Aurelia Butler

The UK has threatened to impose punitive duties on US goods if Washington does not lift Trump-era tariffs on British steel and aluminium.Britain’s trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan has told US trade representative Katherine Tai and Gina Raimondo, the US commerce secretary, that London was ready to increase existing retaliatory duties on high-profile US goods including whiskey, cosmetics and clothing.On a trip to Washington, Trevelyan told US officials she was also looking at expanding the range of US products that would be subject to punitive tariffs if the administration of US President Joe Biden refused to cancel the measures put in place by his predecessor, Donald Trump.In a public consultation held last year, the UK suggested it could target lobsters, grapes, chocolate, orange juice and electric motors imported from the US.“We don’t want to use countervailing measures, but we’re getting a lot of pressure domestically to say that this is unfair,” a senior UK official said, referring to the US tariffs on UK steel and aluminium imports imposed in 2018.The UK was isolated after the US and EU agreed to suspend tariffs on steel and aluminium in October. The deal provided relief from Trump-era tariffs of 25 per cent on steel and 10 per cent on aluminium to EU manufacturers, but leaves UK steelmakers at a disadvantage because they still face steep duties on exports to the US.The FT reported last week that the US is delaying a deal to remove the tariffs on UK steel and aluminium because of Washington’s concerns about London’s threats to change post-Brexit trading rules in Northern Ireland.Brussels and Washington have repeatedly warned UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson that unilaterally changing the EU-UK accord that sealed Britain’s exit from the bloc could threaten peace on the island of Ireland.The issue has attracted the attention of a substantial Irish diaspora in the US Congress, which has repeatedly called on the UK to honour the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that ended the region’s three-decade-long conflict.Trevelyan met Richard Neal, the top Democrat on trade in the House of Representatives and a member of the Congressional “Friends of Ireland” caucus, as part of her trip.In a statement following their meeting, Neal said he emphasised his full support for the Good Friday Agreement, as well as expressing “interest in deepening bilateral trade and investment ties” with the UK.UK hopes for a post-Brexit free trade agreement with the US have dimmed after the Biden administration made it clear that trade deals were not a legislative priority as it focused on its domestic economic agenda.However, progress has been made on one longstanding dispute. In June, the US struck deals with the UK and EU to suspend tariffs on each others’ goods for five years over subsidies given to aircraft makers Boeing and Airbus.In a statement following the meeting, Trevelyan said she had invited Raimondo to London in January to “make progress on this issue”.“We have been clear all along that resolving this dispute is the right thing to do,” Trevelyan said. “It will benefit workers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, and would remove the need for the UK to levy retaliatory tariffs on US goods.” More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – British trade minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan on Wednesday said she had invited U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo to visit London in January to make progress on removing U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum and the threat of UK retaliatory tariffs.Trevelyan and Raimondo met in Washington on Wednesday, following the UK minister’s meeting with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai on Tuesday.In a joint statement after the meeting, Britain and the United States said the two officials discussed “finding a path early in the new year … to engage expeditiously in consultations on steel and aluminum, with a view to combating global excess capacity and addressing outstanding concerns on U.S. tariffs and UK countermeasures.”Resolving the dispute would benefit workers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic, and “would remove the need for the UK to levy retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods,” Trevelyan said in a separate statement issued by the British embassy.She said she hoped Raimondo’s visit would allow the two allies make progress on the steel and aluminum tariffs and ” focus on taking our thriving trading relationship to the next level.”Trevelyan had hoped to ensure some progress on the issue before Jan. 1, a senior British official said earlier Wednesday, citing growing pressure in Britain for it to raise its retaliatory tariffs on whiskey and other U.S. products.Britain, which exited the European Union on Jan. 31, 2020, is keen to join a U.S.-EU pact struck in October that allows duty-free entry for “limited volumes” of EU-produced metals into the United States, while retaining U.S. “Section 232” tariffs of 25% on steel and 10% on aluminum more broadly. British firms will face increased pressure from Jan. 1, when tariffs on EU goods drop as a result of the US-EU deal. The EU dropped retaliatory tariffs against the United States after the EU deal with Washington. More

