to do so as quickly as possible. “We are looking at a winter of severe illness and death” for the unvaccinated, Biden said.HOLIDAY TRAVEL CONCERNSThe surge has prompted worried Americans to reconsider holiday travel plans. Experts have said vaccinated individuals can travel safely https://www.reuters.com/world/us/is-it-safe-americans-travel-holidays-2021-12-16 as long as they wear masks and avoid unnecessary risks such as large crowds and indoor gatherings. After months of planning a trip to Florida to see his parents for Christmas and his mother’s birthday, Kalaya’an Mendoza of Queens, New York, told Reuters he was forced to cancel when he learned that several people at an event he attended on Monday had tested positive.”I’m a little bit wrecked,” Mendoza, 43, said on Thursday. “It feels like 2020 all over again. I had to weigh my very intense Filipino need to be with family with their care and safety.”Mendoza, who has not seen his parents since December 2019, said he was angry at how little progress the U.S. government had made on fighting the pandemic while spending billions of dollars this year on other items, such as the military.”I remember watching my neighbors get carted away in body bags at the start of this pandemic, and two years in, we shouldn’t be here,” he said. More

That was better than economists’ expectations in a Reuters poll for a 17.3% rise and was an extension of the 17.8% growth in the previous month. November exports marked the biggest rise since February 2012.On a seasonally adjusted month-on-month basis, exports grew 1.1% in November, Enterprise Singapore data showed, versus the prior month’s 4.1% growth. Economists had forecast a 0.2% rise.Electronic NODX expanded 29.2% on year in November, with shipments of integrated circuits rising 41.8% amid robust global semiconductor demand.Non-electronic NODX grew 22.7%, with specialised machinery rising 74.4%, petrochemicals up 66.0% and primary chemicals up 80.6%. More

LONDON/SYDNEY (Reuters) -Britain and Australia on Thursday signed a free trade deal projected to eventually boost bilateral trade by over 10 billion pounds ($13.3 billion), eliminating tariffs, opening up sectors like agriculture and allowing freer movement for service-sector professionals.The elimination of tariffs on Australian wine, and a tariff-free quota for beef will help exporters hit by sanctions in China to pivot to British sales. British cars, whiskey, confectionary and cosmetics will see tariffs phased out in Australia.”This is the most comprehensive and ambitious free trade agreement that Australia has concluded, other than with New Zealand,” Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Trade Minister Dan Tehan said in a joint statement.China is Australia’s largest trading partner, but a diplomatic dispute led to Beijing imposing sanctions on a raft of Australian agricultural products last year. This prompted the Morrison government to urge exporters to reduce their reliance on China.The agreement with Britain would “create new opportunities for workers, young people and businesses and further strengthen the special relationship between our two countries”, Morrison said.Tariffs will be eliminated on 99% of Australian goods exported to Britain, valued at A$9.2 billion ($6.60 billion), with A$43 million in duties removed from Australian wine.An initial tariff-free quota for Australian beef of 35,000 tonnes will lead to the elimination of tariffs after 10 years. British businesses will be encouraged to invest in Australia, and a working holiday programme is to be expanded to allow Australians aged 35 years and under to work in Britain for three years.Analysis drawn up by Britain and independently vetted said it would boost the economy by 2.3 billion pounds per year and unlock 10.4 billion pounds of imports and exports by 2035. Total goods and services trade between Britain and Australia was worth 14.5 billion pounds in the year to June 2021, with Australia ranked Britain’s 21st-largest trade partner and accounting for 1.2% of total British trade.The deal adds only a small fraction to Britain’s $3 trillion economy, but it is the first trade agreement London negotiated from scratch since it left the European Union. “This is just the start as we get on the front foot and seize the seismic opportunities that await us on the world stage,” British Trade Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan said. Britain sees the deal as an important step toward membership of a trans-Pacific trade bloc that would shift its economic centre away from Europe and towards growing economies with demand for professional services. The two nations forged an Indo-Pacific security pact, Aukus, with the United States in September to share defence technology including nuclear submarines with Australia.When the agreement in principle was announced earlier this year, British farmers complained it exposes them to competition from large-scale Australian meat producers that could squeeze out home-grown products. Britain says the deal has safeguards to protect farmers.In addition to beef, Australian sugar and sheep meat will also benefit from initial tariff-free quotas, with all tariffs removed after eight and 10 years respectively.The final terms of the deal will be put before British parliament for scrutiny. Lawmakers can theoretically block a treaty indefinitely, but this power has never been tested, according to a House of Commons Library briefing. ($1 = 0.7502 pounds, 1.3931 Australian dollars) More

