China says the United States is “opening fire” on the global economy and damaging the international supply chains by imposing tariffs on products from China and other countries, as controversial US duties on Chinese goods worth tens of billions are due to come into force at midnight Thursday.

“The US measures are essentially attacking global supply and value chains. To put it simply, the US is opening fire on the entire world, including itself,” said Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday, referring to the American practice of protectionism.

He said Beijing would continue to assess the impact of the current trade dispute with Washington and would help firms cope with possible shocks.

Last month, US President Donald Trump announced 25-percent tariffs on $50 billion in annual Chinese imports. He said he had also directed the US Trade Representative to identify $200 billion worth of imports for additional tariffs.

Trump also stressed at the time that his administration would be identifying another $200 billion in tariffs if China retaliated the new measures.

The total of $450 billion in goods represents the lion’s share of all of China’s exports to the US.

The US administration had originally proposed duties in April, starting with 1,333 Chinese products. After obtaining some public feedback, it omitted 515 imports from the blacklist but added 284 others.

Washington will impose duties on 818 Chinese products, worth $34 billion a year, from the original list, due to take effect on July 6. The Trump administration will not target the 284 other items — worth $16 billion — until it collects further public comments.

China, for its part, has vowed to retaliate with matching duties on US goods.

Beijing has said that Chinese tariffs on American products would come into force shortly after those of Washington do.

Trump is also involved in a similar trade tussle with Europe, Canada, Mexico, and South Korea.

China ‘will not fire the first shot’

If the US duties proceed to take effect on Friday as planned, Beijing will hit back with its own tariffs, initially on nearly $30 billion in US goods on the same day, China’s General Administration of Customs said in a statement on Thursday.

It added that China would not be the first to pull the trigger, however.

The Chinese tariffs include duties on vehicles and many agricultural and food products, such as soybeans, which will hit American farmers — normally part of Trump’s popular base — hard.

The remaining $15-billion Chinese tariffs would be imposed in the second phase and would target US crude oil, propane, and chemicals.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Gao also said that China’s foreign trade was expected to continue on an unwavering trail even though investors were afraid that a full-scale Sino-US trade conflict would deal a body blow to Chinese exports and its economy.

Back on June 14, Christine Lagarde, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), warned that the trade war sparked by unilateral US import tariffs would have no winners and that the tit-for-tat cycle of retaliation would only create “losers on both sides.”

She also added at the time that the outcome of such a trade conflict would have a “serious” economic impact on the US and global economies, including by causing inflation to speed up.

The largest employer after the Cameroon government has been handed over to foreign investors. A CDC protocol agreement signed on Wednesday 20th June, 2018 in Yaoundé finally brought to reality the much rumoured speculation of privatisation. Three companies: Tylium from Egypt, Fertilore and Timac Agro from France are the new owners of the multi agro industrial establishment in Southern Cameroons.

Cameroon Concord News sources revealed that Tylium is interested in the palm oil and rubber sectors, while the two French firms want to revamp production and fertilization of the CDC plantations. Present during the signing of the protocol agreement were the Minister of Agriculture and Rural development and the General Manager of Cameroon Development Corporation, Njie Franklin Ngoni.

Cat calls have greeted the deal with many Southern Cameroonians saying that the timing of the sale was deliberate and an act of economic war against Ambazonians by the Francophone dominated government of President Biya. An aide to Acting President Dr Ikome Sako was quoted as saying that French involvement in CDC is a calculated strategy to stifle the Southern Cameroons resistance.

The historic agro industrial plant in West Africa now has only the medical and technical services including the head office. Banana and tea had been long privatized.

By Tina Nene Nganda

The European Union slapped revenge tariffs on iconic US products including bourbon, jeans and motorcycles on Friday in its opening salvo in a trade war with President Donald Trump.

The tariffs, which took effect at midnight (2200 GMT Thursday) according to the EU’s official journal, will further fuel jitters on world stock markets that are already alarmed by trade tensions between the United States and China.

Customs agents across the Europe’s colossal market of 500 million people will now impose the duty, hiking prices on US-made products in supermarkets and across factory floors.

Brussels imposed the raft of duties on US products worth 2.8 billion euros ($3.3 billion) in a tit-for-tat response to Trump’s decision to slap stiff tariffs on European steel and aluminium exports.

EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said this week that the 28-nation bloc was “left with no other choice” but to impose tariffs of its own after the “unilateral and unjustified decision of the US.”

Together with US tariffs against Mexico and Canada, the trade battles have raised the spectre of a global trade war, spooking financial markets that fear major consequences to the global economy.

“We have a trade war — and it’s an escalating trade war,” SEB chief economist Robert Bergqvist told AFP in an interview.

Brussels first drew up the list in March when Trump initially floated the 25 percent tariffs on steel imports and 10 percent on aluminium, which also target Canada, Mexico and other close allies.

The list does not specifically name brands but European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker spelled out in March that the bloc would target “Harley-Davidson, bourbon and Levi’s jeans”.

Cranberries, cranberry juice, orange juice, sweetcorn and peanut butter are among the other food products targeted.

The list also hits clothing along with bed linen and men’s leather footwear, eye make-up and lipsticks, plus a host of steel products.

‘Against all logic’

Juncker said on Thursday that the US decision to impose tariffs “goes against all logic and history”.

“Our response must be clear but measured. We will do what we have to do to rebalance and safeguard,” he said.

European consumers would be able to find “alternatives”, European Commission Vice President for trade Jyrki Katainen said.

“If we chose products like Harley Davidson, peanut butter and bourbon, it’s because there are alternatives on the market. We don’t want to do anything that would harm consumers,” he said on Thursday.

“What’s more, these products will have a strong symbolic political impact.”

Analyst Bergqvist argued that his “main concern” over a trade war was the impact on stock markets — and the subsequent knock-on effect for the world economy.

“All these kind of things going on right now could trigger that kind of behaviour and initiate a correction in the stock markets, and that could also trigger a slowdown in the global economy,” he said.

Relations reach new lows

Transatlantic ties are at their lowest level for many years due to rows over a host of issues including the tariffs, the Paris climate agreement, the Iran nuclear deal and the new US embassy in Jerusalem.

Relations plumbed new depths at the recent G7 summit when Trump abruptly rejected the joint statement and bitterly insulted his Canadian host, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Trump claimed America had been obliged to levy the metals tariffs as it has been exploited as the world’s “piggy bank”. He is also targeting EU auto imports with a US probe now underway.

Trump’s outbursts were the latest in which he has clashed with America’s closest allies, even as he has had warm words for autocrats like North Korean leader Kim Jong un, with whom he had a historic meeting last week, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.

But US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian affairs Wess Mitchell said on Thursday that Trump’s approach towards his allies was about “strategic renovation”.

“Strengthening the West means making hard decisions today when we initially disagree, rather than continuing to accept the appearance of transatlantic unity for the sake of avoiding disagreement,” he told the Carnegie Europe think-tank in Brussels.

(AFP)

TRADE Secretary Liam Fox has announced the UK has secured a £1.5billion trade deal and signed off £75million in other trade agreements in a major boost for the UK economy after Brexit.

Dr Fox announced today a deal worth more than £1.5 billion had been secured by a UK company to deliver natural gas project in Cameroon. Additional deals have also been secured in Panama, Turkey, India and Qatar worth £75million for British businesses.

Capitalising on recent foreign visits by Cameroon’s Minister Secretary General, UK businesses have been exploring exporting opportunities with some of the fastest-growing economies.

London based oil and gas company New Age and the Cameroon government have agreed a deal that will see the development of a floating natural gas project in Cameroon. The deal comes after Trade Minister Baroness Fairhead’s meeting with Minister Secretary General Ferdinand Ngoh Ngoh.

Source: Express.Co.UK

Several Republican senators defied the White House Wednesday and pressed ahead with legislation that would require Congress to sign off on certain tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.

The Trump administration, citing national security concerns, last week unveiled punishing tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum from the European Union, Canada, Japan and Mexico, among others, antagonising free-trade supporters in the US Congress.

The bill, sponsored by six Republicans and four Democrats, would require the president to submit to Congress any proposal to place tariffs on imports in the interest of national security, under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act.

“Unfortunately, the administration is abusing the Section 232 authority delegated to the president by Congress,” said Senator Bob Corker, the bill’s chief proponent.