TOKYO (Reuters) – A majority of Japanese firms expect to freeze or cut wages in the next year even as many see profits rising, a Reuters poll found, illustrating how Japan Inc’s legendary thrift threatens Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s drive to revive demand.More broadly, the survey underscores the most persistent problem of the world’s No.3 economy after decades of deflation: static wages that create a damaging spiral where consumers hoard cash and the economy doesn’t grow.Kishida has said he wants to see wealth more broadly distributed and has called for companies to lift wages by 3% or more to boost consumer spending. A draft tax plan on Wednesday showed the government may deny tax breaks to companies that don’t hike wages and increase deductions for those that do.However, the Reuters Corporate Survey – which was conducted before details of the tax plan emerged – showed companies may resist pressure to raise wages, given uncertainty over the pandemic, rising global commodity prices and a weaker yen.A total of 54% of companies expect to keep total employee wages including bonuses flat next fiscal year, while 4% plan to cut them. Some 42% expect to increase wages.In contrast, 50% of firms see profits increasing.”We want the government to support companies hit hard by the fallout from COVID-19 until they recover strength to raise pay,” a manager of a service sector firm wrote in the survey on condition of anonymity.In a glimmer of hope for productivity, the survey showed three quarters of firms would spend profits on capital spending, followed by research and development.Only 22% picked wage hikes as an option.The Corporate Survey canvassed some 500 Japanese large and midsize non-financial corporations during the Nov. 24-Dec. 3 survey period. Around 240 firms responded to the survey.’LOST DECADES’The results are also notable because last month’s corporate survey showed a slim majority of firms plan to or have already passed on higher costs to customers, suggesting prices could rise before wages.OECD data shows Japanese employees’ wages have hardly grown over the past 30 years, during which Japan suffered “lost decades” of stagnant growth and grinding deflation.The average annual wage in Japan was $38,500 in 2020, below the OECD average of $49,200 and most G7 countries. Since taking office in October, Kishida has piled pressure on Japanese firms to raise wages, urging those whose profits have returned to pre-pandemic levels to raise pay by 3% or more.When asked to give a specific breakdown on the amount of a planned hike or cut, only 9% said they would raise total workers’ wages including bonuses by 3% or more in the next fiscal year.In a Reuters survey conducted in February, 45% of companies expected to keep total wages steady this fiscal year, 35% said they would raise them and 21% said they would cut.”There’s no future for this country unless the whole Japan heads to raise wages,” wrote a manager at an industrial rubber manufacturer. “Curbing wages have left behind problems such as a declining birth rate.” More

Founded only eight years ago to offer consumers a no fee credit card, Nubank became Latin America’s most valuable listed bank, at $41.5 billion, ahead of Brazil’s Itau Unibanco Holding SA.Nubank revealed the pricing in an SEC filing ahead of its debut on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.The IPO’s success is being closely watched as an indicator of investors’ appetite for fintech startups, especially in emerging markets. A successful debut could pave the way for numerous other startups, especially from Latin America, to go public, while a weak reception could prompt many to delay their plans.Last week, Nubank decided to slash its IPO valuation by 20% after facing weak demand from investors wary of unprofitable banking fintechs. Besides trimming its valuation, Nubank also gathered some anchor investors with appetite to acquire at least $1.3 billion in shares, including existing investors such as Sequoia and Tiger Global Management and new ones, such as SoftBank Latin America Funds.Nubank’s IPO also underscores how fintechs are taking on brick-and-mortar banks in the highly-concentrated Latin American banking scene. Backed by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE:BRKa), China’s Tencent Holdings (OTC:TCEHY) and Sequoia Capital, among others, Nubank plans to use the proceeds as working capital, operating expenses, capital expenditures and also for M&As.The bank’s CEO and founder David Velez, a Stanford-educated Colombian, decided to venture into financial products in Latin America after he struggled with bureaucracy to open a checking account in Brazil. Currently, the fintech has 48 million clients in Brazil, Mexico and Colombia. Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS), Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Citigroup (NYSE:C) and NuInvest managed the offering as global coordinators. More