TOKYO (Reuters) -The Bank of Japan is set to keep monetary policy ultra-loose on Friday but may dial back emergency pandemic-funding, less than 48 hours after the U.S. Federal Reserve signaled an imminent end to stimulus as policymakers respond to soaring global inflation.The BOJ’s anticipated decision, underpinned by cautious optimism that the economic damage wrought by coronavirus crisis is gradually healing, will put it in line with major central banks’ moves to phase out crisis-mode policies.Britain became the first G7 economy to hike interest rates since the onset of the pandemic on Thursday. The European Central Bank also took another small step in rolling back crisis-era stimulus, though it pledged to keep borrowing costs low next year.Japan is expected to tread even more cautiously than the ECB in reducing economic relief because consumer inflation remains stuck well below its 2% target.Markets will be focused on Governor Haruhiko Kuroda’s comments on the inflation outlook, and how the Fed’s signal of three rate hikes next year could affect the BOJ’s policy path.With slow wage growth and soft consumption shackling inflation close to 0%, Kuroda is likely to reassure markets the BOJ will lag way behind its major counterparts in turning off the money tap, let alone raise interest rates.”If more companies start to pass on rising costs to households, we might see core consumer inflation exceed 1.5% sometime next year,” said Mari Iwashita, chief market economist at Daiwa Securities.”That may prod the BOJ to start dropping hints next year of future policy normalisation. But actual execution will be some time off,” she said. At a two-day rate review ending on Friday, the BOJ is widely expected to maintain its short-term rate target at -0.1% and that for 10-year bond yields around 0%. It will also debate whether to extend a March 2022 deadline for emergency funding deployed last year to combat a pandemic-induced cash crunch.Sources have told Reuters the BOJ may taper its corporate bond and commercial paper purchases given sharp improvements in big firms’ funding conditions.Another funding scheme targeting smaller firms may be scaled back, too, though a portion of it could be extended beyond March to keep supporting cash-strapped retailers, the sources said.While inflation has grabbed the headlines in some economies, with policymakers alarmed at the speed and scale of price spikes, Japan’s core consumer prices rose just 0.1% in October from a year earlier as firms remain cautious about hiking prices amid stubbornly weak household spending.Kuroda told parliament on Wednesday consumer inflation may approach 2% on rising raw material costs, though he stressed the BOJ’s resolve to keep policy ultra-loose to ensure any pick-up in price growth is accompanied by higher wages. More

The UK government is on Friday expected to drop its demand to remove the European Court of Justice as the ultimate arbiter of trade rules in Northern Ireland as it seeks to de-escalate tensions with Brussels. Brexit minister Lord David Frost will tell his EU counterpart Maros Sefcovic that governance issues can wait until they have agreed on practical ways to improve the flow of goods between the region and the rest of the UK, according to officials. The expected climbdown by London confirms a UK briefing given to European journalists last week that was later vehemently denied by Downing Street. The EU has refused to discuss the ECJ’s role as the referee of single market rules despite weeks of UK pressure, including a threat to trigger the Article 16 process, which temporarily suspends parts of post-Brexit trade arrangements in Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland protocol kept the region in the single market to avoid a trade border on the island of Ireland when Britain left the EU. Instead, there are checks on east-west trade across the Irish Sea.EU members have made clear that using Article 16 would be met with a tough response, including the possible suspension of the entire post-Brexit trade agreement. The US has also put pressure on the UK to drop its threat, which it fears could undermine the 1998 Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland. Washington has refused to lift tariffs on UK steel and aluminium until London shifts its position.With London’s retreat, UK-EU talks will now focus on reducing customs procedures and food safety checks that have created big problems for companies and consumers in Northern Ireland and then return to governance issues.“Since the EU won’t address all the issues we put on the table now, we are willing to look at interim solutions which deal with the most acute problems,” said a UK official. “But any such interim agreement must put a stop to the ECJ settling disputes between us and the EU, now and in the future.”The UK has now indicated that it could accept an arbitration mechanism of the kind that governs other elements of the EU-UK withdrawal agreement, which leave the ECJ as the arbiter of EU law but puts the court at one remove from resolving disputes over the protocol.Meanwhile the European Commission will on Friday propose a law to ensure Northern Ireland continues to receive medicines from the UK. Pharmaceutical companies have said it would be unviable to comply with a bespoke regulatory regime for the region. To prevent them stopping supply, Brussels will recognise drugs authorised by the UK regulator supplied from Great Britain, as long as they are labelled for UK use only.The changes will also allow new cancer and other drugs to be used as soon as they are licensed by the UK.

However, the two sides remain far apart on core trade issues, although the UK has watered down its demand for completely frictionless trade between mainland Britain and Northern Ireland. At least 200 UK companies have stopped sending goods to Northern Ireland since the UK left the EU, according to British officials. Brussels has offered to reduce checks on goods that are heading for Northern Ireland and unlikely to move onward into Ireland and the wider single market, such as supermarket deliveries. It says one form for each lorry would cut customs checks in half. Food and animal health checks would come down by 80 per cent.“Their proposals do not remove a single product from having to go through customs processes as they would if it were an international border — all they do is reduce the number of boxes on the form, leaving the most onerous ones untouched. Only having to complete 20 boxes on a form instead of 40 doesn’t really feel like a big reduction in checks,” said one UK official. London wants to conclude talks early next year before campaigning begins for elections in Northern Ireland in May. The Democratic Unionist party, the largest in the devolved assembly, continues to oppose the protocol, while Sinn Féin, the nationalist party tipped to overtake it in May, supports it. More