“If the president truly believes invoking Section 232 is necessary to protect the United States from a genuine threat, he should make the case to Congress and to the American people and do the hard work necessary to secure congressional approval,” Corker added.

Corker, who is retiring at the end of the year, said he received a “lengthy” phone call from the Republican president who told him “he’s not pleased with the effort” to rein in his trade authority.

The lawmakers aim to introduce the measure as an amendment to a national defence authorisation bill coming up for debate in the Senate.

The defence bill is must-pass legislation, but the fate of the tariff measure is uncertain.

Even if it passes the Senate, it might end up being scrapped from the final version of the defence bill negotiated with the House.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell signalled he was unwilling to spend much time on the “contentious” measure, saying he wanted to focus in the coming months on “getting bills passed that we have to do for the country.”

Several Republicans, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have expressed frustration with Trump’s willingness to defy party orthodoxy and resort to punitive tariffs against allies, moves they warn could spark trade wars that would end up hurting American producers, workers and consumers.

But Ryan hinted Wednesday at the difficulty of Congress reining in Trump’s trade authority.

“You’d have to pass a law that he would want to sign into law,” Ryan told reporters. “You can do the math on that.”

Corker said the “vast majority” of Senate Republicans agreed with the policy to limit Trump’s imposition of tariffs.

But Republican leadership and rank-and-file conservatives have shown little appetite to defy Trump legislatively, especially in a mid-term election year.

(AFP)

Unwanted cocoa from Cameroon disrupted the latest exchange delivery in London as one trader was forced to split large piles of beans into smaller bags, according to people familiar with the matter. Swiss company Ecom Agroindustrial Corp. had to break down two piles of 1,000 metric tons of beans from Cameroon for delivery as several traders bought via the exchange, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the information is private. It was the first time that the bulk delivery units had to be split, prompting ICE Futures Europe to delay the delivery announcement by a day and then later revise amounts.

In the latest delivery, some traders tried to avoid receiving cocoa from Cameroon by keeping their long positions below a certain level in the hope that they’d get beans of another origin, the people said. That backfired because exchange rules can force the breakdown into smaller bags.

Buyers of the May contract included Cargill Inc., Barry Callebaut AG, Dutch trader Cocoanect and Belgium’s Group Sopex, the people said. Most of the delivery was of Cameroonian beans, with the rest coming from Nigeria, ICE data show. Some arrangements to settle the expiry were made outside the exchange as ICE’s rules have a provision for alternative delivery procedures, according to the people.

The issue has called into question whether the exchange should allow bulk delivery, or a combination of Cameroon cocoa and bulk units, the traders said. The exchange will probably address the issue next time its cocoa advisory committee meets, the people said.

ICE continuously evaluates contract terms and procedures, including holding open dialogue with market participants, ICE Futures Europe President Stuart Williams said. The last delivery took place in line with exchange rules, he said, adding that it could look into possible changes based on industry feedback.

Source: Bloomberg

Russia is warning that the decision by US President Donald Trump to pull America out of a nuclear agreement with Iran and re-instate sanctions against the country could push oil prices to new highs.

Igor Sechin, the chief executive officer of Russia’s oil giant Rosneft, was quoted by media as saying that the sanctions against Iran – that would include bans on purchases of oil from the country – could cause an inevitable reduction of Iranian barrels in the global supply pool.

Sechin added that the sanctions against Iran could knock at least five percent of global oil production offline.

He warned that new price records might be on the horizon due to Trump’s anti-Iran move particularly now that oil futures were already sliding on expectation of higher Russian and Saudi production – amid signals that the ongoing OPEC and non-OPEC production cut agreement to the tune of 1.8 million barrels per day might be canned, according to a report by the Forbes.

Drivers and industries across Europe and the U.S. will feel the effects of action taken by the White House, as the revoking of the Iran Nuclear deal – “a non-market factor” makes the global oil sector unpredictable, Sechin – widely believed to be close to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin – added.

“I have to say that the US has consistently pursued the policy of non-acceptance of international agreements, which would allow challenging their actions on global platforms. In fact, judicial protection and fair market arbitration are off the table.”

On Wednesday, Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer warned that Trump’s decision to pull the US out of Iran nuclear deal could affect America’s consumption market and criticized the president for failing to take a proper action to stop this.

Schumer criticized Trump over the withdrawal from the nuclear agreement and exhorted the president to “stand up to OPEC” over the price issue.

“It’s time for this president to stand up to OPEC,” he said.

“He’s palling around with the Saudis and the UAE and all these other oil-rich countries. Why doesn’t he ask them to lower their prices?” Schumer said, added that Trump “should buck his oil industry buddies.”

Schumer said that gasoline prices had jumped 25 percent since Trump took office in January 2017 and blamed his policies – specifically those concerning the Middle East and Iran – for this.

Culled from Presstv

Southern Cameroons economy is rightly an afterthought compared to the scope of suffering that has accompanied the senseless war launched by President Biya. Approximately 1300 are dead. Some 40,000 Ambazonians have fled the country to Nigeria and as many as 160,000 others have been displaced internally according to the United Nations.

Correspondingly, it’s worth noting the almost utter economic devastation. Cameroon Concord News Group estimates that more than 95% of the Southern Cameroons economy has been destroyed by the war. Understandably, our estimate is based on very limited data and conjecture due to the fact that the French Cameroun army soldiers have prevented all our efforts at getting access to most important data ever since the revolution began.

For the record, the two year destruction of more than three-quarters of the Southern Cameroons economy would rank among one of the steeper economic collapses ever recorded deep within the African continent, outpacing the catastrophic economic decline of Biafra after their defeat in the Nigerian civil war. As the killing of innocent Southern Cameroons civilians continue in places such as Santa and Pinyin village, it would take Africa’s newest state-the Federal Republic of Ambazonia about 40 years to reach its pre-war real GDP level.

By Seseskou Asu Isong, London

SatADSL, a provider of VSAT services via satellite, and Cameroonian operator Camtel, have announced a partnership to provide satellite connectivity nationwide. The formal agreement follows a pilot of SatADSL’s services at various public and private enterprises and communities in Cameroon, including schools, post offices, hospitals and banks.

SatADSL plans to integrate and deploy its VSAT services in the central African country, enabling Camtel to offer competitive broadband packages to even the most rural areas. SatADSL will fulfil all of Camtel’s satellite connectivity requirements on every frequency range, namely Ku-, Ka- and C-band. Camtel is the latest operator in Africa to deploy SatADSL’s services, which are offered through the Cloud-based Service Delivery Platform (C-SDP).

The complete OSS/BSS, carrier-grade, fully redundant platform allows operators easily to outsource satellite services, reducing the cost of providing ubiquitous connectivity by enabling fast, flexible and future-proof satellite connectivity via the cloud for the first time, eliminating the need for physical infrastructure.

Source: Telecompaper

Hundreds of millions of pesos have been illegally withdrawn from several Mexican banks in possible cyber attacks in recent weeks, Mexican officials have announced.

Hackers sent hundreds of false orders to transfer funds from banks, including No. 2 Banorte, to fake accounts in other banks, and accomplices then emptied the accounts in cash withdrawals in scores of branch offices, two sources close to a Mexican government investigation of the matter said.

One source said the thieves transferred more than 300 million pesos ($15.4 million) while the El Financiero newspaper reported that around 400 million pesos had been stolen.

It was not clear how much of the money transferred was later withdrawn in cash.

Speaking to reporters late on Monday, Mexico’s Central Bank Governor Alejandro Diaz de Leon described the attacks as unprecedented, expressing hope that unspecified measures being taken would stop similar future incidents.

“There’s no evidence that would allow us to say with certainty that this is over,” he said, adding “We’re taking corrective and mitigating action.”

Diaz de Leon declined to name the banks targeted or specify the amounts stolen. He said the central bank was still probing what had happened.

He later said in a radio interview that all the evidence — so far still partial — pointed to cyberattacks.

The central bank’s head of operations, Lorenza Martinez, said on Friday that five financial institutions were targeted with “unauthorized transfers.”

One source said cyber attackers might have received assistance from inside bank branches, since such big cash withdrawals were uncommon.

“In terms of the security of the bank’s offices, I think that is part of the analysis that each bank is doing,” Martinez said.

He stressed that clients’ accounts had not been affected so far and that only the accounts of financial institutions in the Central Bank had been hit.

Source: Presstv